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While there is progress in certain areas and certain things are better now than in previous historical times, the need to look out for the downside of various processes is undeniable and possibly more urgent than ever, for the simple fact that power becomes dangerous without developing one’s responsibility accordingly.

No wonder some of the mental or real-life pictures of the contemporary world can leave us feeling… dystopian. These can include the massive amount of non-nature-friendly trash being produced and dumped all around the world, or attempts to imagine the implications of AI on our near future if we don't take the necessary precautions to play it safe.

People online stepped up, trying to raise awareness, answering one Redditor's question: "What's something that is accepted as normal, but is really dystopian when you think about it?"

More info: Reddit

This post may include affiliate links.

#1

35 Things That Sound Perfectly Normal Until You Realize How Dystopian They Are, As Listed Online Jailing people for stealing food while throwing away tons more every day.

Vegan_Harvest , Markus Spiske Report

Final score:
213points
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#2

35 Things That Sound Perfectly Normal Until You Realize How Dystopian They Are, As Listed Online Advertiser friendly language in daily life. Like people getting used to not being able to say words like "dead" on Tiktok because advertisers don't like it, so then you see a bunch of people saying words like "unalive" in real life.

Foxlikebox , Daniel Thomas Report

Final score:
190points
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#3

35 Things That Sound Perfectly Normal Until You Realize How Dystopian They Are, As Listed Online All of those "Feel good stories" about people working extra super duper hard just to barely scrape by.

"Kids make business to help another disabled child buy a wheelchair"

"Teacher runs out of PTO days fighting cancer so the whole school district started to donate sick days"

"Man walks 15 miles for a job interview, community raises money for a bicycle."

Eyruaad , Avi Richards Report

Final score:
182points
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#4

35 Things That Sound Perfectly Normal Until You Realize How Dystopian They Are, As Listed Online Working full-time for a wage that won't support a family.


A family?? How about 1 person.

Famous_Bit_5119 , Maxime Agnelli Report

Final score:
167points
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#5

35 Things That Sound Perfectly Normal Until You Realize How Dystopian They Are, As Listed Online Corporations being considered people and having more rights than real human beings.

anon , Pixabay Report

Final score:
166points
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#6

35 Things That Sound Perfectly Normal Until You Realize How Dystopian They Are, As Listed Online Subscription for everything

NotToast2000 , alleksana Report

Final score:
163points
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#7

35 Things That Sound Perfectly Normal Until You Realize How Dystopian They Are, As Listed Online Claiming drag queens are child predators, and ignoring all the abuse going on in the church, cause that, and all the new laws being proposed...seems kind of dystopian.

Spankywzl , Greta Hoffman Report

Final score:
160points
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#8

35 Things That Sound Perfectly Normal Until You Realize How Dystopian They Are, As Listed Online Privatized-for-profit prisons, healthcare, and education.
 
Corporations and foreign entities buying up all of our land and housing.
 
Lack of Congressional term limits and self-oversight of Congress and Scotus.
 
2A absolutism.
 
Forced sex, forced birth, forced sterilization, and the medical community treating women as if being female is a "condition" while using male bodies as the standard.
 
Outlawing the act of collecting rainwater, while charging for the amount of runoff attributed to your property (my city has both of these).

phoebeluco , RDNE Stock project Report

Final score:
160points
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#9

35 Things That Sound Perfectly Normal Until You Realize How Dystopian They Are, As Listed Online Homelessness in countries with enough money to keep it from happening

AlthorsMadness , MART PRODUCTION Report

Final score:
154points
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StrangeOne
StrangeOne
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Homelessness is a complicated matter, though, and is not always caused by not having money. Some people make themselves homeless, while others have become homeless based on their lifestyle and consequences. There are people out there who want to be homeless. They don't view paying rent, having their own home to go to every night as a worthy thing.

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John Topper
John Topper
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Even beyond that, the very idea of homeless veterans is disturbing. They usually can't work due to trauma from serving the country that abandoned them at the first opportunity.

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smugdruggler
smugdruggler
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Yeah, same in the UK. And we have more houses standing empty than we do homeless people. How does that make sense?

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PattyK
PattyK
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Los Angeles’s new mayor, Karen Bass, had a survey done; a certain number of homeless said they don’t want to be housed. The homeless problem won’t be solved until the homeless themselves agree to participate (I recognize that many of the homeless are homeless because they can’t afford housing. Mayor Bass is doing everything possible to get them housed).

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Steve
Steve
Community Member
1 year ago (edited) DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

FYI, San Francisco's current budget includes ~$660 million to help the homeless. Turns out that's enough to provide housing for less than half the homeless population. To get them all housed for a year would require closer to $1.4 BILLION. For a single city. This is larger than the national budget of 77 countries. The idea that this problem can be fixed with money is seriously flawed.

