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People Online List 30 Mind-Blowing Facts That Completely Changed The Way They See The World Once you know the difference between sympathy and empathy, you will notice that tons of people lack empathy.

Let me illustrate with an example:
If I told a group of people I was sad because my dog died, a decent amount of people would feel sorry for me. If I told that same group of people I was depressed because my goldfish died, less people would feel sorry for me. "It's a f*****g goldfish, so what?"
This is the fundamental difference between sympathy and empathy. If you feel sorry for me when my dog dies, but not when my goldfish dies you are not being empathic when my dog dies, just sympathic. It's likely you feel sorry for me because you imagine how you would feel if *your* dog died and projecting those feelings on me.

True empathy means acknowledging and valueing emotions, even when you do not understand them. People with empathy don't compare my emotions to how theirs would be in my situation. They can acknowledge my feelings, without sharing them.

DaPino , Alex Green Report

Final score:

145points

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DennyS (denzoren) 9 months ago

I work with fish, it always bothers me when fish die. They all have unique personalities.

70points

“The inspiration for starting the thread came from my innate curiosity about the world and a desire to create a platform for sharing astonishing, lesser-known facts,” the author of this thread, u/foratbahrani, shared with Bored Panda. “It's always exciting to see how such knowledge can shift our perspective and understanding of the world around us."

People Online List 30 Mind-Blowing Facts That Completely Changed The Way They See The World Grizzly bears in Yellowstone eat around 300,000 moths a month and it accounts for 1/3 of their calorie intake.

marooninsanity , Mark Basarab Report

Final score:

129points

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DennyS (denzoren) 9 months ago

Look at the good boi.

60points

JoTheLizard(she/they) 9 months ago

I would very much like to hug him

7points

Kookamunga 9 months ago

...and this is why bears are often hanging outside your door by the porch light yum-moths-...7d-png.jpg

10points

WindySwede 9 months ago

Aha, I thought it was my car's extended warranty 🙃

7points

Elizabeth van Oers 9 months ago

I am going to ride my bike with my mouth open from now on and save a ton on groceries! 😀

6points

Surenu 9 months ago

I really don't like moths (and a large amount of people), can I adopt a grizzly bear?

5points

Bouche and Audi and Shyla, Oh My! 9 months ago

Go right ahead, but make out your will first.

4points

Laura Williams 9 months ago

Please do not pet good boi bears

4points

Cat Chat 9 months ago

That is the most teddyest of bears I have ever seen. The urge to run and hug it is strong. I fear I know how I will die now.

2points

Riley Quinn 9 months ago

Given my insatiable appetite, it always blows my mind how huge creatures sustain themselves on little, teeny, tiny morsels. Take baleen whales, like the Blue whale, the largest creature on earth, that eats plankton.

2points

TennesseeHomesteadUSA 9 months ago

Bats eat more... how about that fact ?

1point

Marlowe Fitzpatrik 9 months ago

Bats are great!

1point

Smiley MG 9 months ago

I wanna squishu-mushu-wushu my whole face on that tummy..... Oh! The bliss before a very gory death... Every bit worth-it!!

1point

M O'Connell 9 months ago

I had never heard of this before! https://landresources.montana.edu/Nat%20Geo%20moth-eating%20bear.pdf

1point

Adrian Perlman 9 months ago

now my favorite animal

0points

The.Butterfly.Effect.530 9 months ago

He needs belly rubs!!!!!!!!

0points

Dan Flo 9 months ago

I have a pretty bad phobia for moths (and butterflies) so thank you mr Grizzly.

0points

MurderMittens 9 months ago

10,000 months per night? Just where are they going to find them?

0points

Cyndi Hafele 9 months ago

The greatest and mightiest of our wild carnivores is embarrassed that people know that.

0points

Natalie H 9 months ago

He looks so cuddly!! 🥰🤗☠️

0points

People Online List 30 Mind-Blowing Facts That Completely Changed The Way They See The World Cheetahs aren't big cats. They are very large small cats.

I_might_be_weasel , Mr Sketch Report

Final score:

124points

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Mark 9 months ago

So medium cats?

