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Each of us creates the world we live in. We choose what to include in it and we also decide what to leave out.

Interested in the latter, we dug around Reddit and found a few discussions where people have been sharing difficult-to-accept truths that they know are correct but actively try not to think about.

So we put together the most popular entries, and I gotta say, it's not the easiest list to go through, but it's definitely intriguing and thought-provoking. After all, even if we refuse to acknowledge a fact, that doesn't make it go away.

Continue scrolling to check out what things are bothering people the most and the talks we had with social science writer and researcher Jeremy Sherman, Ph.D., MPP, and professor of psychology at Otterbein University in Westerville, Ohio, Noam Shpancer, Ph.D.

#1

People Share 40 Things That Are True But That No One Wants To Hear No-one wants to hear your shitty music in public, especially in class.

N1ght_ShadeH2HOES , Budgeron Bach Report

According to Shpancer, refusing to think about something we know is true is a form of avoidance. "It may provide short-term relief from discomfort, and can sometimes help us keep from becoming distracted, but in the long term, a habit of persistent avoidance—a refusal to face your known challenges—becomes a bigger problem than whatever issue you were avoiding in the first place," the author of The Good Psychologist told Bored Panda.

This, let's call it practice, sounds quite similar to denial, but, as Shpancer pointed out, the latter is a refusal to accept or acknowledge the truth altogether. "The benefit of denial is that it may, in the short term, buy you some time to summon and mobilize your coping resources," he explained.

"When we hear bad, surprising news, our first reaction is often 'No, it can't be,' even if we have every reason to trust the source of the bad news. This momentary denial may allow us to 'catch our breath' as it were, before delving into the hard work of coping. Relying on denial for the long term is, however, unhealthy. Such persistent refusal to acknowledge and face facts erodes interpersonal trust and communication and leads to bad decisions. If you're falling, there's no use telling yourself that you've learned how to fly."

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#2

People Share 40 Things That Are True But That No One Wants To Hear Just because someone is related to you doesn't mean they are a good person.

ohnomyglasseye , Some Tale Report

Sherman, the author of Neither Ghost nor Machine: The Emergence and Nature of Selves, agreed, highlighting how human life is uniquely anxious compared to other organisms. "Just compare the range of worries a human could have compared to any other critter. No contest. To cope, we need denial, escapism, entertainment, but to survive we need all hands on deck in reality too," he explained to Bored Panda.

"I'm on a campaign I call 'optimal: see illusion, safe escapism or strategic gullibility', encouraging people to take their denialist flights of fancy but always with a return ticket to reality safe in your heart pocket. It's not how far out you go, but whether you remember to come back. The big difference between a death metal concert and an authoritarian political rally is what happens in the parking lot after. After the metal concert, people return to reality. After the rally, people think they've experienced something more real than reality. That's dangerous."

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#3

People Share 40 Things That Are True But That No One Wants To Hear Voting Trump out of office won't magically fix everything. He is a symptom of a bigger disease here in the USA.

Greedence , Matt Johnson Report

One study of 2,000 adults across the United States, which was commissioned by global tour operator G Adventures, suggests that the average American spends 12 hours and 56 minutes escaping their reality each week. (That's roughly four years over a lifetime.)

The most popular forms of disconnecting from work, responsibilities, and everything else that drives them crazy came in the form of reading books (1 hour 34 minutes), watching movies (2 hours 37 minutes), and dreaming of vacations (44 minutes).

#4

People Share 40 Things That Are True But That No One Wants To Hear Life is easier for attractive people.

BobSacramanto , AYKUT AKTAŞ Report

However, as previously mentioned, this can't go on forever and we need to come to terms with the world around us. Jeremy Sherman thinks people can make it easier for themselves by focusing on what he calls ironic fallibilism.

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"An ironic situation is one where you get the opposite of what you expected: you do the right thing and it comes out wrong or vice versa. An ironic attitude is recognition that despite your best effort, ironic situations are not entirely escapable. There is no sure-fire formula for living. Just when you discover the meaning of life, it changes."

"Ironism is not cynicism. It's the recognition that life is deeply tragic and deeply slapstick. Life is tragicomic," he explained.

#5

People Share 40 Things That Are True But That No One Wants To Hear We need to stop consuming animal products the way we currently are. It's absolutely unsustainable.

The amount of downvotes this post will receive proves the title of this post.

Nemo1ner , Annie Spratt Report

"Fallibilism is a concept in philosophy and more than any other notion, fallibilism has given me peace of mind about dealing with reality," Sherman continued. "I think of the fallibilist mantra as 'no matter how confident I am in a bet, I remain still more confident that it is a bet. Life is iffy guesswork. Yoda is wrong. There's only try. One can make better bets. One can bet with high confidence. One can't escape betting."

