It can sometimes be easy to forget that life goes on in the world, even if you don’t see it on social media or the news. But, for better or worse, events are happening and have constantly been happening, often below most folks’ radar. 

Someone asked the internet “What’s something going on around the world right now that the public knows nothing about?” and netizens shared their thoughts. From tragedies to dystopian ways of life, people detailed some things they believed should be more widely known. So be sure to upvote the most interesting as you scroll through and comment your thoughts below. 

#1

In May, the Ugandan government changed the punishment for being found to be in the LGBTQ community from life imprisonment to the death penalty.

Image credits: Space-Plane4563

#2

Kids in the Congo have been mining cobalt in colonial conditions for the last few decades. This cobalt is used in everything that is supposedly eco-friendly and sustainable.

Image credits: alexztrie

#3

Nearly everyone on the Epstein list will be just fine.

Image credits: OcupiedMuffins

If reading through this left you with a sense of dread, it’s also important to note that, for better or worse, the current era isn’t necessarily worse and is, indeed, probably quite a bit better than the past. After all, reporters and news providers love to share the horrors of the world with us. So after reading all of the ideas here, it can be comforting to turn to a more sober analysis.

American historian Barbara W. Tuchman wrote that “Disaster is rarely as pervasive as it seems from recorded accounts. The fact of being on the record makes it appear continuous and ubiquitous whereas it is more likely to have been sporadic both in time and place. Besides, persistence of the normal is usually greater than the effect of the disturbance, as we know from our own times. After absorbing the news of today, one expects to face a world consisting entirely of strikes, crimes, power failures, broken water mains, stalled trains, school shutdowns, muggers, drug addicts, neo-Nazis, and rapists.” 

#4

The wars in Ukraine and Palestine aren’t the only wars happening. They’re not even the deadliest conflicts. According to the Geneva Academy, there are currently 110 armed conflicts worldwide. Five of the current conflicts are classified as major wars (over 10,000 combat-related deaths), 17 are wars (9,999 – 1,000 deaths), and an additional 18 are minor wars (999 – 100 deaths). Even more surprising is that the most violent war isn’t in Ukraine or Palestine…it’s in Myanmar. People generally don’t realize how much fighting is happening across the world. 

Image credits: StableSuspicious9727

#5

Microplastics are now being found in all food protein sources in significant numbers and found in human organs and human placentas. We have no real idea how they will affect us or the environment and their presence will keep growing unchecked with no solution even proposed.

Image credits: Hypergnostic

#6

It is legal in America to sign your kids over to be hogtied in the night by strangers, thrown in a van, and carried off to the wilderness to be abused until they obey your every whim. Look at “gooning” and the Troubled Teen Industry.

 

edit : Gooning also means something about m*sturbating. That obviously isn’t what I’m talking about here.

 

DaJelly:

 

this happened to me. over 15 years later and i’m still all f**ked up from it. my brain can’t even process or put into words the abuse and gaslighting and how awful it was. i’ve never been to prison but i work with a lot of those that have. these “troubled teen schools” are the perfect storm of prison meets mental institution without all the gross red tape of laws because they are minors and have no rights and the “school” has custody and can do mostly as they wish.the irony is i never did drugs or really anything “troubled” before, but when i turned 18 and was allowed to leave i spent the next decade heavily drinking and doing any drug i could to deal with the trauma. i also was bunked with kids who did do those things that taught me exactly how and why i should. id also already served the time so might as well right. i’m sober now but damn… this is one of the most vile and evil things you could ever do to another human let alone your own children. and you pay for the privilege.

Image credits: Alcorailen

As she states later in the same passage, many of us read about these sorts of things every day, without encountering them. It’s generally best to keep a sense of rationality. After all, many people still fear air travel, yet, in the US, no one has died in a commercial aircraft accident since 2009. Given the number of flights taken every single day, this is a staggering achievement. 

#7

I believe there’s essentially a holocaust going on in the Congo right now we hear nothing about.

vluggejapie68:

Congo has been hell on earth for over thirty years. I guess the cobalt keeps coming so nobody is complaining.

Image credits: Fresh-Hedgehog1895

#8

Modern-day slavery rarely makes front-page news.

Hattkake:

Associated Press did a big thing on that some years ago. If you don’t read Associated Press then you probably did not see anything about that. But they did month after month after month of reporting on various modern-day slaveries. None of it made it to the headlines.

Image credits: tamtamdanseren

#9

You’d be gobsmacked how many people don’t believe in child trafficking. Most people still think it’s a myth. If you ask people you know about what they think about child trafficking, I’m sure at least one will either know nothing about it or think it’s a myth.

