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* Take a moment to consider the possibility that there is no afterlife. That there is no immortal soul to survive biological death. That means that beyond death, is [[Nothing Is Scarier|nothing]]. Absolute oblivion.And even if some sort of consciousness could be somehow retained, what would await anyone would be an ''eternal'' non-existence devoid of any feelings whatsoever.
* Instead of No Afterlife or Eternal bliss, imagine this: Consider that reincarnation is real. That means that we were all possibly someone else in a past life. What if Reincarnation doesn't obey the laws of time? That means we could very well reincarnate as a past historical figure, or that schmuck who got tortured and killed because he angered the king. Not horrifying enough for you? Then consider this final bit: If there is no limit on reincarnation, and we could all have been someone else, then it's possible that there really is only one "soul" (i.e: we're all the same person, just in different lifetimes). All of those horrible things you hear, they happened to you at one point or another, and will likely happen again. Still not terrified? Whoever this soul is, he is probably completely alone in existence, and all of these lifetimes are just a really tragic way of escaping that loneliness, by creating duplicates of himself to talk to, to interact with, to love and to be loved. And that sad being...[[Tomato in the Mirror|is you]].
** Think for a minute. You can reincarnate as a different species. A dog. A paramecium. A plant. A shark. That had his fins cut off. You are both the person being cruel to animals and the animals being abused.
** Because if you consider the universal ancestor theory,every single living thing on our planet came from the same thing,which then proceeded to clone itself continuously.Our whole world is populated by a single thing that has gone through and is going through billions of horrible mutations.Think of the most hideous disgusting creature in existence.Billions of years ago you and that thing where essentially the same thing.
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** You're also that pampered Chihuahua in your neighbor's living room. Don't just go and think up all the negative examples.
** You're also every person you've ever had sex with, AND all your own children. In other words, your loving wife, your fresh faced dimpled little boy, and that hooker down the street who accepts payment in cocaine? All the same person.
** Isn't that kind of like forever-alone solipsism with bells on? There's only one real entity and everything else is a co-manifestation or projection of the psyche type thingy?
** [[Waxing Lyrical|You are the eggman.]] [[Rule of Funny|You are the eggmen.]] [[The Beatles|You are the walrus. Goo-goo-g'joob.]]
* Speaking of afterlife, what if we do have souls, but no afterlife place? Like, your body's dead. But your spirit isn't, and it can't go out of your body. So you have this spiritual consciousness still, and you're conscious through all the things that happen to your dead body. Or what if you can feel it? The autopsy, the suffocation inside your coffin or cremation, your body rotting away, disintegration into dust... ''Ow.''
** See [http://www.horrormasters.com/Text/a2055.pdf "The Testament of Magdalen Blair"] by Aleister Crowley.
* The idea of quantum immortality. With an infinite number of universes, there would be one where the you never die. No, make that ''an infinite'' number, since even an exceedingly small possibility times infinity equals infinity. And some of those versions of you are suffering [[Fate Worse Than Death|fates worse than death.]] [[And I Must Scream|Far worse than death.]] And still versions who get [[Serial Escalation|an even worse fate.]]
* Think about all of the photos you or your friends take that are posted on the internet. In many, there are random people in the background. You feel a bit of a shock when you realize there's probably hundreds of photos with YOU in the background on many websites, and you will never see them. Except in the case of a [http://www.neatorama.com/2010/06/13/disney-photo-captured-married-couple-on-film-15-years-before-they-met/ really unlikely coincidence].
* The idea that one could be talking to a Serial Killer and you dont even know it. Especially if there is a possibility that you could end up being the Serial Killer's victim whenever he/she feels like it.
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{{quote|[http://xkcd.com/830/ "We've analyzed genes on several of your chromosomes, and it's hard to avoid the conclusion: at some point, your parents had sex."]}}
** Due to the birth process, all of us (except for a few caesareans) have been in physical contact with our mothers vagina.
** The single most horrifying moment of puberty. We have all been there.
** ''Your teachers.''
** Your grandparents. Who may ''still'' be getting it on at every possible opportunity. [[Captain Obvious|Unless one or both of them is deceased]].
* By extension, most every famous man in an [[Arranged Marriage]] throughout history probably raped his wife on their wedding night. A few of the ones that didn't were quite possibly raped by their wives instead (yes, female-on-male rape, and women who believe in the marital rape license, exist). And in some cases (particularly royal ones), ''neither'' partner wanted it and they were ''both'' effectively raped by the fact that they were forced to have sex ''while being watched by a crowd'', to make sure the marriage was consummated.
