The world can be an exceptionally strange and cruel place. The more we know about it, the more we may lose our faith in humanity.
Some facts we may never learn in a history book or even hear about on the news. We wanted to know what some of the most outrageous and f*cked up facts people have heard.
What better place to go that Ask Reddit, where people from all over the world can comment.
Redditor GreebSetter asked:
"What’s a f*cked up fact you just can’t believe is true?"
These are unbelievable.
Elephants basically have a second trunk.
"Elephants can control their penis like a second trunk." - leemurray98
"There's even a term for it: 'Mating pandemonium.'"
- m_Pony
"I saw two elephants get it on in Berlin zoo."
"The first startling thing was the prehensile penis finding its way in, just like a trunk."
"The second startling thing was all the other elephants running about and trumpeting in a big celebration of the act."
"All of them."
"Kids, adults, like a big party! "
"Wayhey!"
"They're doing it!"- NiceOneCenturion
Bombed with fleas.
"During World War 2, Japan bombed China with fleas infected with the bubonic plague."- thisisprince
"Japan's crimes in China are mind boggling."
"They make Josef Mengele look like an amateur."
"Google 'Unit 731'."
"Or don't."
You probably shouldn't." - No_Significance4311
Bee Facts.
"If bees were paid minimum wage for their labor, a jar of honey would cost $182,000."- Assorted_Education_
"Bumble bees are always 45 minutes from death in the air."
"They expend so much energy flying, that they need to eat every 45 minutes or die."
"So, they literally don't give a sh*t about anything other than finding a flower."- Good-Helicopter-9303
Getting murdered on Christmas.
"You’re statistically more likely to be murdered by a family member on Christmas Day than murdered by a stranger any other day."
"I don’t have a source, it’s just something that seems about right tbh."
"Putting a bunch of people together on a really intense occasion will create some friction and you never know who’s at the point of murder."
"Also I can totally see why murders would be more likely, judging by the comments below."- _Frog_Enthusiast_
There's no data to be found about this but several accounts in the comments make it seem that this could be true. Take this article that someone commented for instance: Estranged Husband Dressed As Santa Blamed for Christmas Day Massacre.
Sharks and trees.
"Sharks have been around longer than trees."
"Yes, Trees."- RedAllAboutIt7
"One that I personally think is more interesting is that sharks are older than Saturn's rings."- Dickcheese_McDoogles
"The bacteria that decomposed trees wasn't around for millions of years."
"That means for millions of years, trees were just dying, falling over, and lying like a bunch of logs stacked around each other."- BootySmackahah
The youngest person to give birth.
"The youngest person to ever give birth was 5 years old."- kibufox
Teflon pans.
"In the beginning, Dupont f*cked up their non-stick Teflon pans."
"They knew high exposure to the stuff was bad but they never did anything about it."
"As a result, traces of 'forever chemicals' can be found in 98% of the American population, and probably beyond."- Delta4o
Winning the Powerball
"You're statistically more likely to randomly die during a USA Powerball lottery drawing than win it."- Shawn_NYC
"Chances of dying on the way there if you drive 1 mile: 1/110,000,000"
"Chances of winning the Powerball jackpot: 1/292,000,000"
"That being said if you drive 25mph w/ your seatbelt on, sober, in a modern car with airbags on a neighborhood road up to the gas station, your probability of death probably drops by more than a factor of 10 compared to driving on a high speed rural road or highway."
"While I'm looking up morbid stats, there have been 4781 COVID deaths in the US for the age range of 18-29."
"That's out of about 50M, so probability of dying of COVID in a given day in 2021 for young adults was ~1/4M. That's 73 times more likely than winning the Powerball."- Peanut_Many
Gravity
"The Earth rises up by a very small bit when you jump."- Ratan_Harsh
The End Of The World As We ALMOST Knew It
"During the Cuban Missile Crisis the world was the closest to nuclear fallout in history."
"A communist submarine spotted something suspicious and 2/3 of the commanding people agreed to launch a nuke."
"But because the third person voted no they couldn’t."
"Basically humanity rested on that one person and they didn’t even know it."- wittzhittz·
Watch Your Back Around Dolphins
"Dolphins can be attracted to humans."- Lucky-Comfortable-54
Super Sized...
"42 percent of America is obese."- HazelNut768
End Of An Era
"The last child of a civil war vet died last year."- richpaul6806
History In Perspective
"Cleopatra lived closer to the invention of the iPhone than the building of the Great Pyramids."- NarrativeScorpion
Little Did They Know
"The creator of chocolate chips sold the idea for like a dollar."
"Or some other number that’s too low."- Desolecontra
Not Always What You Think It Might Mean...
"If a man falls on they’re back and they have a boner you should’t move them because it means they got a very bad back injury."- odddddddddddddd
As If Childbirth Wasn't Messy And Stressful Enough
"Chainsaws were invented as a tool for use in difficult childbirths."- aimeed72
"The reason women give birth on their backs with their legs up is because Louis XIV, a French king in the 1600's, fetishized his wife giving birth and the traditional birthing chair didn't give a good view."
"Anyone curious, used to be your gave birth on a chair with a hole cut in it so that gravity would aid in helping the baby come out."- Chutzpah3
Some of these facts are absolutely gut wrenching, while others might win you the next trivia night. Take a little trip around Google and you'll find they have truth to them, as unbelievable as they might be.
Hopefully this didn't completely destroy your faith in the world.