Image credits: LoneWolfOfReach

#10

Uyghurs will soon be systematically erased as a culture, and they are really unlucky to have China as their culprit. Any other country doing something similar would be shamed to death right now, but everyone is afraid of China and losing their businesses there so they just chill and pretend “you’re not educated on the situation”. Their kids will be raised as “default” Chinese, their adults are in reeducation camps, their lands will be flooded with other Chinese and their history will be gone and erased. Seems exaggerated? Go check if Tibet is still really Tibet right now… They carefully engineer their country to maintain good order and hegemony…Black Mirror is nothing compared to reality.

Image credits: ImmediatelyOcelot

#11

About 60% of the cocoa used in chocolate production is picked by child slaves. A few years ago kids who had all been picking cocoa for 10+ years brought a case to the US supreme court. The kids were 12, 14, and 15. So they start them as young as 2 years old.

Image credits: Ralphie5231

#12

The alarming amount of bodies they are finding in Lake Ladybird in Austin Texas. People know about it but the media doesn’t shine too much light on it as much as they should. There’s a f*****g serial killer or something out there just getting rid of bodies of males in that lake. Also the amount of people that are getting drugged or roofied at the bars in downtown. There’s some seriously wild s**t going down.

#13

The public vastly ignores the likelihood of the full on collapse of food chains due to climate change.

If you thought prices were bad now, wait until 85% of the population is fighting over rice and grain in 2030.

Fun fact: Globally, there is approximately two months of food storage. If crops are decimated for even one season, it would be absolutely catastrophic.

#14

bout half the people you interact with on reddit, Twitter, YouTube comments, twitch comments, etc… aren’t real people. 

Most of the articles you read on most ‘news’ sites are using AI generated content. 

When you talk to Customer Support via text chat, it is most likely now an Generative AI agent. Especially if it’s grammar is good.

It’s getting harder and harder to see and understand reality. It’s like we’re constructing some kind of weird nightmare in our society and we haven’t even realized it.

Image credits: Tall_Delay_5343

#15

The “domestic worker” trade where they bring mostly women from African countries like Ghana, Kenya, etc. and send them to countries in the Middle East to work. Unfortunately they are treated like slaves, not people. No phones, no going out, no set work hours, domestic violence, rape, and humiliation. Oh, and their salaries are about $200 – $300 a month.

I am Lebanese. I have seen atrocities committed against these women. They are already deemed “suspicious” before they even step foot in the country because “they learn everything before they come” and their employers think their sole purpose is to come and scam them. They rely on them for childcare, cleaning, taking care of the elderly, etc.

They used to do it to Indians and Sri Lankan women so they stopped coming to Lebanon. Then they moved to Philippino women who also stopped coming. Now it’s women from African countries.

There’s an even worse one than domestic workers. It’s actual sex workers from Eastern Europe. They are brought to Lebanon to work as sex workers and stay holed up in a hotel. They “perform” in a night club and men come, buy a bottle, and get to sit with her until closing time. The next day, he goes to the hotel where she lives and he takes her out to sleep with and brings her back. She is not allowed to go out, not allowed to do anything really except serve customers and stay in the hotel. Many of these women think they are coming to Lebanon to be artists and dancers. Nope. They’re sex workers and many of them are humiliated and treated terribly.

Oh, and both groups get their passports confiscated so that they don’t run away.

Now, there are of course exceptions. Some of these women are happy, some are treated well, some have many privileges. But the vast majority are not treated that way.

Then you have the Syrian and Iraqi sex workers. Those are heartbreaking. Since they are not white or blonde and extremely poor they are dealing with the poorest men in society. And the ones who treat them like animals. Girls as young as 9 are trafficked. And nobody bats an eye.

#16

Here in New Zealand our newly elected conservative government recently banned the practise of teaching about sexual consent in schools.

I just cannot fathom an argument being made about how this is a good idea.

#17

The permafrost is melting. Quickly. Fellas, it’s been good to know ya….

#18

That 60% of kids (ages 13-24) would rather give up their right to vote than give up TikTok.

#19

The sheer decline of insect populations especially here in the UK in the last few years especially Bees ?

#20

Long covid. It often leads to a neuroimmune disease (mecfs) that absolutely wrecks your life, you go from being healthy and strong one day to bedridden for years in some cases. There’s very little research funding or social support and less than thirty doctors in the US who can actually treat it, compared to an estimated 4 million patients.

And covid continues to give long covid to people, the more times you are infected the more likely you are to get it.

Image credits: Any_Tea_8420

#21

HIGH levels of international student immigration in Canada. Forcing people to live 4-5-6+ people in a single room.

