
With the news the way it's been lately, not a day goes by that we don't hear the word "corrupt" in one way or another. Whether we're talking about politics, police, demons (or gems for you Steven Universe fans) - corruption is everywhere.
Reddit user imbasargarepa asked:
What line of business is generally more corrupt than people realize?
What line of business is generally more corrupt than people realize?
Turns out there are about a zillion more examples of rampant corruption than many people initially thought. What really made this thread interesting wasn't just the businesses and industries that people pointed out. It was the fact that a lot of the responses came from people with behind-the-scenes access, insider information, and knowledge that the average customer or person would never have.
The loopholes, angles, and technicalities that some of these industries exploit are honestly kind of stunning. Take a look.
Towing Trouble
Towing. Companies who tow cars are shady as AF. I had my car towed from the scene of an accident, and I couldn't get an insurance estimate for 4 days because the tow company claimed they didn't have it. Then they charged the insurance company for 4 days of "storage" after I went to their lot myself and took pictures of my car sitting there.
Here in WA, towing companies can sell your car at an auction if they have it for 100 hours. A friend's car got towed from an accident and it took him nearly that long to find it. I gave him a ride there, and they already had his car on a car carrier to take to an auction. He almost lost his car.
We have an automatic tow policy at my apartment complex. My husband and I got back from a trip with a rental car, and just parked it. Stupid on our part
They towed within 2 min. That leads us to believe they were watching, knew who/where we were, and had no interest in giving us actual time to move it - which sucks, but fine.
We went to go get it from the tow yard because we had to take the rental back the next day and their credit card machine was broken. It was -10 degrees, three a.m, and they wouldn't/couldn't give us our car back because of the card machine.
We asked "Well when will you have your card reader fixed?" They said they didn't know.
"Do you take cash?" They said no.
Then how the hell were we supposed to get our car back? They had no real answer. Well then you pretty much have just stolen our car.
Pinkwashing
Susan G Koman and the other disease 'awareness' charities. Most of the money donated does not reach the scientists and doctors actually researching cures and treatments.
To add to this, the pink breast cancer ribbon isn't trademarked. Meaning anyone can slap it on anything to make it seem charitable when it's really just shady marketing. It's a practice called pinkwashing, a company slaps a pink ribbon on a product to make buyers think they're supporting breast cancer research, but they don't actually donate anything. The worst in when products with ingredients known to cause cancer do it. And they do it a lot.
As a former cancer researcher, I can confirm. They also reject any grant application that studies any treatment than can work on other cancers because they then feel like other cancer organizations are 'stealing' from their "brand" of cancer. However, scientific standards dictate that all potential treatments must be studied on several different cancer types in the lab and in vivo to be considered a legit study. So it's a catch-22. Do you have an amazing new discovery that could cure breast cancer but also works on prostate or colon cancer? Sorry, no money for you!
Sadly, because the US government cut NIH funding so badly over a decade ago, more and more labs have to rely on charity and industry funding, which leads to biased results or good research getting defunded and tossed in the circular file. Entire labs are shutting down because of it.
Also, look at who Komen takes money from. A lot of food and chemical companies. Dairy consumption is a known cause of breast cancer, but Komen takes money from yogurt companies and lets them slap pink ribbons all over their packaging to give it a false health halo to increase profits. It's hypocritical at best. If Komen was truly interested in preventing breast cancer, they'd stop taking money from the companies that cause it and start educating the public about how to prevent it. Full stop.
Mortuary Services
Mortuary services. You do not need to be embalmed, you do not need an expensive casket, and they are overcharging you for everything. It's a disgusting extortion racket no one does anything about.
Worked in the funeral business, can confirm. I used to be written up on evaluations for not up-selling caskets, vaults, and urns to families. Legally you don't even need an urn, if you provide the funeral home with a container they have to use it. I put someone in a coffee can once just like Donnie in the Big Lebowski.
Pest Control
Pest control. You can buy almost every single thing we use yourself online without a license. For the price you pay for one service you can get enough stuff to do it yourself for years. Also, almost all major companies now will spray the outside only if you aren't there because we're required to complete a certain number of jobs a day. So if you never confirmed the appointment we made for you that you never even knew about, guess what, you're still getting sprayed - and billed. I work for one and the policy now is that the techs have to do the outside only if no one is there. My boss even told me to not call the customer if we thought no one was home because they may try to reschedule. Just spray exterior.
