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People Explain Which Documentary Completely Blew Them Away

People Explain Which Documentary Completely Blew Them Away
Image by Vidmir Raic from Pixabay

Look, it's not like we're going out safely anytime soon.

Why not take some of that time you're spending at home in quarantine and learn a little something about the world? Maybe how an octopus can be your best friend? Or that murdering scumbag husbands really don't need that much motivation to be murdering scumbag husbands? The world is full of interesting documentaries and these are the top ones to check out first.


Reddit user, u/ultimatepupper909, wanted what to watch next when they asked:

(Serious) What is a documentary that blew your mind?

Such An Obvious Motive

Many, but most recently American Murder; The Family Next Door.

I remember reading about it in 2018, so I knew the outcome (who murdered whom), but I had no knowledge of the details.

I've met pathological liars in my lifetime, yet it still blows my mind (to answer the question) that people truly think they can get away with blatant and obvious lies. It's laughable when murder isn't on the table.

The documentary was well edited using pre-recorded data, so it felt more chilling to me.

Istilleatgluten

Mario Is So Ashamed Of You

Two immediately spring to mind:

Inside Job (2010): A documentary about the financial crisis of 2008 and what caused it. A really interesting documentary that more people need to watch. Makes the boring world of finance interesting. Narrated by Matt Damon.

King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters (2007): I mainly recommend this because it has aged so incredibly well. When it first came out, it was criticized heavily by those in the know for turning Billy Mitchell into the villain of the piece. Then, in 2018, it came out that Billy Mitchell achieved the score shown near the end of the film on MAME, which is very much against the rules of the competition as it becomes very easy to cheat. He's had all of his records wiped from Twin Galaxies. Very interesting film to watch with all the recent information that's come out.

Lodgik

A Daunting Expedition

Diving into the Unknown A cave diving expedition goes wrong and two divers die. Documentary starts with that dive, then covers the dive teams planning and execution of a recovery dive to bring their friends back, after the authorities say that nobody can recover them, it's too dangerous.

It's all in Finnish, so you need to be good with subtitles.

pauly7

The World Is Ever Shifting

Go and watch David Attenborough: A life on our planet.

Brought into perspective the situation we as a people have put ourselves in and how great of an impact we are having on our surroundings.

I honestly cannot recommend this more highly. Should be made mandatory for any world leader to watch before having to make any decisions regarding climate change initiatives and decisions surrounding fossil fuels.

lemonstar17

Stealing Under Our Noses

For me it were Inside Job (2010) about the origins of 2008 crisis and Enron: the smartest guy in the room (2005). Both exceptional pieces that could explain how big finance could be fraudulent and how people should pressure for more responsibility on the sector.

Geister_faust

Lies And Truth

Edge of democracy.

It's a documentary of a brazilian party (known as Worker's party or PT as known there) that manipulated half of the population, there are many lies tho, like for example Dilma (an ex-president) told the truth and such, but it was proven that she wanted her partner to be in a position where he couldn't be arrested. She denied this (obviously)

It blows my mind that someone that wanted power for 40 years managed to divide the population.

RetroGameDays36

You Either Care For Animals, Or The Internet Comes For You

I'm surprised no one has talked about "BlackFish". Really opened up my mind to what SeaWorld and zoos in general do with animals in captivity such as Orcas. Only went to seaworld once when I was 17 and I'll never go again.

Isittheweekend

Oh my gosh, I agree. I watched this randomly in the first two hours of a flight from NYC - London, and was so shook that I immediately turned to the stranger sitting beside me and asked him to watch it so we could talk about it. We ended up spending the rest of the flight talking about it and it stuck with me for days afterward.

smolandscared

Wait, They Believed Him?

The Imposter (2012). About a boy who went missing in Texas, then a young man from Spain makes the claim he's the missing boy 3 years later, despite an accent, different colored eyes, hair, etc. And the family supports the claim, but there's more to it. One of those stories that if it weren't true, no one would believe.

Dezi_Mone

Huh, Russia Cheats. Who Knew?

Icarus - Russian State sponsored cheating

Hells_Ditch

This one was such a f-cking ride. Imagine going from simply trying out doping to see if you could win a small biking competition to literally uncovering one of the biggest doping scandals in Olympics history.

lasteclipse

My Friend, The Octopus

My Octopus Teacher on [Netflix.]

