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It can be pretty disconcerting to realize that things are happening all the time around us, to the point that massive events with far reaching consequences might be going on right now and most of us have no idea. However, the truth is that there is often not enough time to process every historical mystery.

We’ve gathered some examples of historic events that seem to often go overlooked. So get comfortable as you scroll through, upvote your favorites and be sure to share your own examples in the comments below.

#1

Forgotten-Historical-Events

The Panama Papers that exposed the list of elite who were hoarding vast amounts of wealth in offshore bank accounts. Conveniently forgotten about entirely.

regisgod , Pixabay (not the actual photo) Report

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    #2

    Forgotten-Historical-Events

    The Clinton administration funded nationwide fiber optic cable. The cable companies took the money, then disappeared it in all their late 90’s corporate consolidations. Paid for fiber optic cable, did not get it.

    encantoMariposa , panumas nikhomkhai(not the actual photo) Report

    #3

    Forgotten-Historical-Events

    Over 800 tons of dead sealife including dolphins, washed up in Tampa Bay due to a fertilizer plant spill - never heard about this disaster again.

    ptypitti , Momo (not the actual photo) Report

    #4

    Forgotten-Historical-Events

    The Universal Music fire of 2008. The fire on June 1, 2008, destroyed anywhere from 120,000 to 175,000 master recordings.

    Donkeybog , pinguino Report

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    #6

    Forgotten-Historical-Events

    The protests in Hong Kong seemed to vanish like they never happened when COVID started up.

    SpankyDomingo , Ben Cheung (not the actual photo) Report

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    Hippopotamuses
    Community Member
    6 days ago (edited) DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    Yes they pretty much did. But I suspect that that may have something to do with Covid being a pandemic, as well as likely Chinese goverment censorship.

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    #7

    Forgotten-Historical-Events

    The US government admitted it couldn’t account for 2.3 trillion dollars of the budget on 9/10/01. The world forgot about it the next day.

    reddit.com , Kaboompics.com (not the actual photo) Report

    #8

    Forgotten-Historical-Events

    There was a huge scandal involving the UK foster care system. Social workers were getting paid more for each child they placed in foster care. This resulted in 100s/1000s of children being placed into foster care that didn’t need to be. To this day there has been no uproar or anything about it, it got swelter under the rug and unless you was personally involved (myself) then you will more than likely not have any idea about it

    anonymous21123 , Kindel Media(not the actual photo) Report

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    Daniel Sanders
    Community Member
    5 days ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    Created an account just to comment on this: I'm a judge in the family court in the UK and this is not how the system works at all. Social workers cannot choose to put a child in foster care. There is a multi levelled system with multiple agencies and, ultimately, the court makes the decision based on copious amounts of evidence. No social worker in the UK has the autonomy to place a child in foster care. In the interest of fairness, there have been plenty of mistakes and scandals within the UK care system, but it has never involved a social worker taking cash for removing a child. It is not how the system works, in fact, removing a child is a last resort as it is the last thing any court wants to happen and costs tens of thousands of pounds. Standard journalistic fact checking clearly isn't happening here.

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    #9

    Forgotten-Historical-Events

    If it’s anything like the world devastating Spanish flu then I think Covid will soon be denied and forgotten except by health experts.

    oudcedar , Anna Shvets (not the actual photo) Report

    #10

    Forgotten-Historical-Events

    Those few months in 2016 when people started dressing like clowns and terrorizing people

    Spare_Republic_6453 , Nika Navi (not the actual photo) Report

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    Magenta Blu
    Community Member
    6 days ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    We got used to people wearing weird clothes and excessive make-up and contouring. So that doesn't scare anyone anymore. I think those Kardashians made a great job desensitizing us, because whoever look at them can't no longer get scared of anyone

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    #11

    Forgotten-Historical-Events

    The Malaysia airlines flight disappearing... Still creeps me out

    bww1380 , SevenStorm JUHASZIMRUS (not the actual photo) Report

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    Lame Llama
    Community Member
    5 days ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    How is this collectively forgotten? Plenty of youtube videos on it, netflix documentary. Maybe only OP forgot about it.

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    #12

    Forgotten-Historical-Events

    I can’t be the only one who feels the Vegas shooting was massively swept under the rug considering it’s magnitude. Was in the news for a few weeks then was never really spoken about again. We have never been told an actual motive for it and I just feel like there’s so much more investigating that can and should be done.

    ScreenRough5989 , Pixabay (not the actual photo) Report

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    Floeckchen
    Community Member
    5 days ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    "Was in the news for a few weeks" is anything but swept under the rugs.