Worked as a pest control tech for a summer and can confirm some of this, though at our company we would call if you weren't there and leave a note to reschedule the indoor treatment later. Also, training for this job took like 1 hour, and basically amounts to "hit corners, crevices, openings, and humid areas." People thought I knew a lot more about pest control than I did.
- Akomatai
The Temp Employee
Hiring temp employees.
Besides the low pay and zero respect there is also the health insurance scams. I had an agency charge me $8,000 per year automatically for a health insurance package that only covered $5,000 AFTER my initial up front costs of $5,000.
In short I had to pay $13,000 just to get $5,000 worth of coverage.
Which was of course denied claiming a pre-existing condition. Being hit by a car is, "pre-existing," apparently. I was hit that day. It's why I was at the doctor.
They denied paying for the CAT scan stating the injury occurred prior to being refereed by the doctor.
I had health insurance through a temp agency like a dozen years ago that didn't actually cover anything. It was weird. They had a network, no one was in network.
My husband was once hired as a contractor through a temp agency. The company who contracted him promised they'd make him a full time employee with benefits after a year.
I don't consider it a coincidence that he was fired less than a month before that year was up. Worse, he didn't qualify for unemployment since he was a temp.
It's a racket.
Megachurch Megabucks
Former Altar boy here. All that money people give to churches makes me sick. Most of it isn't going to good works. It's going to the mega umbrella corporations, the Vatican, building Joel Osteen's mansion, and getting your pastor a new Benz. They take poor peoples last few dollars and hoard it or use it to develop their brand. It's just another business. The people who pay the price for their greed is societies most vulnerable like the elderly.
- Obladi
Mega Churches in the US: These guys are stealing money hand over first through the use of flashy sermons and trumped up versions of how the Bible actually works. Not to mention the fact that most of the donations they receive help the people that own the church pay for private jets and mansions. Remember that mega church pastor who "needed" a private jet so he wouldn't have to share his flight with "sinners?" Yeah...
Even if there's a catastrophe in their neighborhood they can't be bothered to send some money their way. After that last tornado in Missouri a local mega church didn't donate a dime, meanwhile a local casino donated a large sum of money to the victims.
- mbattagl
Yup, Joel Osteen didn't do sh*t here in Houston during Harvey. I lived right by the church and there was NO water like he tried to say. Meanwhile Mattress Mack opened all his stores for people and did a ton to help.
- Mper526
Joel Osteen couldn't be bothered to open the doors to his as a shelter, without a ton of pressure, after Harvey flooded Houston. His own congregation was basically told to suck it. Megachurch operators are ghouls, to their rotten cores.
My grandmother is destitute and relies on my mother for everything now despite having been well set for retirement, all thanks to the "prosperity gospel" preached on TBN. She sent them everything, on the promise that God would return her "investment" seven-fold. If hell is real, I have no doubt those snakes will be there with me.
Not all businesses are created equal... or fair.
Do you have companies you'd like to add to the list? Share them in our comment section below!
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It's highly believed that it is important to learn history as a means to improve our future.
What is often overlooked is that what is taught in history class is going to be very different depending on where you went to school.
And this isn't just internationally, even different regions of the United states will likely have very different lessons on American history.
This frequently results in our learning fascinating, heartbreaking and horrifying historical facts which our middle or high school history teachers neglected to teach us.
Redditor Acherontia_atropos91 was curious to learn things people either wished they had learned, or believe they should have learned, in their school history class, leading them to ask:
What isn’t taught in history class but should be?
The Irish Troubles
"The troubles."
"Too many people in America do not understand why a wall straight through Ireland would be a BAD idea."
"I’m referring to the Brexit referendum and possible outcomes."
"If people were wondering why we were talking about walls through Ireland in the first place."- CLCVS.
Forgotten elements of World War II
"What the Japanese did to the Chinese during WW2."
"Unit 731."- CaptainMcBoogerJew.
"Japan gets off easy for their war crimes in WW2."
"They killed an estimated 16mil Chinese civilians and another 8mil soldiers"
"Also, Pol Pot."
