What things do you think are being hidden from the general population?

[u/Finch06]

[u/Niminal]

How much recycling is actually just thrown away.

[u/lonewombat → u/Niminal]

Recycling is shitty compared to re-use.

[u/-reTurn2huMan- → u/lonewombat]

The order of the terms Reduce, Reuse, Recycle were not trivial.

[u/Few_Leave_4054 → u/-reTurn2huMan-]

Great point, I must admit

[u/blackdragon1387 → u/lonewombat]

Which is still a distant second to reduce!

[u/PepperoniSue92 → u/Niminal]

I worked at a chain grocery store that was branded for being eco friendly and big on recycling. They would have separate recycling cans for paper, plastic ect for customers. The employees would empty those cans and put them all directly in the same trash chute in the back.

[u/fluffy_samoyed → u/PepperoniSue92]

I remember sitting in a McDonalds which had a bin with one side for recycling and the other for regular rubbish. I saw a worker open the bin, and it was just one large bag, which they then took to a skip/dumpster out in the car park. I hear this is a pretty commonplace practice, so why even the ruse?

[u/StrionicRandom → u/fluffy_samoyed]

Not having recycling as a huge chain looks trashy, no pun intended

[u/orc_fellator → u/StrionicRandom]

A maccy d's near my old place used to have separate bins and the recycling would be picked up at the same time as cardboard but customers just used it as a 2nd garbage bin, because they're animals who actively avoid reading and following instructions

[u/AvonMustang → u/Niminal]

Plastic recycling is practically a myth so little actually gets recycled...

[u/Cowboysclay21 → u/AvonMustang]

There’s a great documentary on this on Netflix - I’ll have to find the name - and how they’ve been able to recycle things that at one point weren’t able to be. They ended up using a lot of what was trashed before and made the surface to roads. Anyway it was eye opening for sure how much USA is the biggest POS for our blatant abuse of single use plastic.

[u/GDMFusername → u/Cowboysclay21]

What's kind of funny, but also sad about the economic progress cycle is being in a position of having to tell people "Hey, we fucked up... Don't do this." -as they enter "first world" status. It's like telling someone "Welcome to the party. Time to go home. The party is over."

[u/Carnilinguist → u/Niminal]

In the San Francisco Bay Area I saw park workers throwing the trash and recycling bags into the same container. When I asked why they weren't keeping them separate, they said everything gets sorted at the dump. Bullshit. Then why do we have separate cans? It's just to make people feel like they're doing something good.

[u/[deleted] → u/Niminal]

This ain’t hidden at all. The EPA estimates it to be 91%. Only 9% of all plastic waste is actually recycled.

[u/kramerica_intern]

The state of our aquifers, specifically how polluted they are.

[u/boomrostad → u/kramerica_intern]

And how low they are…

[u/yasukeyamanashi → u/boomrostad]

They’re still plentiful, but PFAS is a headache for many people that have to distribute water. It moves around in bodies of water in blooms and there’s no way to track where it’ll spike next. Many treatment plants have already started using Reverse Osmosis specifically for PFAS.

[u/Hydrottle → u/yasukeyamanashi]

Explain PFAS like I’m five?

[u/Drozengkeep → u/Hydrottle]

Its a chemical that is industrially produced (often for plastics) that has no known method of decomposing naturally or biologically. So it builds up in the water cycle. Rainwater in most places on earth is no longer considered safe to drink because it is contaminated with PFAS.

[u/SilverAmerican → u/Drozengkeep]

It does decompose slowly, give it a couple thousand years

[u/knoegel → u/SilverAmerican]

Sadly you are correct. These will be in the water for millenia.

[u/Tindermesoftly → u/Hydrottle]

Forever chemicals is the common term, PFOS PFAS is the chemical name. Removable by several methods, but something that doesn't go away. Removing it just ushers it on to somewhere else.

[u/yasukeyamanashi → u/Tindermesoftly]

It can be destroyed via plasma treatment, incinerated, and sonolysis. Unfortunately there’s no way to destroy it from biological life.

[u/Tindermesoftly → u/yasukeyamanashi]

True, I was speaking more to what'd be commonly available. I have a water filtration purification system in my home that has a 99.9% capture rate. But when I go to change the media, I'll have to figure out what to do with it, and unfortunately, none of those are viable options.

[u/yasukeyamanashi → u/Tindermesoftly]

Understood. Hate to even say this, but what you are doing is fine. I get more worried about women (pregnancy), infants, and elderly since they’re the target group for possibly developing health related issues from PFAS.

[u/Tindermesoftly → u/yasukeyamanashi]

My son is 4. The most common form of cancer related to forever chemicals in men is testicular cancer. I had to do something. He deserved nothing less.

[u/OldMastodon5363]

The unfathomable amount of wealth that is off the books and hidden by the wealthy and/or dictators.

[u/tatrielle → u/OldMastodon5363]

I just remembered that video of an Egyptian wedding with multiple custom built venues and they rented out the pyramids. THE PYRAMIDS FOR A PARTY. I mean it was absolutely insane..

The scary thing to me is. These rich folk get bored you know. And they play God and move critical infrastructures of society to entertain their peers.

[u/FlyingNapalm → u/tatrielle]

TBH the pyramids were built by the ancient rich to flex on peasants

[u/Boba_Fettx → u/FlyingNapalm]

They were built by the peasants, for the rich, to flex on the peasants

[u/PowerandSignal → u/Boba_Fettx]

That's how it's done. 

[u/Ornery_Translator285 → u/OldMastodon5363]

My dad laughs when Elon Musk or the royal family are in the news for being the wealthiest

He says “they do know the Saudi royal family doesn’t tell how much they have??”