* The ''Titanic''. Obviously, she was named after the titans of Greek mythology, probably because the people who named her wanted the ship to be as powerful as the titans were. But, as we all know, the ship sunk when she hit that iceberg, so you may be thinking she didn't really live up to her name. Then you realize: the all-powerful titans were defeated by the Olympian gods.
** And, of course, the name of ''Titanic'' was paralleled by her sister ships being called the ''Olympic'' and the ''Britannic''. ''Brittanic'' also came to a tragic end, though the story is understandably overshadowed by ''Titanic's'' sinking. While working as a hospital ship during World War I, she hit a mine off the coast of Greece and sank, with the loss of 30 lives. J. Robert Ballard, who discovered the wreck of the Titanic, was also instrumental in determining exactly why ''Brittanic'' sank—until his expeditions, there was some controversy over whether the ''Brittanic' had hit a mine or been intentionally torpedoed .
* Those horrible moments of clarity where the reality of a catastrophic event truly dawns on you. Intellectually, we all know that 9/11, the Holocaust, the various genocides in Africa, the deaths of millions of Native Americans, etc. really happened, but they don't ''feel'' completely real because of our psychological defences. How many people felt like they were watching a movie when the towers collapse on 9/11? Every once in a while, though, something will click, and it hits you out of no where: These were ''real'' incidents, and the victims were all ''real'' people who felt ''real'' pain.
** The above is merely the microscopic tip of an astronomical iceberg that few people even consider. Large, high profile events are one thing, but they are far from everything. People are murdered all the time, and suffer and die from accidents or disease far more. More than two million people die every year from malaria and tuberculosis alone, and even ''more'' die from AIDS and ''even more than that'' die from simple things like starvation and dirty water. Even without that though, there is still the little detail that we are clinging to the film thin transition between molten rock and hard vacuum, a speck of dirt orbiting a colossal fusion reactor that is one of hundreds of billions, in a cluster that is itself one of hundreds of billions. It is speculated that ''without'' the defenses to essentially ignore all of this, we would be driven completely insane, and it is easy to see why.
** [[You Cannot Grasp the True Form|Or if we were able to truly comprehend it]]. Most people who do think about this subject would imagine that kind of death and suffering in terms of the emotional impact of a personal tragedy, only [[Up to Eleven|multiplied by]] the millions of people it happens to every year. That's not even ''close'', really. You can max out your capacity for sadness and still not even come close to the cumulative suffering of all those people.
** And while we're on the subject of tragedy on a scale that's literally too vast to comprehend, think about the millions of people dying from preventable things like the aforementioned starvation and contaminated water, as well as other causes like curable or immunizable diseases. Now consider that no matter how much money, time, and effort you donate to charity, it would only be a drop in the unimaginably huge bucket. (This is really more Fridge Depression or Fridge [[Tear Jerker]] than [[Fridge Horror]].)
** In addition, note that there will always be a percentage of deaths that were completely and realistically preventable, but the victim just happened to be at the wrong place at the wrong time.
** Even worse is when you feel like you can comprehend the full horror of something that happened, and then something new hits you like a ton of bricks years later. This Troper remembers staying in a high rise hotel ten years after 9/11 and suddenly realizing, "Oh god, I'd be trapped if a plane hit a floor below me, and I'd know I was going to die". Cue bone-chilling terror.
** In order to truly understand something, you must experience it. Now think of the real [[Gone Mad From the Revelation|version of going mad from the revelation]] would be like if we could understand and truly comprehend and understand the suffering that goes on in this world.
* Survival requires constant murder of other living things. Other things that want to live as much as we do. The unfortunate brain that developed the powers to simulate other minds and form morality come up with excuses because the fridge horror of ''living'' is too painful.
** You only exist because your evolutionary ancestors were sufficiently adapted enough at reproduction and survival to succeed in passing their genetic information down through history, uninterrupted, for millions, nay, BILLIONS of years. You are the last in a long, LONG line of raping, murdering machines.
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** Gravity is one of the weakest forces in the universe, and is easily overcome by an ant. Now, remember Black Holes. These things use one of the weakest forces in the entire universe to such colossal effect, it can crush ''literally anything'' to such an unimaginably tiny size, it may as well not exist any more. Entire stars that make the sun look like a pinprick are torn utterly to pieces and ''completely disappear'' into a something the size of a ''grain of dust''... by a force which, on earth, can be easily overcome by a magnet. Just take a moment to consider how apocalyptically powerful these things are.