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Sherman sees ironic fallibilism as the antidote to two unworkable approaches that are often combined:

The first one is fundamentalist hypocrisy, or pretending you have the formula for living though you don't, can't, and shouldn't live by it. And the second one is cynical hypocrisy, or pretending there's no formula so you can do whatever you want.

"[Jerks] (I'm a psychoproctologist) employ both. Everyone should live by their supposed fundamentalist formula that they cynically don't think they have to live by. No deed is too dirty for saints like them."

#6

People Share 40 Things That Are True But That No One Wants To Hear Just because you've been doing something longer than other people doesn't mean you're better at it (driving, job role, sports etc)

northsouth261 , Israel Andrade Report

Professor Noam Shpancer added that we should revise our expectation that life should be easy, and the attendant aversion to discomfort. "Hardship is not the end of the world," he said. "It is just the world. The default position for human beings is resilience. Normalizing the struggle is useful."

"Second, accepting reality tends to be easier when we take a long-term perspective, because the danger and damage associated with a failure to face reality are usually obscured in the short run and clarify only in the long run. When making decisions, it is, therefore, useful to consider not only your present self but the well-being of your future self as well. When you fail to deal with the facts of your circumstance, you in effect sell out your future self."

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#7

People Share 40 Things That Are True But That No One Wants To Hear "You can achieve anything you put your mind to" is NOT true.

Not even close.

Genetics play a HUGE role in whether or not someone will be a good athlete, or a super successful scientist.

Can you be an "OK" athlete if you try really hard and practice really hard? Sure. Will you break world records or play for a professional team? No. You have to be especially gifted in the genetics department to do those sorts of things.

The same thing applies for mental pursuits. Not everyone is smart. Some people just don't... get it. You can try a million different ways of teaching a subject and some people just... won't... get it. Critical thinking (the ability to see a problem and visualize how to get a solution) comes MUCH MORE EASILY to some people than to others. Can you sit there and memorize things and get good grades and what not? Absolutely. Will you ever be a scientist who does extremely important research and solves the world's next huge problem? Probably not, unless you get hired because of nepotism are dragged along by someone who IS good at critical thinking.

Furthermore, much of what you CAN do is limited by who you know. If you're rich or your parents are rich and they know lots of people and have a large social network or a lot of people who want to please them for one reason or another, you'll likely find a job in whatever career you want to extremely easily provided you're not totally inept. If you're the first in your family to get a degree and aren't good at maintaining a social network you'll likely have an extremely hard time finding a job, even if you are the person best suited for the jobs you are applying for. Even if the job you're applying for is LITERALLY what you spent 5 years getting a PhD on, if you don't know somebody, you likely won't get that job.

corrado33 , Chris Chow Report

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Finally, we must constantly work on educating ourselves and seeking knowledge that can provide answers to questions we sometimes can't even articulate. Shpancer believes that history is the subject to start with, as it "shows what happens to those who deny the facts, and about the scientific method, which shows that in refereeing competing truth claims, following the evidence is our best bet.

"'Facts,' said John Adams, 'are stubborn things; and whatever may be our wishes, our inclinations, or the dictates of our passion, they cannot alter the state of facts and evidence.' The evidence wins out in the end. Don’t you want to be on the winning side?"

#8

People Share 40 Things That Are True But That No One Wants To Hear All children are innocent, but they’re not all good. Some people will grow up to be f*****g assholes regardless of what they’re exposed to.

BiggChimpin , Piron Guillaume Report

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#9

People Share 40 Things That Are True But That No One Wants To Hear Money can actually make your life happier.

mlo92895 , Alexander Mils Report

#10

People Share 40 Things That Are True But That No One Wants To Hear You need to have your views challenged.

Being around and positively engaging with people who disagree with you is one of the healthiest intellectual practices we can do.

Big_Muff_Pie , essica Da Rosa Report

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#11

People Share 40 Things That Are True But That No One Wants To Hear Having an opinion doesn't make you right.

Philosofried , Kristin Wolff Report

#12

People Share 40 Things That Are True But That No One Wants To Hear The more children you have, the more you contribute to environmental decline. Literally nobody likes hearing this because HUMANS MUST REPRODUCE YADA YADA.

turtlemari , Kelly Sikkema Report

#13

People Share 40 Things That Are True But That No One Wants To Hear Just because you love someone it doesn't mean they will love you back. No matter how hard you try to get them to, they just won't.

anon , Milan Popovic Report

#14

People Share 40 Things That Are True But That No One Wants To Hear Everyone's a hypocrite. Even you.

booksoverppl , Adrian Swancar Report

#15

People Share 40 Things That Are True But That No One Wants To Hear I guess to counter some people in here:

Not every "real talk", "tough to swallow pill", or "harsh truth" that you have to offer someone is going to be accurate to them, or their situation.