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David Paterson
David Paterson
Community Member
1 year ago (edited) DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Mental illness plays a very big role in homelessness in wealthy countries. As pointed out above, it's complicated, I've met someone who was mentally healthy, well fed, but enjoyed sleeping outside. Another isn't homeless but never pays their rent so keeps getting kicked out of accommodation after accommodation. Another is a sqatter who breaks into vacant houses to live there rent free for a time. Another lived in their car all the time despite having a home with paid rent. And there are the couch surfers, who like the sociability of sleeping at friends places.

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El Dee
El Dee
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

We don't have anyone sleeping rough anymore. There is one shelter and a few scatter flats. They recently got rid of a lot of provision as it was no longer needed. It CAN be done..

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Bi Emo 007 (he/him)
Bi Emo 007 (he/him)
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

COUGH COUGH United States COUGH COUGH (and I’m not saying the US is the only country with this issue)

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Westworld Employee 7
Westworld Employee 7
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Imagine if our douchebag gazillionnaires gave a sh*t about anything but their own egos? We could have affordable housing, great jobs and a no-kill shelter in every county!

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TomasL
TomasL
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Some of us have to spend our hard earned tax money defending the rest of the world.

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Allen Packard
Allen Packard
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

We can send 100 billion in taxpayers money to freaking Ukraine but we can't help the homeless?!? We are beyond stupid here.

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Black Rabbit
Black Rabbit
Community Member
1 year ago

This comment is hidden. Click here to view.

Homelessness isn't about a country using its money. It's infinitely more complex than that and the choices of many of the homeless people put them where they are, not because "the system" or some other ambiguous and amorphous entity failed them.

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MoMcB
MoMcB
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Yes, some do make the choice, I knew a man that chose to live that way. But you cannot say that about every homeless person. For the people earning low wages, it's a scarily low number of months without a pay check before you're homeless.

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#10

35 Things That Sound Perfectly Normal Until You Realize How Dystopian They Are, As Listed Online The existence of billionaires whilst so many people are living in poverty. Justified cause they supposedly "work harder" or "earned it".

intellectkills , cottonbro studio Report

Final score:
150points
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#11

35 Things That Sound Perfectly Normal Until You Realize How Dystopian They Are, As Listed Online Ads everywhere you look 24/7

chopsthedrummer , Jose Francisco Fernandez Saura Report

Final score:
133points
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#12

35 Things That Sound Perfectly Normal Until You Realize How Dystopian They Are, As Listed Online Credit scores.

raytaylor , Paul Felberbauer Report

Final score:
131points
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#13

35 Things That Sound Perfectly Normal Until You Realize How Dystopian They Are, As Listed Online The cost of rent. Or mortgages. Or the wealth gap. And the way minimum wage was ignored for decades while the top 1% took higher and higher raises and bonuses while paying very little to no tax. Trickle down economics.

Graceland1979 , https://unsplash.com/photos/xlCmFoIS3oE?utm_source=unsplash&utm_medium=referral&utm_content=creditShareLink Report

Final score:
128points
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#14

35 Things That Sound Perfectly Normal Until You Realize How Dystopian They Are, As Listed Online The way women have control legislated away from their own bodies. Not even just abortion, but abortion laws that prevent women from being able to get medical care for their own conditions. Women who have to get close enough to death to get treatment, regardless of their present suffering or other long term effects. Prostitution laws. Certainly parts of them make sense but why is it illegal for some stay at home mom to give handies for spending money at home while the kids are in school?

Melvolicious , Manny Becerra Report

Final score:
123points
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#15

35 Things That Sound Perfectly Normal Until You Realize How Dystopian They Are, As Listed Online The amount of trash we humans produce. How distanced we are from the natural world.

biscaya , Jas Min Report

Final score:
111points
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#16

35 Things That Sound Perfectly Normal Until You Realize How Dystopian They Are, As Listed Online American burial traditions. Spend thousands of dollars to preserve the body, pack it in an expensive box and bury it, sometimes in a concrete vault. To keep it from naturally decomposing? Why?

kateinoly , cottonbro studio Report

Final score:
106points
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#17

35 Things That Sound Perfectly Normal Until You Realize How Dystopian They Are, As Listed Online Anti-intellectualism.

Potential-Ostrich-82 , Markus Spiske Report

Final score:
104points
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#18

35 Things That Sound Perfectly Normal Until You Realize How Dystopian They Are, As Listed Online Working until you’re in your late sixties when 50 billionaires control most of the wealth in an entire country.

bkornblith , cottonbro studio Report

Final score:
100points
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#19

35 Things That Sound Perfectly Normal Until You Realize How Dystopian They Are, As Listed Online Health insurance.

Rare_Cranberry_9454 , Negative Space Report

Final score:
99points
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#20

35 Things That Sound Perfectly Normal Until You Realize How Dystopian They Are, As Listed Online Reality TV.

Muadib333 , cottonbro studio Report

Final score:
93points
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#21

35 Things That Sound Perfectly Normal Until You Realize How Dystopian They Are, As Listed Online Food and housing insecurity in a world in which other people are billionaires.

tangtheconqueror , Siegfried Poepperl Report

Final score:
91points
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#22

35 Things That Sound Perfectly Normal Until You Realize How Dystopian They Are, As Listed Online Running out of sick days, so you work sick.

inmatenumberseven Report

Final score:
89points
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#23

35 Things That Sound Perfectly Normal Until You Realize How Dystopian They Are, As Listed Online Factory farming. Utterly horrific.