    BrunoVI
    Community Member
    5 days ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    The point is that in the mainstream media there is almost no interest whatsoever in finding out anything about the greatest mass shooting in U.S. history. Did he act alone? What were his motives? How did he pull it off? No answers and not much sign of any search for answers.

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    m pum
    Community Member
    5 days ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    Every mass shooting in the US is basically forgotten weeks later when another one happens.

    Huddo's sister
    Community Member
    6 days ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    Unfortunately motive is really hard to find in these cases where the perpetrator is killed and/or they don't have a 'manifesto' written down.

    ninjaTrashPandaBoom
    Community Member
    5 days ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    They suspect it was because the shooter was on a huge losing streak and felt slighted by the casinos. He was a whale, gambling tens to hundreds of thousands a night. Apparently, he felt that he should have been treated better (comps and other freebies) and this was his response. IMO his gambling addiction probably was just the tip of the iceberg, but we will probably never know now.

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    Ace
    Community Member
    5 days ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    I guess the US has just become so accustomed to mass killings that they don't stay in the news for as long as they might.

    Kit Black
    Community Member
    5 days ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    How long should the news continue repeating information that has already been shared when there is no new information to be shared and will not be?

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    Andy Frobig
    Community Member
    5 days ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    The only remotely positive thing to come out of it, the ban on bump stocks, has been overturned since

    Virawiel
    Community Member
    6 days ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    Unfortunately we’ll probably never know the motive due to the suspect’s death but I promise country music fans still remember those who lost their lives.

    m6nbtfpx7q
    Community Member
    5 days ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    It was in the news until there was other news or people became desensitized and no longer interested. That’s just how the news works. How much news was there on either attempt to kill trump? There were many stories everyday regarding the drones in NJ then that just stopped, with no real answers either.

    Hugh Crawford
    Community Member
    5 days ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    Well given how many happen in the US, it probably just got replaced by the next one.

    Strings
    Community Member
    5 days ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    There have been several mass shootings that got memory holed. The Pulse nightclub shooting was another one

    Kit Black
    Community Member
    5 days ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    No one has forgotten the Pulse nightclub shooting, most especially not the LGBTQ community. The Orlando Sentinel had a memorial reminder of those who lost their lives as recently as this year. https://www.orlandosentinel.com/2024/06/11/pulse-nightclub-shooting-remembering-the-victims-of-june-12-2016-2/

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    PeriMeNope
    Community Member
    5 days ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    There was no motive left. Guy killed himself. Obviously, he was a cowardly psychopath, hell bent on destruction. Motive isn't really needed.

    Hassel Davidhoff
    Community Member
    5 days ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    That doesn't mean there was no motive. There is always a motivation to literally every action a person takes. It might not be known to us, might not even be known to the perpetrator, hell it might be forever unknowable, but every action is motivated by something, have no doubt.

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    Lame Llama
    Community Member
    5 days ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    There's shootings in USA all the time. We can't be bothered to pay attention to it if you don't want to change it. Not forgotten, just can't be bothered.

    Rich Black
    Community Member
    3 hours ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    They arrested his foreign girlfiend, interrogated her, then let her go without being charged.

    Ohm Bun
    Community Member
    14 hours ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    It's because the US has a mass shooting basically every single day.

    Onan Hag All
    Community Member
    14 hours ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    Maybe if mass shootings were not the national sport of the US, then people would pay more attention.

    S
    Community Member
    2 days ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    You can read the reports on it if you Google it. There's nothing more to know. Just because YOU didn't hear about it doesn't mean it wasn't exhaustively interrogated and documented.

    Willem Andries Oosterhof
    Community Member
    2 days ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    Any mass shooting!!!. " Thoughts and prayers". "Too soon to talk about measures..." and nothing ever happens....

    justanotherweirdo
    Community Member
    2 days ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    If anything the Vegas shooting was one of the few US shootings that wasn’t forgotten about. Nowadays, whenever mass shootings happen, I swear they’re on the news for a few days and practically forgotten about by the next week. But the Vegas shooting was the topic of news conversation for weeks and I still occasionally hear it get mentioned. Granted I am from the area, which has earned itself quite the reputation for that and many other incidents, but still, it seems like the Vegas shooting received more attention than most others that have taken place over the last ten years.

    Casey Payne
    Community Member
    2 days ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    We've had multiple mass shootings since then. All of them, by this standard, has been 'swept under the rug'. It's a pattern of American attention span. The story is hot for a couple of weeks, with new things happening by the hour, then it slows to the day, week, month. Soon everyone is tired of hearing a news story that has no updates, no new developments, nothing. Then another story comes along and bumps it out of the public sphere.

    Nice Beast Ludo
    Community Member
    2 days ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    I'm sure to get downvotes into oblivion for saying this... But Jason Aldean had microphone and it bothers me that he didn't scream into it that there was an active shooter, everybody duck.

