Get Premium
Dark mode theme is available exclusively for premium users. Learn more about the benefits of subscribing.
No fees, cancel anytime.
Dark Mode 
No fees, cancel anytime 
There have been many instances in our history where someone warned us about something, but we didn't listen at all. It seems that before almost any major event, a doctor, scientist, or politician already knew the outcome, but was simply ignored. It seems to be a repeating pattern, so the question this Redditor asked sparked a lot of interest from internet users.
Many chimed in to share all sorts of stories that are very insightful and eye-opening. Perhaps reading through them will help us get some perspective on our world and see that having an open mind is a very good thing. It seems that in a lot of instances, great tragedies might have been avoided if only people listened to each other more.
This post may include affiliate links.
#1
Isaac Asimov in 1980:
"There is a cult of ignorance in the United States, and there always has been. The strain of anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way through our political and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that “my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge.”
General Anaesthesia 2 years ago
Not just the US, alas. The rest of the 'western world' is catching up fast.
RELATED:
#2
(Edit* Colleen) Rowley--warned her FBI superiors in June 01 that names on their jihadi watch list were taking flying lessons but not interested in learning how to land
Her report didn't get read until October
We got an interview with the Reddit user MLK-K-K that asked the question. Firstly, we asked them why they created the post in the first place. They said, "I created that post just for fun, really did not expect it to blow up."
When we asked whether they found out anything interesting or new after making the post, they said that they learned a lot of "really obscure historical facts." And we think you might find that to be true.
#3
“I have a foreboding of an America in my children's or grandchildren's time -- when the United States is a service and information economy; when nearly all the manufacturing industries have slipped away to other countries; when awesome technological powers are in the hands of a very few, and no one representing the public interest can even grasp the issues; when the people have lost the ability to set their own agendas or knowledgeably question those in authority; when, clutching our crystals and nervously consulting our horoscopes, our critical faculties in decline, unable to distinguish between what feels good and what's true, we slide, almost without noticing, back into superstition and darkness...
The dumbing-down of America is most evident in the slow decay of substantive content in the enormously influential media, the 30 second sound bites (now down to 10 seconds or less), lowest common denominator programming, credulous presentations on pseudoscience and superstition, but especially a kind of celebration of ignorance.” -Carl Sagan
#4
In 2005, Courtney Love was asked what advice she'd give young, up and coming actresses. She said "If Harvey Weinstein invites you to a private party at his Four Seasons hotel room, don't go." And for whatever reason, you didn't see her in many movies after that.
Full of Giggles 2 years ago
Oddly enough, I finished watching She Said about an hour ago. I definitely know why she hasn’t been in many movies.
We also asked why they think people sometimes ignore warnings, and they said that it's probably because of "poor risk assessment." Most of these stories are connected to that, because people usually don't want to believe the worst is going to happen. We also asked what important thing, in their opinion, is being ignored right now: "Proper diet, nutrition and the importance of sleeping well."
#5
When women said that overturning Roe would lead to attempts to a national abortion ban, bans on contraception, and bans on IVF.
Hotdogking 2 years ago
Covering up a pyrimid scheme. But this comment hit the nail right on the head, unfortunately
#6
President George Washington, in his address when leaving office. He warned against the danger of a two party system in future politics. He felt that several parties on equal footing would be better. Especially in presidential elections. The more legitimate choices, the better.
Lyone Fein 2 years ago
Yes. America has needed more political parties throughout its entire history.
We asked what, in their opinion, is the main reason people refuse to listen to others. Is it ego or something else? They said that it's "Not necessarily ego. Mostly just lack of time, and sometimes people just want their own individuality."
They also shared some words of wisdom as to what every person should learn in order for us to grow as a society: "Live and let live."
#7
Ignaz Semmelweis often described as the father of hand washing. In the 1800s he discovered that ~~infant~~ maternal mortality could be drastically reduced by doctors washing their hands between patients. He was largely ignored and his book got absolutely slated. This is supposed to have contributed to him having a mental breakdown and he died in a psychiatric hospital.