[u/Renaissance_Slacker → u/Ornery_Translator285]

Nobody has independently examined Saudi oil reserves since the 1970s IIRC. Anything we know about how much oil and wealth the Saudis have is courtesy of the Saudis themselves. So things could go either way …

[u/do_a_quirkafleeg → u/Ornery_Translator285]

Enough to spaff a billion up the wall just to have Neymar play for one of their teams for a few years. 

[u/ksuwildkat → u/Ornery_Translator285]

Spent 2 years in KSA essentially working for the King. At one point I was asked to comment on a report that a member of the Royal family had received a $200m bribe from an American company. In my response I wrote "Anyone who offered (name) a $200m bribe would not be alive today to talk about it. (Name) would have been so insulted that he would have had the person killed and (the company) would have been barred from doing business in the Kingdom. The fact that (company) still has an office in Riyadh indicates they never offered that bribe." I knew for a fact that (name) had refused a bribe that ended in billion for being "not enough for my efforts" when the "effort" would have been nothing more than not opposing something.

[u/igotdeletedonce → u/OldMastodon5363]

I talked to this wealth manager one time that rubbed shoulders with elites that was talking about the Forbes list and how laughable it was. The real wealthy own entire countries and don’t want to be on the world’s richest lists. Guaranteed Putin is a Trillionaire but it’s not listed.

[u/Ohmannothankyou → u/igotdeletedonce]

What do you own when you make the economy? What is your wealth when you own the people?

[u/Big_Natural4838 → u/igotdeletedonce]

I dont believe that Putin is literally trillionaire. But basically he is, because he can use budget of goverment however he wants.

[u/Abalith → u/Big_Natural4838]

I mean… Russia is practically his own personal asset and he’s been converting it to cash for 20+ years.

Stuff like the $230 billion USD it was discovered had been laundered through a bank in Denmark to some untraceable location in the west just a few years ago really makes you think. That’s just one instance we know about.

Offshore “tax havens” really get an easy pass just being known as “tax havens”. Their real worth is the financial secrecy they offer. God only knows what kind of wealth is stashed in these territories but digging too deep into it won’t end well for ya.

[u/DIBE25 → u/Big_Natural4838]

they had 200B in gold and another 500B in US dollars, both have gone down

if you consider Putin's wealth the exact same as Russia's then Putin is a trillionaire but that's because of the oil

for comparison's sake the US has 11 trillion dollars worth of gold

Germany only has ~120B in gold

just adding numbers, not disagreeing

[u/northofreality197 → u/OldMastodon5363]

Remember the Panama papers. Someone even killed the journalist who exposed it. It's one of the few actual proven conspiracy theories.

[u/Cernunnos369 → u/OldMastodon5363]

Even on the books it’s a disgusting amount.

[u/Master_N_Comm → u/OldMastodon5363]

Just imagine the real wealth of Putin or the royal saudi family.

[u/Fellatination]

The history hidden away in the Vatican archive. St. Peter's goes back to when the Romans had control of the city. I'd be most interested to see what information survived from Rome and Old St. Peter's before the current 1500's incarnation was built.

[u/Fullonrhubarb1 → u/Fellatination]

Gosh I'd love to learn about what they have there. It's a real shame they don't share it, especially with the digitisation projects being done by other institutions. There could be so much we don't know that's just sitting there!

[u/Kolfinna → u/Fullonrhubarb1]

Scholars have access to much of it, not tourists

[u/akirivan → u/Kolfinna]

Even scholars don't have access to everything, and it's very hard to gain that access afaik

[u/360SubSeven → u/akirivan]

Robert Langdon tried for years.

[u/jballa03 → u/akirivan]

Check out any of David Kertzer’s books. He is one of our living scholars with interest and access to the Vatican archives. His books are incredibly well-researched, annotated and compelling.

Also, I highly recommend Phillipe Sands’ book “Ratline”. It’s a wild, unexpected story, and in it there is substantial talk about the archives and gaining permission to look at them. (Note: David Kertzer, the author I mentioned up above, is key in helping facilitate access to archives and pops up often. **Spoiler (but not really given the title): Sands uncovers questionable alliances between the Vatican and Nazis, especially at the end of World War II, and how church officials actively shielded at least one high ranking Nazi official on Vatican property in Rome before helping him disappear. I read the book after listening to the podcast and both are excellent. https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p06lh2b5

[u/exitparadise → u/Fellatination]

I think it was Jimmy Carr who said that the Roman Empire didn't go away, it just became the Vatican. All that wealth accrued over hundreds of years locked up in their basement.

[u/Fellatination → u/exitparadise]

It's built on or damn near close to the site of Nero's Circus and the first St. Peter's from roughly 3-400 as well. Humans have been humaning so damn long.

[u/andrewclarkson]

The degree to which the people in charge have no idea what they’re doing and are basically just winging it.

[u/slightlyConfusedKid → u/andrewclarkson]

Aren't we all winging it in life for the most part?!😅

[u/yunotakethisusername → u/andrewclarkson]

Conspiracy theorists want to believe the government is so powerful they can fake things like 9/11 when in reality the government is far too incompetent to achieve basically anything.

[u/bravoredditbravo → u/yunotakethisusername]

I've always believed that some conspiracy theorists are more terrified that there isnt something else going on.

As in, there isnt anyone behind the curtain pulling the strings. At the end of the day, we're all just flying through space on a watery rock with 50-70 years left until utter darkness

[u/krockthewilly]

I wouldn't be surprised if giant corporations regularly have large amounts of money stolen by hackers and that they would hide it in order not to have it affect their stock prices.

[u/jert3 → u/krockthewilly]

Oh big time.

But even more than that: how many ransoms so many corps must have paid. We probably only hear about 1 in 100 cyber ransoms that are paid.

[u/UncoolSlicedBread → u/jert3]

They weren’t big companies, but I’ve definitely known of a few small businesses that have. The crypto bitcoin ones from about 10-12 years ago, they’d lock up your files and you’d have to send whatever ransom to the wallet to get it unlocked.

