The Scary Truth
A lot of what is considered “normal” is actually very, very terrifying. Whether it be unseen facts we were unaware of, scary social expectations, or dehumanizing systems we put up with, these facts about everyday life will shock you. With no further ado, here are 20 things we really should stop accepting as normal.
Aleksei Sabulevskii on Unsplash
1. Driving
Driving is often perceived as an ordinary activity, and in many ways, it is. But if we compare how often and how easily we drive with how often things go wrong on the road, it is one of the riskiest things we do on a day-to-day basis. Year after year, thousands of accidents and injuries are the result of driving.
2. Constant Surveillance
Living under constant surveillance has become an accepted part of modern life, but what's normal is also unsettling. Cameras, online tracking, and data harvesting monitor our daily routines in ways we barely register. The terrifying part is how willingly we sacrifice privacy for convenience.
3. Burnout Culture
Burnout culture is a weirdly celebrated tragedy in our day and age, despite the very real and very serious mental and physical health consequences. Running oneself ragged, glorifying hours worked, and never-ending productivity like it’s not toxic is frankly terrifying.
4. Having Children
Childbirth is a natural event. However, it is also one of the most physically dangerous things a person can go through. Labor and delivery can have severe results, but it is treated like a normal and expected thing rather than a very traumatic and serious medical process.
5. Aging
Aging is something that is inevitable for everyone, but the withering that comes with age is something that is quietly accepted and written off as unavoidable. The risk of getting sick, losing independence, and even passing on becomes greater as time passes.
6. Work Culture
You work your whole life just to pay for things. We all do. It's the point of most people's lives: you work to pay for things. And people have accepted this sad state of affairs as normal. The point of life is to live, but to do so you must work, and what else is there to life except work and surviving in our society?
7. The Earth Itself
We are on a small planet that is whizzing around in space at incredible speeds, protected by a thin layer of atmosphere. On all sides of us there are hundreds of invisible asteroids and meteors that could threaten us at any second. For the most part, most of us carry on our everyday lives blissfully unaware of the universal dangers around us.
The New York Public Library on Unsplash
8. Debt Crisis
In the modern world, it has become socially acceptable to borrow oneself into obscene amounts of debt just to go to school or receive basic healthcare. It’s horrifying that people need to sacrifice their fiscal safety nets just to be able to obtain opportunity and access necessary services.
9. Ridesharing
Riding in someone else's personal vehicle via Uber or Lyft is a mundane part of many people's lives. But this activity is essentially putting oneself at risk. A complete stranger is being trusted to drive one around, often through unknown territory.
10. Impossible Healthcare
In the U.S., receiving basic medical care can be a form of financial torment. Many are forced to choose between health treatment and bankruptcy. This occurs in the richest country in the world.
11. Tipping Culture
Workers have been conditioned in various industries to work for tips rather than being given a livable, guaranteed wage. This has been accepted as a normal state of affairs. They are forced to rely on the kindness of strangers to make a living.
12. Trick or Treating
Halloween is the only holiday where we reverse every safety precaution that we have learned our entire lives. Trick or treat, and you are allowed to talk to strangers, take candy from strangers, and go out after dark. No one questions it or has problems with this.
13. Rudeness
Incivility and disrespect are so routine in daily life that many of us have just grown accustomed to them at work, in our communities, at home, and on public streets. We may even know better but still accept rudeness, incivility, and even violence as part of “the way things are.”
14. Teacher Expectations
Teachers work thousands of unpaid hours over and above their contracts. Society normalizes their overwork. They prepare lessons and mark at home after hours and on weekends, but they do so unpaid.
National Cancer Institute on Unsplash
15. Streaming
Paying for multiple streaming services can seem like a given in the culture of entertainment consumption these days, but it's actually a relentless drain on resources. Subscription creep happens fast and with relative ease, so it's simple to find yourself shelling out several hundred dollars a year to catch up on all your favorite shows and movies.
16. Environmental Degradation
Humans have already destroyed, changed, or built upon almost all of the land on Earth. The majority of remaining natural spaces, like forests, wetlands, and other ecosystems, are either broken up, degraded, or under threat. However, we often behave as if nature is unlimited, failing to notice or accept that truly wild places are becoming rare.
17. Insurance
The premiums are deducted or paid on time each month or year, but the claims are denied, delayed, or limited in coverage. The frightening thing is how we condition ourselves to depend on a system that's designed to protect but is set up to let you down when you need it most.
18. Everything Digital
We live in a world that is almost completely digitized, but very few question it as normal. We no longer own movies, music, books, or photos in a physical sense; we own them as files or streams. The scary thing is that we are putting all our memories, our entertainment, and our very knowledge into things that we have no power over.
19. Devious Food
We all find the overconsumption of bad food normal, but what we don't realize is how food companies manipulate us. Food labels, packaging, and marketing all work together to conceal bad nutrition and make processed food sound desirable. It's scary to think we are all tricked into buying things we shouldn’t be eating.
20. The End
Life is finite, but most of us live as if we’ll be around forever. The great inevitability is out there somewhere in the future, but rarely do we think about it. It’s a terrifying reality that’s lurking in the background for everyone.
