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People Speculate Which Culturally Accepted Things Will Be Horrifying In 100 Years

People Speculate Which Culturally Accepted Things Will Be Horrifying In 100 Years
Koushik Pal on Unsplash

When we learn about how people lived generations before us, it can be shocking.

How did people live without the internet?
Go back even further.
How did people endure international travel by sea before the invention of airplanes?
Well, they got by, just like how we are getting by today without knowing how much more convenient our future would be just a few years from now.

Curious to hear about people's predictions from succeeding generations, Redditor lizaloa asked:
"What is culturally accepted today that will be horrifying in 100 years?"

Medical advances have been impressive as of late.

Imagine the possibilities in the future and how the present will be reflected back upon.

The Treatment Option

"I’m a physician and I have this weird feeling like chemotherapy is going to be looked at as completely barbaric in 100 years. No better option now but my God it’s horrific in principle and in person."

– liketosaysalsa

The Effects Of Chemo

"Immunotherapy seems to be one of the more promising options right now."

"The problem with chemo is that it relies on a simple premise: cancer cells die rather more easily than regular cells. So if we poison the patient, hopefully we can kill off the cancer cells before we kill off the patient. (Incredibly simplified layperson's understanding!)."

"That's why the side effects are so nasty - any chemical that can kill off cells indiscriminately is going to have side effects."

– jimicus

An Inquiry

"If you don't mind, as someone who grew up as chemo being like the #1 only cancer treatment, would you happen to know if there are viable replacements on the way? I was under the impression that they're not but it seems like I'm wrong, which would be great."

– elemonated

The Response

"Cancer is a lot of diseases."

"In one case, a drug that downregulates the product of a bad fusion gene (that's the cause of that particular kind of cancer) is almost 100% effective against that particular kind of cancer."

"In other kinds of cancers, there is more than one kind of problem. DNA gets damaged constantly, but we usually don't get cancer because there are DNA repair mechanisms that usually fix the problem. If your genetics has a less effective gene that participates in DNA repair, then random DNA damage can cause cancer."

"Most cancers manifest as disregulation of some mechanism that doesn't shut down when it is supposed to. Epidermal growth factor, for example, is important for wound healing and just in general replacing cells as they die. But when this is generated without stopping, in the wrong amounts, it participates in proliferation of tissue where it shouldn't - cancer."

"Why do we use radiation with cancer? Its because DNA repair doesn't work as well in cancerous tissue. Radiation kills tissue by causing DNA damage. As I mentioned, one of the causes of cancer is deficits in DNA repair. Cancerous tissue dies more easily than healthy tissue."

"Unfortunately, evolution also works for cancer cells. If the weakest cancer cells die, but a few hardy ones remain, the cancer comes back with more radiation resistant cells. And healthy cells can only take a certain lifetime dose."

– jbsinger

How Far We've Come

"Yeah, like how a few hundred years ago surgical procedures were done without anesthetics and patients were just strapped down so they couldn't thrash around so much. It's horrifying, but at the time the people didn't have another option."

– captaindeadpl

More Poison

"I mean if you told me a few years ago a doctor would tell me I was going to be intentionally given arsenic for several months, I'd have laughed."

– PingEVE

A Bountiful Harvest

"Organ transplant lists. Eventually we will grow the organs in a lab."

– AndHereWeAre_

Public works and services are due for major upgrades.

Commute Nightmares

"High levels of traffic injuries and fatalities."

– zipzap21

Future Convo

"You can just hear the conversation."

"So Grandpa, how did you get around before automated cars?"

"We just, drove them ourselves!"

"Oh, was that safe?"

"Oh, no, millions of people died."

– pueblogreenchile

Reduce, Reuse, & Recycle-

"Waste. So much waste of food, of water, of materials. If we are to make it to space, we’re going to have to get to a point where as much stuff as possible is reclaimed, and it’s gonna start looking real insane to throw out things that could be put through a reclamation service."

– kharmatika

Environment-Unfriendly

"Plastic everywhere."

– TheRealOgMark

"Especially the single use kind. Plastic products existing aren't necessarily a bad thing, but mass producing that will take lifetimes to biodegrade and is expected to be thrown away is one of the most environmentally selfish things we do to our planet."

– rumblemumble46

Annual Upgrade

"Replacing a phone every year.Electronics are not easy to recycle and they use lots of precious resources that we dont have a whole lot of."

– CaptainQuoth

If it's already not considered ghastly, the things we put in our bodies will be viewed as abominable, years from now.

Maybe.

So Sweet

"The high prevalence of sugar in our diets."

– zipzap21

The Savory

"And SALT, holy crap! After finding out I have a heart problem and needing to cut out as much sodium as possible I've found that it's nearly impossible to find low sodium versions of nearly everything I like to eat."

– CatLadyGrip

I sincerely hope breakthrough medical advances will come at a more rapid pace.

As several Redditors pointed out earlier in the thread, chemotherapy is one of few options that patients who are fighting cancer have.

And based on real-life testimonies, it sounds like a necessary, but absolutely horrific, last resort.

Cancer has overstayed its welcome. Hopefully, we won't have to wait 100 years until we can live in a world without it.

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There is a level of devastation caused by being cheated on by a partner, especially if it's someone you trusted and have been with for a long time that people who haven't experienced it can't understand.

I've been lucky in that I've never been cheated on myself, but I've had friends who have gone through it. My college roommate told me it was the worst pain she's ever been in when she found out her boyfriend cheated on her, and she couldn't imagine anything worse.

It was indeed horrible. My confident, strong roommate was crying all the time and wondering why she wasn't good enough to keep her boyfriend's interest, even though that had nothing to with it.

