Someone Asks What Facts Sound Comforting But Are Actually Highly Disturbing, And 30 People Deliver
Interview With Author
Facts are supposed to be educational, but if they’re entertaining or unusual, it helps them stick in our minds better. However, the truth doesn’t care about our feelings or making us feel ‘good.’ It can often be uncomfortable, and nuanced, and make us realize how fragile life can be.
The r/AskReddit online community tackled this idea by sharing facts that, on the surface, sound quite comforting. However, once you think about them a little longer, you realize how disturbing they actually are... and how little control we have over some aspects of our lives. Scroll down to see what the internet users shared.
Bored Panda reached out to the author of the viral thread, u/Soupmandog589, and they were kind enough to answer our questions. You'll find our interview with them below.
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That there is enough food and water to feed everyone on the planet for free. But a small group of world owners governs it, plays monetary games, and uses it to control the masses.
When you're sick, you're supposed to do drugs and stay out of school.
When you give birth, your body produces hormones and your brain forgets a lot of the trauma you experience so that you’ll be willing to have more children in the future. So whenever you look back on childbirth, your memory of it will likely be way less awful than it actually was.
Life can be incredibly fragile. So it’s important to take good care of your body and mind and know what to do in case of an emergency. That way, when something (inevitably) goes wrong, you’ll be tough and capable enough to handle it.
However, living in constant paranoia and fear is horrible. Yes, bad things can and do happen all the time. While you can prepare yourself for some of them, others are completely and utterly out of control to anticipate or react to. You need to be able to get on with your daily life without succumbing to chronic anxiety. And that comes down to recognizing what you can control (to a certain extent) and what you really can’t.
People think about you far less than you actually believe they do.
If you worried about what people think of you, you'd be surprised at how little they did.
The most peaceful way to die is in your sleep, but you’ll go to sleep not knowing you’ll never see anything ever again.
I was at a bbq yesterday and my uncle told me “think about it one day you went outside to play with your friends for the last time and didn’t even know it”.
Bored Panda got in touch with the author of the thread to learn more about the inspiration behind the question, as well as to get their thoughts on dealing with situations we can't control and not living in constant fear of the unknown.
According to redditor u/Soupmandog589, they thought of a fact that "seemed comforting on the outside but was actually disturbing on the inside," which prompted them to ask the r/AskReddit community for their perspectives.
However, because the OP had created the thread a while back, they can't quite remember what the initial fact that started the entire discussion was.
The author of the thread opened up to Bored Panda that they are fascinated by what other people on the internet had to say on the topic. They also shared with us how much they enjoy learning new facts.
"I’m curious, and would like to hear other people’s facts," they told us. "I just love facts."
Death isn't the worst thing that can happen to you.
I disagree. Having severe dementia or Alzheimer's is a fate worse than death. It's the cruelest thing I've ever seen. Thanks for that one, "god."
With you there Aaron. If I'd had the choice between my father having cancer or Alzheimer's, I would have chosen cancer
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My sister in law has had 4 strokes before the age of 60. She turned 60 a couple of months ago and is in a wheelchair, has been diagnosed with dementia, and is in her 5th year of dialysis. There are definitely worse things than death.
So someone canvassed a bunch of dead people to draw a proper conclusion on that then?
Yep, and none of them expressed a single complaint.
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I had a friend who was a nurse who cautioned me on my high blood pressure...."the worst thing is that sometimes you won''t die from a stroke."
Or what happened to me. On my way home from another day of teaching I was entering the left turn lane. I blinked and woke up in a dark glass walled room with blinking lights, a tube down my nose, a garden hose under my left breast, and an E.T. finger. Turns out that a guy pulled out of the gas station trying to make the light at the intersection and T-boned me in the driver door going 40 mph. I have had all sorts of physical problems after surviving finally. And of course to make it perfect. I was issued the traffic ticket because I couldn’t testify to what happened. He had to replace his front fender, poor guy.
Your own death maybe, but the death of another could possibly be the worst thing to happen to you.
This is just a matter of perspective. Being in pain means you are alive, and to some people being alive is worth all the pain we go through. So speak for yourself, and leave me out of it.
Pain isn't the only bad thing. There are diseases that can leave your body completely rigid, so that you slowly suffocate to death. If pain is your worst ase scenario then you've either been very sheltered or have a terrible imagination.