    SAF saf
    Community Member
    2 days ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    It wasn't at all.... I grew up in Riverside Co. (SoCal) which borders Las Vegas. I live 4hrs from the strip and i know plenty of people that were in the crowd. Plenty people are still dealing with injuries and still comes up in conversation. Vegas on the other hand was very motivated to bury the story as the gun culture is very strong here and there was no intention of changing any of those laws.

    ginshun
    Community Member
    3 days ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    It just ceased to be the biggest story, and the news cycle moved on. I don't think there has been any concerted effort to wipe it from history. The reason you haven't heard about the motive, is because after a 10 month investigation, nobody could figure out what it was.

    Mr. Jones
    Community Member
    3 days ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    Same with most school shootings. This was talked about a lot more than every school shooting. You probably can't even name the last school where one happened, but we all remember Vegas.

    Michael Vickery
    Community Member
    3 days ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    The perpetrator left no note. Had little online presence and nobody who knew him could provide any motive. There really isn't anything to report.

    Spittnimage
    Community Member
    4 days ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    I read a couple that survived the shooting died a month later in a car accident.

    Heather Menard
    Community Member
    4 days ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    There's a new controversy about it now. It says there were several shooters.

    cogadh
    Community Member
    4 days ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    When a new mass casualty event happens every few weeks, it's hard to maintain interest in just one. Really the only ones that stay relevant are Sandy Hook (thanks to Alex Jones BS, unfortunately) and probably the one that started it all, Columbine.

    London Paris
    Community Member
    5 days ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    "Oh no, it's a shooting in America" Anyway. It was yet another in a long list of shootings in America. It's just not news for the rest of the world.

    LonelyLittleLeafSheep
    Community Member
    5 days ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    Not forgotten at all. Watch "One October: a Nightmare in Vegas" by Charlie Minn.

    Kim Shannon
    Community Member
    5 days ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    I read that authorities have yet to figure out a motive. Some things will always remain a mystery.

    John Harrison
    Community Member
    5 days ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    Yes, swept under the rug ... after having been headline news for days and still talked about for months afterward. Guess OP is surprised that we arent having a little chat about this every day.

    Andy Frobig
    Community Member
    5 days ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    That is common to most of the things in this list: they were huge news for a little while, then disappeared. The Panama Papers and MH370 are good examples

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    #13

    Forgotten-Historical-Events

    The australian wildfires that were all the news just prior to covid.

    Eye_Doc_Photog , National Interagency Fire Center Report

    #14

    Forgotten-Historical-Events

    Astroworld, why is no one talking abt this anymore! The Kardashians used all kinds of slightly smaller ‘scandals’ to try and cover the fact that they were involved with it such as getting their bbls removed or making a picture of their kids look deliberately photoshoped to get people talking abt them. It’s very smart of them and their teams but it still isn’t ok

    GoodFig3691 , Wendy Weinot (not the actual photo) Report

    #15

    Forgotten-Historical-Events

    The Great Smog of London in the 1950’s. Killed up to 12,000 and injured thousands more. A mysterious pea soup fog mixed with coal smog that covered the city for days. In the fog there was a crime wave where criminals were hidden by the fog and police couldn’t operate, and there was even one famous serial killer who killed in the fog. John Reginald Christie. A book about it called Death in The Air is very interesting and worth a read.

    reddit.com , Ollie Craig (not the actual photo) Report

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    #16

    Forgotten-Historical-Events

    So, I know this is not exactly forgotten or erased as such, but the story of the Darien Scheme is remarkably unknown given its consequences.
    To clarify, this was a Scottish attempt in the 1690s to set up a colony in the Panama region that failed disastrously and caused financial ruin to many investors in Scotland. It was this financial crisis that ultimately was a major contributing factor to Scotland agreeing to form a union with England in 1707, because the English would financially bail them out.
    In short, combined with the Union of the Crowns that happened because Elizabeth I died childless, it caused the emergence of the United Kingdom.

    Herald_of_Clio , Ken Cheung (not the actual photo) Report

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    Debby Keir
    Community Member
    5 days ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    Ahh, but who else remembers what also happened in the 1690's. Earliest sighting of Uranus - foundation of the bank of England - battle of the boyne (granted some never forget) Unless you either studied that period or read widely, how could you 'remember. Yes, I have read about the Darien scheme, and that it was proposed by the Scottish parliament.

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    #17

    Forgotten-Historical-Events

    The Philippine-American war. The war started in 1899, when the newly established Philippine republic, itself a product of a war of independence from Spanish rule that started in 1896, objected to the terms of the treaty ending the Spanish-American war that ceded the Philippines to the United States. Officially the war was over in 1902, but small resistance groups continued to fight on for several years. The war produced some 200,000 Filipino dead, a butcher's bill approximately 10 times higher than that of the more famous Spanish-American war that preceded it.