Redditors agree that being cheated on is painful, but also are prepared to share things they think are emotionally more painful.

It all started when Redditor Darkterrariafort asked:

"What is something more emotionally painful than getting cheated on?"

Medical Helplessness

"Watching your most precious person die a painful and scary death and knowing there’s nothing you can do about it. F**k cancer."

– coastalliving40

"This. I watched my husband starve to death from gastroesophageal cancer."

"It was like watching a nightmare repeat of my dad all over again. 😞"

– NedsAtomicDB

Mama Who Bore Me

"Death of your child."

– NBA_Fan_76

"I truly cannot imagine a deeper pain."

– theawkwardmermaid

"Your child being serious injured by your ex, and custody court keeps forcing the kid into contact with their abuser."

"You spend years of your life dealing with court homework where you recount every excruciating detail of your own abuse at the hands of this person, in addition to the crimes against your child."

"It costs you about $100,000 in legal fees, and you still aren't able to protect your child. It keeps going on indefinitely, and perversely, your ex tries to send you to jail because the child runs away from them."

– JadeGrapes

"Being responsible for your childs death directly."

– Kanulie

"My father passed very suddenly and unexpectedly two summers ago. It was the deepest, unimaginable despair that it was almost like a dream. Being walked to the little room at the hospital where they let you know he didn’t make it on the ambulance ride was surreal and up to that point the worst moment in my life."

"One month after he passed, I was in a four wheeler accident with my then three year old. And we were alone as my husband was out of town. I wasn’t being negligent- it was just a terrible, terrible accident. But, in the chaos of being thrown off and being in complete shock, I thought the four wheeler was pinning her down. I was screaming at the top of my lungs and crying and trying everything I could to lift it up. Remaining calm simply wasn’t a possibility when you think you’re killing your own child."

"She wasn’t pinned-and actually didn’t have a scratch on her. EMT checked her out and I went to the hospital because I had ripped the top part of my thigh off trying to lift the ATV."

"The whole thing was eye-opening in the worst way possible. Because, I could never, ever, ever, ever imagine losing my daughter- especially to my own fault. What if she had been hurt or died that day? I would be living in my own constant hell. I didn’t think there could be worst pain that when I lost my dad, but now I know there is. Just the thought alone of losing my daughter brings tears to my eyes."

"Life is really rough sometimes. But it gets better."

– BoredMillennialMommy

Going Down

"Seeing a loved one go on a downward spiral and you can do nothing to stop it."

– New_me_old_self

"Extension of your comment: Seeing a close one(wronged by their protectors) going down the spiral."

"You tried to help them a lot but they dragged you down with them and left you not just empty but drained."

– Sullen_Wretch

So Hard

"Suicide bereavement."

"I lost my best friend in 2022. Found him. Everyday is a struggle to not be in my grief."

"I’d take 100 heartbreaks, 100 nights of going to bed hungry, and 100 punches right to the face just to have him back."

– KatastropheKraut

"It does. I got wasted and said far too much about myself once. One of my friends verbally smacked the f**k out of me, got me to see that people do care about me and that my relationships aren't all just superficial, really just hit my sorry a** over and over again with the idea that I'm deserving of love not because other people get something out of being with me but because I am a human being, and it slowly does get better."

"It stopped me, I was going to kill myself in two months on new year's."

"When I can't live for myself, I live for other people, even when I start doubting other people actually like me, I still don't do it or hurt myself at all, because there's always, no matter what I feel in the moment, a chance that they do truly just care about me."

"If I end myself now then I give so many other people survivor's guilt, I leave all the people I care about wondering for the rest of their lives how it all could've been different if they had just tried a little bit harder to help me. I won't elaborate now but I feel a similar sort of regret when it comes to a number of aspects of my own life. I could never leave someone with something so unfathomably more painful than that."

– pissandsh*tlord

Sounds Awful

"Mental instability. It's cruel because it's your own mind killing you, you can't run or hide and it's long-winded. I couldn't say a single event has been more emotionally stressful than what's happening."

– Country-Road--

"It’s like you’re dead in your twenties but haven’t been buried til you’re 65."

– Gmr33

Tragedy You Never Get Over

"Having your mother pass away in your arms."

– Repulsive_Cricket923

"Something similar happened to me when i was 4. My parents sent me over to get babysat by my grandmother and she sat on a chair and passed as i was sitting on the floor playing with my toys. I only thought she was sleeping at the time, but later learned the truth as i never saw her again."

– Lucidnuts

Just Done

"As far as relationships go, being abandoned by your former partner is pretty damn painful."

– heyitsvonage

"Mine did this to me after 2.5 years and it was f**king devastating, it took years to get over. He acted as though everything was fine, I was his everything, we were actively planning how we would elope after I finished my degree that term, and BOOM NO DO-OVERS YA DONE."

"It was immediately what came to my mind when I saw this post."

– paprikashi

My Work

"When someone steals your research, hands it in first, gets the high distinction, then everything you submit is plagiarizing that a**hat."

– StaunchMeerkat

"This is two steps worse than, "hey can you put my name on your paper too.""

– karmagod13000

Rather Be Cheated On

"When the person stays with you but they secretly still yearn for that other person (even if no cheating occurs)."

– Deleted User

I actually didn't think there was anything worse than being cheated on after watching my friends go through it.

I stand corrected.

Do you have any stories to share? Let us know in the comments below.

If you or someone you know is struggling, you can contact the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 988.

To find help outside the United States, the International Association for Suicide Prevention has resources available at https://www.iasp.info/resources/Crisis_Centres/

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