People Share The One Question Someone Asked Them That Secretly Broke Their Heart
There are some questions that illustrate such vulnerability, such open tragedy on the part of the asker that we fend off tears while we come up with an appropriate answer.
Sometimes the question comes from someone who's been so steeped in struggle that they need help understanding that another possible reality exists.
Sometimes it's a question that cuts right to our own core with startling efficiency.
Whatever form it takes, it stops us in our tracks and we're likely to remember it for quite awhile after.
Curious to hear examples, Redditor julylovestory asked:
"What question has someone asked you that secretly broke your heart?"
Many Redditors responded by sharing the sad questions uttered by young children.
Kids just have the knack for cutting straight through to the essence of it all.
A Tragic Conscientiousness
"As we passed the toy aisle at the store, 'I know you don't have much money right now, but maybe when you get some we could come back and get a toy?' "
"I was not doing well financially back then and my daughter brought me to tears in the middle of the store."
-- TheCurls
Puzzled and Sad
"First day of preschool for my three year old son. The first time he would ever be away from Mom & Dad at the same time."
"I brought him to the room and expected a meltdown, but instead he confidently strutted, and I do mean strutted into the classroom."
"Three hours later, I picked him up. He was ok until we got to the car when he said, in quiet sad voice 'l thought you were coming with,' followed by an even sadder quieter 'Why did you leave me?' "
If Only
" 'Can I wish for my sister?' - A 10-year-old student of mine whose big sister died 4 years ago. We were working on an activity about dreams and aspirations for their futures."
How Bad Must It Be?
"I was like 22 and it was probably 10pm or so at a Walmart. I was on my way to a party and stopped for beer. The store was fairly empty and as I was in the beer aisle, I see this kid completely by himself."
"He was about 5 and at first I thought it was kind of funny because he was trying to pick up a case of beer. I waited like 30-60 seconds, looking around for this kid's mom/dad to come get him. A couple people walked right by him like it was normal, so then I started getting worried. I picked up my two cases of beer and walked over and kindly asked him if he lost his mom or needed help."
"The kid completely ignored the question and instead was thoroughly impressed that I was strong enough to carry two cases of beer. Eventually an employee noticed and came over as well. I told her everything I knew and she took over and told him that she was going to bring him to find his mom."
"As he was walking away he kept looking back at me and I smiled and said goodbye. The kid stopped and said 'can I just come home with you? I don't like my mom.' "
"I was caught off guard so I just laughed and told him the lady was going to help him. Now I'll never know the full story, or what happened to him but the more I think about it - that kid more than likely had a pretty shi**y childhood."
"I mean, the store wasn't busy and it was late at night on a weekday. It really makes you wonder why he was there in the first place, how he got separated from his mom and why would he ask to go with a complete stranger instead of worrying about where his mom was?"
"It still makes me sad. Hope everything worked out for the little dude."
Others talked about the times when they or somebody else realized just how tragic their own circumstances were.
Suddenly Aware
"My ex asked me what I liked to do with my family growing up."
"Made me realize my family never did anything together and I literally had no answer to such a basic question."
-- don_juicy
People Share The 'Dirty Secrets' That Their Bosses Don't Want Customers To Know
Seeing Another Version
"During college, parents took a friend and I out to dinner. Very normal dinner, chit chatted about whatever. After we left and were walking back to my car, he turns to me and says 'Is that what a normal relationship is like?' "
"We talked more after that, I had met his parents a few times and they seemed strict but never seemed to have a terrible relationship. Turned out apparently his dad had cheated on his mom multiple times, dad had zero respect for any of my friends sisters and essentially expected them to do all the housework while the men did 'guy stuff.' "
"Hunting, training for sports, school, etc. Turned out his childhood was pretty fu**ed, dad was never around and he had to essentially be the father figure in the house. As the oldest child, never really saw a normal loving relationship that he could look up to."
"My friend is a really nice guy, still has some messed up views of relationships though. I never realized how 'abnormal' my very normal family/childhood was."
A Better Place
" 'You've never beaten me or told me I couldn't do something. Is that normal?'
"My first girlfriend told me that. I have never felt such a wave of anger, sadness, and heartbreak wash over me like I did when I heard that"
Still Raw
" 'Is this your first child/baby?' 'How many live births have you had?' My first child died in infancy. Those kill me."
