Did you know that there are between 30 and 50 active serial killers in the United States at any given time?
Did you know that a brain aneurysm can happen at any time?
If you didn't, be afraid... be very afraid thanks to Redditor XElite_turtle_X, who asked the online community: "What's a genuinely terrifying fact?"
"I can't decide..."
Brain-eating amoeba, Naegleria fowleri, exist in lakes and tainted tap water in both the UK and USA, but surprisingly not in Australia.
I can't decide whether the most terrifying part of this is their existence, or that they're not in Australia.
"Oh!"
Oh! I just remembered one. Prions!
Prions are misfolded proteins that copy over to other cells. If a brain surgeon suspects that the patient has prions they will run a test and if the patient has it they will just stitch the person up. Why? Because there is no reason to finish because the patient will die anyway.
In other words it has a 100% fatality rate.
"The fact..."
The fact that NASA can detect world killing asteroids and know when it will hit but CAN'T detect city killing asteroids due to the size being greatly smaller.
"A super pandemic..."
A super pandemic, with a mutated virus that is both easy to spread and deadly, could easily wipe out half of the world's population. No government has the resources stockpiled or the public properly educated to help mitigate the disaster.
What would the world be like if every other person was gone?
"If that's not terrifying..."
Think about the most insanely horrifying act that you've ever heard of a human being committing. Now think about the fact that literally any other human being is equally capable of doing the same.
If that's not terrifying, I don't know what is.
"A brain..."
A brain aneurysm can happen anywhere at any time, that's why it's so terrifying.
"The dog Laika..."
The dog Laika, the first dog send to space, was never meant to come back. The spacecraft she travelled in was made for a one-way trip. She died of overheat after a couple of hours, alone and scared.
"Your mind..."
Your mind is a very powerful place, but a simple chemical imbalance may take away a persons energy, motivation, focus, and will to live and cause them to stay in that state forever unless treated.
"Everything..."
Everything you smell is particle based, which means small particles of it have to actually enter your nose. Great for apple pie, sucks for dead bodies.
"The US..."
Operation Northwoods. The US wanted to commit false flag terror attacks against themselves (and their own people) and blame it on Cuba, but JFK was against it and so it didn't happen - likely preventing a cataclysmic war.