** Here's another one. It's theorized that at the beginning of the universe all four forces were unified into a super-force. Over time the four forces we have today "froze out" (or split off) into each other. It's conceivable that, at any time, an other force could "freeze out" completely and totally altering the structure of the universe...and killing all of us instantaneously.
* [[H.P. Lovecraft]] once wrote that, "The most merciful thing in the world, I think, is the inability of the human mind to correlate all its contents." Think about this, and realize what a gift it is that so much of our brain is set to 'auto-pilot' or in the areas we don't think of. How we could die at any time, how a loved one could drop, the complicated actions of moving even fingers to type or breathing. All the numbers, percentages behind every little thing that happens every day. You truly would [[Go Mad
** More brain horror. Your brain writes its own memories to fill in any gaps it comes across. These fake memories are completely indistinguishable from the real thing and are sprinkled throughout every single event you carry memories of. What's more, even with video or other records there will ''never'' be a way for you to be completely sure which parts of your past actually happened, and which parts were simply imagined for you.
* [http://www.press.uchicago.edu/Misc/Chicago/1932594019.html This] series of experiments performed on people who have had the connecting structures between their right and left brain hemispheres severed. Excerpt here:
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* Any war footage of a vehicle being destroyed probably involves someone dying at horrible death; every time a fighter spirals out of control in gun camera footage from WWII, you can be reasonably sure the pilot died with his plane. Worth remembering any time you watch a history documentary on TV.
** Even worse, DVDs of those documentaries (I'm thinking specifically of "World At War") [[Snuff Film|are available for sale]].
* Many people owe their lives to medical technology discovered by the Nazis and the Imperial Japanese. Plus, this medical technology was discovered in ''some of the most horrible ways possible''.
** Let's put it this way: have you (or has anyone you know) ever had chemotherapy? ''Guess who you have to thank for it.''
* Every time you see a futuristic Sci Fi film about a horrible future be it a [[Dystopia Is Hard|brutal]] [[Big Brother Is Watching|dictatorship]] or a poverty stricken [[Crapsack World|anarchic]] [[After the End|wasteland]] and imagine how awful it would be, remember that there is a country in the world where this is happening right now!
** Also remember that in our world most civilized countries have a tradition of destroying some weak country once in a while. Evil dictator that killed a thousand man is apparently a good reason to bomb country into dust, destroy it's economy causing countless deaths from hunger and illness and then people coming to power aren't usually much better. Than try to think about this slaughter in the name of abstract idea like democracy and personal freedom (which exists only in ideal world and is only partly implemented even in most developed countries) and compare it to slaughter in the name of any other reason.
* No matter what you do, you will eventually end up not existing. The same is true of everybody else, too.
*** Consider also that Death's moving your "death clock" forward every ''second'', not just on your birthday. Tick tock.
* A popular attraction in the nineteenth century were freak shows and "[[wikipedia:Human zoos|human zoos]]", which were displays of non-white people in cages living like animals. Obviously, they were incredibly racist, but the [[Fridge Horror]] comes in when you realize that nobody, not even the most educated and liberal of people who were in any position to do anything about it (read: whites) saw anything wrong with the idea! Before [[World War II]], pretty much every Western nation was as racist as [[Nazi Germany]]!
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* What would happen if the death toll wasn't as high as it was. Yes, it is tragic that 1 million children die in poverty before reaching the age of five, but imagine what would happen if every single one survived to adulthood, and had children of their own, who survived into adulthood. Global population would increase dramatically, putting a strain on already falling resources.
* Yellowstone Park's geysers are a popular place for tourists to enjoy some sight-seeing. They are caused, however, by an expanding underground caldera. Scientists have recently figured that this is caused by a supervolcano ''nearly the size of the United States.'' It's been analyzed to go off in a cataclysmic eruption every 700,000 years or so. The ''last'' time it happened was roughly... 700,000 years ago. Fortunately, if it ''does'' go off, you probably won't survive long enough to witness the extinction level horror that will follow - if you're a US citizen, anyway.
** If you are not a US citizen, you are basically looking at global nuclear winter.
* The hottest recorded temperature on Earth was recorded at Al Azizya, Libya, at 56 degrees Celsius (136 degrees Fahrenheit). Except for the entirety of the Hadean era, as well as the first half of the Archean era, no temperature in the entire history of the Earth (the coldest surface temperatures ever on Earth were experienced during the late Ordovician period and the early Silurian period, due to Earth becoming a planet-sized snowball) has ever gone past that point. Adding to this is the fact that global sea levels rose and fell in tandem with the temperature. The only exception to this rule? When the planet just got formed, as the main reason why the amount of water increased on its surface is because its surface temperature became cool enough for water to rain down! Considering that the Earth's oceans first formed approximately 1 billion years ago, in the next 1 billion years...
