Sure, we can turn a blind eye to the dark side of the world. But that won't make it any brighter. I would even argue that we should, on the contrary, venture into the shadows. Into the unknown. I believe we'd come out with a better understanding of ourselves. Or at the very least, of our surroundings.
Luckily, there are two Reddit posts we can use as starting points for our journey. One by u/Literal-Pile-of-Poo and the other by u/Yoloextreme345. They're phrased differently but essentially ask the same thing and invite other users to share some of the most disturbing facts they know. And many have. Here are some of the most popular submissions.
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When X-ray technology first became widely available to pediatricians, they noticed a startling high number of broken bones. Befuddled doctors assumed there was a previously unknown pediatric bone disease being observed for the first time. Turns out we had no idea how common child abuse is.
Humans, being mostly Carbon, can be made into diamonds.
I plan to go the cheaper route and have my ashes be rolled into a glass paperweight. Some day I might even end up on the shelf of a Goodwill for $2.99
We managed to get in touch with one of the people who started this discussion, u/Literal-Pile-of-Poo, and they were kind enough to have a little chat with us about their now-viral post.
"I think I [came up with the idea for it when I] was just watching TV and [since] I liked reading those kinds of threads in r/AskReddit where people tell stories or something that was just interesting like [random] facts, I thought I would just make a post that I would find interesting to read as well," the Redditor told Bored Panda.
Giving birth has higher mortality rate than having an abortion.
Whales don't die from old age they just lose the strength to pull them selves up for air and slowly sink and drown
Damn. I got stage 4 copd so I can relate. Depressing. At least they could just *blink* be dead instead of that crap!
"From the responses, I learned a lot about how nature is much more brutal than it seems. Many of the facts were about weird things animals do," the Redditor added.
But with that being said, they think people should not seek messed up info if they're not into that kind of thing. "The less disturbing things you come across the better in my opinion. But, I feel this post was more geared towards changing your perspective on how things work."
Right now, your Government is doing things YOU think only OTHER Governments do.
Three of the air packs that were found on the wreckage of the Challenger disaster were activated, meaning at least one of the astronauts was alive all the way to the ocean.
I actually worked on that mission and one of the lead investigators had told me that other than the pilot, copilot and last person in the seating arrangement, all o2 aux systems had been activated. I believe he said the person behind had to do the activation, which implied 5 people were conscious. That investigator also worked Apollo One right out of college and told me that sad story. How did I come by this info, I had worked on the TDRSS fuel and engine systems and when I was watching the launch, I realized immediately it was a pressure-based explosion. So for 3 days I thought I may have caused the problem and was quite distraught. A VP at the company called his good friend, the investigator I mentioned, and they called me to ket me know i had not contributed to the disaster. But I will never forget the impact of that day and how it forever changed how I dealt with setbacks.
However, there's something intrinsically human about seeking out gloom. Experts call it negativity bias.
In short, it's our tendency not only to register negative stimuli more readily but also to dwell on these events. Also known as positive-negative asymmetry, this negativity bias means that we feel the sting of a rebuke more powerfully than we feel the joy of praise.
As humans, we tend to:
- Remember traumatic experiences better than positive ones;
- Recall insults better than praise;
- React more strongly to negative stimuli;
- Think about negative things more frequently than positive ones;
- Respond more strongly to negative events than to equally positive ones;
So chances are, we'll see similar posts in the future as well.
I was told by a very senior police officer (a parent of a kid I taught) that it is estimated that 30% of all missing persons reported to police who are never located have been murdered and more often than not they have been murdered by the person reporting them missing in the first place. The police know this, but lack evidence to proceed with prosecutions.
Doctors used to perform heart surgery on infants without anesthesia. Thankfully this practice was ended.
In the 1980s.
In the 80's? Whose idea was it to not use anaesthesia? Whoever decided that deserves a pineapple up the ass without anaesthesia. Daily.
It was believed babies didn't feel pain and drugging them was a greater risk
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A recent post addressed this in depth, and the overall consensus appeared to be that publicly the medical profession took the stance that babies did not feel pain, while privately they feared the infants were at greater risk from the anesthesia itself.