Even had one of my own jobs get hit by it. Unlucky for those hackers, they landed their crypto ransom on our files the literal day before we were upgrading everything and had just backed things up a few days prior.

[u/zeekoes]

A lot of under the table quid pro quo stuff in politics. Not necessarily with eachother, but if I do this, company X donates some more and if media Y says this, I let some information leak.

[u/Fullonrhubarb1 → u/zeekoes]

I don't know how much has been confirmed, but it's clear this is a big part of the Tories' whole shtick in the UK with party donors calling a lot of the shots. Wasn't as obvious until the pandemic - before then, we just knew who the big donors were and assumed there were backdoor favours and agreements shaping things - but then all the PPE contracts for shady companies turned up in 2020 and truly no attempt was made to pretend it wasn't just to put public money in their mates' coffers.

And then Liz Truss basically announced to everyone that they're in the pockets of the fuel companies and proceeded to give them more money and try to justify that it'd reduce our everyday fuel costs. I wonder how else that money could have been used to help the public with fuel costs 😂

Actually now I think about it there were some similar things about Brexit, people campaigning to leave who had ties with companies who would benefit from that, going back on previous words after new investments/deals, etc....

Oh and the one that comes up a lot, that Theresa May's husband directly profits from cannabis farming so legalising it would introduce competition and lower profits lol. Related: gambling and smoking laws have been lax for so long because of the money generated by them, ie the more people addicted, the more profit for govt.

I mean I'm sure it's gone on much longer and happens everywhere but it's getting a little absurd now with gestures around everything

[u/Lemon-Flower-744 → u/Fullonrhubarb1]

I don't know much about politics but I agree with you.

Did you see that article where a journalist went under cover (I think this was 2020/2021?). They were offering Matt Hancock and a few other MP's to have £10,000 a day to work for a fake Korean company?? It makes you wonder what on earth they are doing day to day.

They also give themselves a massive pat on the back for a job well done and give themselves a pay rise...but can't find any money whatsoever to give the NHS workers a pay rise. Like what?🤷🏼‍♀️

Also, another thing. Who is accepting their expenses?? Didn't one of the MP's use taxpayers money to pay his stables bill?? Another one bought Apple AirPods because she lost hers on the train. WHO is authorising that and why? It's not like they can't afford it! And there they are spouting a load of crap about how 'if you want to get a better paid job, well go get one.' Instead of being on minimum wage...okay but who's going to do all the minimum wage jobs? They are so out of touch with us.

[u/-Hi-Reddit → u/Fullonrhubarb1]

Don't forget the Russians getting an agent into the house of lords.

[u/stephenBB81 → u/zeekoes]

I'm in Canada so it isn't even hidden.

We paid Baba Brinkman Son of one of our members of parliament a boat load of money to sing a TERRIBLE rap https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=06Fr4USvPeE

In front of world leaders...

[u/jert3 → u/stephenBB81]

That's a travesity.

It sucks here in Canada, we never demand accountability or reprecussions when our government behaves illegally. The recent ArriveCan scam being the latest and worst (our gov' paid friendly contractors $200 million dollars for an app that wasnt needed, didn't work, and could have been made for 2 million. It's a pillaging of tax payer's money and no one is getting in any actual legal trouble for the fraud.)

[u/Honest_Sector_2585]

What absolute disarray the public school system is in. Unless you work in a school, you cannot even fathom how horrible it is. From insane behaviors to kids receiving diplomas and only being able to read at a first grade level, it is beyond broken.

[u/t-dogNOLA → u/Honest_Sector_2585]

High school teacher here and I can back this one up. It’s as if the minute our politicians got out of school they completely forget about it. I couldn’t live alone without my wife’s salary to help us out. So many kids just aren’t being raised well either. Their parents also do everything for them or they’ve spent the age of 5 to high school looking at nothing but an iPad or phone screen. And, yes, the administration at my school is insanely disorganized and chaotic. I can’t imagine what the future is going to be like. Covid also drastically changed things. I don’t think most people have realized what it did to our kids. I’ve been teaching for more than 15 years and all of this has exploded in the last 4 years. I would never have thought this only 5 years ago. I’m not some old man complaining about today’s youth because I’m so removed from them. The combination of their behavior, their inability to make decisions on their own, their complete lack of any sort of intellectual curiosity, and the rise of artificial intelligence could be a disaster.

[u/SmokeLuna → u/t-dogNOLA]

I'm 28. I'm approaching a point in my life in this economy/society where I really can't justify even TRYING to live an "average life." It's impossible without insane luck or generational wealth.

When I was growing up, the status quo was still there, morale seemed okay and while I had the feeling that things were gonna be tough when I got older, I had no way to prepare or even consider things getting THIS goddamn bad, globally.

I can't imagine the toll that must take on kids growing up...practically every adult is on the brink of collapse (emotional, mental, financial, etc.) Where is the hope for these kids?

[u/Tasty_Difference_577 → u/Honest_Sector_2585]

I work in college admissions. I'm only seeing a fraction of the students in my area coming through, and they only represent a fraction of the kids even considering college.

Their inability to read, write, and use technology is terrifying. Critical thinking skills are absent. The ability to just Google something when you're stuck doesn't occur to them.

Similarly scary is that we're just letting them get through college and ignoring all of the deficits. I'm not saying everyone is going to be a STEM scholar, but can we at least try a little harder to teach people how to spell?

[u/the_artful_breeder → u/Honest_Sector_2585]

It's not much better in Australia as far as I'm aware, and I doubt it's by accident. The system is working as planned, to produce happy little workers who don't question anything.

[u/SerenaYasha]

There are usa health systems being hacked and I never see news in the news reddit about it.

I only know two but I bet there is more

Change health system been down since Feb 21 2024

Ascension health systems down since. May 8 2024

[u/Amazing-Sort1634 → u/SerenaYasha]

My mom works for united health and they were recently targeted by a group called black cat, the ransom was paid.