87points

People Online List 30 Mind-Blowing Facts That Completely Changed The Way They See The World The difference between a million and a billion. A million seconds is about 11 days, a billion seconds is about 31.5 YEARS. Now think about the billionaires.

Iwouldlikeadairycow , kim chiko Report

Final score:

119points

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Luke Branwen 9 months ago

Thinking about them 🍽️

84points

Speaking about the particular facts that were shared by fellow Redditors and stood out to the OP as exceptionally mind-blowing, he emphasized that there were quite a few contributions that he found astounding.

“My favorite one was how Cleopatra lived closer in time to the invention of the iPhone than to the building of the pyramids.”

People Online List 30 Mind-Blowing Facts That Completely Changed The Way They See The World A female turkey can lay en egg that doesn't need to be fertilised by a male turkey and the baby that hatches will always be a male

CloSnow , Suzy Brooks Report

Final score:

99points

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Sephora Black 9 months ago

Are the male offspring fertile?

8points

People Online List 30 Mind-Blowing Facts That Completely Changed The Way They See The World its not the climate change alone thats dangerous to humanity, climate has changed multiple times in history, even worse than its now. The issue is the pace at which it happens. if it happens within a few hundret or thousand years, ecosystems can adapt. rn we are climate changing the world at top speed and cause changes that'd usually happen over millenia.

Viscoct , Matt Palmer Report

Final score:

97points

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Data1001 9 months ago

I always recall George Carlin when climate change is brought up... paraphrasing: "The planet will be fine. Humans are F****ED. But the planet will be fine."

118points

People Online List 30 Mind-Blowing Facts That Completely Changed The Way They See The World Babies can die from lack of love (human touch, cuddles, hugs, nuzzles).

seexo , Jonathan Borba Report

Final score:

93points

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Pickles 9 months ago

How was this tested/proven?

36points

Finally, OP emphasized that his own favorite mind-blowing fact is that we often think of the universe as an expanse filled with billions of galaxies, stars, and planets, but in reality, that’s only what we have discovered so far.

“It's humbling to consider that, much like our ancestors who believed the entirety of existence comprised merely the Earth, Sun, and Moon, we are similarly just scratching the surface. Despite our advanced technology and knowledge, we know only a tiny bit more about the universe's true nature,” OP added.

People Online List 30 Mind-Blowing Facts That Completely Changed The Way They See The World If you stand in any planet or moon of the solar system and you look up, you'll see the same night sky as we see it from the Earth. Same constellations and all, that's how unfathomably far away the stars are compared to the planets.

However, there's one exception. If you stand in Pluto and look up, you'll see that Proxima Centauri looks slightly "off" compared to its position from the terrestrial sky. That's how unfathomably far Pluto is as well.

javier_aeoa , Luca Baggio Report

Final score:

87points

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Donkey boi 9 months ago

Every now and then, I visit a site that puts things into perspective. It's a scale model of the solar system if the moon was 1 pixel. Now obviously, is average distance as most things have an elliptical orbit, but you should check it out: https://joshworth.com/dev/pixelspace/pixelspace_solarsystem.html

51points

Worried-Fortune8008 , note thanun Report

#10

People Online List 30 Mind-Blowing Facts That Completely Changed The Way They See The World Not little known, but perhaps, less thought about or internalized.

Large amounts of children were born from most families in the past due to a horrible rate of infant/child mortality. Nearly everyone had outlived one or more of their children.

That's horrifying.

What we consider the most base of basic medical science, that we teach our young children, has saved countless lives and families.

Wash your hands, please.

Final score:

84points

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Fat Harry 9 months ago

Queen Anne of Great Britain died without issue, yet was pregnant 17 times, gave birth 10 times, of which 5 were stillborn, 4 died in infancy and one died aged 11. Just as an example that even royalty were not immune to infant mortality.

57points

And what is your favorite mind-blowing fact that changed the way you view the world? Share in the comments!

#11

People Online List 30 Mind-Blowing Facts That Completely Changed The Way They See The World Every element heavier than lithium had to be created in the core of a star. Every element heavier than iron had to be created by a supernova.