** Actually, in about 1 billion years, the Sun's average brightness is expected to increase by 10%. The Sun was actually 10% less brighter than it is now approximately 1 billion years ago, and the reason why Earth was still hot at that time was because of the gases that trapped the Sun's heat. Do you know what happens when the Sun becomes 10% brighter? The Earth becomes like Venus.
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** Until you consider that the entire underlying ethos behind communism is factory workers having more rights and control over the circumstances of the factories they work in than those in the capitalist system, and the real fridge horror is in realizing the possibility that your country's history books might not be the 100% accurate descriptions of historical events you thought they were.
* Here's something about fetishes. Think of the most horrible, disgusting, offensive thing you can imagine. Now get this - ''somebody out there thinks it's sexy.'' (Just look at this very wiki) What's even more disturbing is when you discover that that someone is YOU.
** The [[Inverted Trope|inversion]] of this is also pretty creepy, knowing that an odd thing you think is perfectly normal (and [[Casual Kink|maybe even a little bit sexy]]) ''horrifies'' somebody to no end.
** Ok, now think of the most horrible, disgusting, offensive thing about yourself you can imagine. Somebody out there thinks its sexy. Not so bad now, is it?
* What if the person you're with ''isn't'' your soulmate, and your real one is dead, with somebody else, or somewhere where you'll never meet them?
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* You might have ruined somebody's life beyond repair... [[But for Me It Was Tuesday|and you don't know about it]].
** And that life could very well be your own. Some seemingly insignificant-at-the-time decision youve made might have set you along a specific chain of events that will lead inexorably to an inescapable future of unhappiness and pain, of loss and wasted potential.
* Casey Anthony's diary entry found on http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Casey_Anthony that page(scroll down a little) is the epitome of this trope. Dated June 21, it sounds like it could be any melodramatic teenage girl's diary entry, until you realize that little Caylee Anthony, her two year old daughter, was supposed to have died June 16.
* Today could be the day you die. Or somebody you love does.
** To elaborate, think about all the people who dies, from accidents, or worse, murders. Now, let's think about the number of them who didn't see it coming. For example, one particular aging man might be watering his plants, the next second he's having a serious heart attack. Or the young blonde girl who's just going home after shopping with her girlfriends... she didn't return the next day, and weeks later, her body is found in the middle of nowhere, having killed by a serial killer.
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* There have been plenty of people in history who have committed atrocities beyond measure. Yet, despite how horrible people have been, there is not a ''single'' person we can be absolutely sure that has [[Complete Monster|no redeeming qualities whatsoever.]] None, out of the 100 billion people who have ''ever lived.'' Yes, I'm including [[Those Wacky Nazis|the Nazis.]] Imagine if a definitive [[Complete Monster]] came into being, and the destruction they would cause. [[Dystopia Justifies the Means|Especially in a seat of power.]]
** Hell, imagine their ''everyday life''.
* Have you ever stopped whatever you were doing and actually thought about yourself? You think your thoughts, feelings and emotions have been stable throughout your life time but most of them are the result of maturity, knowledge, or teachings applied by your caregivers. How would you fare doing if you were to go back in time and try to live with your past thoughts during that period? Imagine the mind of a 50 year old being transported in the mind of his 4 year old self before such developmental concepts such as conservation of objects, understanding of others' thoughts, and logical reasoning begin to form? It would be like a spending a nightmare with your own self.
** There's a sci-fic [http://www.cosmosmagazine.com/2294/loop story] with that very summary...
* There is an old expression that says "The early bird gets the worm, but the second mouse gets the cheese." It's surprising how many people use this expression without realizing what it is implying about the first mouse. Of course, many people have never heard the second half of the aphorism.
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* Dying Alone, completely and utterly. Never having loved. Never having a family (if you care to have one that is). Just dying. Combine this with the idea of there being no after-life , no reincarnation. This is the ultimate horror for this troper.
* [[Rule 34]] can be this if you think about it too hard.
** [[Rule 34]] ''IS'' [[Fridge Horror]]. Somewhere out there, someone ''actually fantasizes about porn of this character or thing''. Even stuff like ''[[Rugrats]]'' and ''[[My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic|My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic]]''. No matter the content...''someone actually demands porn in this artstyle''.