Cyber terrorists could be vigilante super heros if this wasn't a world full of normal people. Ransom money was likely used for nefariousness.

[u/WOOBNIT → u/Amazing-Sort1634]

You just made me picture the Disney song

"Robin Hood and Little John running through deep web, dodging feds, using tors, trying to get away"

What if they robbed from United Health and used the money to pay people's med bills!

[u/Competitive_Green126 → u/SerenaYasha]

Yup. An Ascension hospital in my city is on diversion because they are paper charting. My hospitals ER is drowning trying to handle the load of patients being diverted from their ER.

[u/Unlikely-Camel-2598 → u/SerenaYasha]

There are at least 2 world-class university hospitals that lost access to their servers over 2 months ago and it has been kept quiet...it doesn't affect everyday processes, but precision medicine and ongoing trials are pretty fucked at the moment.

[u/CooltownGumby]

Acts of terror they catch, before completion.

[u/Vitalis597 → u/CooltownGumby]

Honestly, this is one of the few "secrets" I'd be happy with them keeping that way.

People are paranoid as fuck as it is. Plus, less reports of failed attacks will likely mean less attempts. "We tried blowing up these three trains, but our guys just up and vanished and no one is saying shit, what the fuck happened?!" "I dunno, should we send another three guys?" "Fuck no! Find out what happened to the last three first!"

[u/HuntedWolf → u/Vitalis597]

We hear whispers of it every now and again, like that bombing in Moscow that Russia ignored the warnings from the US about. Its clear the US knew exactly what was going on, literally when and where since they issued warnings to their own citizens who might be in Russia.

I think it’s also clear from the lack of news about acts themselves. These people are being stopped before they start.

[u/VulcanHullo → u/CooltownGumby]

Did an entire module on security as part of my War and Security degree, where we as homework had to plan terror attacks.

The number of either totally easy to hit major targets or ways around security we - a bunch of (some of us) hungover 20ish hear olds - taught us two lessons.

There are less terrorists than the media would make you think. And our security services must be really good at nabbing most of them before anything can happen.

Do feel bad for the university supervisor who came to observe one of our classes as part of routine observations of lecturers. She announced at the end she would require a long time to feel safe on various forms of transport and possibly a couple of general nightmares.

[u/squirtloaf → u/CooltownGumby]

This. I figure there is an endless stream of potential terrorists who die silently, courtesy of special operatives.

[u/Adler4290 → u/squirtloaf]

My cousin works in his national version of CIA.

Had a weekend coming where we were supposed to meet, 2 yrs ago, where his wife said Wedensday before the weekend that he got a call at dinner, got up, said work called and that he might be back in a week and couldn't tell her where he was going or why.

He left, gave her a life sign Saturday, just quick, hi, i am okay, see you maybe Tuesday.

Came home Tuesday with obvious exposure to sunshine in his face, so must have been south (it was winter in a dark region where we were) outside the country, said hi to wife and ate, looked VERY stressed and tired and told her he had the week off but went to bed and slept nearly 24 hrs straight, only up to get water and pee.

She knows its his job and he cant say shit and thats how it has to be, and dunno what he did, but he MUST have been working 48-72 straight and/or in very stressful conditions outside.

Mentioning this story cause that VERY well could be one of those,

"It never happened so you heard nada about it, but if it DID happen, you absolutely would see a Breaking News banner"

[u/33ITM420 → u/Adler4290]

I had a friend who is navy special forces, and he would always tell me that when he would come back into port, they would raise a newspapers and realize that what is being reported had absolutely nothing to do with what was going on

[u/boomrostad → u/squirtloaf]

Their lists are more comprehensive than any of us could imagine… I would imagine.

[u/ALXD]

The AI we get to play with on every Windows 11 taskbar out there has absolutely GOT to be a freaking POTATO compared to what's on the bleeding edge.

[u/3DCatFancy → u/ALXD]

With the impacts on national security, I can imagine there’s an AI Manhattan Project going on somewhere and the commercial stuff is just to get the public used to the idea.

[u/Stay-At-Home-Jedi → u/3DCatFancy]

The US' stealth aircraft (F-22, B-2, F-117) all flew missions without public debut.

There's an incredibly high chance the military has an AI Manhattan Project.

And in respect to that, the USAF publicly announced when their AI pilot shot down their human wingman in a simulator because the human pilot was preventing the AI from completing the mission...

[u/RevolutionaryDepth59 → u/Stay-At-Home-Jedi]

the AI is already raging at bad teammates? they’re more like us than we could’ve possibly imagined

[u/Stay-At-Home-Jedi → u/RevolutionaryDepth59]

Not so much as raging, more like unintentional utilitarian/deductive reasoning. IIRC, the AI was given 2 (of many) directives. Complete the mission, and do not fire on friendlies. When ordered to hold fire, the AI deduced that it's human wingman was interfering with its ability to complete the mission. It decided that conpleting the mission [let's say stopping the terrorists -but that's not what it was] was of more importance than 1 human. So it dispatched the problem to complete the mission.

[u/mh8235 → u/Stay-At-Home-Jedi]

On some level it does mirror human decision making then; justifying the difficult choices that must be made for the greater good. Reminds me of scene in The Imitation Game when they had to let that ship sink or else it would blow the cover on enigma. I wonder if AI would make that exact same choice in the future. All very fascinating, albeit terrifying.

[u/Mauricethett → u/ALXD]

Yes. I cannot say where I work(nothing scary, just an nda) but I am at a call center, the ai being built for us can predict what people are going to say as they speak.

[u/wethsilkosz → u/Mauricethett]

honestly that’s not as crazy as you’d think, how many people often have the same exact questions? i’d actually say using ai for stuff like call centers is a good thing, theres so much wasted time, companies usually outsource to third world countries paying cents on the dollar and consumers grow frustrated with the low level of customer support

[u/Spontanudity]

Positive news.

