Interesting FactsAPR 10, 2024

40 Disturbing Facts People Wish They Didn’t Know

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There’s never a bad time to share a fun fact. You can easily break the ice in any conversation or lighten the mood by sharing some information that others might find amusing. But what are we supposed to do with all of those unsettling, uncomfortable and upsetting facts that are floating around inside our brains?

Today, we’re dedicating our attention to disturbing info, pandas. Redditors have recently been sharing some of the least fun facts that they know, so we’ve gathered some that you might not want to know down below. I’ll warn you right now to keep reading at your own risk, and be sure to upvote the facts you wish weren’t true!

#1

40 Disturbing Facts People Wish They Didn’t Know

Old people move so slow because everything they do hurts. I’m getting old and it’s starting to happen.

rChewbacca, Pixabay

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213points

#2

I was a social worker. I saw a lot.
The first three weeks, we were in a classroom doing intensive training. Every day, someone would walk out. It wasn’t out of being rude, it’s because each person has a point at which they cannot go any further. They showed us some of the worst. The deal is, they do it for very good reason. If we are so horrified that we refuse to learn about the abuse, how will we recognize it in one of our kids?
That’s what I ask of all adults. PLEASE, if you see something, don’t assume it’s impossible so you can push it out of your mind. A whole lot is possible.

DecadentLife, fauxels

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186points

#3

The number one cause of death for pregnant women is domestic violence.

paradox-psy-hoe-sis, freestocks

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171points

To learn more about how this thread started in the first place, we reached out to Reddit user Ghost-5AVAGE_786, who posed the question, "What is your not-so-fun fact?” They were kind enough to have a chat with Bored Panda and explain what inspired them to spark this conversation.

"My mind birthed this question out of my simple desire to learn broad and niche facts which pique my interest," they explained. "I have a peculiar fondness to wacky or even 'not-so-fun facts', which is why I had asked the question to one of the biggest communities on Reddit."

#4

A lot of people in nursing homes will die shortly after family leaves. I’ve had funeral directors tell me this is very accurate. Both my parents did. We were there, left for the night and while gone, they died. It’s like they don’t want to expire in front of anyone.

problem-solver0, Matthias Zomer

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159points

#5

Chainsaws were invented for medical use, largely for cutting into the pelvis during childbirth in a process called a pelviotomy. And from about 1940 to 1987, approximately 1,500 women were given one in Ireland without their consent, way after they should have switched to C-sections, often to perfect the surgery for use in Africa.

A 2012 study found that many of the victims say the Catholic Church "encouraged, if not insisted upon, symphysiotomies."

It took until 2012 for people to begin getting any compensation and the first woman to receive it was subjected to the procedure *post cesarian.* However, they dropped the ball so hard on addressing it afterwards that the survivor's group of these women had to go to the UN Committee Against Torture to get anything else done.

Some babies were also killed in the process.

79screamingfrogs, Anastasiia Chepinska

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154points

We also asked the OP if they were partial to any unsettling facts. "My personal favorite not-so-fun fact is the peculiar circumstances of Cleopatra's marriage," they shared. "According to history, Cleopatra had married both her brother and father (at separate times, of course), as it was a part of some weird cultural ritual of the Egyptians. In all honesty, this fact did disgust me to quite an extent."

"However, this does showcase how bizarre and different cultures and ancient kingdoms can be," Ghost-5AVAGE_786 added. "This fact in particular, came to me from a show called Horrible Histories, which is a British Children's show to teach the odd facts of history."

#6

You ever use bleach without gloves, and it gets kinda slimy?

That slime isn't the bleach. It's your skin melting.

blakeman8192, Nothing Ahead

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144points

#7

There's an extremely high chance that Boeing executives contracted a hit on one of their former employees for being a whistleblower and basically the public response (other than a few angry social media posts) has been "well, yeah, that's just what happens...".

Imaskeet, Pixabay

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143points

As far as why we're so drawn to these unsettling facts, the OP says, "I suppose our species in general is highly peculiar, hence it's fascination for disturbing facts, whether full of gore or just a tad bit strange."

And as far as what they thought of the replies to their post, they told Bored Panda, "The comments bombarded me with many unusual, as well as some upsetting, facts. The strangest one I had come across was where a user had commented about dolphins being able to be sexually attracted to humans, and they can or will act upon these desires when given an opportunity."