** Also the fact that some [[Rule 34]] ''is ridicuously well-made'', sometimes ''of higher quality than what it's based on''. Yes, even the [[Squick]]y ones including stuff like [[Gorn]] and [[Nausea Fuel|bodily fluids]].
** Not to mention, Rule 34 of horrifying things - ''someone'' finds this arousing.
** '''''SNUFF'''''. Especially scary because...guess what? ''SOMEONE FINDS THIS AROUSING''.
* Consider the fact that in order for a movie to be made, someone had to actually think of the idea behind ''[[The Human Centipede]]''.
* Ever made a snide comment about a person whose actions had lead to their death (say, drunk driving)? Well, there may be a chance that a relative or friend of said deceased person had read what you just typed, and you wouldn't even know it; so while you're going about your merry way, they're busy enduring the emotional grief all over again, as well as anger and rage at you for your post. And again, you wouldn't even know it.
* You may think you're cool for telling someone on the internet how wrong their beliefs are, or how dumb their ideas sound. Well, some people have thicker shells, and know not to take you seriously. Others? [[Break the Cutie|It's emotional and psychological hellfire, and their confidence withers away until they aren't as joyful as they used to be. Any attempt at regaining the joy of what they used to do will instantly remind them of you and your comments, and they'll back away because they're afraid of being hurt again.]]
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* Alcohol removes inhibitions, and wipes out memory to a large extent. Imagine you're a teetotaler then. Now, what happens when you have all your inhibitions? You generally don't cross certain boundaries with other people you otherwise might, meaning you're more likely to be alone. You're also more likely to end up rejected because nondrinkers past a certain age with no history of alcoholism have a tough time explaining their choices, don't hang out in bars or if they do are seen as taking advantage since they're the one not drinking. All that loneliness and rejection? Not being able to forget it.
* The Duggar family on 19 Kids and Counting. They are a conservative fundamentalist Christian family with 10 sons and 9 daughters. Not much is known about female homosexuality as compared to male homosexuality, but due to the [[wikipedia:Fraternal birth order and male sexual orientation|Fraternal Birth Order effect]], each older brother a man has increases the odds that he will be gay. If the base chance of a man turning out to have a homosexual orientation is 2% and each older brother increases the chances of a homosexual orientation by 28-48%, that means that little Jackson, their 15th child and 10th son, alone has a chance as high as 68% of turning out to be gay. Given the amount of children they have, especially sons, it is most likely that at least one of them will turn out to be gay. Add into the mix the facts that Bob and Michelle Duggar restrict their childrens' access to television and the Internet and have praised and donated to anti-gay organizations such as the Family Research Council and Focus on the Family and [[Tear Jerker|you can't help but cry when you think about how ugly things could get for whichever child(ren) turn(s) out to be gay]]. For example, it is common for anti-gay parents to kick their child(ren) out of the house or disown them once they discover that they're gay. And to make it more horrifying, some people will ''[[Culture Justifies Anything|excuse it]]'' [[Culture Justifies Anything|as being part of the parents' religion or culture]].
** Consider what happens to gay people in general... there were several documents of people who were beaten up and relentlessly abused at school or at work because they were "Gay" or even worse. Simply because they were different. [[Karma Houdini|and most of their tormentors got away with it]]. It's also especially bad considering that ''some of these people weren't gay at all'' - they were merely autistic, retarded, or had something else.
* The [[Fight Club (novel)|book]] (and [[Fight Club (film)|movie]]) ''Fight Club'' brought something to this troper's mind. Specifically, Tyler Durden's prediliction with sticking it to the upper class by seasoning their food with his various bodily fluids while working at an expensive restaurant. Think about how many times you eat out and are having your food prepared by a stranger and can't see what they're doing. [[Chuck Palahniuk]] himself said that he spoke with a restaurant worker who told him that that detail from the book inspired him to do the same (although in his case he specifically targeted [[Margaret Thatcher]], as she frequented his restaurant and he apparently hated her guts). Even if you're not among the upper class, some people may just do it out of some misplaced revenge because they hate their job or they just think it's funny. It's because of this thought that this troper started being ''extra'' nice to servers when he went out to eat.
** Ask anyone who works in public service - trust me enough people have ''wanted'' to do this stuff.
* Consider this: There was a [[Real Life]] section of [[Karma Houdini]] before it was removed. enough people ''got away with stuff'' to actually ''warrant'' a [[Real Life]] section.
* Your ancestor was a slave. Everyone has ancestors who were slaves.
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[[Category:Fridge Horror]]▼
[[Category:Real Life]]
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