Hydraulis , John Cameron Report

Final score:

83points

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Rebecca Nebelsängerin 9 months ago

If some basic geology would be taught in every school, we would treat our Earth's resources with much more respect (geologist here).

25points

Didntlikedefaultname , Simone Pellegrini Report

#12

People Online List 30 Mind-Blowing Facts That Completely Changed The Way They See The World Just how capable ancient humans were. At least 50000 years ago humans crossed about 60 miles of open ocean and colonized Australia. The timeline for colonizing America has been consistently pushed back. For tens of thousands of years modern humans coexisted with other ancient hominids, essentially but not quite the same as us but close enough to breed and produce viable, nonsterile offspring. I find it absolutely mind blowing to think about

Final score:

74points

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Lynn Morello 9 months ago

For those who didn't cross by sea, they crossed by land, there are land bridges around the world and the only continent that is not connected by land and never has been is Antarctica.

27points

#13

People Online List 30 Mind-Blowing Facts That Completely Changed The Way They See The World It took Humans less than 66 yrs from first discovering the flight (1903) to landing a man on the moon (1969)

pinsiz , History in HD Report

Final score:

74points

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Justin Tyme 9 months ago

Humans did not discover powered flight, they invented it.

4points

#14

People Online List 30 Mind-Blowing Facts That Completely Changed The Way They See The World Experiments suggest that subconscious parts of our brain start sending signals to perform actions well before the conscious part of our brain makes the decision to do it. Sometimes it's a few microseconds earlier, sometimes it can be minutes, depending on what's being done and what prep is needed.

The implication is that decisions are actually made at the subconscious level, and what we think of as the conscious process of "making a decision" may actually be more like "justifying a decision."

This is backed up by split-brain experiments, where epileptics have had the two halves of their brain severed and unable to communicate. They'd put up a partition and hold up a sign asking one half to pick up a pencil. Then they'd ask the other half (which controls speech) why they did it, and they'd quickly come up with sometimes-ludicrous rationales for why they did it. It seems our brains have built-in expert mechanisms to justify actions after the fact.

NotABonobo , Robina Weermeijer Report

Final score:

74points

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UpQuarkDownQuark (he/him) 9 months ago

Neuroscientist Robert Sapolsky makes some excellent points regarding whether we even have free will. His take: we don’t.

32points

#15

People Online List 30 Mind-Blowing Facts That Completely Changed The Way They See The World most people value short-term "good feelings" more than "long term stability". if you understand this, much in the world will be better understandable to you.

tjorben123 , Zach Betten Report

Final score:

67points

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Astro 9 months ago

Yeah this makes a lot of sense to me

12points

#16

People Online List 30 Mind-Blowing Facts That Completely Changed The Way They See The World The energy stored in all the oil and gas in the Earth is the equivalent of just eight and a half days worth of sunlight hitting the surface of the planet.

ToastMarmaladeCoffee , NASA Report

Final score:

60points

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DennyS (denzoren) 9 months ago

I live in a country dependent on oil and gas and it bugs me so much that we don't make any real steps towards renewable energy.

44points

#17

People Online List 30 Mind-Blowing Facts That Completely Changed The Way They See The World Over 99 percent of all Species to ever exist on Earth are extinct.

1LuckyTexan , Sandy Millar Report

Final score:

60points

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Hugh Cookson 9 months ago

Far too many of them due to the actions of us upright monkeys .....

30points

thisisnotreallifetho , British Library Report

#18

People Online List 30 Mind-Blowing Facts That Completely Changed The Way They See The World There are more people living in slavery now than at any time in human history.

Final score:

60points

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Donkey boi 9 months ago

Just for transparency; The report that announced this finding, included a great deal that was not previously considered 'slavery'. As times change, so do our definitions of things. Situations such as indentured servitude, forced labour of prisoners, domestic servitude (either through religious belief/pressure or otherwise), Sex trafficking, and substandard wages (ie. Farmer workers that get paid 1 dollar a week, or are paid in food). None of those things were considered slavery in the past so it is almost impossible to compare, as they were definitely about and probably more common as it was more acceptable a few hundred years ago.

93points