#8
Sinead O’Connor. Suddenly a coverup at the Catholic Church of child abuse doesn’t seem so silly.
#9
[Roger Boisjoly](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roger_Boisjoly) - Engineer involved with the Space Shuttle program who warned his superiors for months prior to the Challenger disaster that launching in cold weather could cause the O-rings to fail.
Care to guess what caused the Challenger disaster?
#10
David Attenborough, and I don’t think we are listening, well certainly not doing enough.
Groundcontroltomajortom 2 years ago
This man has devoted his whole life to our beautiful planet and all he can see is it getting destroyed. Absolute legend.
#11
Corey Feldman was on the View or something and tried to tell people that Hollywood is full of predators, and the hosts just laughed at him and tried to make him feel guilty for outing them.
Ent Hugger 2 years ago
oh the Coreys... Hollywood did them dirty, kids never had a chance :( RIP Haim
#12
Ahem. UK here. Repeated warnings from anyone and everyone that knew what they were talking about that Brexit was a bad idea, and "oh look" it's massively hurting in multiple areas, and a majority of people now think it was a bad idea.
Anyone-for-tea? 2 years ago
I understand why we had a referendum, but it should have only been used to gauge public opinion not as a decision tool. Very few of us are trained economists, fiscal advisors, and whoever would have a better understanding than Joe Public. It infuriates me that then referendum was almost 50/50 and here we are, in this mess that’s wasted millions of taxpayers’ money.
#13
Jason Salemi, epidemiologist at USF. No one knows him, that's cool. I was working on medical ML research (glioblastoma at the time) and was asked to help analyze some data about a new virus in China. In the middle of January we had a research meeting, and Dr. Salemi said, "I don't like this one, I have a *bad* feeling about SARS-NCOV" (as it was then called). On Feb 2020 I was put full time on the SARS-COV-2 team. The rest is history.
People thought he was being alarmist, we had recently been through a pair of Ebola outbreaks in Africa, couple of bad flu seasons, etc. People thought it would blow over.
#14
Rick Rescorla, Director of Corporate Security for Morgan Stanley Dean Witter, published a report in 1990 detailing the vulnerability of the World Trade Center parking garage. He and a colleague found they were able to freely walk into the garage, which contained many structural support columns, unchallenged by any security. Additionally no ID checks or screening was done on any of the entering delivery vehicles. Three years later a truck bomb was driven into the garage and detonated in an attempt to damage the buildings structure.
Later he and his same college would correctly predict the next attack on the building would come from the air. The evacuation plan and drills he put in place are credited with saving over 2,600 lives on September 11th.
Edited for a bit of clarity: Some are saying “but if he evacuated people, doesn’t that mean we listened?” Rick worked for one company in the building, not the Port Authority who managed the buildings overall safety plan. After the first plane crashed, the announcements from the Port Authority told everyone to shelter in place, and not evacuate. He had developed his own evacuation plan for his employees and put it place before any official word to evacuate the building was given.
#15
Pearl Jam warned us about Ticketmaster years ago. Nobody listened, now we're stuck with them...and only them.
Hotdogking 2 years ago
F**K YOU TICKETMASTER! We should’ve listened to Pearl Jam, now Ticketmaster is still Alive today. (I’ll show myself out)
#16
Alice Stewart - in 1958 discovered the link between x-ray of pregnant women and childhood cancer. She discovered that cancer mortality was around 40 per cent higher in the children who had been x-rayed in the womb.
Her findings were considered unsound for another 25 years until after her formal retirement when they were reviewed due to her continuing to push the issue. It wasn't until the 1980's that x-ray of pregnant women stopped being commonplace.