My son was 2 years old when his lip was lacerated up into his nostrils. The ER doctor sewed him up without anesthesia and without any numbing of the skin with lidocaine. When I protested I was escorted out of the ER room And they proceeded with sewing him up. I was a young mother, inexperienced with the ways of the medical establishment and unaware I could file a protest etc. Also, when 3 of my infant sons were circumcised in the 1980's, it was also done without numbing the penis. I was told "the nerves aren't developed enough for it to hurt" and "they are too young to remember the pain". My eyes still fill with tears when I think about that now.
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This blows my mind. How could a baby survive this? You'd think the shock their bodies would go through would kill them. There has to be an explanation to this - any Bored doctors out there? Someone explain, please.
It's really hard to dose anesthesia, it could be fatal when you give people the wrong dose, and medical science didn't work out how to dose infants correctly until relatively recently.
Load More Replies... That was because of the dangers of anesthesia, and they did not know how to give it to an infant without killing them (with adults it has a high error rate and issues, considered the toughest specialty in medicine). Once they figured out how to do it safely, they then did so.
Ok. I respect that argument. But to turn around and say 'oh they don't feel pain' when that is NOT the reason they aren't using anesthesia is just sick and wrong.
Load More Replies... And today is circumcision done in newborns without anesthesia as well. And it permanently Alters the Brain.
I'm not aware of studies proving brain alteration, but I absolutely believe it.
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For too long the idea was that infants and children did not feel pain 'in the way adults do'. Bill sh*t. This is the only reason I refused to have my sons circumcised. If the doctor wouldn't to it to himself without anesthesia, they weren't doing it to my children. And this was when it was highly frowned upon to say NO to doctors and not do what 'everyone else was doing'.
So how did the doctors ensure the baby didn't wriggle about if it wasn't anaesthetised?
I believe I read that babies going into surgery were given a paralytic drug so they would be still.
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Infants don't tolerate lots of things very well and a small dose of anesthetic is probably fatal.
A lot of gyn-procedures call for anesthesia - but it's to expensive to waste on women or whatever 🙄
Lets face it doctors still ain't so smart - some Horrible things are still done to people! (no I'm not an anti-vaxxer!)
I'm the most pro-vax pro-medicine person on the planet but I have no delusions about how apathetic and cruel some doctors can be. I've had chronic diseases all my life and have more than enough horror stories of the health system. It wasn't until I finally found a good GP a few years ago that we've been able to pick through and treat (and fight for my right to have treated) all the problems that have been exacerbated and prolonged by all the medical neglect. So yes, I definitely agree with you, and unfortunately people will never understand unless they've been there.
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What about other surgeries? I had hernia surgery not long after I was born in 1981
It was common for all surgeries. I think the post specifies heart surgery because it's particularly invasive and therefore even more alarming.
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My 3-month-old niece had heart surgery in the 1980s. This is information I did not want to know.
Patients who are past 80 years of age, the doctor is reluctant to use Anesthesia because of danger of death... So doctor uses less aggressive methods, hoping you won't remember the pain. Most common anesthesia is fentanyl with propofol... One to make you sleep, the other to make you forget.
Some doctors still do circumcisions without it. They told me the baby cries because it doesn't like being strapped down. I would cry if you strapped me down to cut my foreskin off without pain med or anesthesia!
for some stupid reason some people still think animals don't feel pain... they're discovering (Finally) that plants do to... time for some serious retrospection and respect for Mother Nature and 4.5B years of evolution on this planet that did NOT make humans 'human'
This is completely not true. I had open heart surgery in 1977 when I had just turned 2. I had anesthesia.
I'm wondering it that's because they're talking about infants which, apparently, they defined as under 12 months. After that age maybe they gave anaesthesia? I had major surgery in 1969 as a toddler and I too had anaesthetic. In trying to find out I did find this: https://clinicalgate.com/history-of-pediatric-anesthesia/
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My high school bwst friend had heart surgery as a newborn in 1977. The scar reached from her sternum to her spine, wrapping all around her side. She told me it had been done without anethesia or painkillers. She also heard that Doctors were terrified of potential addiction in infants. Seeing her scar made me cringe at how a baby could be cut open like that. 😭🥺😱
I had heart surgeries at 8 weeks, 1 1/2, and 2 1/2. My first was quite soon after anaesthesia was mandated. Even as a verbal child during painful procedures I was often denied any pain relief and my pediatric cardiologist (not my surgeon) would tell me to be quiet because he 'knew' I couldn't really feel it and was just being dramatic. Sure as s**t he'd done his earlier surgeries without proper anaethesia or analgesia. I have baby photos of me hooked to a morphine drip so clearly I was lucky enough for my surgeon to give me those for the actual surgeries. It's frankly haunting to know how close I was to having all that done without drugs, and how apathetic some doctors were even after the mandate. I really feel for your friend.
