Skip to content
Search AI Powered

Latest Stories

People Disclose The Most Disturbing Facts They Know

People Disclose The Most Disturbing Facts They Know
Stillness InMotion on Unsplash

If you've ever been curious about prions or about missing persons cases, then you've come to the right place.

How many of you have made a habit of staying up late to read all of the disturbing Wikipedia entries you could find? Just me? Sorry, not sorry... I can't help that I have a very morbid mind.

But once you fall down a rabbit hole, you might come across some information that even the best brain bleach wouldn't be able to get rid of. People shared their thoughts with us after Redditor CallOfDutysVeryOwn asked the online community,

"What is the most disturbing fact you know of?"

"Half of the homeless people..."

"Half of the homeless people in America were in the foster care system at some point in their lives."

toasty_turban

It will always be too soon to learn this fact.

"It's not illegal..."

"It's not illegal to eat human flesh in most places."

ComfortableTeach963

Oh yeah? Well, it should be illegal to eat MINE, how about that?

"Oh!"

"Oh! I just remembered one. Prions!"

"Prions are misfolded proteins that copy over to other cells. If a brain surgeon suspects that the patient has prions they will run a test and if the patient has it they will just stitch the person up. Why? Because there is no reason to finish because the patient will die anyway."

"In other words it has a 100% fatality rate."

SandlerTheSleepless

Great, another thing to keep me up at night.

Thanks.

At least it'd be quick... right?

"The fact that NASA..."

"The fact that NASA can detect world killing asteroids and know when it will hit but CAN'T detect city killing asteroids due to the size being greatly smaller."

bowlessy

Don't Look Up clearly needs a sequel of some kind.

"30%..."

"30% of people reported missing, and found dead, were killed by the person reporting them missing."

Leaping-Kitties

There's a reason why these investigations tend to focus on individuals closest to the victim.

"Only 20% of the males..."

"Only 20% of the males born in the Soviet Union in 1923 survived World War II."

Rebkmfdm1784

This fact alone tells you so much about the devastation of World War II.

Utterly catastrophic.

"The universe outside of Earth..."

"The universe outside of Earth is completely silent. Sound on Earth travels through vibrations in the air. But in outer space, there is no air for sound to travel. Basically saying, nobody will hear you scream."

Iloveicecream

Paging Ellen Ripley... come in Ripley.

"When the guillotine..."

"When the guillotine was initially introduced, people fought to be executed first coz the blade would become dull later and not cut their heads off in a clean chop."

ItchyPage

This is morbid as hell and I also hate how much I understand this logic.

"During the late Roman Republic..."

"During the late Roman Republic, one of the richest men in Rome, Marcus Licinius Crassus, used to own a team of firefighters (there was no dedicated firefighter service at the time). If your building was burning, he would offer to buy the building. If you agreed, he put out the fire. If not, his team of firefighters just left and let the building burn."

InquisitiveBallbag

Crassus was quite the monster.

There's a story that claims that after he died the Parthians poured molten gold into his mouth to mock his thirst for wealth.

"What would the world be like..."

"A super pandemic, with a mutated virus that is both easy to spread and deadly, could easily wipe out half of the world's population. No government has the resources stockpiled or the public properly educated to help mitigate the disaster."

"What would the world be like if every other person was gone?"

SyntheticOne

Well, this fact hits harder knowing how humanity is dealing (or not dealing) with the pandemic going on right now.

"There could be..."

"There could be a planet-sterilizing gamma-ray burst heading our way right now. There's no way to stop it, and we wouldn't even know it's coming until it arrives."

gofunk1

In that case, we might as well live it up, right?

It'd be over quick!

"Think about..."

"Think about the most insanely horrifying act that you've ever heard of a human being committing. Now think about the fact that literally any other human being is equally capable of doing the same."

"If that's not terrifying, I don't know what is."

AbortionsAsaPastime

Now there's a thought to keep me up at night.

No thank you.

I don't need to go down that road.

Sorry to depress you... or unnerve you... but you knew what you were doing when you clicked on this link, didn't you?

Our morbid curiosity sure does get the best of us.

Good luck sleeping tonight.

Have some facts of your own to share?

Feel free to tell us more in the comments below!

Want to "know" more?

Sign up for the Knowable newsletter here.

Never miss another big, odd, funny, or heartbreaking moment again.

More from Trending/best-of-reddit

Nicki Minaj and Donald Trump
Win McNamee/Getty Images

Trump's 'Gold' Gift To Nicki Minaj Certainly Seems To Explain Her Sudden Pivot To MAGA

Rapper Nicki Minaj made headlines this week for declaring herself President Donald Trump's "number one fan" as he launched his savings accounts for newborns—and now she's gotten a telling gift for her trouble.

Minaj appeared Wednesday at the Trump Accounts Summit in Washington, D.C., where she praised Trump’s rollout of investment accounts for U.S.-born babies.

Keep ReadingShow less
A man in a  suit with a red tie and a pocket square
selective focus photography of person holding black smartphone
Photo by Dane Deaner on Unsplash

People Break Down The Most Overrated 'Adult Goals' People Chase

As children, we begin to grow an image of how our life will turn out.

Usually involving a financially lucrative career, a good-looking spouse who adores us, and a magazine cover worthy house.

Keep ReadingShow less
Screenshots from @kellymengg's TikTok video
@kellymengg/TikTok

Woman's Story About Plane Passenger Refusing To Lower Window Shade Sparks Heated Flight Etiquette Debate

Though arriving at a destination can be fun and exciting, traveling itself is often exhausting and annoying, especially when we're made to feel uncomfortable along the way.

TikToker Kelly Meng launched a heated debate on TikTok after she shared a story about taking a 15-hour flight next to a woman who refused to do anything but what she wanted with the window shade next to her.

Keep ReadingShow less
Zohran Mamdani
Lev Radin/Pacific Press/LightRocket via Getty Images

'New York Post' Dragged After Bizarrely Criticizing Zohran Mamdani's 'Poor Snow Shoveling Form'

The first major winter storm of 2026, which at one point spanned over 2,000 miles, dumped record levels of snow on New York City.

Central Park reported a record 11.4 inches for the day and the most snow since 2022. In Manhattan, Washington Heights almost hit 15 inches, while Brooklyn saw widespread totals of 10 to 12 inches.

Keep ReadingShow less
Ben Affleck Confesses Why He And Matt Damon Added Random Gay Sex Scenes To 'Good Will Hunting' Script
Arturo Holmes/WireImage via Getty Images

Ben Affleck Confesses Why He And Matt Damon Added Random Gay Sex Scenes To 'Good Will Hunting' Script

Who knew the iconic line “How do you like them apples?” might be spiritually adjacent to a stack of random gay sex scenes that never made it into Good Will Hunting? At least, that’s how its writers—Boston buddies Ben Affleck and Matt Damon—have described one of their more chaotic attempts to figure out who was actually reading their script.

For anyone somehow unfamiliar with the Oscar-winning Affleck-Damon bromance: the two met as kids in Cambridge, Massachusetts—Affleck was 8, Damon was 10—and grew up a block and a half apart. They bonded over acting, moved in together after high school, and started grinding through auditions.

Keep ReadingShow less