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It is one of the best, and literally the only thing without consequences or unwanted secondary obligations.
Being dead isn't really all that bad. I had been dead for billions of years prior to being born, and in hind-sight that really wasn't all bad if I recall correctly (which I don't).
I always tell my patients that disability is worse than death because you have to rely on your kids for 40 years or more while being unable to assist because you are too ill from conditions largely avoidable. I bring this up solely about high blood pressure and diabetes due to inactivity, bad food choices, and obesity.
There are hundreds if not thousands of versions of you in the minds of other people.
Depending on how many people you have met in your life.
Your really really sick, you have no energy, no appetite, and just the will to do nothing at all. Let’s say this is your grandpa in this situation. All the sudden grandpa calls you and says he wants to eat so much that it hurts and he wants to go do some fun projects, this sudden burst of energy kinda thing. Well you drive to the hospital to find that your grandpa has just died minutes after he called you. The nurse will then explain to you that this is very common when people are dying to just have a sudden burst of energy.
We asked the author of the thread for their thoughts on how people can come to terms with the fact that some things are entirely out of their control.
Redditor u/Soupmandog589 told us that self-regulation is incredibly important. "I have autism and have stuff that I can’t control but which causes major stress such as loud noises and atmospheres," they were very open and honest with Bored Panda.
"Self-regulation and listening to music usually helps for me but different things can help different people," they said.
You’re statistically more likely to die in a car crash on the way to the airport than you are in a plane crash.
You’ve never actually seen your face. Only pictures or reflections.
To put it simply, self-regulation is a person's ability to control their behavior, emotions, and thoughts, for the sake of long-term goals. Emotional self-regulation, for instance, means managing one's more disruptive emotions and impulses.
Not only that, but it also involves rebounding from the disappointments we face in life, as well as behaving in ways that are consistent with our values.
According to the OP, the secret to making the most of one's life, no matter the consequences, is committing yourself completely to your goals, whatever they might be.
Hippos and coconuts kill more people than sharks each year.
What about a hippo riding a shark 🦈 when someone throws a coconut 🥥 at you
Something that we most definitely cannot control is avoiding any and all accidents. What you can do is choose to be more attentive as a pedestrian. You can choose to drive carefully. You can follow the road rules and what to do if someone needs immediate medical help. But accidents can and do happen even if we’re doing everything right. Choosing not to travel, whether by car, plane, or any other mode of transportation, is not an option if you want to make the most of life.
You need to travel for work, to visit the people you love, and for those annual holidays somewhere far away, so you can forget what a computer even is for a couple of weeks.
‘Simple Flying’ notes that the odds of someone getting into an accident during a flight are 1 in 1.2 million. Meanwhile, the chances of this being a fatal accident are 1 in 11 million.
A study published by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in 2020 found that flying is 6 times safer than it was 30 years ago and 22 times safer than it was 50 years ago, around the world. We’ve seen technology and safety standards improve over time.
There will be a point in time where humans go extinct. We won't experience it but imagine our future generations will see the “end of the world”.
Either alien life exists, or we are totally alone in the universe.
For the universe is Infinite the chance for alien life is Infinite too
Even if 99% of the population finds you unattractive, around 78 million people still find you attractive. Idk this just really creeps me out.
Luck. Genetics. Both of these have a role to play in what happens to us. Getting frustrated about how unlucky you’ve been is going to eat away at you. A far healthier response is to look at things from a growth-oriented perspective, where you don’t see failure as something inherently wrong. Or, to put a slightly cheesy twist on it: “Sometimes you win, sometimes you learn.” If you take failure or bad luck personally, it can destroy your confidence and sense of calm.
Health and fitness coach Anna Armagno Toussaint previously explained to Bored Panda the things that we can control in life.
"You can control what you put into your body. You can control your water intake and the foods you choose. You can choose to exercise or be sedentary. In most cases, there are good or bad decisions you can make. And the biggest one is that you can choose your mindset about things," she told us in an earlier interview.
If you don’t have children you end a several hundred year long bloodline.
Only if the blood line had only one child that had only one child who had only one child and so forth.