"So does 'how is your daughter doing?' From people with whom i rarely speak/see. That one is the worst. My second child is currently four weeks. I'm fu**ing terrified."
And some people discussed the time a question destroyed their social confidence.
Worst Teacher Ever
"I have a stutter, when I was a kid I had to read a page of a book to the class. I stuttered, and the teacher said 'can you even read' and that fu**ing broke my 13 year old heart."
"No one takes stuttering seriously."
There's the Answer
"When I was 19, I hung out with a cute girl from my high school that I never got to hang with when we were in school. Had a great day together, and that night she asked, 'can we be like secret friends or something? I don't really hang out with people like you.' "
"Never hung out again."
-- prstele01
Comparing and Contrasting
" 'Oh, are you the girl with the hot sister ?' " -- JustehOK
"I worked in a department with two Melissas. One day, I was sitting next to one Melissa when we overheard another coworker say to someone, 'have you seen little Melissa?' "
"The other Melissa got kind of a defeated look in her eye and said, 'oh, I'm big Melissa.' " -- EarhornJones
To Be Seen Inaccurately
"I went through some abuse that essentially stopped me from having romantic interest for a while (4 years)."
"A female friend I was very close with at the time had been told by some of her friends who didn't like me that I was probably just pretending to be her friend because I was secretly in love with her."
"She asked me if that was true. It broke my heart since if she could believe that it was like she could also believe I was lying about the abuse or the effects thereof just to get close to her, and it really hurt that she could think me capable of that."
When the Fears Keep Coming True
"A friend recently asked 'Did you not change your bed sheets?' when they visited. I have been struggling with my mental health for the past few weeks. Adopted a kitten because I thought it would help me with it and it died 4 days later."
"Everything I did within my power to make myself better/happier just seems to backfire. Yes, I did not change my bed sheets."
Slipping Through Cracks
"Variations on 'What was your name again?' Apparently, I am so forgettable that over the years, literally not one person whom I have known casually and then not seen for like 6 months or more can remember who I am."
"Good friends know me, yes. But I have lost count of the number of people whom I went to school with or lived next door to or who were friends of my friends who knew me for YEARS, if only as an acquaintance, and then cannot remember even my first name."
That Playground Cruelty
" 'Are you a boy, or a girl?' This was earnestly asked to me on the playground when I was 13. I was very chubby, and had grown out my hair (my dad had a cool ponytail, and I wanted to be like my dad). But puberty hadn't really kicked in yet, so I guess I looked pretty androgynous."
"I told the girl that asked I was a boy, and she nodded and walked away, returning to a friend who then cheered in triumph, I guess they won the bet."
"That messed with me for a while."
It's a list that's sad enough to leave one wondering about the questions they've received that struck them as particularly hopeless.
Sometimes, though, that vulnerability can be the start of accepting new realities and new possibilities.
Want to "know" more? Never miss another big, odd, funny, or heartbreaking moment again. Sign up for the Knowable newsletter here.
Conspiracy Theories With A Surprising Amount Of Evidence To Back Them Up
Reddit user Specific_Shop_3975 asked: 'What’s a conspiracy with the most evidence to back it up?'
We've all heard our fair share of conspiracy theories, and whether or not we truly believe them, we can agree that they're fun to think about.
But there are some that are more sinister than others, and some that are far too applicable to simply ignore.
Redditor Specific_Shop_3975 asked:
"What's a conspiracy with the most evidence to back it up?"
The Sinking of RMS Lusitania
"The British government deliberately put the RMS Lusitania in harm's way to get her sunk to bring the USA into WW1. The fact the records have been resealed for another 100 years adds credence to this conspiracy."
- Blackmore_Vale
"Dude, it's not even a conspiracy theory. The German consulate took out a two-page ad in the New York Times telling people to not board because they were going to sink it."
"Also at the time Britain didn't have an option but to sell the ship because it was carrying so many munitions that they desperately needed. This isn't a conspiracy theory; it's just plain fact."
"Both governments knew the risks and they needed it to galvanize support."
- hagantic42
Not So Sweet Candy Stores
"In the UK, there was a recent boom in American sweet shops that sold grossly overpriced import candy. They were suddenly everywhere after the pandemic, they didn’t sell much, but they were everywhere."