"Didn't know who he was until I was like 25."
"Worst dictator all time (in terms of percentage of population he decimated)".
The truth about the American Revolution
"That the American Revolution was part of a wider cold war type of conflict with France."
"The American Revolution was basically the UK's equivalent of the US version of Vietnam."- vinsant7.
The Dark side of Swedish history.
"As a Swede, I'd like to know more of all the horrible sh*t my country has done throughout history."
"It's a damn shame we're trying to hide our history."
"For example, Swedes killed a metric sh*t ton of all Polish people when we were at our strongest."
"That's the kinda sh*t we don't get to learn."- mogwandayy.
Colonization
"Basically what Belgium did to the Congo."
"A lot of people are telling me that they are taught about this actually."
"I'm glad to hear it because I wasn't taught about this in the USA during my public school days (1995-2008)."- EconArch.
The truth about "heroes".
"While teaching about historical Heroes they should also tell students about the unspeakable things some of them did."
"Many famous figures throughout history who are pillars of morality actually did many terrible things." - User Deleted
Intolerance for Mental Illness
"The dark history of mental illness treatments."
"I think it's worth learning about."- 7dayexcerpt.
Slavic Mythology
"Slavic mythology in Slavic countries."
"Don't get me wrong, I love both Greek & Roman mythology and as a person from the Balkans both of those cultures are part of my country's history and had great influence over not only my region but the entirety of the continent & the western world but I wouldn't mind knowing more about Slavic mythology as well."- ShorsShezzarine.
The truth about the CIA
"How the CIA was made and all the shady things they did over the years."- ALargeChip.
There is a lot about the history of our world, not to mention our own country which shouldn't be ignored.
And it's from learning from our mistakes that we really improve our future.
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So apparently we are in the endemic phase of this nonsense.
We have light at the end of the tunnel.
So what now?
Where do we go from here?
Normal seems like an outdated word.
How do we get back to normal though?
Is it even possible?
What are reaching back to?
Life pre-Covid.
Those were the days.
If only we could bring them back.
Redditor hetravelingsong wanted to discuss our new normal in this hopeful "endemic" phase. So they asked:
"What’s something random you miss about pre-COVID times?"
I miss people being sane. Though that maybe election cycle issues not COVID. We'll never know.
I thought I was Alone...
"Being able to grocery shop after 11 pm."
Reading_Rainboner
"Hell yes. I miss the days where the Walmart across the street was open 24 hours."
Small_Tax_9432
let's just go...
"I miss spontaneity... everything now seems to have a barrier of difficulty."
iidosee
"I live very close to Disneyland so I have an annual pass. My friends and I would just go there after work and hang out and grab a bite to eat."
"Now, we have to reserve a day to go. And most of the time, the days are at 'full' capacity so we couldn't even reserve. I don't want to schedule to hang out at Disneyland for a couple hours for July. So yeah, I definitely miss the 'lets go eat at Disneyland tonight?' texts."
mymymissmai
Not til 24-25
"Functioning global supply chains. Ah, the product you want has got microchips in it? 9 month wait."
richard-king
"Minimum, I'd been saying for a while now that I wouldn't expect a true return to normalcy in terms of electronics prices till 2024-2025. Although Crypto crashing through the floor really took some of the pressure off graphics cards which I really appreciate."
statiiic
WTF?!?!
"How affordable everything was!"
Disastrous_Hour_6776
"Yep. Today I was bagging up my things at the grocery store and I heard the cashier say to the lady behind me 'thats $78.12.' She had -- 2 boxes of Kellogg's corn flakes, a carton of 12 eggs, milk, strawberries, raspberries, blue berries, a small cheese cake, English muffins, coffee, and a small whole frozen chicken that could maybe feed 3 people if the meat portioning was small."
SnowyInuk
Sushi
"My favorite sushi place. It was good quality, close by, kid-friendly, and not too expensive."
InannasPocket
All of this... it was a simpler time.
NASTY
"As a retail worker, just how f**king NASTY some people have gotten."
DmitriPetrov*itch
"They applauded you for being an essential worker but won’t vote for policies that’ll raise minimum wage while insisting a wage cap for heavily paid employees."
sketchysketchist
CHANGES your DNA...