While we're losing a lot of forests in the tropics due to climate change, we're actually gaining a lot of forest in the northern latitudes, and into formerly grassland areas as more available CO2 allows them to grow in more arid regions. And everyone loves trees, right?
The problem is the climate crisis is also a biodiversity crisis, and habitat loss - like grasslands or tundra becoming forest - is arguably even harder on species than changes in weather patterns.
The idea that who we are is not who we used to be, nor who we will be. Both literally and figuratively, considering our cells are constantly dying and recycling so every 7ish years you have a "new" body and because our minds are ever expanding and learning new things.
Another one is the fact that who you are is not who others perceive you to be, since no one can ever truly know who you are and how you think, to the point that if you ever lost your memories, no one would be able to describe you fully to you.
The health coach pointed out that genetics plays such a large role in our lives, however, we cannot control it. “As someone with an autoimmune disease that I didn't choose, there are always hereditary factors that you may need to work around. Some people won't be able to make great choices. For a year I lived off mostly potatoes because that was what I could stomach. Staying positive is what got me through that," the fitness expert said that feeling jealous about other people’s advantages won’t help you.
"I absolutely wish I didn't have to have digestive issues that took years to figure out and go through the pain and trial and error medication, but I also knew it could have been worse. I stayed positive (faith helps if you're a believer because it gives you someone to turn to) and I was grateful that I was alive. Any feelings you have are real and that's ok, but don't let yourself be taken over by them,” the coach said.
You might be just like your parents when you have kids.
My husband has worked in elderly care for over 10 years. He can attest that even without dementia, older people tend to loose their ability to taste. It’s like weakening eye sight but with flavor. He’s always getting complaints that the food is too bland but it’s so full of salt substitute it’s almost inedible to everyone else.
Taste buds die, and sure, reform, but at a higher age its slower because not very important and most older people are on medications, a lot do weird things like kill taste.
According to her, if you’re ever in a tight spot, you shouldn’t be scared or too prideful to ask for help. “I struggle with this, but it is so important to talk to people and get another perspective, whether it's a therapist or loved one.”
For some more disturbing facts to shake up your day, feel free to take a peek at Bored Panda’s previous feature.
You walk by at least 10 murderers in your life time without even knowing it.
I suspect this is too simplistic and that would largely depend on which country you live - the population, how many murderers, what geographical area the murders/you live etc.
when you get skinned, you (most likely) won’t die of blood loss, but instead hypothermia or infection as they will get you first.
Everyday we get closer to death, some faster than others. Not sure if that’s creepy or if it makes me feel better.
Wouldn't we all be getting closer to death at the same rate? Sure, some are much closer than others, but we're all experiencing time one minute at a time.
You never truly know what anyone really thinks about you
Edit: I mean this like super literally. Like you never know if your spouse is planning on [hurting] you, you never know if a stranger is keeping an eye on you thinking about assaulting you. Several possibilities that you could never know.
This will be the coldest summer of the rest of your life.
There was a day when your parents picked you up for the last time, and neither one of you knew it.
I think about this concept often. And because so many things were stored somewhere, I have begun to get reacquainted with things that until recently fit this many decades ago. It's weird
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Gee, thanks, Brian. So, I'll be dead before 2024 kicks in, good to know.
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Why did I read this. My anxieties are going through the roof right now
Try this for a fact that sounds comforting but is actually highly disturbing:- Australia doesn't have a cobalt bomb or other Doomsday device.
Considering the number of species that can kill us, we have a great big bird that won a war and we are miles away from everyone, I think we are doing okay. Oh and also, we have fricken dropbears, no one messes with them.
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There was a day when your parents picked you up for the last time, and neither one of you knew it.
I think about this concept often. And because so many things were stored somewhere, I have begun to get reacquainted with things that until recently fit this many decades ago. It's weird
Load More Replies... Gee, thanks, Brian. So, I'll be dead before 2024 kicks in, good to know.
Load More Replies... Why did I read this. My anxieties are going through the roof right now
Try this for a fact that sounds comforting but is actually highly disturbing:- Australia doesn't have a cobalt bomb or other Doomsday device.
Considering the number of species that can kill us, we have a great big bird that won a war and we are miles away from everyone, I think we are doing okay. Oh and also, we have fricken dropbears, no one messes with them.
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