[u/mrsmunsonbarnes → u/Spontanudity]

No they definitely do. They recently had a breakthrough in the treatment of glioblastoma, but that’s never going to be front page news when all the negative stories generate the traffic.

[u/BlackCaaaaat → u/mrsmunsonbarnes]

That’s fantastic news! Fuck cancer.

[u/Greeneyesablaze → u/BlackCaaaaat]

That particular kind of cancer especially 

[u/Jazzlike_Ear725 → u/Spontanudity]

agreed. i feel like this is why the world seems so much more divided because of what's currently being shown in the media

[u/Schmoahawk]

The amount of pharmaceutical residue is a pollution no one talks about that's in our water ways and oceans. Yes, states do their best to reduce other containments such as nitrates, mercury, trace metals and nasty bacteria. All of the drugs Americans consume and then get flushed into the sewers are not monitored. Smallmouth bass were developing male testes as well as female ovaries in the Susquehanna River in Pennsylvania. Most likely culprit was pharmaceutical residue from birth control pills found in the water. It all winds up in the ocean and it really makes you wonder about how safe our seafood really is to consume.

[u/carolinagypsy → u/Schmoahawk]

I remember several— SEVERAL! Years ago I read a random article in our city’s paper about how our municipal water had tested positive for all of these different pharmaceutical drugs— a ton of them were mental health drugs, a lot of heart med drugs, etc. And how they had no clue of how to filter them out, doubted that regular filters you can buy for your water (like fridge and faucet filters) filter them out, and no clue of what they were doing to us or how much people were consuming.

Annnnnnd then it just…. Went away. Like oh well, yeah, it’s a thing, anyway…… Never really brought up again in media as something to be concerned about or if anything was ever being done to try to fix or research it.

[u/ScreeminGreen → u/carolinagypsy]

I went to a local pharmacy to drop off unused medications for disposal and they said they didn’t do that. I pointed to the collection box next to the register and asked about the sign saying they did. The pharmacist knew nothing about it. So I can only assume that noone is disposing of their drugs properly here.

[u/winchester_mcsweet → u/Schmoahawk]

Pa resident here, they used to dump just about everything in the suskie, my parents told me stories of the toilet paper plant in the area adjacent to the river, they dyed the paper different colors and emptied the excess right in the water. One day the rivers blue, next week pink etc. I'll fish it for sport I won't eat anything out of it. Oh, and then there was the knox mine disaster where the coal company got greedy and mined under the river, it collapsed and flooded the mine killing people. They were so desperate to close the hole they were pushing whole train cars into the void and the mine just ate them. The riverbank is still rusty in some areas.

[u/skibba25]

There were some pretty horrific crimes not being told to the public when I was police. It wasn't really in the public interest for anyone to know outside of law enforcement and the judicial system etc. Some were either so indiscriminate and terrible and some would just cause too much panic.

[u/nurse2009cvicu]

Kaiser works numbers and decides if it’s cheaper for a patient to die vs paying for the treatments. They factor in that family will sue. Check out your new contract when u agree to Kaiser insurance with that maximum 250,000 payout. Still don’t understand how it is legal for a company to run insurance and ownes a monopoly of hospitals. Insurance and hospitals are are suppose to be checks and balances on each-other.

[u/oceanduciel]

Epstein’s client list

[u/spudzilla → u/oceanduciel]

And the Washington Madam's client list from decades ago.

[u/Goddessdepollo → u/spudzilla]

I’ve never heard of that. What is it?

[u/DIBE25 → u/Goddessdepollo]

https://www.vice.com/en/article/8qje7b/inside-the-us-postal-services-investigation-into-the-dc-madam-v24n3

wiki has some other stuff

basically she ran a high end escort service, committed a bunch of crimes and then had to release her client list which was just phone numbers

they matched with a lot of politicians and government employees

[u/Robotic_space_camel]

Military technology at the top level is definitely several decades ahead of what we’re even aware exists. All the technologies and sciences that you can think “I wonder if the military will find a way to use that” are definitely either already in prototype stage, being actively developed, or are already in limited production.

[u/ThisIsTheGpodawund → u/Robotic_space_camel]

I always think about how if something as advanced as the SR-71 Blackbird was in use in the 1960’s, the classified technology/prototypes they’re working on now must be unfathomable.

[u/rob_s_458 → u/ThisIsTheGpodawund]

Last year Lockheed tweeted something to the effect that the SR-71 is still the fastest acknowledged crewed, air-breathing aircraft. Definitely hinting at something

[u/ericsonofbruce → u/rob_s_458]

A human body can only handle so many g's, the future of aerial combat has always been unmaned. Once you take the human out of the plane, the only limitation is strength of materials

[u/vferrero14 → u/ericsonofbruce]

U.S military has already acknowledged using AI piloted f16s. In training exercises they are performing comparable to human pilots with 3k hours of flight time.

[u/FucktardSupreme → u/vferrero14]

Within a year or two, they will be able to beat any human pilot.  Then, they will only be fighting  themselves.  And once they get to only fighting themselves, they won't need aircraft at all.

[u/MyCrackpotTheories → u/FucktardSupreme]

And then SkyNet becomes conscious.

[u/Zeelots → u/rob_s_458]

Yep. No real need for a crew anymore. Drones can go faster and only have structural limits for g's

[u/LordRednaught → u/Robotic_space_camel]

I think one of my favorite stories was when the government donated used lenses to one of the satellites for nasa (if I recall) to use in Hubble or something similar. They had decommissioned the project they were using them in from about 10 years earlier. NASA realized that the lenses were 5-6 times more powerful than what they use in their telescopes to see distant galaxies.

[u/TowardsTheImplosion → u/LordRednaught]

It was two leftover NRO optical spy sat carcasses...basically frames and busses for massive optics packages.