#8

ER Doc here

A lot of people know when they are about to die, even if they don't know why. Just instinctual, they even say it very calmly and knowingly "I'm gonna die." Or something similar. And then they code.

Or. They say they have to go the bathroom. Then code.

I am dead serious.

Lord_Lava_Nugget, Anna Shvets

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140points

#9

We don't know the effects of micro plastics on the human body, partially because we can't find a control group.

ZealousidealPotato71, Kevin Krejci

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139points

"In conclusion, 'not-so-fun facts' are a great (as well as peculiar) way to learn about the universe in which we reside in," Ghost-5AVAGE_786 added. "In essence, we don't truly know everything, but our thirst for hunger as a species will never come to an end, as long as we exist. Who knows, maybe even after our time on Earth has ended."

#10

Bus seats are designed so that you can't tell how dirty they are

VanessaDoesVanNuys, Markus Winkler

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139points

#11

The fact that the "couple" down the street from me with 3 kids are not husband and wife. They are in fact brother and sister.

Yes I know it for fact I went to grammar school with them.

Trailerguy13, Vidal Balielo Jr.

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136points

#12

That Munmorah power plant in Australia was allowed to operate for decades with a significant diesel leak in an underground reservoir that contaminated the water table. When demolishing the plant you could light the sand that surrounded the tank on fire (about 50 meters each way), and if you dug lower than the sea level anywhere within a I guess about a 1km radius you could smell diesel.

It's a high fishing surfing area. That was far from the only contaminant. Pfas, Pfos, chromium, etc. People live very close to it. People eat the fish for years from the hot water outlet. (Was a super popular "secret" fishing spot)

Also during the demolition there was lots of contaminated water collected - This was sent through a filtration process and pumped into the ocean. It had multiple sediment filters and a water/oil separator. I do not believe it was adequate filtration before it was sent back into the sea.

No one seems to know. I only know because I was part of the works post operation.

Makes me wonder how many heavy industrial entities got to do who knows what and get away with it.

Icewallow-toothpaste, Webaware

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132points

#13

That one in five men will leave their wives when they get extremely sick or have to care for them in some manner.

SadieArlen, Andrea Piacquadio

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131points

#14

Living a healthy lifestyle, eating right and exercising buys you the slowest rate of death possible, at best. I work with the elderly and a 95 yo woman mumbled that “this is what I get for being healthy…stiiiiiillll here.”

SameBirdDiffrntStone, Kampus Production

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130points

#15

Mummies weren’t that rare until the Victorian British ate so many of them.

GotPC, Narciso Arellano

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128points

#16

Mentally handicapped children are roughly three times as likely to be sexually assaulted.

Note that roughly 25% of all healthy girls and 5% of healthy boys will be the victim of CSA before they are 12.

Barbarian_818, cottonbro studio

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128points

#17

When gas was introduced into common households during the industrial revolutions, people started paying more attention to what they put on their walls, now that they were lit up. They began decorating more, and wallpaper became a much more important part of the modern home. At the time, green was a very popular colour, as it had never really been an option to decorate with that colour before. However the green colour was obtained with Arsenic (as white paints were often obtained through a lead product). After a while, wear and tear made it so that people literally started breathing in bits of their arsenic wallpapers, and feeling bad within their homes. Their doctors would then suggest they go on holiday to the sea, as the ocean air often had proven a successful remedy. But of course, it was a remedy simply because they were no longer breathing in arsenic. The companies that made these wallpapers were well aware of their nefarious effects, but it took people boycotting "en masse" for them to actually stop production, several decades later.

pottedplantfairy, Alexander Dmitriev

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126points

#18

Australians' greatest enemy isn't spider, drop bears, killer roos, massive insects, or devil snakes; it's the sun.

Australia has the highest skin cancer rate in the world, and an Australian is four times more likely to develop skin cancer than any other type of cancer, and two thirds of Australian would be diagnosed with it by the time they reach the age of 70.

ForgottenShark, Pixabay

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119points

#19

You are more likely to be bitten by a New Yorker then die from a shark.

UndyneIsCool, Alex Steyn

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118points

#20

During the cleanup of Pearl Harbor, as the recovery crews for *USS West Virginia (BB-48)* got deeper into the ship months after the attack, they discovered bodies high in the engine room and a locked storeroom where air bubbles had kept them alive for **2 weeks** based on calendars they used to keep track of time. That was "well after" divers had made their first passes over the ship listening for sounds of survivors.

theothermeisnothere, Imperial Japanese Navy

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115points

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