Because colleges/universities rely on that income (some get 90% of their inflated tuition from international students.).

Companies like Walmart (just one example) are also pushing for it because they pay international students minimum wage at best – which keeps wages across the board suppressed and their profits at an all time high.

It’s literally importing slave labour under the guise as education/immigration. Legal slave labour.

500k people a year brought in – during a housing crisis. And food bank use is skyrocketing.

It’s unsustainable and unethical.

All for universities and massive companies to profit from.

#22

1) Chinese factory workers are encouraged to smoke m*th so they can work harder. 2) Chinese factories have safety nets around them because a lot of the workers were jumping to their deaths.

Image credits: FoxyBiGal

#23

In India Between 2018 and 2021, 222 elephants were killed by electrocution across the country, 45 by trains, 29 by poachers and 11 by poisoning. 

Among human casualties elephants killed 585 in 2019-20, 461 in 2020-21, and 533 in 2021-22.

India is home to the world’s largest population of Asian elephants, a species listed as endangered, with declining populations across its home range of 13 countries.

India has over 100 national parks and around 30 elephant reserves, but many of India’s 30,000(according to 2017 census by Project Elephant) elephants live outside these protected areas and have less and less habitat to roam in search of food.

#24

AI is devouring entire professions one bite at a time. I’m a (former?) copywriter who lost his job twice at two different companies in separate industries last year. It’s cheaper, way faster, and good enough to convince companies they’re better off without so many writers anymore.

Image credits: western_style_hj

#25

We are blowing past targets for global warming and no one is taking it anywhere near as serious as they should. The oceans are already starting to face massive ecosystem collapse. Meanwhile, half the people in charge won’t admit there’s a problem and the other half thinks all we need to do is get people to go out and buy Teslas. The reality is that our children are so f****d.

#26

The Tigray War has killed 800,000 people since 2021, making it this century’s most fatal and genocidal war. Ethiopia, a country with more than a hundred million people, now faces numerous internal divisions as well as tenuous relations with virtually all of its neighbors…

#27

Medical advances the last 30 years, including statins, better blood pressure medicines, detailed medical imaging, artificial joints, colonoscopies, heart coronary surgery techniques and other technologies, will make out bodies outlast our minds for tens of millions of us. There could be an epidemic of dementia coming soon unless we can develop better brain health.

Image credits: Bitter-Basket

#28

My grandmother is in elder care. This elder care was funded by her selling her house. It’s ridiculously expensive (and yet, the workers are underpaid) so it’s often the only way to pay for the nursing home/hospice care. My generation is full of renters, many of whom had to forego having children because children are expensive. What’s going to happen when we get too old and sick to work?

Remarkable_Prior_224:

My great aunt had 1 million dollars in her savings for elder care the first day she entered. It barely covered 9ish years there(she needed care after her husband passed). Lucky she was able to afford it by, well, by dying and not having to pay. The cost was about 10k a month. Yeah elder care is absolutely f**ked.

Image credits: Halospite

#29

So, A LOT of people don’t pay much attention to their local, or even state elections. That is sad, but I don’t know if I would call it dark…

What is dark are the implications.

Ohio congressional maps are drawn every 10 years. That would make the old maps drawn in 2012 up for redrawing in 2022.

In 2019 those maps were ruled ILLEGAL by a federal judge, because they were obviously gerrymandered in favor of republicans.

So what did the Ohio, GOP run government, who came into power because of those illegal congressional maps do? What they did was say “f**k it, stall until after the next state elections,”

Which they f*****g did, with zero consequences.

And then what did they do?

They tried to change the voter veto % from 50% to 60% to keep the power they already had, and remember, this from a state that *has already been illegally cutting the state into pieces that serve them FOR A DECADE*

THAT is dark s**t.

#30

Horrors are happening everyday in Sudan, and on the refugee trail that leads out of Sudan to.. Anywhere and everywhere else.

When you hear some of the stories it’s not surprising people are willing to sacrifice anything to get as far away as possible.

In many many ways, The refugee crisis of Europe and other places is just a symptom of our apathy to the struggles of other nations.

Once upon a time, people better understood that’s generally a good idea for your neighbor to be stable least their problems spill over into your country, We now live in a global village and the problems in countries you’ve never heard of can have momentous effects in your country, No matter how far removed you feel from it.

#31

Food product cartels. Many countries have had cartel like take overs for food products, I know Netflix did a documentary series of each episode showcasing a different food product, but that was just a small number of serious cartel like take overs of small farms and larger cooperations.