They stripped the optics though. But the diameter and other characteristics hinted at capabilities.

[u/NinjaBreadManOO → u/TowardsTheImplosion]

As I recall wasn't one of the conditions was that they couldn't be pointed at Earth?

[u/quesoandcats → u/LordRednaught]

They were old lenses for NRO (National Reconnaissance Office) satellites! They donated them to NASA because the NRO considered them obsolete

[u/AvonMustang → u/Robotic_space_camel]

And it's not just flashy tech either. They had to strip off the super secret armor from our tanks before sending them to Ukraine because they were afraid they might fall into the hands of the Russians. Armor!

[u/Ilosesoothersmaywin → u/AvonMustang]

Metallurgy has been the front of military improvements since the dawn of time.

[u/system_deform → u/Ilosesoothersmaywin]

Well, at least since the Bronze Age…

[u/Stormymelodies → u/Robotic_space_camel]

The funny thing about that is on the lower levels of the military they are still things that are far behind. My husband still uses a type writer for one of his tasks for his job 😂

[u/Whitino → u/Stormymelodies]

Hard to hack a typewriter!

[u/notyourharley → u/Robotic_space_camel]

My dad did time in the military, and while he won't repeat what he's actually seen, he just says most of what people think are UFOs are definitely military aircraft that the public has no idea about.

[u/UncoolSlicedBread → u/notyourharley]

Neighbor talked about working in his shop one night, we always have helos practicing maneuvers from the base nearby, and him suddenly getting a feeling he’s being watched as he was outside smoking a cigar.

Says he just looks up and notices some lenses from night vision goggles and a hand waving from a pilot. The he realizes that there’s a helicopter hovering not so far away and he didn’t hear it approaching.

And as soon as he realized it’s above him, it’s pulling away and into the night sky. Said he had his radio playing but it wasn’t loud enough to drown out a helicopter. It confused him to the point where he didn’t tell anyone for a while, and eventually asked his uncle who works on the base.

He said his uncle just said, “I believe that you think you saw something, and I think you should too.”

[u/Colossal_Penis_Haver → u/UncoolSlicedBread]

Silencing choppers is probably the biggest use-case of noise cancelling tech. A challenge for sure but calculable for nerds and computers and nerds with computers.

[u/Budget-Supermarket70 → u/notyourharley]

Well they are still not wrong. They are still UFO's.

[u/spudzilla → u/notyourharley]

I have friends who did secret things in the military. No matter how drunk they get they never spill the beans. The military must know how to really put the fear of punishment into people.

[u/PM_ME_YR_KITTYBEANS → u/spudzilla]

And/or they understand the gravity of the information and what kinds of ripples it would send into the world if it fell into the wrong hands.

[u/youknowmystatus → u/PM_ME_YR_KITTYBEANS]

And these are just the ones allowed to leave the program..

[u/Kirske → u/spudzilla]

I knew someone who had a military job he had to keep from everyone, even his wife had no idea what his job entailed. When I first met him I asked what he did. His answer was "The same thing I did when I was younger." When I asked what that was he said "The same thing I do now." Same as your friends no matter how drunk he got he still never talked about his job.

[u/SpacecadetShep → u/notyourharley]

This! A lot of people reported seeing triangle shaped UFOs back in the 70/80s ...those were just stealth jets being tested

[u/Aaaaaaarrrrrggggghh → u/Robotic_space_camel]

They actually have computer printers that don't get jammed up

[u/Hamelzz → u/Robotic_space_camel]

If Chat-GTP 4.0 is consumer grade tech I have no doubt in my mind that the CIA or Pentagon have a fully fleged sentient AGI in their basement

[u/Noob_Al3rt → u/Hamelzz]

Or at the very least, some day trading AI to make a few hundred million when they need it. Or some AI bots designed to influence public opinion.

[u/KickupKirby → u/Noob_Al3rt]

Pretty sure this already exists. I forget the name but there is a program from the 80’s that runs the markets. It tells the government who to give money to when things go wrong and for some reason it’s always the banks/airlines. It had a cool acronym. Maybe someone else can chime in and tell us the name. I’m pretty sure it’s still in use today as I saw this article about it relatively recently.

[u/bizkitman11 → u/KickupKirby]

Alladin?

[u/codizer → u/Robotic_space_camel]

True, sometimes. The true scary part is that sometimes we are way behind where people expect us to be.

[u/AdevilSboyU]

What toys the military currently has in their toy box.

Rule of thumb is that the US military is usually ~10 years ahead of the tech available to consumers, so they probably have some pretty wild stuff ready to go.

[u/Pando5280 → u/AdevilSboyU]

7-8 years ago there was a story out of Iran where Isreal used a facial recognition scanner attached to a machine gun hidden in a vehicle to assassinate a nuclear scientist driving by at 40 mph. They also used drone swarms programmed with facial recognition to attack Hamas leaders, like multiple hunter killer drones scanning crowds looking for a single person to assassinate. Future battlefields will involve drone swarms with descending tiers of attack priorities, ie they'll go after tanks and artillery first then groups of troops and then individual soldiers all independent of human operators. Laser tech for downing missiles and aircraft is gonna be the next big tech to be revealed but we will wait until the next war to involve US troops to use it. (GPS and night vision were both mil tech that became mainstream, same with surveillance drones whivh progressed to bomb dropping drones in Ukraine)

[u/ChickenNugsBGood]

Whatever those Boeing “suicides” were covering up

[u/CarterCrusader]

That the government is actually very afraid of the population revolting due to poor living conditions and the things they do to try to keep us divided or unaware of the fact that the people getting screwed over massively outnumber those in power and those they pay to enforce their rule.

[u/DreadPirateGriswold]

The gold, or lack thereof, in Fort Knox.

[u/WhipMaDickBacknforth → u/DreadPirateGriswold]

I know about Operation Grand Schlam!