#17
Nikola Tesla - there was a book he wrote(a pamphlet really) called [The Problem of Increasing Human Energy](https://www.amazon.com/Problem-Increasing-Human-Energy-Harnessing/dp/1605200956) where he talked about slowing down the process of burning carbon until we understood it better.
#18
The guy who predicted the leevies would collapse in a strong hurricane. Category two or three. Not five as they predicted.
He knew the tide surges would destroy New Orleans and predicted it down to one percent the deaths, damage, destruction and water damage.
No one believed him, and he had computer simulations and print-outs he tried to show Congress and tried to tell them to prepare for the worst including tents for shelter.
He was laughed at and later fired.
Two years before Katrina.
#19
Al Gore got an entire apology episode from the creators of South Park after they mocked him for trying to warn people about climate change
edit- [here's a clip from the episode](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j89KEwNBhQ4)
GettingCereal 2 years ago
I laughed my booty off when watching this, and also hats off to Parker and Stone for admitting so very poetically that they were wrong.
#20
The MANY women who tried to speak out against Larry Nassar and had it get swept under the rug by USA gymnastics and Michigan State. And Dominique Moceanu who warned us about the Karolyis and the corruption in USA Gymnastics and was called a whiner by the maintstream media. Hundreds of girls were molested and there were so many places where it could have been stopped.
The Short Lady 2 years ago
You couldn't expect them to listen to women...just over emotional little girls. /s
#21
French general Ferdinand Foch reportedly called the Treaty of Versailles a “twenty-year armistice”, ie not conducive to lasting peace. WWII broke out approximately twenty years later.
#22
[Gary Webb](https://i.redd.it/ins1prnhy8x51.jpg). He found ties linking them (edit: the CIA) to the crack epidemic that wasted inner cities in the 90s, and "justified" the war on drugs, while also destabilizing the Nicaraguan government. He was basically raked over the coals for it, and wound up "committing suicide" with two bullets to the head.
#23
Harry Marcopolos notified the SEC 3 times that whatever Bernie Madoff was doing wasn’t legit and should be investigated, and all 3 times he was ignored. He talks about it in his book *No One Would Listen*. Check it out if you want to see a real facepalm example of government incompetence.
#24
John O'Neill.
He worked in the FBI as an anti-terrorist officer. After the car-bombing of the World Trade Center in 1993, he remained convinced that Al Qaeda would try to finish the job. The FBI convinced itself that it was over, and O'Neill, who kept at the investigation, was passed over for promotions to the point he wound up quitting the FBI. They thought he was too obsessed with it.
He took a job managing security at the WTC and lost his life on September 11.
Great doco about him and the security failures he wanted to prevent here: [Frontline: The Man Who Knew](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pbXPqWGGQ5U).
#26
12 TRW Engineers resigned their positions the morning of the Challenger incident in protest against risking the flight. NASA launched anyway. Should have listened.
Sar ska 2 years ago (edited)
Reading about the Challenger always gives me extra chills because it reminds me of when a teacher I once had told me a story about the Columbia (another NASA flight that exploded). Before he retired to work as a teacher, he was a fighter pilot and worked in aviation in various ways. When the Columbia exploded he was in a position to hear communications between Houston and the Columbia. I don’t remember what subject material I learned in class that day, but I’ll never forget hearing that the coms “didn’t actually go out before the disintegration happened and the crew didn’t die immediately either. In fact, both the coms and crew members were alive as the “disintegration” occurred for far longer than any person would ever be comfortable knowing. You’ll never hear those recordings, though. The ones from when they were falling. They’ll never be released.”
#27
While not to the degree that it ended up being but Eddie Murphy took a shot at Bill Cosby's holier than thou attitude in his comedy special Raw in 1987 during the height of The Cosby Show.
UKGrandad 2 years ago
Hilarious routine by Murphy. He says that Cosby rang to lecture him on the amount of swearing in his act, so Murphy rang Richard Pryor for advice. Pryor asks him 'When you swear, does the audience laugh"? "Yes", replied Murphy. "And does anybody else complain"? "No", said Murphy. "Well then", says Pryor, "ring Cosby back and tell him to have a Coke and a smile and to shut the f##k up".