"Some of the people closest to me became very bitter and petty over the last 2 years. So many people have the 'crazy eyes' now."
__--__7
"So true and holidays with the family is like who has the biggest tinfoil hat building contest. How many jumps does your brain have to go through to think that the Covid vaccine CHANGES your DNA into the patented DNA so that the government now controls your body."
"So like vaccinated people now have a singular DNA set. I feel like I still have a chunk of my brain just broken off due to that comment alone. I was also told by same family member that I could never donate blood again due to the vaccine. I guess it is so my patented DNA doesn't affect people?? FYI my vaccinated butt just donated today fine and multiple other times after the vaccine."
tyreka13
Homeward Bound
"House prices."
adrianinked
"I'm resigned to never thinking I have a chance on owning property where I live. I'm 30 and just can't imagine it anymore. And I don't want to live anywhere else so, whatever."
Osdab2daf
"That didn’t happen because of the pandemic. That was already happening regardless."
CH11DW
Oh Mickey
"All Day Breakfast at McDonalds."
hutch2522
"It was honestly hell to do, and not very popular. ITs margins aren't anywhere dinner and lunch specials. ON top of that, the temperatures are such that They require its own grill, meaning that if you have 2 grills in shop, you are down 50% of lunch capacity."
Freyas_Follower
Way back when...
"Hanging out with friends. And I mean waaaaaay before Covid. Like 2006 back when I had some friends."
LoocsinatasYT
I miss the old days. Maybe we'll get back there.
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What do you believe?
Is there a GOD in the sky?
Is he guiding us and helping us?
Life is really hard. Why is that is a big entity is up there loving us?
Atheists have taken a lot of heat for what feels like shunning GOD.
What if they've been right all along?
Maybe let's take a listen and see what they really think.
Redditor __Jacob______ wanted to hear from the people who don't really believe all that "God" stuff. They asked:
"Atheists, what do you believe in?"
I'm waffling between G-O-D and nothing. So please give me some education.
911
"We need to look out for each other because help isn't coming."
cknipe
Peace Out
"More than 2 decades ago, a priest was giving a sermon in my church and he said 'our faith requires you to believe without question. Why call it faith if you have to ask questions?' I haven't returned to church. Not until my wedding day but you know what I mean."
asiangontear
Delusion
"When I was young I used to think that after death you would have access to a PC that you could see absolutely anything about your life. Stats, any question you had no matter how obscure, replays of moments, perspectives of others in relation to you. No matter what you wanted to know, if it was relatable to you, you could see it. I know it's silly, but as time goes on I just want it to be real, and I don't think I'd have any issue allowing myself to fall into that delusion."
eggwardpenisglands
I think nothing happens...
"Realistically, I think nothing happens. We literally experience nothing after death. Same thing that we experience before birth. We don't exist, so it's nothing. I think the tenant that we should follow while living is to try to be happy and healthy while minimizing the damage we do to each other."
"What I would LIKE to happen after death is whatever you believe in, exists. I think Christians should get to go to heaven if they truly believe in it, Hindus and Buddhists get reincarnated, and everyone else also gets to experience what they believe they will experience."
"'I would still experience Nothing. Maybe it's one of those things where at the moment of death their brain makes them experience what feels like an infinitely long moment in time where they experience their afterlife. I just think it would be neat for everybody."
Better_Meat_
Shrug
"Best advice I received from a dear senior on their way out. 'You win some, you lose some' shrug. Nothing divine, life is that simple and wonderful, accept it and move on."
Tune_Kindly
It all sounds pretty simple. Why are people so up in arms about Atheists?
Whatever
"I believe in a universe that doesn't care, and people that do."
imCIK
Cool with Empty
"Nothing. [Serious]."
rumblingtummy29
"I feel this way about death. When I was 5, my grandfather died and my cousin simple said, he is dead, that means you are gone forever. Everything ends up dying, even plants and animals. I'm now in my 40's and still have this simplistic view of life and death. People think I'm ambivalent to life and death but it's just what it is."
thepigfish82
puppet-masters...
"I think a lot of religious people struggle with the fact that we are all just swirling units of chaos. There is no grand plan or great orchestrator. I think that’s why people who are prone to religion are also susceptible to things like Q anon and the Cabal and all that. They REALLY want to believe that there is some almighty puppet-master who determines all of humanity’s fate."