The problems include farmers lives being at risk, and even consumers. Sometimes unknowingly purchasing counterfeit products at horridly high prices.

Image credits: SimplyXong

#32

Civil Asset Forfeiture. Really just legalized theft, this practice is legal in most states and allows law enforcement to confiscate property from people who have never been charged let alone convicted of any crime. It’s the single biggest legal outrage in 2024 America imo.

#33

Due to low childbirth, in most of the developed world, number of pensioners goes up while number of economically active young people goes down. Which means that social systems in many countries (Germany, Japan, much of western Europe in general) will collapse like house of cards in this century.

So if I make it to old age, I will most likely die of starvation and exposure in cardboard box under some bridge together with millions of others, since there will be no money for even basic pensions.

#34

Saudi Arabia using artillery on asylum seekers at their border.

applesjustapples:

Saw a documentery abt that,their stories messed me up for a few days.

#35

Cartels have taken over Ecuador and are currently in a war with the Ecuadorian government. They’ve taken over news stations and prisons, holding prison guards hostage and executing them daily until their requests are met. Government isn’t budging so tons of prison guards have been executed on video for the world to see. You won’t hear a single thing about this on US news though. They’re too focused on the health of the Royal Family and other b******t. US news is a f*****g joke.

#36

What Indonesia is doing to the people of Papua New Guinea.

#37

Child soldiers in Africa. Kidnapped, forced to kill their parents, and added to an awful, evil militia of deranged lunatics.

#38

215 bodies have been found buried in a mass grave behind a Mississippi police station.   Edit 672 bodies found. 215 identified. 

Icy_Comfort8161:

They’re recent deaths too:

“We know, based on the records from the coroner’s office, that, since 2016, in the last eight years, we can identify 215 individuals that were buried behind that jail, and their families have not been notified,” Crump told PBS NewsHour this week.

Image credits: Danktizzle

#39

I work in a court house. In  my city they were still evicting a s**t ton of people during the pandemic. HUD had already  issued their eviction moratorium. I was so concerned what was happening. Then the governor issued the  project room key for homeless to get  a hotel. And i would refer people to their office. They would call me back saying “They(the employees) have no idea what that is”. I sent an email to HUD about these issues. Nothing happened. I things are still like this. I’d tell people and they look at me like I’m some crazy left leaning liberal.  I’m not but this is so wrong. Then I saw a guy on Joe organs podcast  talking about a city employee whose job it is to end homelessness. And her salary was 200k. Yea…

Alas  the project room key received a 150million budget.
59 million was spent. 

#40

Israel bombing every hospital in Gaza. Amongst other places with dense populations. Don’t care what your side is, bombing hospitals is wrong.

#41

Japanese are killing our biggest whales.

#42

WWIII may be closer than we realise, or it is already underway.

NATO’s top military advisor has just warned people to prepare and have the basic necessities in case of an attack. This was in response to people panic buying radios in Sweden, one of the world’s most advanced and safest countries.

The German government said that war was possible in the near future.

Baltic countries,NATO members, have been openly threatened.

This is not normal, yet people don’t know about it and / or act as if it’s hyperbole.

Let’s hope cool minds prevail as Einstein once said that WWIII would be fought with nukes and WWIV would be fought with sticks and stones.

#43

In the US, at least, EMS is on the verge of collapse. I work in a major city and it’s not uncommon for certain jobs to be holding for 3+ hours.

A whole lot of people left during Covid, and EMS was circling the drain in 2018. The low pay, s****y management, wide lack of unions, lack of career mobility, and constant crush of going on to the next call with no time to eat or p**s are starting to come home to roost.

Police and fire fighters are deemed as “necessary” for the government to provide in most places in the US. EMS isn’t, which means there are a lot of shady private companies that step in to fill the void. Medicare fraud abounds.

The average length of career in EMS is 3 years. The average length of career in ems where someone would be deemed a competent provider is 3-5 years.

You do the math. If you live in the United States, know that every statistic your county/city provides is a horribly cooked number, and if you go into cardiac arrest outside a hospital, there’s a 90+ percent chance you’ll stay that way. 99%+ chance you’ll not stay that way without major life altering changes e.g. brain damage.

This is all because people in power refuse to fund it. That’s it. The sole reason that you will have decades less with your family members or that you’ll not live for extra years is that people
Balk at paying an unnoticeable extra amount of taxes (while ultimately saving money by not paying for private health insurance).

#44

The education system in America is collapsing and it’s going to affect our place as a technology leader, which is going to affect our place as a world leader. I don’t think we realize how much of our standing in the world is due to our investment in science. I’m talking, incoming college students scoring zeros on math placement exams (top 10 public university). Meanwhile, China is spending a sh**ton on education and science & technology.