"Someone on TikTok theorized that they were all money laundering fronts, so people started filming in the shops laughing at the prices, and staff always seemed to get really angry about it."
"Then it was announced last year that there was an HMRC (UK’s tax wing of government) investigation started because the theory held water, and suddenly they all shut down."
"The one in Leeds Centre near Trinity currently has a notice of abandonment in the window and you can see the shelves are still stocked: the owners just ran off and left it."
"Sounds like another successful case for the TikTok detectives."
- fearthe0cean
What's Behind the Price of a Piece of Art
"Modern art is just money laundering."
"Nobody pays 2.2 million for a blank canvas."
- Poultry_Master123
"The brilliance of modern art money laundering can't be understated."
"Alfred wants to pay Brad $100k for a bribe."
"Brad wants this money to be 'clean' to avoid authorities looking into him."
"Brad 'sells' a worthless modern art piece for $100k."
"Alfred has now successfully transferred the bribe to Alfred. However, Brad is now in possession of a painting that the 'market' says is worth $100k. Down the line, Alfred might be able to sell this now 'valuable' piece of art to a third party for $50k, $100k, or potentially at a profit!"
"It can get even more complex when the artist is basically a part of the money laundering ring. This makes it so that Brad can fictionally increase the cost of buying the art from the artist in the first place in order to make the money laundering less obvious."
- Zigxy
Why So Many Options?
"There is something fishy going on at Mattress Firm. How can they stay in business with a store in practically every plaza when the average person buys a new mattress every decade or so?"
- PWcrash
Quite the Distraction
"Might not be a 'conspiracy theory' per se. But I believe that the government works hard to cover up their own incompetence."
"Part of that is manufacturing insane conspiracy theories as a way to make anyone who asks questions look crazy. Or at least to serve as a distraction."
- ButtFarquad66
A Conspiracy Is a Conspiracy
"The meta-conspiracy to convince dumb people that the word 'conspiracy' means 'a crazy person’s imagination.'"
"Conspiracies happen every day. There’s a global conspiracy of adults to convince kids Santa is real. It’s not necessarily a bad thing, but it’s a conspiracy."
"Somewhere along the line, the word got hijacked and it immediately discredits whoever says it. It’s practically a trap to use the word, so you have to dance around it if you want to describe people planning things in secret."
- Bob_the_peasant
Widely Discredited
"The government deliberately leaked false information to UFO investigators to discredit them because they were getting too close to the truth."
"(The truth being that Area 51 was a testing grounds for spy planes and stealth aircraft and was attracting too much attention for a secret weapons facility.)"
- 4thofeleven
"I think the government does this with conspiracy theories across the board. Promoting outlandish tinfoil hat-type theories helps discredit the ones that are actually real."
- QUINNFLORE
Another Money Laundering Front
"Benetton is a front for Italian mob money laundering."
"Probably wasn't at first back in the 80s but now... decent-sized stores in expensive real estate all over Europe, never anyone in the stores, never seen anyone wearing the clothes, don't know anyone that's bought anything from them, ever, and neither do those people."
- Bannedin_3_2_1
"I shop there all the time, in both Italy and Switzerland. It’s the highest quality for the most reasonable price that I can regularly find in Europe. I’m never the only one in there or checking out, either."
- AdultDisneyWoman
"Sounds like something a money launderer would say."
- kjm16216
Residential Monopoly
"Blackrock and Vanguard are buying up all the residential property they can in order to get the majority of Americans renting from them. Estimates say by 2030 they will own 60% of residential property."
- smartsapants
"I so wish we could all stop fighting about dumb sh*t for just a few weeks so both sides of the country could pass a law that bans any corporation or non-US citizen from owning residential property(with some provisions to account for things like bank loans obviously)."
"This would have such a massive effect on quality of life going into the future. Of course, it won’t happen."
- ternic69
People of Influence Parties
"The Bilderberg group. Every year in summer, they meet, and people keep track of who is there. Guest lists every year. Top politicians, royalty, corporate owners. Extreme security. No protocols."
"There is confirmation from a variety of these people that they were there."
"So, what do they talk about? Are they coordinated somehow after each meeting? How much influence do they have?"