I knew that the octopus are pretty smart, but the documentary took it to another level. The documentary was based on this guy who went diving every day for 300+ days to befriend an octopus and earn her trust. He recorded the octopus playing with fishes, develop hunting strategies, etc. The octopus even wanted scratches from him. Amazing cinematography too. 10/10 would recommend.

couchpotato787

Seems Like A Smart Investment?

Welcome to Leith. Follows Craig Cobb, a white supremacist who buys 12 plots of land in Leith ND in an attempt to take over the town and turn it into an Aryan stronghold and the residents fight to keep that from happening. It was incredibly fascinating and I spent hours after researching more about the story and Cobb.

zereldalee

Changing The View Of Canada

The Secret Path- The incredibly sad story of Chani Wenjack, a young aboriginal boy from Canada who was taken to Residential school. What this kid went through will absolutely destroy you.

His story is told through animation and song by the late Gord Downie of Tragically Hip.

Apparently its shown in classrooms throughout CANADA as part of the Aboriginal reconciliation. I hope these kids see how goddam lucky they are.

People outside of Canada need to see this. Our rosy reputation definitely isn't as deserved as it appears to be.

Ramone2017

We've All Seen The Memes

The Jeffrey Epstein documentary on Netflix.

I never knew who he really was other than a meme for a long time and it opened my eyes to how disgusting the man really was.

mattprater1997

All Walks Of Life

Hot Girls Wanted - it details how young girls (18-19 years old) from both good and bad homes, small cities and large towns end up in the porn industry. All of these girls have different views on what they do for money, what their families and partners think of their occupation, what impacts it has had on their life, and how they came to work in the industry. It also focuses on the "man of the house", where all the girls live. It shows how he finds them, how he treats them, and how he keeps a never ending pool of "talent" coming to live with him.

It's an interesting watch, but it broke my heart to how these girls are lured into the industry, and how they are essentially churned out for their 5 minutes of fame, then tossed to the curb like yesterday's trash.

CommonBroccoli

Don't Let Go

Free Solo is one of the craziest things I've ever seen

Dirasa

I climb as a hobby and when I tell new people they always say," have you seen free solo?" Every time.

I have no idea how much time honnold has on this earth. My partner has been climbing for over 3 decades and has known a lot of free solo guys and every single one has died. And these are skilled climbers. As a climber that movie made me too anxious.

smughippie

So Close

The Fog of War took me by surprise. I didn't know much about the Cuban Missle Crisis beforehand but I learned a lot about how close we came to all-out nuclear war. There's a ton of other details from that era as well that really surprised me.

iBelieveInSpace

The part where they just rattle off all of the Japanese and German cities and the percent to which they were destroyed by conventional bombing was pretty mind blowing. Particularly since they listed the U.S. equivalent population-wise to each.

AsthmaticMechanic

Age Shall Not Weary Them

They Shall Not Grow Old. Incredible WWI remastered footage

likeabuddha

Agreed. I saw it in the cinema with my dad's girlfriend's father (who's interested in history like I am) and we were both just amazed when it transitioned from the original film to the remastered versions. I also like how all the narration was from the archived interviews of the WW1 soldiers.

G1Yang2001

Not A War We Freely Walked Away From

Ken Burn's The Vietnam War.

It should be seen in every history classroom in the US.

One of the most comprehensive and horrifying documentaries I've ever seen. Soldiers on both sides, diplomats, spies, and citizens who were caught in the middle all share their experiences and perspectives.

US education doesn't come close to painting a clear picture of the war. What a tragic waste of life. That era was so monstrously f-cked up that anyone who watches it will think: "today isn't so bad."

As the New York Times put it, the documentary "Will break your heart and win your mind."

WooIWorthWaIIaby

One of the most memorable parts of that series was from when one of the US soldiers being interviewed was telling the story about how he had to tell his son why he needed a night light as a grown man because he was absolutely terrified of the dark after his experiences getting ambushed by the VC while on patrol at night.

The look on his face alone told me everything i needed to know about what that experience must have been like. It was a very moving scene.

winowmak3r

Bye Bye, Birdie

The Devil We Know.

I got rid of everything Teflon.

