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40 Creepy Things Society Learned To Accept As Normal
Interview With Author
If there’s one thing we humans are really good at, it’s sweeping things under the rug and pretending they’re fine—as long as they don’t affect us directly. It’s definitely not the healthiest coping mechanism, but it’s one we’ve collectively mastered.
In a recent thread, Redditors called out the stuff society has normalized that’s actually pretty creepy. From parents oversharing their kids’ lives online to ads that seem to read your mind, here’s what they had to say.
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When something is widely accepted as normal, despite being anything but, the best way to challenge it is by speaking up. That’s exactly what Arcenzo, the Redditor who started the conversation, did. Bored Panda reached out to them to find out what inspired the post.
“I was just thinking about how many things in society are normalized but can actually be pretty unsettling when you really think about them—like invasive advertising, unsolicited opinions on personal lives, or even certain workplace expectations,” they told us. “It made me curious about what others find creepy but socially accepted, so I decided to ask Reddit!”
In turn, Arcenzo was surprised and even a little overwhelmed by how much attention the post received. “It’s wild how many people have shared their thoughts. Some answers were things I never even considered,” they said.
#4
Putting your children all over social media and even worse, making separate social media accounts for your kids that can barely even walk or talk yet.
#5
Paparazzi/celebrity gossip culture, and how we basically accept that it's okay to stalk people as long as they're famous and you can make money out of intimate details of their lives.
#7
Forcing your kids to hug/kiss adults when they don't want to (like grandmas, uncles, family friends etc.).
#9
High Schools and Middle Schools requiring female athletes to wear tight and short uniforms on athletic teams similar to what women wear on a beach.
#10
Children's clothing being designed to be tiny versios of adults, specifically little girls 4 yr olds don't need booty shorts and croptops.
#12
Adults in their 30s-50s and above dating anyone with an age ending in "teen"
(18-19)
It's legal, yes.
But still super creepy.
#15
That people with a disability or chronic illness can be treated as sub-human / third rate citizens. Seems universal worldwide.
#16
Parents pushing their kids too far in sports. I grew up racing motocross. I went to regional amateur races. The amount of kids that were getting hit by their parents in the pits after races was sickening. Motocross parents are the absolute worst. Thankfully my parents never did that c**p to me.
#17
Predatory financial practices (like payday loan establishments and slot machines in gas stations).
#18
People/strangers asking about your s*x life or how many people you’ve slept with.
Men harassing people, and it being “boys will be boys”.
Adults telling little girls that their sons are just picking on them because they’re “pretty”.
F*****g weird culture. Just had this happen with my niece where a little boy was shoving her and his mom came over and told my niece that “he just thinks you’re pretty”
I immediately told my niece that his behavior wasn’t ok and no one has the right to touch her or be mean to her.
#22
Mormons allow adult men to probe their children about their s*x life.
it's expected by the children, at least every year, that the "Bishop" will interview them and ask them if they have ever touched themselves. if the answer is yes, he will ask more about it to get the details.
#23
People posting near fatal and fatal videos on social media. All for karma or likes . Totally disgusting.
#25
How obsessed people are with celebrities’ personal lives, down to tracking their flights and stalking them in public.
#27
How about making people live in pain and suffering. Seniors, sick, disabled, mentally ill. Some of them just can't take it.
#28
Perving on young women as soon as they're 18 "because they're legal". When I was 27 and on a dating app I had a 22yo message me and I felt like a p**o. just for her messaging me.
#29
The fact that most social media apps listen to us and then show ads for things we just talked about.
#31
The normalization of extreme violence in modern warfare. I think that have grown to be so desensitized to the horrors that we think exterminating other human beings like they were pests or bugs is something normal. It sickens me to watch the news and hear that hundreds of people are brutally killed every day in the same tone of voice as if they were announcing that tomorrow the weather will be warm. It's inhuman.
#33
Not really said as "okay" but still somehow legal is anime characters being like 30+ but they look like children and teenagers in skimpy clothes. And just the over sexualization of female anime characters in general.
#37
Death penalty. The fact that anyone can support that without being afflicted with a higher level of psychopathy is puzzling.
#38
18 equals free game no matter what age the other party is because ✨legal adult✨
Disgusting 🤢.
#40
Putting kids as main characters(who get hurt and experimented on) in Adult shows. I am referring to Stranger Things. Those kids, who today are adults, admit how sexualized they were when they were minors. Not just the girl but the boys as well. But for some reason people loved the show and didn't complain.
What do you think ?
Sky Render 1 year ago
I would add: normalizing, legalizing and encouraging bigotry toward anyone who's not part of the "majority". The most disconcerting thing of all is how casually people who otherwise wouldn't embrace bigotry will give into it when this happens. Western society especially is built on this normalized hatred, it's writ large in the blood of the innocent in our history books.
Sky Render 1 year ago
I would add: normalizing, legalizing and encouraging bigotry toward anyone who's not part of the "majority". The most disconcerting thing of all is how casually people who otherwise wouldn't embrace bigotry will give into it when this happens. Western society especially is built on this normalized hatred, it's writ large in the blood of the innocent in our history books.
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