    DanTheTerrible , Perley Fremont Rockett - Library of Congress Report

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    Original Kinkster
    Community Member
    6 days ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    Well, we can't pay attention to every war the USA were involved in. We're right now busy enough with the ones from the last three decades...

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    #18

    Forgotten-Historical-Events

    Battle of Tours. If Charles Martel lost, Christendom would have been destroyed by the Umayyad Caliphate. There would be no Papal States, no Charlemagne, no Holy Roman Empire, No Germany, no third reich. Quite frankly history as we know it would turn out quite different.

    gentryadams , Maria Pop (not the actual photo) Report

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    Floeckchen
    Community Member
    5 days ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    Was just recently in an episode of "Eine Stunde History" on Deutschlandfunk Nova

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    #19

    Forgotten-Historical-Events

    The SS Eastland tragedy in 1915. Happened in the Chicago River. Boat topples over and kills 844 people.

    LikesStuff12 , Detroit Publishing Company Report

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    Floeckchen
    Community Member
    5 days ago (edited) DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    There might have been something happening in europe at that time slightly overshadowing this event...

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    #20

    Forgotten-Historical-Events

    The Bronze Age Collapse comes to mind. All the Bronze age civilizations crashing into barbarism for a few hundred years.

    Catlenfell , Václav Moravec Report

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    Tom Brincefield
    Community Member
    5 days ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    Just listened to a podcast about it a couple of weeks ago. Not surprising most people don't know about it, 3200 years is a long time, and there is a lot happening in the world today that is much more urgent.

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    #21

    Forgotten-Historical-Events

    The early history of Yamato Japan.
    It's not 'erased' so much as 'burned.' This state did have an official record of its history, but the record was burned down in a great fire in the 6th/7th century. It was then recreated afterward, but... Well. There's better people than me who have discussed how the recreation seems to have done a lot to suit the interests of contemporary politics that doesn't seem to make much sense or line up with the archeological record of Japan's earlier history.

    Lord0fHats , Willian Justen de Vasconcellos (not the actual photo) Report

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    #22

    Forgotten-Historical-Events

    I'm gonna go for a wild one here and say Caesar's conquest of Gaul.
    While a pretty well-known historical event, almost everything known about it comes directly from Caesar's diary or statements by people who were politically motivated to make him out as a savour/warmonger.
    As an example of how little we actually know, Caesar would talk about a hard fought battle, uphill against an entrenched enemy and how they spent hours fighting under the worst possible conditions before having to withdraw but then state the Romans casualties were "simius threw his back out during a coughing fit, no other injuries, the gauls lost a million men"

    Martinw616 , Skitterphoto (not the actual photo) Report

    #23

    Forgotten-Historical-Events

    The US invasion of Grenada

    NeutralityTsar , 42 North (not the actual photo) Report

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    Michael Largey
    Community Member
    6 days ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    A "Wag the Dog" operation to distract the press from how the Reagan administration had just made a dog's breakfast out of its intervention in Lebanon.

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    #24

    Forgotten-Historical-Events

    The battle of long tan. 105 aussie, and 3 kiwi soldiers held back an entire NVA battalion for three and 1/2 hours. It's estimated that the Vietnamese battalion was up to 2500 men strong. 18 Australian soldiers died and 24 were wounded. 245 Vietnamese soldiers died and 350 were wounded.

    Aussieboi393 , US military personnel Report

    #26

    Forgotten-Historical-Events

    That Miami mall incident with the aliens, like what was that about

    Natural_Bug956 , Pixabay(not the actual photo) Report

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    Karri Berkowitz
    Community Member
    6 days ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    Kids setting off fireworks. Bayside is out doors and ppl thought it was gun fire. No aliens.

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    #27

    Forgotten-Historical-Events

    Creation of the Federal Reserve Bank in America. Maybe not forgotten but definitely not remembered.

    LaserMaker88 , Kaboompics.com (not the actual photo) Report

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    General Anaesthesia
    Community Member
    5 days ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    A large portion of right-wingers in the US knows it's there though, and want to end it, even though so many of them have no idea what it does or why they want to end it.

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    #29

    Forgotten-Historical-Events

    The War of the Roses

    AwardNew7864 , Giota Sakellariou (not the actual photo) Report

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    Did I say that out loud? (he/him)cis/het
    Community Member
    6 days ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    Not exactly forgotten, but something that happened between 1455-1487 is hardly going to be a common topic of conversation today. And what's with the picture of a Näzi death camp?

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