25 Unsettling Facts That Will Make You Question Everything

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Sure, some people like to go through life with their heads in the clouds, their rose colored glasses perched atop the edge of their noses while laughing and skipping through a sea of ignorance. But for those of us intent on keeping it f*cking real — we like to stay up to date on all of the destructive, gross, unsettling facts that make the world go round. Like, I know it’s not particularly healthy to read 27 articles a day about our impending nuclear apocalypse, but I just want to be prepared, you know?!

Maybe you have a penchant for feeling icky and shocked — and bro, I’m here for that. But when you’re stuck in a cycle of only looking at the negative — you’re probably a sociopath and you’re definitely not very fun at parties. I mean, no one wants to talk to the person who keeps going on about a super strain of gonorrhea that’s resistant to all antibiotics. Stop harshing my party mellow.

If you’re trying to stay shook, look no further than this list. The information might not always be easy to swallow or particularly bright and sunny, but it’s important to know your sh*t — even if that sh*t is about the inner workings of serial killers’ minds. Just know that you’re probably not going to be very fun at dinner, your work party, and bae will definitely think you’re a weirdo. Oh well.

These are 25 unsettling facts that will shake you to your core:


1.

If you are a certain distance from a nuclear explosion, you won’t be killed immediately but instead, you’ll get third degree burns throughout your entire body. This kills your nerves so fast that it’s completely painless.

2.

I test schools’ water for lead. Millions of children across the United States, many people here included, are being exposed to absurdly high levels of lead. This leads to behavior and learning problems, lower IQ, hyperactivity, slowed growth, hearing problems, and anemia. If not for yourself, for the sake of your children, please use filters at home.

3.

There are at least 8 nuclear weapons that are known to be missing.

4.

There’s now a strain of gonorrhea which is totally resistant to antibiotic treatment.

5.

If an asteroid happened to be on collision course with Earth, we can’t really do anything against it. Not only this, but quite frequently we fail to notice asteroids that fly stupidly close to the Earth until after the fact. For example, in July an asteroid the size of a passenger jet passed by the Earth. We discovered it 3 days after it would have hit us, had it been on a collision course. Also, it passed by at a distance of 76k miles. That sounds like a lot, right? Well, that’s only a third of the distance between the Earth and Moon.

Written by Laura McNairy

Laura is a freelance writer for TFLN. She likes to write about what she knows best — dating, sex, and being awkward, but usually in the opposite order. She is the Assistant Editor and videographer for Peach Fuzz, a sex-positive nudie magazine in ATX.