Brisco_Discos

Teflon killed two of my baby handford parrots years ago, before we knew it was dangerous.my dad had gotten the new pots and pans set from JCPenney and was so excited.they were dead a couple of hours later and he was so upset he didn't return it but rather just threw it out onto the curb.

you would think they would have banned the stuff, but they only banned the brand name in the US --the chemical involved is still legal and still widely used in non-stick pans. our taxi driver last week was telling us that he lost his Umbrella Cockatoo to Teflon and how much he missed her :-(

menomaminx

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Men Break Down The Weirdest Things Someone's Ever Said To Them After Sex

"Reddit user ella-es-julia asked: 'Men Break Down The Weirdest Things Someone's Ever Said To Them After Sex'"

People say the darndest things after -- and sometimes during -- lovemaking.

Maybe it's the euphoria.

Maybe it's the adrenaline.

Maybe it's the tequila.

It's always good to have a kind-hearted joke on hand or a generic compliment.

Or maybe just grab your belongings and skedaddle.

Redditor ella-es-julia wanted to hear about the craziest pillow talk stories, so they asked:

"Men of Reddit: What's the weirdest thing a girl said to you after sex?"

The weirdest I ever got was... "What city am I in again?"

Geography matters.

Morbid Much?

In Bed Home GIFGiphy

"Met girl, went on date, brought girl home, had the sex, finished the sex, laying there she says 'What would you do if I died right now?' and demanded an actual answer."

Vixxay

Meow

"Not to me, but as she walked over to the bathroom after the deed, she said 'I just did your owner' to my cat. Sexiest thing that ever happened to me."

shlanky369

"My Fiancé and I were about to start going at it when the cat appeared from under the bed and stared at me. I went, 'Babe the cat is here. I don't like how he's staring at my boobs."

"Fiancé grabbed the cat and yeeted him into the hallway with the phrase, 'Get out you weird pervert.'"

"The cat proceeded to (without his claws) smack the door over and over again while screaming for a few minutes straight. Pervert."

Trumpet6789

POP!

"'I need you to take me to the hospital. Something is now bleeding and hurts.'"

"Turns out her ovarian cyst popped. We're still together with the running joke of sex so good it put her in the ER."

DasBatt

"Ah ah ah, 2 hemorrhagic cysts ruptured, I was bleeding internally, but only a little bit. I'm still impressed by how quickly you went from a naked sex stupor to being ready and carrying me to the car. Good times."

"In the ER when they asked me what happened all I could do was shout 'we were f**kin!' through my tears. That memory still makes me laugh."

Straystar-626

Damn it's Good

"We were going at it for some time then her face went instantly from 'damn it's good' to full-on crying. I stop, ask her what's wrong and she tells me 'I can't cheat on my boyfriend, it is wrong.'"

"So this is when I learned that the girl that I met on a dating website and that I started seeing 3 weeks before and that she told me she was single had a boyfriend for over 5 years. Got her to talk more, and she told me she was on the dating website to see if there were guys better than her boyfriend so she could end up with someone better."

"This was like 20 years ago, a coworker I have right now knows her (his girlfriend is like a distant relative of hers) and I learned she had 5 different boyfriends since then, cheated on all of them except the last one (for now). She was also a cam model in secret, one of the boyfriends was a high-paying customer."

draftstone

A Binding Contract

"'Pleasure doing sex business with ya.' We then shook hands."

"Still together 5 years later!"

Tatarstan

It's nice when people who have great sex make great partners.

And it all starts with a handshake.

Sleep on It

“'I don’t usually say this but, yeah, you can stay.'"

lennyukdeejay

"Did you high-five after that? Seems like that statement called for it."

EvilNinjaX24

"This is the best one."

TomKhatacourtmayfind

Tiny Dancer

"Not really weird but I slept with this girl while backpacking Asia, she was also a backpacker. After a bit of chillin'/talking, I got up to get dressed, she looked at my flaccid manhood and said 'You're quite shy when you're not excited.' I thought it was hilarious."

fleetwoodsackk

"That's a much better way to put it. My wife, when we were just dating and had moved in together and eventually saw it flaccid just said 'Aww, it's so little.' Thanks, hun, exactly what every guy wants to hear."

striker180

Fine!

"She said 'If I get pregnant I'm keeping it.' I was dumbfounded and when I didn't respond quickly enough she got really agitated like I had hurt her feelings and yelled 'Fine! You don't have to be involved if you don't want to!'"