Singly-Errancy143 , Mark Stebnicki Report

Final score:
83points
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#24

35 Things That Sound Perfectly Normal Until You Realize How Dystopian They Are, As Listed Online Normalization of debt

Atotallyrandomname , rc.xyz NFT gallery Report

Final score:
80points
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#25

35 Things That Sound Perfectly Normal Until You Realize How Dystopian They Are, As Listed Online The fact that we cannot do much on the internet without consenting cookies.

icsulescu98 , picjumbo.com Report

Final score:
78points
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#26

35 Things That Sound Perfectly Normal Until You Realize How Dystopian They Are, As Listed Online The way big companies have conditioned us to say things we pay for are free.

"You can watch it for free on netflix"

"It's free if you purchase this bundle"

"They keep updating the game, the next DLC is free!"

Anytime you go to say something is free, try saying "it's included" short for "included in the base price"

Altimely , Venti Views Report

Final score:
74points
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#27

35 Things That Sound Perfectly Normal Until You Realize How Dystopian They Are, As Listed Online Tying healthcare to employment

heyodi , National Cancer Institute Report

Final score:
73points
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#28

35 Things That Sound Perfectly Normal Until You Realize How Dystopian They Are, As Listed Online The complete lack of privacy we have in 2023. People can record you in public for their TikTok, and everyone will say “BUT ITS LEGAL!!”

cruelsummersadness , Wendy Wei Report

Final score:
70points
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#29

US ‘healthcare’

Realistic_Practice16 Report

Final score:
68points
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#30

35 Things That Sound Perfectly Normal Until You Realize How Dystopian They Are, As Listed Online Homeless people

Refugee boats and sinking

Anyone anywhere being hungry

Bombing civilians

buckwurst , Eric Masur Report

Final score:
66points
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#31

35 Things That Sound Perfectly Normal Until You Realize How Dystopian They Are, As Listed Online Militarization of local and state law enforcement.

Strong_Somewhere_985 , Diego González Report

Final score:
61points
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#32

Obesity - everywhere... causing death, deceases and low quality lifes and btw impacting environment badly.

lavipeDK Report

Final score:
58points
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#33

35 Things That Sound Perfectly Normal Until You Realize How Dystopian They Are, As Listed Online Having to work more than one job.

DanMontie , Annie Spratt Report

Final score:
57points
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#34

35 Things That Sound Perfectly Normal Until You Realize How Dystopian They Are, As Listed Online Cameras everywhere.. "1984".

CommissionOk9233 , Reuben Hustler Report

Final score:
51points
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#35

35 Things That Sound Perfectly Normal Until You Realize How Dystopian They Are, As Listed Online The rhetoric and life behind social media. It's totally a landscape that determines your worth by how others feel about you. It's kinda scary the more you see its use.

GabeBlue180 , https://unsplash.com/photos/NFvdKIhxYlU?utm_source=unsplash&utm_medium=referral&utm_content=creditShareLink Report

Final score:
49points
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#36

35 Things That Sound Perfectly Normal Until You Realize How Dystopian They Are, As Listed Online Huge corporation and how much control they have over mere mortals.

Boris-Lip , https://unsplash.com/photos/YI_9SivVt_s?utm_source=unsplash&utm_medium=referral&utm_content=creditShareLink Report

Final score:
21points
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#37

35 Things That Sound Perfectly Normal Until You Realize How Dystopian They Are, As Listed Online Censorship.

ifonlythiswasreal403 , Michael Dziedzic Report

Final score:
21points
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#38

35 Things That Sound Perfectly Normal Until You Realize How Dystopian They Are, As Listed Online Prevalence of social media in daily life

panic2u , Magnus Mueller Report

Final score:
20points
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#39

Don’t even know where to start… but when thinking about how much of the meat we eat daily is actually produced and how the animals we eat are actually treated is really sick to think about.

Also adding how normal it is to buy things “made in china” or other countries where it’s so clear that the people who produce our c**p is practically living as slaves on huge factories where they don’t even earn enough money or get paid at all to feed themselves, and often die early but in a very slow and painful way…

trickortreat89 Report

Final score:
16points
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#40

Working at all just to have shelter is dystopian. Whats even gonna happen when all the jobs are done by robots? Yeah more tech related jobs will open up. Whats going to happen to everyone else? Either the governments starts giving people free shelter or everyones going to be homeless.

I-dont-like-pizza Report

Final score:
11points
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#41

40 hour work week

ExeTheHero Report

Final score:
11points
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#42

35 Things That Sound Perfectly Normal Until You Realize How Dystopian They Are, As Listed Online The News.

Muadib333 , Filip Mishevski Report

Final score:
9points
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