Sometimes you're actually a f*****g d**k that is incapable of considering their perspective or feeling empathy towards them.

¯ _(ツ) _ / ¯

NappyFlickz , Jon Tyson Report

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#16

People Share 40 Things That Are True But That No One Wants To Hear There's going to be a day where you are totally forgotten by everyone.

PunchyPractitioner , Dan Meyers Report

#17

People Share 40 Things That Are True But That No One Wants To Hear Things are going to keep getting worse on our planet and we are in for some serious human tragedy.

LemmeLaroo , Li-An Lim Report

#18

People Share 40 Things That Are True But That No One Wants To Hear Your spouse/child/home/job/vacation, etc. is not nearly as important to anyone else as it is to you.

tappytaps , Natalya Zaritskaya Report

#19

People Share 40 Things That Are True But That No One Wants To Hear You can't control what happens to you, only how you react to it.

sheikhyerbouti , Jorge Saavedra Report

#20

People Share 40 Things That Are True But That No One Wants To Hear That there are people who won’t like you or agree with you and you won’t be able to change their mind so you just have to deal with it

animeweebgrill , Ketut Subiyanto Report

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#21

That all gods are man made, start taking responsibility for your own actions and stop thinking that some magical being is going to come and help you out.

JesusChristsGayLover Report

#22

Your skin color / sexual orientation is the least interesting thing about you.

dreck_disp Report

#23

Capitalism as it’s currently implemented doesn’t work and only increases the wealth of the wealthy at the cost of the poor, the oppressed, and the world. We are literally destroying our ability to live on this planet, and we’ll need drastic societal change to barely survive the coming era.

Monkeycrunk Report

#24

People Share 40 Things That Are True But That No One Wants To Hear There is always someone better than you

Planarian171 , Jonathan Chng Report

#25

So many of these are negative... So how about the truth that one of the best ways to be happy in life is by helping other people. People don't want to do it, because helping other people feels like you're losing out, but it's true

TimberDog12 Report

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#26

Sometimes, you are the toxic person

gummycherrys Report

#27

People Share 40 Things That Are True But That No One Wants To Hear No matter how nice you are, people will still just be assholes to you just cuz.

anon , Deva Darshan Report

#28

People Share 40 Things That Are True But That No One Wants To Hear We don't know everything and probably never will.

joculator , Niklas Ohlrogge Report

#29

People Share 40 Things That Are True But That No One Wants To Hear Your friends and family likely talk tons of s**t about you behind your back

CrustyTowel , Rui Fernandes Report

#30

Sometimes bad things happen to good people. Sometimes good things happen to bad people.

oyuno_miyumi Report

#31

You can’t love someone into loving you

-dingbat- Report

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#32

That people need to stop putting their trust in god to do things and do it themselves

Unovaboy Report

#33

People Share 40 Things That Are True But That No One Wants To Hear Everyone you love will die. Everyone you hate will die. Everything ends.

6675636b5f6675636b , Pavel Danilyuk Report

#34

People Share 40 Things That Are True But That No One Wants To Hear Corona may never go away and be in our lives forever in some capacity.

fib16 , Gabriella Clare Marino Report

#35

People Share 40 Things That Are True But That No One Wants To Hear No matter what you do you polluted the planet

Rusky82 , USDA NRCS Montana Report

#36

The only person responsible for -you- is -you-.

ladderrack Report

#37

People Share 40 Things That Are True But That No One Wants To Hear Americans don't want to hear that Columbus murdered and enslaved people.

anon , Metropolitan Museum of Art Report

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#38

People Share 40 Things That Are True But That No One Wants To Hear No one really gives a s**t what your eyebrows look like.

amynivenskane , Rune Enstad Report

#39

You are always replaceable.

_kartikeytripathi_ Report

#40

People Share 40 Things That Are True But That No One Wants To Hear You aren't special.

MrM0nday , Katie Montgomery Report

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#41

As long as we fail to protect and provide for all children in our society, we will continue to suffer the crimes of the damaged adults we produce. We have no right to expect any different, and we deserve everything that we get.

TruCelt Report

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#42

Some people are just evil. There’s not always a reason behind it.