"We had just met that night. My condom use skyrocketed after that night."

Fullyme

"When I was a poverty-stricken college student I was banging a girl who said, 'If you get me pregnant I’ll take you for everything you own.' I said, 'All I own is my bicycle. You want that?'”

OrwellWasRight101

Amen

"Best weird compliment I ever got was 'Damn boy, you f**k like the Devil!'"

"I married her, we still goin' at it."

BeBearAwareOK

Well, these certainly created some lasting relationships... or hilarious tales to tell their friends.

Do you have any stories to share? Let us know in the comments below.

woman in black pants and red tank top
Jakayla Toney on Unsplash

Giving compliments is pretty easy, although most of us don't do it often enough.

Accepting compliments can be much harder.

Too many of us immediately shift into disclaimers to explain why we don't deserve the praise.

But we just need to say thank you—even if the compliment is a little odd.

Keep reading...Show less
Woman standing alone in the rain
Neal E. Johnson on Unsplash

We can all agree that, as fun as it's supposed to be, the dating scene can be really, really hard.

Here's the secret: as hard as the dating scene can be to navigate, some of the trouble lies with us. We may not to be able to find a long-term partner or a date at all because of something that we're doing.

But when a friend is in this situation, it can be really hard to tell them the brutal truth about their dating history.

Redditor teekzer asked:

"What is causing your friend to remain single that you don't have the heart to tell them?"

Chasing Deadends

"He keeps hanging on to the past and spending all his time hanging out with ex-girlfriends who are unavailable, or women who like him but he doesn’t romantically like."

- SqueakySnapdragon

Baby Talk

"I always wondered why she couldn't get a date because she is gorgeous until I saw her flirting with someone."

"The first night they met, flirted, and swapped numbers. Then, she was immediately clingy, talking in a baby voice to him, and making baby noises."

- robocop_robocop

Body Odor

"I can smell them. Everyone can smell them."

- not-read-gud

"You should find a way to tell them, it might hurt but they'll appreciate it."

- iciclesnbdayclothes

The Nice Guy Mindset

"He really is not as nice of a person as he thinks he is."

- Rusti3dp

"The ones who claim this rarely are."

- SummerOfMayhem

Impossible Standards

"The people they like aren’t real. They are idealized, cartoonish caricatures. Now my friend himself has a lot to offer in my opinion, but he is looking for a person who doesn’t exist. Hard to find something that’s not there."

- Sufficient-Spell9935

"I have a friend who started dating his flatmate after being really into her for a while, and then after a week or two said something like, 'Dating you doesn't feel as good as I thought it would,' TO HER."

"He basically torpedoed his own potential relationship because of his own ideal fantasy, and to be honest, I don't know if he actually realized he'd created an unrealistic standard in his own head."

"He's been single for the last decade, his mental health has only got worse in the time I've known him despite therapy, and I think he's probably so detached from 'appropriate dating behavior' at this point that he could be single for the rest of his life."

- fish993

Questionable Humor

"Brother-in-law, not friend. But he makes the same jokes about poop and farts all the time. Like, constantly."

"Yes, some women like potty humor, but they usually also want it to be funny."

"He is also very negative; finds insult or something wrong with any situation."

- EatYourCheckers

Living in Fantasy Land

"He lies to himself about almost everything. He lives in fantasy land."

"He thinks he's in the gym five days a week, eats great, climbs mountains, goes camping, and makes loads of money."

"In reality, he's at the pub five days a week, over eats like s??t, went on one hike in January, can't hold a job, and lives paycheck to paycheck..."

"If you were to confront him with this reality, it wouldn't even get through to him."

- Fit_Yogurtcloset_291

Mismatched Attraction

"The type of guys she claims she likes isn't what she's actually attracted to."

"She keeps saying how much she loves shy introverted sensitive guys but when she finds one and dates him suddenly, she's like, 'He's not outgoing enough, doesn't speak his mind enough, and is too shy!'"

"I kind of think she has this 'I can fix him' syndrome and doesn't really acknowledge it. Like, she's attracted to the idea of a typical shy guy but thinks once they're in a relationship they'll suddenly be more open and turn into the guy she actually wants. That's not how it works!"

- Disig

Poor Self-Esteem

"She is so lovely. So kind, so generous, and so beautiful. But her crippling lack of self-esteem is so huge, it's visible from space, and her anxiety (and I'm 99% sure her undiagnosed ADHD) means that when she's at all nervous, she talks at 100 miles an hour in several directions at once."