[u/Upbeat_Tension_8077]

How many menu items are actually microwaved at restaurants

[u/HoneyfluffyWhirl]

The location of all these hot singles in my area

[u/NickDanger3di → u/HoneyfluffyWhirl]

I'm just gonna leave this Cyanide & Happiness video called Junk Mail here. It is relevant, and also NSFW, so be mindful of the children and coworkers...

[u/LessImprovement8580]

Personal finance. Why are high school kids forced to take three years of math and chemistry but don't understand how a loan works?

[u/Dead_Halloween → u/[deleted]]

“It says here in this history book that luckily, the good guys have won every single time. What are the odds?” -Norm MacDonald

[u/Furaskjoldr → u/Dead_Halloween]

I mean it doesn’t really work out for world war 1. I don’t know how it’s taught in america, but in most of Europe world war 1 is kinda taught like there was no bad guys, it was just a huge conflict that everyone got dragged into in some way another. The ‘good guys’ didn’t win because there was no good or bad guys.

[u/Accomplished_Ant5895 → u/Furaskjoldr]

We were certainly taught the same about WW1 in my US school. WW2, however…

[u/YarpYarpKennyVSpenny]

I still think something was up when Hawaii got that text about an incoming ICBM. Like it was actually happening and somehow we were able to stop it.

[u/Petty_Paw_Printz → u/YarpYarpKennyVSpenny]

The videos from that were so surreal. Especially those parents putting their young children into manholes. Wild

[u/Beaglegod → u/YarpYarpKennyVSpenny]

I was on the big island at a resort. Wife and I got the screeching alert on our phone. There was a golf course outside our room, we went outside and saw all the old people running to their golf carts lol.

Went to the bar later and it was obvious the talk of the town.

What a crazy thing.

[u/JustTheBeerLight → u/Beaglegod]

Went to the Winchester and waited for it all to blow over?

[u/motorcycleboy9000 → u/JustTheBeerLight]

Probably more like The Simpsons Movie, where everyone at the bar ran screaming into the church and everyone in the church ran screaming into the bar.

[u/Fearless_Lab → u/motorcycleboy9000]

One of the best gags I've ever seen them do.

[u/orion284 → u/JustTheBeerLight]

Well, fuck-a-doodle-do!

[u/Streetquats → u/YarpYarpKennyVSpenny]

I was there, living on Oahu. I think about it all the time.

I sometimes wonder if anyone other people (especially people on the mainland) remember that day when it is burned into my mind.

Sometimes I wonder if I actually died that day and now I'm just living in purgatory :)

[u/carolinagypsy → u/Streetquats]

I have a friend that was there that argues that she had something like ptsd from it, and I think there’s a legit argument for it. I can’t imagine how terrifying it was but also how affecting it must be to think you really were saying goodbye to family and friends… man. I’m sorry it’s still affecting you (and others like my friend).

That almost makes a good argument for a conspiracy theory though that it was a psychological test. Yanno. Just to see how people would react and what the psychological effects are.

[u/madeinnorthwest → u/YarpYarpKennyVSpenny]

Who do you think shot the ICBM? I have trouble believing this theory as there would have been repercussions for whoever fired the missile.

[u/mata_dan → u/madeinnorthwest]

And even amateurs would've been able to detect the interception from across the pacific.

[u/ShiraCheshire → u/YarpYarpKennyVSpenny]

A lot of things in history are suspicious, but I think that one might really have been sheer incompetence.

[u/OUMUAMUAMUAMUAMUAMUA]

The amount of radiation and pollution that all governments are collectively allowing corporations to create. There's a reason cancer and other diseases have been on the rise for 70 years. Plastics, oil, carbon monoxide, things we know about, and things we don't know about.

[u/Koningkrush → u/OUMUAMUAMUAMUAMUAMUA]

I can assure you radiation is not the issue. At least radiation rapidly breaks down compared to the hundreds of thousands of undocumented plastic chemicals that are dumped into rivers every day.

[u/NewJerrrrrrsyBoy]

The true extent of the Catholic Church's abuse/coverups of abuse.

:::UPDATE::: Wow a lot of people liked this one. I wanted to acknowledge that while my point about the Vatican stands, the Roman Catholic Church is not the only religious community that, even just through tradition piety or shame, has to deal with people with religious authority abusing minors. This is of course abhorrent regardless of the source and anyone guilty of this should be locked up forever. I just wanted to play fair here.

[u/zach2thefuture → u/NewJerrrrrrsyBoy]

If the US Coast Guard has so many, the Catholic Church has fuckin millions

[u/Reasonable-Log-3486 → u/zach2thefuture]

I've heard the Marines and Air Force are 2 of the worst as far military branches, when it comes to sexual assault and rape.

Also, AMR. Lots of assault going on in that company.

[u/Ac997 → u/Reasonable-Log-3486]

I went to visit my uncle who is in the AF he was in some position where he would take the reports on SAs he said it was insane how much abuse goes on in the Air Force. Being a civilian I never thought our Air Force would have a rampant raping problem. Was pretty shocked.

[u/phager76 → u/[deleted]]

Incredibly well said! This comment is far too low. While I've "adjusted" to the new normal, I still haven't recovered, mentally or financially, from the pandemic. I feel a perpetual sense of dread. Even though I can see things are improving for me, I'm constantly waiting for the other shoe to drop.

[u/carolinagypsy → u/phager76]

This is a really good way of putting it. Constant feeling of dread and I’m exhausted from always bracing for whatever is the next “what’s next.”

And setbacks I’ve had in my life since, I can’t recover from or bounce back as easily as I used to, even though they aren’t nearly on the same scale. I used to just be able to acknowledge it, have some time of “fuuuuuuck me,” and then roll with it on fixing it or adjusting and moving on.

[u/SimiaeUltionis]

All the horrific animal and human experiments. dont you think they dident try to make a human chimpanzee hybrid.