DuckyBalboaBroa Report

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#43

Racism is universal, as in anybody can be racist.
The recent attempt to redefine it is laughable.

If you assume things or judge anyone based on skin color, good or bad things, you’re a racist.

anon Report

#44

When you die, it could very well be nothing. Just blackness, like before you were born.

304rising Report

#45

The downfall of many celebrity and quasi-celebrity males over the past few years, as a result of sexual assault, is just the tip of the iceburg. Sexual assault is real, it has been going on for centuries, and the news shedding light on the matter is a good thing.

Donler Report

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#46

China is always expanding their influence and the Chinese communist party treats people terribly.

redduht Report

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#47

We are not all equal, in any sense.

TheDevilsAdvokaat Report

#48

Nobody cares that you are Vegan

spimothyleary Report

#49

People Share 40 Things That Are True But That No One Wants To Hear Life isn’t fair and you aren’t owed a damn thing.

Hyrax09 , Nathan Dumlao Report

#50

People Share 40 Things That Are True But That No One Wants To Hear You can’t make everyone happy

choccymint95 , Kurayba Report

#51

the fact that the two presidential candidates are old men who should be in nursing homes is depressing

Basebooster Report

#52

No matter what you do you will never be more popular then cheese.

animepurest Report

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#53

People Share 40 Things That Are True But That No One Wants To Hear No one is at the wheel. There is no one leading the planet, just powerful people, companies, and countries all struggling together against everyone else for power, money, and control.

Sethor , GR Stocks Report

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#54

People Share 40 Things That Are True But That No One Wants To Hear Just because you’ve been with someone since high school doesn’t mean they’re right for you. Don’t base your future on childish dreams

Jibjab83 , Long Truong Report

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#55

Both of the world's current super powers (China and USA) are committing genocide on undesirables near their borders. Nobody can do a damn thing to stop them. The future of the world is bleak.

Oh yeah, Climate Change is happening, and the evidence points to us going down the *worst case scenario* path, which means a nightmarish world for the next thousand years.

theclansman22 Report

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#56

* Some people will never find a long term partner and that's okay...
* ... because even if you live your life surrounded by people and love, you will die alone. Being married or with a LT partner, having children, having lots of relatives... All in all, it's no guarantee / insurance against ending up alone.
* People fall out of love for no reason and sometimes there's nothing you can / should do about it.
* Not everyone wants children, even the ones who will have them anyway.

nelmo87 Report

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#57

Good things don't come to those who wait. They come to those who take them. Be patient in your efforts, don't wait apathetically for the things you want to come to you.

ZaraPattinson Report

#58

The people who bother you the most in your life probably do so because you’re the most similar to them.

arcticdeth Report

#59

The eradication of the most devastating diseases that we fight today (i.e. cancer) will have potentially devastating unintended consequences. Humans weren't meant to live forever, and a "cure for cancer" will have interesting effects in the economy and society as a whole with a world already overcrowded with people.

Before I get killed on this, I don't mean for this to sound cruel or heartless.

ta_507john Report

#60

The democratic and republican parties are the same party. They want the same things. Any differences you may find in them is only to keep you distracted from taking the power away from the already powerful.

Pavementaled Report

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#61

People Share 40 Things That Are True But That No One Wants To Hear That you need to uplift others to improve society and the world

but everyone is more focused on crushing those around them to ensure their current, or potential, position in the world.

wisedoormat , Dylan Gillis Report

#62

The world does not owe you anything and government is not going to take care of you.

anon Report

#63

Just because you don't agree with someone on a personal level doesn't mean you can't be friends.

I personally don't agree with a lot of the things my boss says, but he's an awesome boss and a mentor for me.

Hans_of_Death Report

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#64

Healthy relationships require a lot of work. Sometimes more, sometimes less. But in total – a whole f*****g lot.

just_a_tiny_phoenix Report

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#65

That most people probably don't hate you just because you're black/gay/etc.

They hate you because you're really an a*****e.

SouthJerseyPride Report

#66

"You're going to die and you have no idea when" Stop pretending that you're invincible. Acknowledge the fact of your own mortality, and then start structuring your life in a more meaningful way.

rotonmyna Report

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#67

People Share 40 Things That Are True But That No One Wants To Hear Costco has tubs of 7lb Nacho cheese for sale at $6.50 a piece. 7lbs of Nacho Cheese works out to about 2,800cm^3 . A typical bathtub has a volume of 160,000cm^3 . Here are your volumes based on weights (approximately) and how many bottles you would need to fill up the tub:

1. 120lbs = 50,000cm^3 means you need 40 tubs for 255 dollars

2. 150lbs = 70,000cm^3 means you need 32 tubs for 208 dollars

3. 200lbs = 90,000cm^3 means you need 25 tubs for 162.5 dollars

4. 250lbs = 110,000cm^3 means you need 18 tubs for 116 dollars

See the trend? The fatter you get, the more cost effective it becomes to bathe in cheese.

reeper147 , Galen Crout Report

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#68

Prophets had no excuse. If you claim to have a connection to god and hear his voice, then the time period in which you live doesn't excuse what you do or prescribe for society. Otherwise, it means your god was limited by the spirit of the era, meaning he isn't omnipotent. Or that god was just wrong.