#45

There is an actual genocide going on in Myanmar, and hardly anyone seems to care.

ScumbagGina:

It was making the front page for a couple weeks. Then people realized that poor people being bombed by their own government is less interesting than reliving the adrenaline rush of the Cold War.

Image credits: AGreatGuy98

#46

This doesn’t compare to a lot of things I’ve read here, but the attitude towards mental health in aviation. A pilot takes some time for their mental health and there is a decent chance they won’t fly again. It’s encouraging some very unhealthy ways of dealing with issues.

#47

I never hear about child fighting/torture rings but they are still very much around.

#48

While most people are aware of the Ukraine-Russia war, most probably aren’t aware that some 700k children have been “relocated” from occupied Ukraine into the interior of Russia. These numbers are directly from the Russian government. Pretty good chance most of those children will never see their families again.

#49

Haiti. Just all of it. There’s a whole history of how France (with help from the US) single handedly bankrupted them over 100 years all because of a slave rebellion they were angry about. Deforestation means they have less trees that help protect from things like hurricanes, which means crops get destroyed. It’s completely lawless and basically uninhabitable because of multiple issues that ultimately stem from being stepped on by wealthier nations over the last two centuries. It’s really easy to just write them off but the conditions over there are absolutely horrific. The people there are starving to death, people literally get shot by snipers when they walk out of their homes. Public services have failed, and so there’s hardly any power or infrastructure and nowhere for waste to go. I didn’t even know about this until recently. It made me cry. Nobody even seems to know or care about it.

#50

White farmer genocide in Sub Saharan Africa. Zimbabwe, Southern Africa. Over 5000 people murdered in under 20 years.

#51

Azerbaijan is gearing up for a genocidal war against Armenia. They’ve been systemically deporting and killing Armenians who lives in the area taken by Azerbaijan in their 2020 invasion.

#52

Peatlands – My wife is a senior climate researcher who works on Methane and Peatlands projects. The astounding ability that peatlands have to carbon capture is insane. Most people don’t realize it….the sketchy s**t – private entities are buying peatlands areas and destroying them on massive scales. Also, global south countries who have major peatlands are inclined to say, “f**k you” to “developed” countries who are trying to convince them to not build/develop/mine…etc on these lands. The global south countries are basically like, “you f****d the world and don’t care about anyone, why should we care now..” It’s not good…

#53

The Chinese are still committing genocide & selling the victims organs for cheap.

#54

Lots of crypto currency scams.

#55

Since the Joseph Fritzl case years ago it horrifies me that there’s likely so many similar cases where they’ll never be caught and the victim will never be free.

#56

Disabled people are being tortured in Massachusetts at a place called the Judge Rotenberg Center. They are shocked with devices the United Nations condemned as torture. 

#57

The $29 billion private adoption industry.

#58

China is taking over territory in Antarctica and no-one knows why or what they’re doing there.

#59

That Black Rock has been buying most of the houses in USA under different names in order to own America. The US govt. is in bed with this corporation and are working on, “You will own nothing and be happy.” Collapse of banking industry and blaming it on Russians as soon as they go digital.

#60

The Paria Diving Incident— TLDR: 5 workers were vacuum sucked into an oil pipe that spanned 125ft. One made it out to save the others and the company refused to help them. 4 days later they were flushed out dead. Some divers report hearing knocking from the pipe 3 days after the first survivor told the company. No justice has been served My input: corporate higher ups got so disconnected that they didn’t value the lives of these 5 men.

#61

The stock market is completely rigged by market makers.

#62

Animal disease and sickness are spreading more frequently and easier between humans and vegetation. The links below will not help prove what I’m saying entirely, I’m working on finding the links about these various cases. I was seeing these reports late 2021 early 2022, but basically animals were getting sick (Africa & Asia) and they would die or defecate near plant life and their diseases would be taken in, and passed along to people through food. It was debated that this could be happening due to global warming as viruses, plants, animals slowly adapt and change due to the climate crisis making the exchange of disease easier to pass.

#63

While it’s freely available to look into, most of the general public doesn’t know about the sentient brain organoids that have proto-eyes that we’ve created and hooked up to computers to interact with AI directly.

>Feng Guo and his team at Indiana University Bloomington generated a brain organoid from [human] stem cells, attached it to a computer chip, and connected their setup, known as Brainoware, to an AI tool. They found that this hybrid system could process, learn, and remember information. It was even able to carry out some rudimentary speech recognition. It’s only going to get more powerful, more accurate, faster, etc. from here.
Source: boredpanda.com