Ignorance Is Bliss: 50 People Share The Most Bizarre Facts They Now Regret Learning

We all live in the same world, on the same planet, yet there are so many things some of us don’t know or don’t think about on a daily basis. We here at Bored Panda love to teach you new things in the form of interesting facts. But what about a dose of some disturbing facts?

In a recent thread, people shared the unsettling facts that prove that knowledge isn’t always power. Sometimes, it’s a burden. So, when one netizen asked, “What’s the most disturbing fact you wish you didn’t know?”, folks named surprisingly many phenomena.

Scroll down to see the most interesting ones and tell us in the comments which ones you wish you could scrub from your memory.

#1

Slavery was legal


Colonialism was legal


Jim Crow was legal


Apartheid was legal


Legality is a matter of power, not justice


Human rights are never given by those in power. They are fought for by the oppressed.

#2

Almost all politicians regardless of party are funded by the same few hundred/ thousand sociopaths at the very top, and we are slowly losing our rights and freedoms in plain sight and we are are sleep walking into a dystopian nightmare.

#3

S*x abuse in the church is 10X worse then they are letting on. 

In my parish there was one priest that was convicted and they are saying the number of boys he molested could be as high as 1000. What is generally not known well talked about is there were 6 others were accused and settled out of court. 

Now the really smart pedophiles are selective on their victim. And the victim suffers in silence.

In non-catholic churches I have gone to it is common to hear of a father that is molesting their daughters. 

I have met many victims and even with therapy it still puts zing in their brain. 

I have come to the point in my life that I want nothing to do with any church. .

#4

How two ten-year-olds abducted and then tortured a two-year-old boy in the UK. My youngest was two at the time and I developed this fear of losing him in a store, worse than the usual kind. I also included children in my stranger danger talks with my children; don’t go with people you don’t know, not even kids.

#5

That women are more likely to be r***d by their family(husband/brother/father) in their own bed at home than a stranger on the street.

#6

The number one cause of death for pregnant women in the USA (possibly worldwide?) is m***er by the father of the baby.

That fact should be on billboards outside every school, hospital, and stadium in the country. Then, perhaps, men would finally start looking at each other and saying, “What the f**k, man? Cut it the f**k out.”

Probably not, though. They’ll probably still be busy trying to figure out why smart women choose the bear.

#7

During the transatlantic slave trade, sharks developed migratory patterns following slave ships.

#8

If a woman dies while pregnant she can give birth 😭.

Damita-Ho:

Yep! It’s called a “coffin birth,” where the body will expel the infant. Thats what happened to Lacy Peterson after she died. May Scott Peterson rot in hell.

#9

We live within a few miles of gas, atop floating rocks, being dragged by a star through the great and unforgiving vacuum of space, quite literally a stone’s throw away from complete and total annihilation.



And people want to deny others healthcare for no other reason than struggling to pay scamming private health insurance. They’re already pooling money for it; that’s the thing that gets me, _they’re already pooling money for it,_ and could be paying net less for access to anything they need, but are so petty they’re willing to pay more for less coverage, just so Random Joe Citizen doesn’t get healthcare at all. People making themselves sick, just to make others sick. How sad and small is that?

#10

That 1/5 men have admitted to a desire for engaging in p********a if it weren’t a crime, but researchers believe the true statistic is more like 1/3. Which is sad because the statistics of girls who have experienced SA is believed to be 1/4 – researchers believe it’s actually 1/2 and for boys, the stat is 1/5, believed to be 1/3…and that s**t infuriates the f**k out of me.

What the f**k is wrong with people? Does anyone care that research, even centuries old, states that this type of treatment to children actually causes irreparable psychological harm? The sexualization of children should be considered a crime above murder, IMO, and result in the death penalty within a swift timeline. IDGAF about saving someone – man or woman- whose brain tells them that it’s okay to harm children in such an egregious way, even statistics prove they can NEVER be “rehabilitated” and have one of the highest recidivism rates among all types of criminals.

2/3s of people will most likely follow orders from a perceived authority, no matter how heinous.

Everything there is to know about Teflon. Not just because it’s a “forever chemical” that has already insinuated itself throughout the ecology of the planet, but because of the recklessness with which we caused it to happen. It’s emblematic of how far over our skis we are with technology.

Many doctors don’t want to live beyond the age of 75. My Dad worked in hospitals as a respiratory therapist and always said so too. A doctor wrote an article on the subject many years ago. 75 is the ideal age to go, apparently, based on what they see in their professional day to day.

Companies have data profiles on you. They collect intimate data.

They know what you eat and when.

They know what time you go to work, the route you take home.

They know what you like to watch.

They know your heart rate, your blood pressure, how fast you walk, how far, and where.

They know your favorite shows. They know how you like your coffee and your toast and what temperature you like your home to be.

They know when you’re most likely to run your dishwasher, and how often you fill it for a full wash or run a quick rinse.

They know who your friends are. They know who your family is. They know if you prefer texting over calling. They know when you visit these people, and when and where. They know your shared interests.

None of this is isolated information. This is all contained in a profile that is essentially a digital copy of you. That digital copy is highly valuable currency they use to sell to advertisers. Currency that you agree to giving them through devices you paid a lot of money for (how many hours of work would that have cost you? How many days or months?)

And they use this to influence you like to spend your money in a way you believe to be spontaneous.

This sounds like a conspiracy. But it’s a very real industry with carefully engineered processes. And it’s happening all the time.

Devices are always “phoning home” which is a real term.

I wish I didn’t know because no one cares about corporate surveillance. Everyone only cares about TikTok and Temu and no one gives a d**n about the fact that this technology moves so rapidly that laws have fallen so far behind.

**ETA**: Many people missing the point, so let me clarify that being “boring” doesn’t exempt you from manipulation and influence. Actually, a lack of variables in your life makes you easier to predict. What you do and what you don’t do are all patterned, trackable data. This is an issue stemming from control. Think about how often you interact with an algorithm. The videos you watch, the articles you click, the images that are presented to you, etc. – if you do not have a strong variety in your reading material, if you do not travel or have new experiences, or if you are not working towards developing new skills or strengthening current ones, then your thought patterns **will** narrow down in a way that will make it easier for someone else to puppet you. Your passive consumption of *the algorithms you are locked into* is perfectly paired with a lack of resistance to its suggestions.

Being sheltered and connected makes you easier to exploit, which could (for example) prevent friction to things like political radicalization.

We will never run out of coal. If we tried to use it all, climate change would k**l us before we would run out.

And the first tunnel under Sydney Harbour was a coal mine, with the pit head at Balmain. You can get coal from practically anywhere in Sydney if you dug a hole deep enough.