"Well, given the extreme security, it's difficult to say. I am sure it's nothing, though. Why would those groups of people want to influence the world to suit their agendas, right?"
"Also note, anyone discussing this gets called a tin foil hat, or paranoid, or a conspiracy theorist who probably also believes in antivaxx reptilian....."
- Common-Wish-2227
Secret Climate Change
"The petroleum companies knew burning fossil fuels would lead to global climate change but hid the evidence of their own funded studies and did nothing to curb consumption, instead funded groups opposed to renewable, non-greenhouse gas generating energy to maximize shareholder value."
- 85_Draken
The Travels of Elvis Presley
"Elvis didn’t die in 1977. He was working with the government (DEA OR CIA? I can’t remember?). When he was compromised they had to fake his death."
"He actually moved to Argentina and lived the rest of his life down there."
"There were a lot of sightings. My favorite is when one of his house workers reported someone that looked just like him lying out by the pool at his own house the day after he died."
"It’s a fun theory that is pretty convincing the more you look into it."
- Affectionate-Win-788
Conspiracies All the Way Down
"People believe all the governments in the world have collaborated on keeping the shape of the Earth and our inability to visit the Moon a secret..."
- draculamilktoast
"But what about the turtle we are sitting on?"
- KAG25
"More importantly, what about the turtle THAT turtle is sitting on?"
- Hym3n
Intentionally Divisive
"That our governments are turning us all against each other to distract us from the blatant wealth manipulation, corrupt practices, nepotism, cronyism, among hundreds of other big issue things. Their plans working a treat and the people as a whole can't see what's happening and start working together against it."
"We are losing our privacy, our rights, and our sense of connection with one another. We drift away while they get more and more powerful. People hand away their rights like they're going to get them back and never question it when it's not."
"Our planet had to deal with another of the world power's attempts at control and that's the pandemic or should I say the reaction to it. I was always a believer it happened naturally but as time goes on it becomes more apparent it wasn't."
"We are bodies hanging from the roof being bled dry slowly but if this keeps up we aren't just f**ked like a world war or nuclear war, if we don't do anything we will lose whatever control we have and we will never get it back."
- Magic_Kushroom
From interesting and wowing to deeply troubling, there's truly no shortage of conspiracies and conspiracy theories out there for people to puzzle over and research.
The most troubling thing about them, honestly, has to be the stigma surrounding a person's interest in them. As soon as someone expresses interest in one of these theories, others are quick to discredit them.
Get Out The Tissues: People Break Down The All-Time Saddest Movie Scenes
As Nicole Kidman wisely tells patrons of AMC movie theatres that we go to the movies to "laugh, to cry, to cry, to care."
"Because we need that. All of us."
And the movies that really make an impression on us are the ones that do all of the above as she described.
When characters are well-developed and the actors portraying them really connect with the audiences, they stay with us forever.
There's nothing more heartbreaking than seeing our favorite heroes–whether supernatural or based on actual, real people–suffer loss or meet their own untimely demise.
Curious to hear from moviegoers, Redditor CallyB0225 asked:
"What is the saddest movie scene ever?"
Don't underestimate the power of animated films.
Parting Is Such Sweet Sorrow
"The Fox and the Hound when the old woman has to leave Todd in the game preserve to save him and her tears as she drives away without him."
– snortybeagle
"Also the scene where Todd gets out and she’s running through the woods with a lantern calling for him. Reminds me of losing my cat."
– aaron_hoff
Baby Mine, Don't You Cry
"When Dumbo's mom rocked him from behind her cage 😭"
– LimpCauliflower8579
"Baby mine, don't you cry Baby mine, dry your eyes Rest your head close to my heart Never to part, baby of mine."
"F'k. I had to take a little baby possum to get euthanized because its mama had been hit by a car and killed along with its siblings. It was awful - you could see some of the babies had survived the impact and tried to crawl off, only to be hit themselves. This little one was the only one left when I got there, but it was too injured to make it. It sounds so dumb but I sang a bit of this song to it while I held it on my lap on the way to the vet. I know it's anthropomorphizing them too much, but possums seem like such good mamas."
– lizardingloudly
Dinosaurs Grieve Too
"The first movie in the Land Before Time. Broke my heart. Still does."