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Anaesthesia means maybe not waking up at all. Probably the most dangerous part of most surgeries. Better now, but it used to be a real gamble.
Ended right after the first infant who filed a lawsuit (the baby’s family really)
pain in babies as become a thing to discuss----HOW THE HELL DID THEY THINK NEWBORNS DIDN'T FEEL PAIN---CAN'T THINK OF MY SON'S CIRCUMCISION HAVING THE DR THINK HE DIDN'T FEEL THE PAIN.
Everywhere. Although there is a little-spoken-about global shortage of local anaesthetics that has been going on for a long time now. This means that rich people get to have their cosmetic surgery pain-free, while people in developing countries have to have procedures and surgeries without anaesthesia.
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I was graduated from Med School in 1968. Infant circumcisions were done w/o anesthesia back then,. Later in practice I used Emla cream and local anesthetic. This makes the procedure painless for infants, older boys and adults. One 7 year old played games on his phone during circumcision with Emla and local so I know it works.. I have seen heart surgery done on children when in medical school in the 1960's. All children were anesthetized. I also had a boy allow me to suture a laceration on his arm without anesthesia. I told him the needle for the anesthetic was bigger than the one used to sew up his cut. I knew this fellow quite well. He sat there and watched me suture. The ER nurses were amazed. My next door neighbor told me her young grandson never had anesthetic for dental work. She said his dentist was an excellent hypnotist. While in Med School we saw a video of a repeat C-Section done with hypnosis as sole anesthetic.To do this requires a lot of preparation and training.
A Jewish doctor treated Hitler’s Mother(The only person Adolf ever truly loved) while she was dying of cancer.
He promised his eternal gratitude to the doctor and even after becoming a pathological anti-Semite and later the Fuhrer, he was true to his word and was adamant the doctor and his family be placed under protection from the purge.
While some may think this an act of genuine kindness, I just think about all the lives lost because Hitler never stopped to think that all Jews were capable of good and not just the one who happened to have been good to him because of immediate proximity..
Hitler probably didn't have Jews killed because he genuinely feared or hated them - he did it to give the German people a "common enemy" and basically to manipulate the public. Which is kind of worse.
When I was younger: realizing that adults don’t have a clue what they are doing half the time either was the biggest wake up call.
There are face mites which live inside your pores next to your hair follicle, eat your sebum, don't have anuses and come out at night to mate on your skin. And there's nothing you can do about it. I'm so sorry.
Yup. They be gettin freaky deaky on ya face all night long. You thought you had oily skin. Now you know that ain't oil. It freaky deaky juice.
Urine used to be an ingredient in stained glass.
So now whenever I see old churches with stained glass, I think of piss-stained rainbow windows.
There is micro plastic in everything you eat and drink. Even the air you breathe contains plastic
"If you cannot afford an attorney one will be provided for you" doesnt mean the attorney is free
True, and it also doesn't mean they're any good. Most of them put zero effort into actually defending you and instead just encourage you to plead guilty and take the prosecutor's offer. Interesting that the judge, the prosecutor, and your court-appointed lawyer are all on the same payroll.
The average polar bear liver contains enough Vitamin A to kill 52 adults.
I think the average polar bear could do enough damage without the aid of it's liver.
One of the most toxic chemicals on Earth is an organic mercury compound. The material safety sheet notes that it has a slightly sweet odor, but at a concentration where the smell is detectable, it is already lethal. That observation came from someone who would inevitably die from accidental exposure.
Around 30 people die every year, getting crushed from shaking a vending machine.
I remember being told eggs have a protein structure so similar to our blood that you could use blood as an egg substitute in cakes etc.
Really wish I wasn't told that
Dolphins cut of the head of smaller fish and use it for masturbation.
Nature is wonderful innit?
People dying often smell sweet. Not in a sugary way, but much more in flowery way. It's the decompositions of the body already starting. It can also smell vaguely like alcohol, especially their breath
i know this! not just people, but animals too. sometimes weeks in advance. if u smell this, u can predict death with almost 100% accuracy. :(
The fungus that can take over a bug's brain and turn them into basically a real life zombie ant
A human head can twist approximately 306° before it pops off
In order to conserve water, a camel's urine comes out as a thick syrup.
