In seconds, we can pull up an exhaustive article that delves deeply into a niche topic that once would have required a day in the library and whole lot of time spent in the index.
It's awesome. We can whip out our phones to answer questions and win arguments, depending on the situation.
But there's a downside: every once in awhile we come across a terrifying tidbit of information that we'd rather never have heard about. Just knowing the info can leave us feeling unnerved for plenty of moments after calling it to mind.
For better or worse, here's a whole list of those from Reddit.
Green-Owl6244 asked,
"What's a piece of information you wish you never knew?"
Many Redditors chose to discuss the awful dynamics of people and institutions. There are some tendencies of "civilized" life that really show the underbelly of what we're capable of.
The Mourning Industrial Complex
"The funeral industry. In general, it's very predatory, and mostly unnecessary. It's a way to make big bucks by guilting people into feeling like they don't love their family if they don't buy all this ridiculous stuff."
"Vaults for caskets have other purposes, but they are important so cemetery machinery can drive over graves without collapsing them. Caskets themselves are...comfortable boxes for people who don't need comfort anymore. Embalming is to preserve for viewing, but doesn't make much sense otherwise."
"The flowers alone are crazy expensive. It's all a gross show to make us feel better about death and make it pretty."
-- bi**yhouseplant
One Track Mind
"The mental hospitals I went to didn't actually care about me, their sole job was to make sure I didn't hurt myself. That's it, nothing to make me happier or to see what was wrong with me, nada. Told to me by my therapist."
"Sometimes ignorance is bliss"
-- textlyelegant
Nooooo Poor Fluffers
"As a vet tech and shelter worker, there is a euthanasia 'season' just after Christmas day. Everyone wants one more holiday with their pet, I get that completely"
"There is also a 'balcony season' which comes during the first nice days of spring when everyone opens up their balcony doors. Huge influx of cats and dogs who go over the side"
-- ellegryphon
Other people called to mind historical or scientific facts about humans that were truly terrifying. Some of the things of our past are ugly to look back on.
180 Seconds, Falling
"The crew of the Challenger weren't killed in the explosion, the crew module remained intact until the module crashed into the ocean three minutes later."
"There's evidence they were conscious during this, and attempted to take steps to save themselves (knowing full well the situation they were in wasn't surviveable)"
-- Notmiefault
Deteriorating
"In the 1920s, women who worked on watches that glow in the dark used paint that contained radium. They were told that the paint is safe, and were instructed to regularly put the paint brushes in their mouth to keep them pointed."
"They got necrosis of the jaw. One woman went to the dentist to get a tooth pulled and her entire jaw came out."
-- Aqquila89
Taste Test
"Before modern medicine doctors diagnosed diabetes by tasting the urine of the patient. Sweet urine = diabetes. I don't really know how this helped anyone because I assume that everyone just died from it afterwards."
-- TomBuilder_
How Smell Works
"The fact that you smell things by just taking small parts of the objects you smell and put them inside your nose. So any time you smell poo ..."
- Big_Bad_Baseball_bat
Her Eyes
"I paid for part of my college tuition by working in a nursing home. I was with people when they died. I saw people with advanced dementia, devastating strokes, developmental disabilities, and all kinds of illnesses. Many of the people I cared were awesome, amazing people whom I still think about."
"However, they brought a woman in once who was only in her late 40s. Her file wasn’t complete with a history like all the other patients files were. She was in very good shape physically, very strong. But she was...not there. And by that I don’t mean she was confused or had Alzheimer’s. I mean that you looked into her eyes and didn’t see anybody in there."
"It’s hard to explain. Even the people I took care of who never spoke were still in there. You would get a glimmer of something, some reaction."
"Often they would surprise you by reacting to something when they usually couldn’t. Children. Music. A kind gesture. At least anger or pain!"
"But this woman seemed inhuman. No recognizable bit of humanity at all."
"She had to be restrained or she would hurt anyone she could reach. She came to us with three orange jumpsuits and that’s all the clothes she had. She liked to eat her own excrement (I know...sorry). Her eyes were dark and empty. She never had a facial expression. Blank."
"And she scared me."
"No patient before or after was scary, to me, but she really scared me. Because it honestly seemed to me — and I am not given to thinking things like this — that something not human was in there. That this lady’s essence was gone and something else was in there."
"She was only with us for a month, as they were just waiting for a bed to open up somewhere else. But nobody would say where. It was weird."
"Here is the last awful bit. One day a lovely teenage girl came in, really a nice kid. And this lady I am talking about was HER MOM. She hadn’t seen her in many years, she said."
"The head nurse took her back to see her mom and just a few minutes later the girl hurried out, almost running. I felt awful for her. And I felt even more spooked. What had happened?"
"I wish I had never seen that patient. I wish I had never known that was her daughter. I wish I could un-know what 'evil' looks like."
"Not one other experience do I regret, but that one lady still scares me to this day. She seemed wrong or evil in a way I that still freaks me out."
- Gen-Jinjur
Tumor Troubles
"Apparently tumors can grow shit like eyes and teeth."
"Google it at you own risk but be warned, it'll make resident evil look like the teenage mutant ninja turtles in comparison and it'll take days to get the image of it out of your head."
- bored_asfuk
Finally, some people shared animal facts. Even the cute, well-loved animals have some subtle behaviors or features that are enough to make you shiver.
Yuck. Just Yuck.
"Softshell turtles pee out of their mouth." -- KO-is-a-BIATCH
"They breathe through their butt" -- bmeupsctty
"Can they at least swim backwards while they do it? Peeing out your mouth is bad enough without having to swim through it as you pee." -- bowyer-betty
Delegated Stomachs
"that pelicans have three stomachs, and one of them's just for bones" -- pizzzazzzler
"I wish it could be five seconds ago when I didn't know this" -- ShadowHasBerries
"They can also push their spine out of their mouth to help cool off." -- thefifthwheelbruh
Let's Hope Opportunity Never Arises
"Horses are opportunistic carnivores."
"I learned this when I saw a video of a horse just popping a baby chick in its mouth like popcorn."
-- Jeremy12021
Blink
"I don’t remember how I found this out. In short, the fact about frogs. As soon as the frog grabs an unsuspecting insect, it should blink: the eyelids push the eyeballs to the top of the mouth and actually help push food down the throat."
"By the way, the eyes of frogs are larger than the stomach."
"Most frogs have teeth on the upper jaw, but these are mainly used to lock prey in the mouth and prevent it from escaping before the eyeballs push it towards the stomach."
- backroomsentity_
Alive?
"There were scientists that once kept a dog's head alive on a table through electrical stimulation. It is a YouTube video I can never unsee."
"I have left no link on purpose. Seriously, google at your own risk. I still cry any time I even THINK about it."
- Mxysptlik
The Fly
"The Human Botfly is still a thing."
- jjvolfan1
Hyenas Hurt
"So... uhh... I saw a comic and googled 'Hyena's Birth.' "
"This is what came up:"
" 'Giving birth is difficult for female hyenas, as the females give birth through their narrow clitoris, and spotted hyena cubs are the largest carnivoran young relative to their mothers' weight. During parturition, the clitoris ruptures in order to facilitate the passage of the young, and may take weeks to heal.' "
"God, I wish I didn't google that..."
- Mo_Ami·
So there you have it. An onslaught of reasons to lay awake tonight and feel scared to ever leave your bed again.
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