The world is a scary place. Beautiful, yes, but take a good look around and you’ll definitely notice something that makes you feel uncomfortable. Whether we’re talking about spiders, lightning, or social interaction, everyone has their own nightmare fuel.
To find the worst of the worst, Reddit user Misoalgia posted a question on the platform, asking everyone “What is a genuinely terrifying fact?” Immediately, the replies started pouring in and as of now, the post has over 9.9K comments. In order to save you, dear pandas, some time, we scrolled through the entries and hand-picked the most memorable ones.
#1
The ten hottest years on record have all been since 2010.
We are not only going to see the catastrophic 2 degree warming this century – we’re probably going to see more than that.
The absolute worst part? Even with net zero emissions by 2070 we will STILL probably see 2 degree warming. The time for action to prevent catastrophe was over maybe 20 years ago – we are living in a time of disaster management.
mordenty , Chris LeBoutillier Report
Final score: 190points 
Bored Potato Bored Potato Community Member • points posts comments upvotes FollowUnfollow 3 weeks ago Report
So… we’re screwed. Dammit.
67 67points reply View More Replies… #2
That there are people in this world who have absolutely zero support, and absolutely zero people to count on.
Final score: 182points 
Kangaroo Ratz Kangaroo Ratz Community Member • points posts comments upvotes FollowUnfollow 3 weeks ago Report
there are actually quite a few, id say at least 3 million people and I dont like it. everyone should have someone.
47 47points reply View More Replies… #3
That somebody is out here trafficking humans and then going back to their family while living comfortably in a much nice place than some of us are.
Final score: 178points 
Ael Ael Community Member • points posts comments upvotes FollowUnfollow 3 weeks ago Report
This. All the truly horrible people that get a wonderful life. While their victims suffer in the most horrible ways.
81 81points reply View More Replies… #4
The earth was around billions of years before we were, and is indifferent to our survival. There have been multiple mass extinctions in the past and we shouldn’t feel any safer. The only difference is we’ve advanced far enough to the point that we’ll probably know in advance when our species is going to go extinct.
Final score: 146points 
Caroline Nagel Caroline Nagel Community Member • points posts comments upvotes FollowUnfollow 3 weeks ago Report
Would it be bad if human kind went extinct?
61 61points reply View More Replies… #5
Scurvy at advanced stages can make all of your scars reopen, because maintaining them is an active process that your body does all the time and when it can’t produce collagen it stops. Maybe eat some fruit.
Final score: 143points SCamp SCamp Community Member • points posts comments upvotes FollowUnfollow 3 weeks ago Report
Well, thank god I’m not a 17th century sailor in the British navy
95 95points reply View More Replies… #6
One genuinely terrifying fact is the concept of “antibiotic resistance.” Bacteria can evolve to become resistant to antibiotics, the drugs we use to treat bacterial infections. Overuse and misuse of antibiotics can speed up this process, making previously treatable diseases difficult or even impossible to cure. According to the World Health Organization, antibiotic resistance is one of the biggest threats to global health today, potentially leading to a future where simple infections could once again become deadly.
0OOO00000OO00O0O0OOO , CDC Report
Final score: 139points DC DC Community Member • points posts comments upvotes FollowUnfollow 3 weeks ago Report
… and yet, we allow an industry to feed them to millions of animals in blanket-treatments because some of them may be sick. In order to produce cheap meat – and the buying habits of most people express their agreement to this, as none of the products resulting from this are necessary, but voluntarily bought. But then again, if we see the bodycount of that industry, can we even be stupid enough to assume they had ANY ethics at all? Obviously, they have none.
60 60points reply View More Replies… #7
That we need to work for 11 months to get one month off in a whole year. That most of people need to work at a s****y job until they retire and then struggle to survive on a small retirement. I mean, a bunch of s**t that is terrifying.
Billionaires don’t pay taxes etc.
Final score: 128points Ael Ael Community Member • points posts comments upvotes FollowUnfollow 3 weeks ago Report
There’s enough wealth (in whatever) form around to let every human being, and probably every pet, on Earth live modestly, but safely and without having to worry for their life. But we can’t have it because of a handful of greedy rich freaks and literally millions of arselickers who will do what the rich person says in the hope of getting a bit of the wealth themselves, or simply because they want a daddy figure.
51 51points reply View More Replies… #8
Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (mad cow) can lie dormant for more than 50 years, is universally fatal, and is inheritable. There is no cure.
MrDarksCarnival:
My mom passed from this.
Took a healthy energetic 60-year old woman that MAYBE looked 50, and turned her into a semi-vegetative shell of her former self.
It’s destructive. And I have no idea if it’s dormant in me.
Particular-Natural12 , Wikipedia Report
Final score: 121points 
LazyPanda LazyPanda Community Member • points posts comments upvotes FollowUnfollow 3 weeks ago Report
I learbed about this disease in college. It’s a deadly disease that is mostly transfered to humans by eating meat from cows and sometimes sheep that have it in them. It can also be transfered by transfusion or other transplants done from human to human and by placenta from a mother to her unborn child.