#28
They were building a big baseball stadium in Wisconsin and it was a considerably windy day. The crane operator was tasked with lifting a large structure but refused stating dangerous gusts. The site foreman dismissed the crane operator and called in one who would do the job with no pushback. Well the crane tipped over with a load and workers were killed. Foreman and second operator were arrested, and iirc the first operator won a wrongful termination lawsuit.
Temporary Dork 2 years ago
And the people who pressured the site foreman into prioritizing time over safety were not legally responsible, probably.
#29
About 20 something years ago, I read articles in CBC about Eve teasing in India which was basically men groping women and how it would turn into outright gang rapes if the practice continued to be accepted.
Kathryn Baylis 2 years ago
Disgusting misogynistic refusal to take heed that a practice that was bad enough in itself would only get worse if the perpetrators were continually allowed to get away with it.
#30
H G Wells said he wanted his epitaph to be "I told you so. You damned fools!"
In The Land Ironclads (1903) he had written about a stalemated war fought by trench warfare that was broken by the invention of tanks, predicting what would happen in WW1.
In The War in the Air (1907) he predicted how airplanes would be used in war, including aerial bombardment of cities, and saw his predictions come true in WW2.
What do you think ?
Old Roadie 2 years ago
Martha Mitchell. She was called crazy, warning us of President Nixon's illegal activities. She was assaulted, injected with some unknown substance, and very quickly died of cancer. She did not believe it to be an accident. There would be no Watergate Papers without this brave woman.
Groundcontroltomajortom 2 years ago
Watch the documentary hypernomalisation, big eye opener for a lot of this stuff....
Debbie 2 years ago
From wikipedia: "HyperNormalisation is a 2016 BBC documentary by British filmmaker Adam Curtis. It argues that governments, financiers, and technological utopians have, since the 1970s, given up on the complex "real world" and built a simpler "fake world" run by corporations and kept stable by politicians. The film was released on 16 October 2016 on BBC iPlayer." Thanks for the recommendation, it looks interesting.
Load More Replies...
Icecream Sarang 2 years ago
In 1925, Brigadier General William Mitchell wrote a book describing how Japan might attack Hawaii in an aerial strike, after repeatedly warning American Assets on Hawaii were vulnerable to air strikes from the Pacific Rim.
Old Roadie 2 years ago
Martha Mitchell. She was called crazy, warning us of President Nixon's illegal activities. She was assaulted, injected with some unknown substance, and very quickly died of cancer. She did not believe it to be an accident. There would be no Watergate Papers without this brave woman.
Groundcontroltomajortom 2 years ago
Watch the documentary hypernomalisation, big eye opener for a lot of this stuff....
Debbie 2 years ago
From wikipedia: "HyperNormalisation is a 2016 BBC documentary by British filmmaker Adam Curtis. It argues that governments, financiers, and technological utopians have, since the 1970s, given up on the complex "real world" and built a simpler "fake world" run by corporations and kept stable by politicians. The film was released on 16 October 2016 on BBC iPlayer." Thanks for the recommendation, it looks interesting.
Load More Replies... Icecream Sarang 2 years ago
In 1925, Brigadier General William Mitchell wrote a book describing how Japan might attack Hawaii in an aerial strike, after repeatedly warning American Assets on Hawaii were vulnerable to air strikes from the Pacific Rim.
You May Like 50 ‘Weird History’ Pics That May Rewrite The Narrative Of How You Think The Past Went (Best Of All Time) 50 Fascinating History Facts And Pics To Leave You Intrigued 203 History Trivia Questions To Remind You Of High School
Mantas Kačerauskas
Viktorija Ošikaitė
Eligijus Sinkunas
Related on Bored Panda