Lngtmelrker
“we’re living in a society!”
"Just be a kind and empathetic person not because you’re worried about some cosmic justice, but because it’s the right thing to do. If there is some being that created us there’s no way they actually care about believing in it or adhering to some rules from over 2000 years ago."
"Also a big thing for me is that I find the idea that you need religion or the Bible in order to have morals and ethics pretty dumb. It’s pretty f**king clear that most evangelicals have neither. But my main thing is being a good person simply because, as George Costanza once said we’re living in a society!' If you’re only a good person in order to make it to heaven you probably aren’t actually a good and moral person."
conservative_genius
That's All
"You're born. You live. You die. That's it. After you die you cease to exist, the same as before you were born."
serefina
Believe what you want. We're all here together. So let's focus there.
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The list of what irritates me is endless.
I mean... breathing too loud or dust can set me off.
I'm a bit unstable, yes.
But I'm not alone.
So let's discuss.
Redditor Aburntbagel6 wanted to hear about all the times many of us just couldn't control our disdain. They asked:
"What never fails to piss you off?"
I feel like this article can go on forever. Let's get some highlights.
Wasted Time
"Meetings that could and should have been an email."
Sirena609
Lotto People
"Getting stuck behind people playing the lottery at a corner store."
thenuggetlover
"I also used to work in a gas station and you’re SO right. I f**king hated the lottery people. Especially since my store had a small staff and there was usually only one of us working at a time, which meant that I couldn’t get any of my other work done as long as they were there."
"And you’re right, it’s also pretty sad to watch. I had one lady who used to come in every day and spent hundreds and HUNDREDS of dollars on scratch tickets. One day, she won $200 after spending probably around $600 and she was so excited and saying she can 'finally pay her bills.'"
i-am-your-god-now
Aware...
"No situational awareness. Job, home, shopping, driving. Think for one minute and go about. OBSERVE!!"
Dizzy-Foundation8122
"My mom is one of those people who leave the shopping cart in the middle of the damn aisle and proceed to walk twenty feet away. After correcting her a million times to no effect I just walk away now so people don’t know I’m with her."
OutrageousEvent
Shut Up!
"Endless barking in the middle of the night, I love animals but that sh*t I can't stand."
Acceptable-Lemon2924
"Endless barking in general drives me up a wall. One of my friends dogs was barking almost an entire gaming session the other day. I wanted to reach through the computer and smack him for letting it go on."
bangersnmash13
Kindness
"People being mean to service workers, especially if the workers are very young."'
scaryboilednoodles
All of these things. I hate them all.
Admit It
"People who never accept fault when they mess something up. Like, why blame a million people when it was clearly you who did it???"
Quirky-Area-8978
From Above
"My upstairs neighbors."
lutzow89
"I had terrible neighbors at my previous apartment. It was a one person studio for students, but her boyfriend was clearly living with her illegally and he was loud."
"One night we knocked n the door at 3 AM because of the loud music and an unknown girl opened the door. I just thought they were having a little party. But the next door I saw the girl living there come home with a suitcase after having been away for the weekend... Her BF was cheating on her in her own apartment."
Th3_Accountant
Move Away
"People who sit directly next to me at the airport, movie theater, any other place where you can choose a seat when there is PLENTY of other seating."
BacardiPardy33
"I can’t YES this enough and the ones who can’t park for crap so they park so close you can’t open doors on one side of the car or the ones who park directly behind when you pulled through so the door won’t open to load groceries."
BacardiPardy33
It's Over
"People who try to restart old drama. Like I'm done with you, just leave me alone."
Tired_Potatos
"Yep, half the reason I've basically quit playing one of my favorite online video games. People keep bringing old crap up or sh*tting on on someone who used to be our friend. I got tired of it so I just ejected the game out of me."
CaucasianHumus
AHHHHH!!!
"People walking too slow in front of me with no way to get around them. It’s even worse if it’s a couple or group taking up the whole sidewalk. HAVE SOME SPATIAL AWARENESS FOR THE LOVE OF GOD!!"
_-v0x-_
Life in general pisses me off. I'm easy.
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