Decomposing bodies:
Generally, it could take about a year for the body to decompose into a skeleton in ordinary soil and eight to twelve years to decompose a skeleton.
And if a dead body is inside a coffin and buried deep underground, it could even take 50 years to decompose all tissues on the body.
Yet if you leave it in the tub of a non air conditioned apartment you get soup in like what, eight days?
It takes 8 pounds of pressure to tear off a human ear; a force approximately equivalent to crushing a soda can.
The body fat of a drowned person turns into a soap-like substance if they stay under water with no air contact
Anything and everything about Albert Fish. Man was a true degenerate. If you're faint of heart or have a weak stomach, do NOT look him up. Absolutely disgusting. I wish I could unread everything I read about him.
Because we all know you want to know now. "Hamilton Howard "Albert" Fish was an American serial killer, child rapist, child murderer, and cannibal. He was also known as the Gray Man, the Werewolf of Wysteria, the Brooklyn Vampire, the Moon Maniac, and The Boogey Man." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albert_Fish
That some tumors can grow teeth and hairs
Your bones are warm and wet.
Note: this post originally had 69 images. It’s been shortened to the top 30 images based on user votes.
The most depressing thing about this article was the relentless commentary from our dear friend Peter Weir. Have the day you deserve, sir.
I've never seen anyone want to get negative votes so badly. It's really very sad for him, in a way, spending his life trying to piss people off to get attention.
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As horrible as these are, it's still a nice break from the real world.
Don't look at them as facts. Look at (some of) them as either the alternative view or even the lateral version of something. For instance, instead of worrying about microplastics in the air, consider that you are actually inhaling it from your own clothing. Either way, feel free to disregard 90% of these. It's not like we can actually do anything about them anyway.
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Brushing your teeth is the only action you take where you're actually cleaning a part of your skeleton.
Here's a kid who was born without a jaw. Posted his first rap song on Youtube. https://www.9news.com.au/good-news/non-verbal-teen-born-without-jaw-releases-first-rap-song/32430bd6-6202-4342-b0b0-8b336914be12 Mumble rap, presumably.
Why we several entries removed? This morning there were more than 30.
Janina...I think its because they get down voted... not sure.
Load More Replies... So much facting ( and a little bit of nonsense, but hey, that's the Bored Panda way).
More like a lot of nonsense and a little bit of facting. ;-)
Load More Replies... I believe it's important to discuss the "secrets" we've hidden for so many years. It is hard, scary and sometimes overwhelming, but it will only be improved when we reveal it. Covering it up or pretending it's not happening only makes it worse.
Because that isn't a fact. But then, neither are a lot of other things on this list. ;-)
Load More Replies... The most depressing thing about this article was the relentless commentary from our dear friend Peter Weir. Have the day you deserve, sir.
I've never seen anyone want to get negative votes so badly. It's really very sad for him, in a way, spending his life trying to piss people off to get attention.
Load More Replies... As horrible as these are, it's still a nice break from the real world.
Don't look at them as facts. Look at (some of) them as either the alternative view or even the lateral version of something. For instance, instead of worrying about microplastics in the air, consider that you are actually inhaling it from your own clothing. Either way, feel free to disregard 90% of these. It's not like we can actually do anything about them anyway.
Load More Replies... Brushing your teeth is the only action you take where you're actually cleaning a part of your skeleton.
Here's a kid who was born without a jaw. Posted his first rap song on Youtube. https://www.9news.com.au/good-news/non-verbal-teen-born-without-jaw-releases-first-rap-song/32430bd6-6202-4342-b0b0-8b336914be12 Mumble rap, presumably.
Why we several entries removed? This morning there were more than 30.
Janina...I think its because they get down voted... not sure.
Load More Replies... So much facting ( and a little bit of nonsense, but hey, that's the Bored Panda way).
More like a lot of nonsense and a little bit of facting. ;-)
Load More Replies... I believe it's important to discuss the "secrets" we've hidden for so many years. It is hard, scary and sometimes overwhelming, but it will only be improved when we reveal it. Covering it up or pretending it's not happening only makes it worse.
Because that isn't a fact. But then, neither are a lot of other things on this list. ;-)
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