People respect prophets too much.

PrideParadeinSaudi Report

#69

Your employer steals from you more than the government does

Ambitious-Lime-5308 Report

#70

Either you will have to deal with someone else dying or, someone else will have to go through you dying.

Honk_N_Quack Report

#71

You are as insignificant to most people on earth as a stranger you pass on the street is to you.

RicharKing Report

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#72

There are a LOT of violent people out there and we aren't really doing much to change that.

There are a lot of people hurting each other through sexual violence. And no one is ultimately making any effort to change that.

Despite the fact that Reddit doesn't want to hear it, there are a LOT of people who are attracted to young people. Throughout history, and today. And until we actually acknowledge that, we are never going to stop people from being abused.

The best solution for gun violence in the US that everyone could agree on is targeting the causes of violence. Now there will be issues on specific methods which people will debate, but you would be 10 times more effective in getting movement in that area than by trying to fight the brick wall of gun control vs gun rights. And politicians are never going to do this unless citizens tell them to change focus.

Educated people have beliefs too, education alone is not a magic solution to issues.

incvthrowaway Report

#73

Not everything revolves around you

Edit: I don’t give a f**k what planet you are or what space object you identify as stfu lmao

CrocodileToast97 Report

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#74

Having a culture that is so focused on getting high or drunk squanders much of the time in our youth that we need to develop into thoughtful, pragmatic, and mature adults.

wreckchain Report

#75

It's our fault the world is not the way it's supposed to be.

We didn't start it, it's just the people that came before us didn't fix it, and now it's our responsibility.

Expecting politicians, athletes, and celebrities to influence positive change is b******t when so many of us don't take extra steps to contribute positively in the world.

Kukantiz Report

#76

- Mental illness is not an excuse for shitty behavior
- Your problems are generally the consequence of your own action
- If you live in the Western developed world, you are a lot more shallow and materialistic than you'd like to admit
- In terms of looking for a partner, your looks and money are huge factors. Possibly even more important than personality

istami Report

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#77

No matter how much time, energy, love, etc. you put into someone, the only way to ensure you get results from that effort is to put it into yourself. Everyone else is a calculated gamble.

Wambocommando Report

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#78

People Share 40 Things That Are True But That No One Wants To Hear Your (our) mother(s) will put us down one day. And never pick us up again.

B_tchlasagna , Jake Thacker Report

#79

Being computer illiterate is not something to be proud of and should not be accommodated. Especially with the boomer crowd that literally demands to be hand held through copying and pasting. You cant ask them to think or learn because 'I just don't understand computers'.

Well you're just fine with your iPhone and Facebook and surfing the net. You can learn this new system YOU requested instead of demanding IT do it for you simply because it runs on a computer.

Also, USE BIRTH CONTROL. This is the worst possible time to be bringing babies into the world. We're already overpopulated and strained for resources. Itll only get worse as time goes on. No, having a baby wont fix all your problems. Itll just amplify them and bring in an another innocent sufferer.
If you want kids that badly, think about the 400,000 in foster care instead of demanding that only your genes are good enough.

greffedufois Report

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#80

Your dog will probably die before you

FellowOfHorses Report

#81

we have no chance of mitigating climate change to a point where billions of people will have died by 2050

anon Report

#82

You might not ever find the love of your life.

Yes, you may marry. But it might not work out. You might end up divorced, lonely, and unfulfilled at 60 years old. It is technically a possibility, it is not impossible.

Don't worry, I'm not talking about myself.

Squillimy Report

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#83

Anything about someone's dream.

The MLM will never make you money, Britney.

Although your parents say so, you cannot sing, Amy.

You are not the smartest person in the world, Brandon.

(Names random)

rudolph_ransom Report

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#84

there are no absolute truths

katiebear716 Report

#85

No one and nothing matters in reality.

MilitantPacifist13 Report

#86

That world peace is impossible

Kingdeadmeme Report

#87

Just because it hurts you doesn't mean it is wrong. To all the snowflakes.

anon Report