– HeelerDot18
"Littlefoot mistaking his shadow for his mother."
“Mother? Mother!”
– justputonsomemusic
"That scene KILLS me because I know that exact feeling. My mother died when I was 12, and for a long time after she died, I would see someone who looked like her and have this cruel, crazy stab of hope that my mom wasn’t really gone."
– captcha_trampstamp
A Cub Grows Up
"Simba begging Mufasa to wake up. That tiny little 'help.'"
– mossadspydolphin
"get up....we gotta go home...."
– imthe1nonlyD
Remember The Dead
"The scene in Coco where Miguel is trying to get mama Coco to remember her father. My daughters and I all cried at the theater. Mama Coco reminded us so much of my grandmother. At that point we had lost 3 of my grandparents. 1 each year. My grandmother was all we had left. She died a few years after the movie came out. My daughter hasn't watched it since because she knows she will cry even harder."
– thiswilltakeamiracle
When a character has an epiphany, we're right there with them.
Unsatisfied Hero
"The 'I could have saved more' scene where Schindler has an emotional breakdown after the workers gave him a ring engraved with the quotation: 'Whoever saves one life saves the world entire' and was then comforted by the workers in the movie Schindler's List."
– SuvenPan
The Gift Meant For Someone Else
"Emma Thompson in her bedroom after she receives the Joni Mitchell CD for Christmas."
– khendron
"Just phenomenal acting. I can’t remember who said it, but there’s a quote that watching someone trying not to cry is somehow sadder than watching someone cry and it’s so true."
– prunellazzz
Parting is such sweet sorrow.
The Last Bedtime Story
"When the mom tucks her kids in and the old couple go to bed together in Titanic knowing they’re going to die."
– enlenar
"The mother and children are Irish, and in that scene she’s telling them an old Irish story about going to a land of eternal youth and beauty. The only way she could attempt to comfort them knowing what is to come."
"As a mother I couldn’t imagine making that decision. To spend our last moments in utter chaos fighting for our lives, or going back to the quiet of the cabin and dying as a family there. Gut wrenching."
– SylviaKasen
The Most Loyal Dog Ever
"Hachiko waiting for his friend to come back every day at the train station."
– 33-9
"Omg, I think that would be number 1 on my list, I don’t think I’ve ever cried harder than at the end of Hachi."
– OP
A Soldier Dies
"When Giovanni Ribisi’s character dies in Saving Private Ryan, after telling the story about pretending to be asleep when his mom checked in on him."
– howdysteve
"His whole story about his mom and his final line "...I don't know why I did that..." really hits me hard, and I always shoot my mom a sloppy, cheesy text immediately after the scene."
– duskywindows
Meeting His Maker
"In the Green Mile when John Coffey (Michael Clarke Duncan) gets executed. "Don't put me in the dark." Gets me every time..."
– Vivid-Voyage
"That was the first movie to make me sob, not get teary eyed, but painful sobbing."
"Also RIP Michael Clarke Duncan."
– shewy92
While we go through tissues blowing our noses and wiping away our tears (hopefully not in that order), "somehow, heartbreak feels good in a place like this."
Yes, Nicole Kidman. We love to ugly cry in movie theaters.
But we'll never look as stunning as you while doing so.
A breakup is never easy.
Even so, it is sometimes the only solution when one, or both, members of a couple realize that their relationship simply isn't meant to be.
Sometimes, pinpointing what went wrong in a relationship is difficult that and even years later you still can't find a single reason.
Other times, however, why a relationship came to an end is made abundantly clear by your former partner, sometimes letting you down easily, other times not mincing word one bit.
Redditor GreekRifle was curious to hear from the men of Reddit why their partners chose to end their relationships, leading them to ask:
"Men, why did your last girlfriend dump you?"
A Love That Will Never Die...
"She was in love with her gay best friend."- Lucius_Funk
Communication Is Key
"We didn’t really get each other communication-wise."- heyitsvonage
Too Close To Home...
"Because my mother died of a terminal illness and she had (unbeknownst to me) breast cancer."
"I think she knew it would have wrecked me all over again."- fdxfgyhers
To Love Another, You Must Also Love Yourself.
"I didn't take care of myself."
"I degraded to a state that made me boot worthy"- ToeKnail
Did You Hear That?
