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.
#1
Doctors used to perform heart surgery on infants without anesthesia. Thankfully this practice was ended.In the 1980s.
Image credits: SueSudio
#2
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.
Image credits: Magic-Baguette
#3
Dolphins cut of the head of smaller fish and use it for masturbation.Nature is wonderful innit?
Image credits: Pharah_is_my_waIfu
#4
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
Image credits: libanator4
#5
The average polar bear liver contains enough Vitamin A to kill 52 adults.
Image credits: BLA_VS
#6
Whales don't die from old age they just lose the strength to pull them selves up for air and slowly sink and drown
Image credits: error606nofucksgiven
#7
The fungus that can take over a bug's brain and turn them into basically a real life zombie ant
Image credits: cutiegirl88
#8
In order to conserve water, a camel's urine comes out as a thick syrup.
Image credits: duskhelm2595
#9
The body fat of a drowned person turns into a soap-like substance if they stay under water with no air contact
Image credits: WattebauschXC
#10
Around 30 people die every year, getting crushed from shaking a vending machine.
Image credits: musiotunya
#11
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.
Image credits: Back2Bach
#12
You can grow teeth on your ovaries.
Image credits: Some_Category
#13
Your bones are warm and wet.
Image credits: Massa_Kumar-2004
#14
A human head can twist approximately 306° before it pops off
Image credits: tuffcraft
#15
It takes 8 pounds of pressure to tear off a human ear; a force approximately equivalent to crushing a soda can.
Image credits: ShrimpOfMantis
#16
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.
Image credits: patricksaurus
#17
That some tumors can grow teeth and hairs
Image credits: sirchickenbs
#18
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.
Image credits: Alternative_Bar_2535
#19
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.
Image credits: Poht8Oh
#20
I recently learned that Nutella has a sun protection factor of 9.7. Since then I can't stop thinking about that.
Image credits: husky_poe
#21
There are little microscopic insect thingies that live in the follicle of each one of your eyelashes.
Image credits: OneManicNinja
#22
A turtle penis is nearly half the length of the turtle, they are the most well endowed reptile.
Image credits: Deus-system-failed
#23
Those bitter, sour, or otherwise nasty tasting pistachios had a worm, larva, or some other pest in them. I always assumed that I just needed to deal with a couple spoiled pistachios per bag and it’s no big deal. Nope. Larvae. I’ve never had pistachios since learning this.
Image credits: CapnCabbage
#24
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.
Image credits: rasslinsmurf
#25
There is micro plastic in everything you eat and drink. Even the air you breathe contains plastic
Image credits: Aaa0n_ ·
#26
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.
Image credits: gunslinger9_19
#27
4% of people on Death Row are innocent.#28
If you’re a cannibal, never eat the brains. Eating brains is how you catch a disease called Kuru. It is 100% lethal.#29
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..
#30
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#31
Everyone’s butthole is as unique as a fingerprint.#32
Doctors removed the eyes of Jack The Rippers last known victim in order to check if they could extract an image of the killer.#33
"If you cannot afford an attorney one will be provided for you" doesnt mean the attorney is free#34
During the Black Death, people would be so infected with the plague that the buboes (those lumps) that you could hear them gurgling with bacteria#35
Cows can create mummified foetuses inside of their uterus. If the foetus dies and is not retrieved, the body absorbs all the liquids and humidity from the foetus, and what is left is a tiny dried up hard solid mummy of a calf.#36
Toilets are designed so it is impossible to pass out while puking and drown in one. If someone drowns in a toilet they were murdered.#37
A person split in half by the stomach doesn't die instantly. It has some lastly moments of suffering.Source: a person was hit by a train and split in half in front of me. He took some time to die.