33 33points reply View More Replies… #9
That mankind is the single biggest threat to our own extinction.
Final score: 111points 
martymcmatrix martymcmatrix Community Member • points posts comments upvotes FollowUnfollow 3 weeks ago Report
Two planets meet and one asks the other… »You’re not looking well. Are you suffering from a disease?« ••• »Yeah, its a severe parasitic infestation.« ••• »What kind?« ••• »Homo sapiens, unfortunately.«
37 37points reply View More Replies… #10
That brain aneurysms usually does not have symptoms and it can kill you if it ruptures.
Misbrukt , Usman Yousaf Report
Final score: 108points 
Jaaawn Jaaawn Community Member • points posts comments upvotes 3 weeks ago Report
You can be dead before you even hit the ground so considering the horrific deaths some people have had to suffer I’d say a fatal brain rupture would be one of the better ways to go.
114 114points reply View More Replies… #11
There are hundreds of unidentified serial killers in America.
Apprehensive_Bee7344 , Wikipedia Report
Final score: 108points 
David A Paterson David A Paterson Community Member • points posts comments upvotes FollowUnfollow 3 weeks ago Report
And thousands of unidentified torturers.
64 64points reply View More Replies… #12
The US military has lost several nuclear weapons and not all of them have been recovered.
Final score: 105points 
Min Min Community Member • points posts comments upvotes FollowUnfollow 3 weeks ago Report
Not just the US, either.
64 64points reply View More Replies… #13
50-70% of people don’t have an internal monologue. I can’t even imagine that. I can barely turn mine off to sleep. Comments seems split but there are a lot saying they don’t experience internal monologue. I read it as monologue. I think some people are confusing it with dialogue. But maybe some experience that too?
Final score: 105points 
lincholn6echo lincholn6echo Community Member • points posts comments upvotes FollowUnfollow 3 weeks ago Report
sometimes i catch myself talking to me. then we both laugh.
119 119points reply View More Replies… #14
There is a species of caterpillar, big blue out of great Britain I believe, that tricks ants into thinking it’s an ant queen in distress. The ants take this caterpillar back to the nest where the caterpillar continues acting like a queen but devouring all the ant larvae. This destroys the ant colony from the inside. There are some studies that can point to this species actively finding which larvae will eventually become the next queen and devour those larvae first.
Final score: 101points LazyPanda LazyPanda Community Member • points posts comments upvotes FollowUnfollow 3 weeks ago Report
Wow…just wow…nature is scary
47 47points reply View More Replies… #15
Sun eruptions happened before and lead to blackouts across several continents. All fun and games in the 19th century. Today it could easily kill millions. And it could happen any hour.
Final score: 98points David A Paterson David A Paterson Community Member • points posts comments upvotes FollowUnfollow 3 weeks ago Report
Just one of a hundred or so scientifically approved apocalypses. Now that we understand it we can counter it. Expect a death toll easily counted in hundreds.
31 31points reply View More Replies… #16
That Richard Sackler is a free billionare in 2023.
clemenza2821:
CEO of Purdue Pharma, singularly responsible for the opioid epedemic.
Final score: 95points Bored Potato Bored Potato Community Member • points posts comments upvotes FollowUnfollow 3 weeks ago Report
Richard Sackler should probably be sacked…
37 37points reply View More Replies… #17
The Permian Extinction was the greatest extinction event in history, the atmosphere was full of CO2 and the oceans warmed so much they held too little oxygen to support most of the life that lived in it.
We are currently recreating these events through climate change.
Final score: 93points Bookworm Bookworm Community Member • points posts comments upvotes FollowUnfollow 3 weeks ago Report
Also known as The Great Dying; probably the closest Earth has ever come to losing life completely up to this point.
34 34points reply View More Replies… #18
Dementia has no age limit.
PLAmibingusPL , Tim Doerfler Report
Final score: 92points David A Paterson David A Paterson Community Member • points posts comments upvotes FollowUnfollow 3 weeks ago Report
Retts Syndrome and Childhood Disintegrative Disorder are examples of types of dementia that affect children.
25 25points reply View More Replies… #19
The fact that we know more about outer space than our planet’s deep oceans is unsettling. There are countless mysteries and potentially terrifying discoveries awaiting beneath the ocean’s depths.
Final score: 92points 
hitex hitex Community Member • points posts comments upvotes FollowUnfollow 3 weeks ago Report
But let’s make sure our submersibles are safely capable of reaching such depths in discovery *cough, Oceangate*
70 70points reply View More Replies… #20
Siberia’s permafrost melting and unleashing a disease humanity isn’t prepared for.
Final score: 91points 
Srinivasan Somasundaram Srinivasan Somasundaram Community Member • points posts comments upvotes FollowUnfollow 3 weeks ago Report
The scientists have found a very old virus in the permafrost. It doesn’t mean that it has the ability to affect humans. This is too much “Resident Evil” kind of thinking.