[u/squirtloaf → u/SimiaeUltionis]

Also: Human cloning. They did sheep 30 years ago and we're supposed to believe it just kind of stopped there?

[u/Slayerofthemindset → u/squirtloaf]

Advanced technology companies and governments are likely a decade or so ahead of what the public is aware of. Everyone taking about the future of deep fake videos when they should be talking about the history of them. How many videos were deep faked before people were aware of the tech to make them?

[u/Aidlin87 → u/Slayerofthemindset]

I remember someone telling me about foldable phone screens back in 2010. They were already well into development by then. Also fabric screens, which I haven’t seen anything about since. I wonder if that ended up a failure or if it’s upcoming at some point.

[u/Lapamasa → u/Aidlin87]

I've seen a big screen tv that you can roll up. 

LG SIGNATURE rollable OLED R

Costs 100k.

[u/Finch06 → u/SimiaeUltionis]

My sleep-addled brain definitely read human centipede

[u/Myfourcats1 → u/SimiaeUltionis]

They used to do horrific things to disabled people in institutions. If you ever read The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks you can learn some of it.

[u/bubbajones5963 → u/SimiaeUltionis]

I drove past the Meat Animal Research Facility in Nebraska once, they had signs up saying lethal force is authorized for trespassing. I wonder what goes on in there.

[u/Lovely_BunnyCharm]

When i was younger, I read a story in the news of a company that had come up with a bacteria that they would put into your mouth. This bacteria was harmless to people, but ate the bacteria that damages our teeth. It would have destroyed the dental industry. For some reason, I never saw it again.

[u/PM_ME_GLUTE_SPREAD → u/Lovely_BunnyCharm]

This was most likely a case of a research lab being very relaxed with how they reported their research in order to gain funding, with the actual research not panning out or being able to be mass produced. It happens a lot.

A group will have a medicine that cures [disease] in 99.9% of cases but they only have a sample size of 100. When they expand their sample, they found out that it was closer to 10% and had as bad or worse side effects than the current medicine that has a 30% success rate.

If something like this truly existed to the extent that they claimed it did, it wouldn’t have just disappeared, the rich would have it while the poors had to make do with root canals.

[u/Alcohol_Intolerant → u/PM_ME_GLUTE_SPREAD]

Or it's 99% effective in rats and then you move to humans and the efficacy drops considerably. The thing about testing on rats is you end up making a lot of medicine that's great for treating rats.

[u/SimiKusoni → u/PM_ME_GLUTE_SPREAD]

That particular thing does exist, but it's ethically... dubious. Primarily because it works by having a GMO strain of bacteria outcompete harmful bacteria and can be transmitted from person to person.

Not only does this make it a questionable business model but it raises questions as to consent given that people who haven't opted for treatment will inevitably end up with this strain colonising their mouth.

Oddly enough it is also currently in the process of being revived. It seems a lot of regulatory oversight in the USA can be sidestepped simply by calling something a cosmetic...

[u/Load-More-Comets → u/PM_ME_GLUTE_SPREAD]

It does exist, though. Latern bioworks just started selling it. It was because of patent stuff that it didn't get released when it was found

[u/Professional_Gas8021 → u/Lovely_BunnyCharm]

Do you know where you read that? I’m pushing 40, never had a cavity and once was told by a dentist that I gave a bacteria that feeds on plaque. I still take care of my teeth but I’ve been lax enough in my younger years I should have had one or two cavities. 

[u/laser50 → u/Professional_Gas8021]

I've actually read somewhere today the reason for that is your mouth microbiome does not contain the strand of bacteria that causes cavities. You can get it through saliva, and then it doesn't really go away any more.

[u/jackfaire]

My body. I'm not taking my clothes off in public.

[u/kimchi_kisses → u/jackfaire]

What if I give you three monies and a couch peanut?

[u/Nena902]

Experimentation on the general public and particularly on low grade military members, mental hospital patients, the homeless without consent

[u/No-Order9609 → u/Nena902]

I used to work in clinical research and when I was starting out, part of my training involved reading the laws around clinical research. I was shocked to find that informed consent is not required for members of the military or wards of the state. Essentially, the government owns you so they can do what they want to you.

[u/OddRepresentative958]

What happens with all our personal data that is taken from us on a daily basis

[u/seamus1982]

I’m not a conspiracy obsessive at all, but the US military (and even Obama) have acknowledged there are things flying around in the sky, captured visually and on radar, darting around in ways that should be impossible and we don’t know what they are. And they are seen all the time. We don’t HAVE to jump to aliens necessarily - but it’s a legit mystery and someone must have an idea of what they are.

[u/Forever-Retired]

Politics are FAR more underhanded than the general public realizes.

[u/Puzzleheaded-Let-880]

The fringe right and fringe left are not an accident. They are molded and encouraged to grow. Money and power interests want to keep the general public divided because it is easier to control a divided people. Think about how easy it is to get someone behind a cause or point the finger at the other side, that's how you get votes. Why do you think there's only 2 political parties in the USA?

If we were actually united, we could get rid of money in politics, get rid of trash politicians that just want to get reelected and don't care about then welfare of the people.

[u/planetfour → u/Puzzleheaded-Let-880]

This is why generation classifications are among some of my most deplored phenomena

[u/jert3 → u/Puzzleheaded-Let-880]

It says a ton that the strongest nation on earth has multiple presidents who were career actors as their previous jobs.

And here in Canada, pretty similiar. Trudeau was variety show host and a high school teacher but just happened to be a son of previous prime minister so he got the job.

Modern democracies don't elect the most intelligent, useful or skilled to lead. It's entirely your public relations potential. Become president or prime minister is much the same as being elected class president in high school. It's pretty sad, actually.

[u/Konigstiger444]

Carmen San Diego

[u/badhairdad1]

The American education system is truly terrible. Most American graduates are not even 9th graders