#38
In ancient Egypt, the deceased bodies of beautiful and high ranking women were left to decay for several days before mummification to discuourage necrophilia by the embalmers.#39
When a frog throws up, its entire stomach will fly out its mouth and just hang there. The frog then flings out the contents of the stomach and swallows it back down.#40
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.#41
the surgery with the highest mortality rate was 300%. how did this happen? well, there was a surgeon called Robert Liston who was famous for his fast amputations, and when I say fast I'm talking 30 seconds to 1 minute surgeries, 180x faster than amputations now (this happened in the 1800's). one day he was performing an amputation but accidentally amputated much more than he should have, due to the fact that the patient was thrashing about in pain while assistants held them down as there was no anasthetic at the time. he was amputating so fast that he cut through his assistant's finger. the surgical tools were probably dirty as both the patient an the assistant died of infections. as for the third guy, people enjoyed watching Liston preform surgeries and he was at the front of the crowd. Liston slashed the spectator's coat, which supposedly caused the spectator to die of shock (likely a heart attack).TL:DR doctor amputated guy, cuts assistant and slashed spectator's coat, causing all 3 to die.
Image credits: The_Real_Son_Gok
#42
Orcas will slap baby seals 80+ ft into the air with their tails until the seal's skin comes off, and eventually dies. The orcas will then not even eat it after, meaning that they literally just do it for fun.#43
When dolphins become attached to humans and then the human they like are gone for a long time, the dolphin will drown itself from sadness#44
That figs contains wasps. They pollenate by the wasp crawling inside the male plant and then the female one however the female plant has a smaller hole and the wasp dies inside. The wasp decomposes in the fruit. So if you eat a ripe fig you eat at least one wasp. Used to be my favorite. So sad.#45
Right now, your Government is doing things YOU think only OTHER Governments do.
Image credits: NorthernStockNoob
#46
Most seamonster sightings are whale penises#47
Dogs like squeaky toys because it sounds like frightened or injured prey. Day ruined#48
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
#49
Giving birth has higher mortality rate than having an abortion.#50
I remember hearing some dude (retired military) on a podcast talk about how fragile our electric grid really is, and if it ever went down some 60%-ish of the population would die in about 2-3 months because nobody knows how to gather food or water anymore.#51
When you are cremated the ovens do not melt your bones. The fragments are put in to a blender and pulverised in to the ash that we think of with cremation#52
During the cold war British tornado pilots where told not to worry about having enough fuel to return to base as there wouldnt be a base to return to after the first 2 hours of war#53
That people who drown in confined spaces will claw the skin off the bone of their fingers trying to get out. They sometimes claw their own throats open.#54
There is faecal matter eeeeeeeeverywhere
Image credits: Gayrosh-Sexdream
#55
If you sniff any odor, it means a tiny amount of the sniffed matter entered your nose.Therefore if you sniff vomit ...
Image credits: romainhdl
#56
Elon Musk’s father is currently with and has a child with his step-daughter. He became her step-father when she was about 3#57
There is no guarantee that all life on earth won’t end in the next moment, simply because the wrong type of radioactive space waves hit us#58
After the Tienemann Square Massacre. To get rid of the bodies, Chinese tanks drove over them and "pancaked" them so troops could easily just use hoses to wash them into the gutters#59
That if you think or imagine licking anything it doesn’t matter what it is, you just know what it feels like, your tongue just knows.#60
A cremation oven is about 1800° F. Lava is about 2000° F. Hawaii has accessible lava.#61
When a morbidly obese person is being cremated the oven doesn't need to get as hot as when a thin person being cremated due to the fat burning at a high temperature.#62
Until the 1980’s, people had no idea that Orangutans had two different sub-species and ended up cross breeding the two. And the end result was known as the “cocktail orangutan”. The problem with these hybrid orangutans is while they are fertile, they suffer numerous health issues and allowing them to continue to breed will result in the orangutan population to diminish even more#63
When someone is beaten and suffers blunt force trauma to the back of the head, it isn’t brain damage that kills them. Most of the time it damages the bones in the roof of your mouth and nose and the bleeding from these highly vascular areas make the person drown in their own blood.#64
There are more people in slavery today than at any other time in history. More than 40 million people around the world were victims of modern slavery in 2016, including about 25 million in forced labour, and 15 million in forced marriages.#65
Takes 3hrs for a 180lb human to completely dissolve in a bathtub of potassium hydroxide.#66
That the average human will talk to 16 murders during their lifetime.#67
Just everything about dementia. It’s absolutely fucking terrifying.#68
How rabies takes over in the human body. It's disturbing and fucking traumatizing to read.#69
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.from Bored Panda https://bit.ly/3HxNMIX
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