35 35points reply View More Replies… #21
Either we’re the only sentient species in the whole universe or we are not. Both is equaly terrifying.
Final score: 85points 
Tim Fawcett Tim Fawcett Community Member • points posts comments upvotes FollowUnfollow 3 weeks ago Report
Looking at the media I struggle to see how most of us can be described as sentient
80 80points reply View More Replies… #22
It is physically possible to be so constipated that your stool will back all the way up your digestive tract and you can vomit feces. You’re welcome.
Final score: 80points 
robin lowe robin lowe Community Member • points posts comments upvotes FollowUnfollow 3 weeks ago Report
I’ve seen this in a nursing home!
40 40points reply View More Replies… #23
It’s a great day. You go for a swim, and then Naegleri fowleri hits you hard. “Naegleri fowleri is an amoeba (brain eating amoeba) that can cause a serious central nervous system infection. The amoeba is found in warm and still fresh water bodies of water and enters a human body through the nose.”
instapoppins , Todd Quackenbush Report
Final score: 76points 
Mark Fuller Mark Fuller Community Member • points posts comments upvotes FollowUnfollow 3 weeks ago Report
I think I’ve met quite a number of people who have clearly contracted this but not yet been diagnosed…
65 65points reply View More Replies… #24
SIDS, sudden infant death syndrome, a baby will just die and we don’t know why.
Final score: 70points Bookworm Bookworm Community Member • points posts comments upvotes FollowUnfollow 3 weeks ago Report
They have pretty good guesses, though. A lot of older cases were probably suffocation, before ‘Back To Sleep’ caught on. Recently, there’s been research suggesting that some genetic mutations can inhibit the ability of a baby’s brain to wake them up if they stop breathing in their sleep, putting those babies at high risk of SIDS.
52 52points reply #25
You can just go to sleep and… never wake up. You might never get to say goodbye, or tell your family you love them.
Final score: 68points David A Paterson David A Paterson Community Member • points posts comments upvotes FollowUnfollow 3 weeks ago Report
Quote from a comedian. “I want to die peacefully like my uncle in his sleep. Not screaming in terror like the passengers in his car”.
89 89points reply View More Replies… #26
There is a good to fair chance you’ve met at least 1 murder in your life already.
Final score: 61points SCamp SCamp Community Member • points posts comments upvotes FollowUnfollow 3 weeks ago Report
Murderer? Yep, I have wondered how many major criminals I walk past or have met and had no idea
22 22points reply View More Replies… #27
Some spiders eat snakes.
OkMushroom364 , Markus Blüthner Report
Final score: 60points Bored Potato Bored Potato Community Member • points posts comments upvotes FollowUnfollow 3 weeks ago Report
Most of which reside in Australia, probably
74 74points reply View More Replies… #28
There is a white dwarf about 130 light years away from us, and it could explode any time. If it explodes, then it will be a big cosmic firework – and very close, possibly close enough to cause problems. Even it if turns into a neutron star without an explosion, that phenomenon could cause a nasty EMP effect, possibly killing a lot of satellites.
Final score: 57points Srinivasan Somasundaram Srinivasan Somasundaram Community Member • points posts comments upvotes FollowUnfollow 3 weeks ago Report
But we won’t know it for another 130 years I believe
33 33points reply View More Replies… #29
Hisashi Ouchi Was kept alive (by any means necessary) for 83 days after exposure to fatal levels of radiation.
Final score: 53points 
Stardust she/her Stardust she/her Community Member • points posts comments upvotes FollowUnfollow 3 weeks ago Report
Poor guy was suffering so much. He needed skin grafts, multiple blood transfusions and he was resuscitated so many times. He was crying blood and at one point his intestine ruptured
47 47points reply View More Replies… #30
A person eats, on average, “two pounds of flies, maggots and other bugs each year,” according to Scientific American.
-A cup of raisins can have up to 33 fruit fly eggs.
-Fig paste is allowed to have up to 13 insect heads in 100 grams.
-Up to five fruit flies is allowed in an 8-ounce cup of canned fruit juice.
+One maggot is allowed in every 250 milliliters of fruit.
+Up to 2,500 aphids are allowed in every 10 grams of hops.
-Spinach can have up to 50 aphids, thrips or mites per 100 grams.
-Broccoli can contain insects fragments and even whole insects.
-Up to a kilogram of insect parts is allowed in 100 kilograms of chocolate.
-Up to 19 maggots and 74 mites are allowed in a 3.5-ounce can of mushrooms.
-Up to 15 fruit fly eggs are allowed in 100 grams of tomato sauce
AeonSophia514 , James Tiono Report
Final score: 49points Alewa Alewa Community Member • points posts comments upvotes FollowUnfollow 3 weeks ago Report
I think it’s more terrifying that people are unaware of critters liking the same food as us, and are consequently terrified by this fact.
61 61points reply View More Replies…
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