"Because I was a sh*tty listener."
"I immediately went and bought and read 4 books on listening."
"I won’t have that happen again."- awerwe4yuti
A Very Important Decision
"She wanted children, I did not."
"We kinda dumped each other for the best, but she took more initiative to see it through."- BrukaAllvar
Wasn't Meant To Last
"Both of us were busy with school and work and so we were spending less time together than usual."
"Around a month into this, she decided that the relationship had gone stale and we should break up."
"I'm not gonna pretend like it was only her fault, cus I only realized how stale our relationship had gotten when she texted me to ask for a breakup."
"I did offer to try and salvage it all, but she turned that idea down pretty quickly."
"Like half a year later she called me in a drunken state and asked if I want to hook up with her."- Phoenix_BFN
On To Better Things... Or Not...
"We were 19 (her) and 22 (me)."
"She decided she wanted to date her coworker."
"A 37 year old pizza delivery guy who lived with his mom and had 2 kids from a previous marriage that he admittedly screwed up."
"They ended up getting married, she was the primary/only breadwinner for awhile because he got fired and then just kinda never tried getting hired again."
"They eventually split up because I think he cheated on her and she tried reaching out to me on Facebook and through mutual friends."
"Yeah………no thanks."
"By then I was married to the love of my life, had 3 kids, a career, just bought a house and adopted a dipsh*t husky from the pound."
"I’m good."- Thebaldsasquatch
"The dude she'd liked for many many years who always told her no when she asked him out realized he could very well lose her to me and said If she wanted to date him he'd go for it now."
"She left me, 4 months later she married him, and now 13 years later is IIRC Divorced from him."
"Jokes on her though, 6 months after we broke up I started dating a friend of mine, we dated for 2 years (compared to 2 months with the ex) and then we got married, and we just had our 11th wedding anniversary in august."
"We have a 4 year old son and every aspect of our relationship is way way better than my relationship with the ex."-evileyeball
It's Complicated...
"She stated that we were headed in different directions."
"She said she still loved me but couldn’t do the relationship anymore as she was 'dragging me down'."
"She was dealing with something that she just couldn’t deal with while being in a relationship with me."
" All of these are reasons she gave me the day we broke up."
"I truly hadn’t seen this happening as we had been talking about marriage."
"She had brought it up and then a month later she asked to go on a two week break, then asked to end the break early because she didn’t want to loose me."
"Less than a week later we broke up because she 'just couldn’t do this anymore'."
"All in all I suppose I don’t know."
"I thought we would spend our lives together, and she had told me constantly that was what she wanted."
"Then one day I suppose she woke up and decided we were over."
"I don’t hold any resentment towards her, and I wouldn’t ask her to explain why."
"Sometimes you fall in love just to fall out of it."
"Other times you find the right person at the wrong time, it really doesn’t matter."
"I hope she finds the right person for her, and I know I’ll keep on moving forward til the day I can’t."- RansomTheTrees
There's No Place Like Home...
"She realized, that she stopped being happy to come home and found things to do to stay out."
"I wanted to end the relationship on the very same day or wanted to have a talk, so not too bad of a break up."- Resident-Worry-2403
Anyone's Guess
"Ask her."
"Really I don't know why she broke up with me."- frogmicky
Ironically, It's Wrong To Always Need To Be Right...
"Wasn’t mature enough to put her feelings before my position in an argument."
"Unfortunately had to learn to be a better person at the expense of an innocent person."- kitchensclosed
Everyone Deserves A Second Chance...
"Because I was a sh*tty person."
"And I wish I hadn't been, but I became a good one after that and regret it cost someone so much."- Skelegasm
It's hard to come to terms with ending things with someone you thought you loved.
Yet, better to have had that love then to never love at all.
Both the justice system and the rumor mill are known to run rampant at times. That's why a person can win their court case but still lose in the court of public opinion.
Sometimes, a person is falsely accused of a crime they did not commit, or are ridiculed for suing a person or company for what the public feels is unnecessary. Those people may win their case, but the public opinion of these people who did nothing wrong is ruined.
Other times, those who are clearly guilty are acquitted of a crime. They technically won their court case, but they never stop being ridiculed or harrassed for being let go after committing a crime.
Redditors know stories like these all too well and are ready to shed some light.