"It's like being handed eight happy Labrador puppies to try and hold in your arms. I so badly want her to be happy and feel fulfilled but even I find it tiring sometimes."

- butwhatsmyname

The Negative Attitude

"I have two of these."

"One is the most talented, smartest, wonderful person I know and I wish I could pull the gremlins out of their brain so they could be happy."

"The other is self-fulfilling proficiency f**king up their life. He's not unlovable, or ugly, or uncared for, but walking through the world expecting rejection at all turns and living in a fog of negativity is what makes him unattractive to be around."

"So-and-so isn't hotter than you, that's not the reason they're getting more friends and lovers, but they are more positive and interested than you, and people are attracted to that company."

- cool_username_iguess

Just Pure Arrogance

"For my husband’s friend, it’s the selfish arrogance. I want what I want, and the subtext was that he never cared about what his girlfriend wanted."

"He would only go places he wanted to go, which never included her friends or family. He wanted to spend all his money on 'collectibles' related to sci-fi movies, DVDs, figurines etc."

"Engagement rings were a waste of money, investing, or buying a house ditto, no compromises were possible, he said NO, and no discussions were entertained."

"His opinion on every topic was the correct one, and he was not interested in your opinion, or listening to extra facts he did not know that might change his mind."

"He was once young and good-looking, and he thought he could find someone else when she walked when he was 32. They had dated for close to a decade. During the relationship, he had started to stack on the weight and losing his hair and he was not able to find a replacement."

"Now he is 49 and hasn’t had a girlfriend since. He still has not bought a house and they cost double what they did when they were dating, and his rent has tripled. He does have a copy of all his favorite movies in every format: VHS, DVD, AND BlueRay, a whole bedroom is dedicated to storing them, if you can get in there. His house is a hoarder's paradise."

"He says the reason no one wants him is because he is fat and bald, and it does not help, but it’s not the major turnoff."

"As for his ex, I don't really know what happened to her. She left all of us behind when they broke up. I did hear she got married, but no updates after that. She is a sweetheart, I wish all the good things for her."

- vicki153

Impossible to Move Forward

"Summarizing two types of my single friends:"

"Super successful, smart, funny, and good-looking. They also tend to go for folks who leave them on read for days. Their insecurities are their worst enemies and I think are the biggest factor of them chasing after partners who don’t want to be partners."

"Other friends don’t know how to commit to anything, including a job. It almost feels like a 'it’ll happen when it happens' type of ideology and so they don’t even try to make things happen? They act like things will happen on their own? So they’ll meet a person and then that’s it. Meet cute dead in the water."

- thunderkitty_

Too Desperate

"Desperation. From laughing way too hard at mediocre jokes to bringing up marriage on the first date, she reeks of it."

"We have all tried talking to her about it to no avail. The sad thing is that if she was just her regular funny, smart, relaxed self, then men would be falling over themselves trying to get her number."

- Julia_Sugarbaker123

A Want List

"Her standards are excessively too high. She brings nothing to a relationship. She's a walking contradiction, all of which is why she is single."

"I think it's great to have standards and high standards but hers is just a checklist of wants."

- Theunpolitical

Height Insecurities

"He’s convinced women won’t like him because he’s short. I keep telling him I know plenty of guys just as short as him in great relationships, I’ve dated guys as short as him in the past. He just refuses to believe it."

- MichaSound

"I dated a guy who was four feet, nine inches, and I'm five feet, four inches. He had such an amazing strong personality that you never noticed his height."

"I did find kissing standing up weird; the motions are so different when it's swapped."

"The relationship ended for other reasons than his height."

- lonelyronin1

Alternatively, Open to Feedback

"I had a friend who finally did just ask. He came up to the girls in our group and just let us have an open conversation. I'm sure it was awkward and uncomfortable for him, but we gently laid out some issues. He cut his hair, got some new clothes, and (the big one) started therapy."

"A couple of years later, guess who's got a wife and a wonderful child?"

- Stars-in-the-night

It's so disheartening to see the people we care about unable to have something that they would find so fulfilling like a long-term relationship.

But it's even worse when the reasons behind it are things they could work on, if we only had the guts to tell them or if they were open to hearing it.