It all started when Redditor ibuiltyouarosegarden asked:
"Who won in court BUT lost in the “court of public opinion?"
Not As Sweet As Aunt Jemima
"Jennifer Connell was called the worst aunt ever and the “aunt from hell” for suing her nephew. Her nephew basically jumped into her arms and the extra physical affection broke her arm. Became a really big deal when it happened. Thing is, she needed to name a person at fault for her injury for her insurance and named her nephew with his parents’ permission. She wasn’t actually suing her nephew, just getting insurance money so she could be treated."
– BlackDwarfStar
Falsely Accused
"Richard Jewell, the man falsely accused of the Centennial Olympic Park Bombings in Atlanta in 1996. He was a security guard and saved dozens of lives by spotting the bomb and clearing spectators. The FBI noted him as a person of interest, and his name was dragged through the mud by local and national media. While the FBI stopped investigating Jewell by October of that year, it wasn’t until a couple of years later that his name was truly cleared when Eric Rudolph, the actual bomber, was caught."
"Jewell sued a number of media outlets and settled with a few of them for an undisclosed amount."
– Bepus
Awful City
"The city of New London in Kelo v City of New London. The city was using the eminent domain to remove a nice lady from her home to build shopping complex. Made its way to the supreme Court and a 5 v 4 decision won and Kelo lost her home to provide economic opportunities. High profile case where the public sided with Kelo but the courts sided with the city."
– 360gamefreak
Her Name Is Everywhere
"Monica Lewinsky. She "won" in court because she wasn't the person on trial. The power dynamics also weren't in her favor. He was her boss. But yet, we still call it "the Monica Lewinsky" scandal and her name is still brought up in derogatory ways after all these years."
– littleirishpixie
Lesson Never Learned
"The woman who won a damages settlement from McDonald’s for being burned by overly hot coffee. It was dangerously hot and they’d been warned before and paid medical bills by court order over other burns, but because she got a high payout over something as seemingly trivial as coffee, she’s labeled litigious and dramatic. The burns were awful. And by the way, McDonald’s still has coffee that’s dangerously hot; they were in the news a week or two ago for another burn case."
– ExplosiveRaddish
"Stella Liebeck. She won in the infamous Stella Liebeck v. McDonald’s. She suffered third-degree burns after accidentally spilling coffee on herself, resulting in over a week in the hospital, skin grafting, and two years of medical treatment."
"She only sought payment for the medical expenses from McDonald’s, but they refused, so she sued. Even though she won, the media made her incident out to be a simple coffee burn that was entirely due to her own negligence (eg. Some claimed she spilled it while driving; however, she was actually parked when it happened). She was 79-years-old at the time of the incident."
"She proceeded to receive death threats for the rest of her life due to people thinking she was “abusing the system”. Really sad stuff."
– SauceThatsGoated
Yikes!
"John Delorean, he was set up by the FBI and his case is the reason for the term entrapment. He was acquitted of all charges."
""DeLorean needed $17 million to save his company from collapse. To this end, he spent much of 1982 desperately seeking investors for his failing company."
"He was approached by one such investor named James Hoffman on June 28, 1982, who claimed to have a business opportunity to help save DeLorean’s company."
"Unknown to DeLorean, James Hoffman was actually a convicted drug smuggler, who, in exchange for leniency, struck a deal with federal authorities to become an informant.""
– ChippyVonMaker
Trial Of The Century
"O.J. Simpson. In 1995, Simpson was acquitted of the murders of his ex-wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, and her friend, Ron Goldman. However, many people believed that Simpson was guilty, and he was widely ostracized after the trial."
– Arisu_tanaka69
What Really Happened?
"Lizzie Borden."
"Legally innocent of axing her parents, but ostracized by her community as everyone knew her factually guilty."
– NerdNuncle
A Huge Upset
"George Zimmerman/"
"The jurors basically said he got away with murder."
– stealthkoopa
Extremely Disappointing
"Congressman Gary Condit who was wrongfully accused of killing his affair partner Chandra Levy. Her body was found a year after she went missing in Rock Creek Park in Washington DC. Condit was innocent but lost his bid for re-election because of the accusations."
– ninasymone44
Are there any we should add to the list? Let us know in the comment below.