The world is a place absolutely saturated with information. Facts and knowledge surround each and every surface of your day-to-day life.
You need to know what temperature to cook your chicken. You need to know how to get from your house to the post office.
You know so many things, and you don’t even know how many you know.
But then there are some things you are acutely aware of knowing—because you feel like you shouldn’t know them. These are facts you found out by complete accident or by complete necessity and there’s almost no in‐between.
The only reason you know these kinds of facts is because they somehow snuck their way into your life.
So, when Redditor poisionivey3 asked:
“What’s a piece of information you know that feels illegal to know?”
Here were some of those little factoids that freaked people out.
Security Is A Joke
“Most conventional locks, like door locks from the hardware store or padlocks, are a joke. Hell you can take your house key and go door to door and eventually find aanother door that it’ll open.”
“What they’re counting on is that most people aren’t going to make the effort to acquire or make lock picking tools, then learn how to use them.”-frightenedhugger
“Really (before 1997/98 or so) old microsoft product keys relied on a REALLY simple validity check.”
“They were numbers in the form XXXX-YYYYYYY. The first 4 digits were specific to the software (I think Office 97 was 0402?) and fixed.”
“The last 7 .. the check was just that the sum of all digits has to be able to be divided by 7 without rest.”
“So 1111111 worked all the time. 1234567 worked all the time, 7777777 did.”-cerker
“If your local Walmart is closed overnight but there are employees working there, the doors probably aren’t locked and the self check registers are on.”
“There’s actually nothing keeping you from going in there, picking up a few items, using self checkout and walking out.”
“I work at Walmart overnight and this guy did that a couple nights ago. He didn’t speak English and when a manager noticed him they actually just escorted him to grab his items, check out and go.”-lenniemane
“A lot of military contract fleet vehicles use the same key for the entire fleet. Lowest bidders and all. And even then a lot of them are just keys to the door.”
“The actual ignition switch is just a knob on the dash.”
“Same vain fords crown victoria police interceptor variants all use the same key. It’s not even restricted you can buy them online.”-SkyAdministrative970
Stupid Life Hacks
“Back in the day, we used to go to this very popular night club, where people started lining up at 6pm. Met a guy inside partying one night wearing an orange construction vest.”
“He said he bypassed the entire line and they let him right in the door, because he was wearing that vest and carrying a clipboard. He told the bouncers he was the Fire Marshal.”-Rubyshooz
“A school trip in a downtown metro area for geography had us carrying clipboards around to mark off points on a map.”
“When we decided to eat, we found an Asian food restaurant. Walking in to this particular restaurant with a clipboard set them into panic mode.”
“So, we played along and went to inspect the kitchen, ran out fingers under the counter and made a few fake notes.”
“After a few minutes, my friend and I agreed they passed the inspection and we left the restaurant and found somewhere else to eat.”-Silken-red
“Car website company I used to work for (around 15 years ago) sold themselves as being the safest place to buy new and used cars”.
“Claiming they would check every car added to their website to make sure it wasn’t stolen or previously totalled.”
“Only problem is that they only carry out these tests every few months and the sales team actively inform their car dealership clients when this will happen, so they have the opportunity to take any stolen cars off the site first.”-CptBloodyObvious
Do Not Ingest
“There are plenty of toxic plants around, whether cultivated or wild. Poison hemlock, which is an invasive that grows in huge patches, is deadly if you consume just a few leaves.”
“Nightshades are pretty common as well, though the toxicity of different species varies greatly. Spurges, which are pretty common and inconspicious garden weeds, have sap that is severely irritating to the eyes, and can even potentially be blinding. Isn’t nature wonderful?”-AggravatingCrow
“That restaurants often do really disgusting things and have disgusting issues.”
“I used to waitress and then later manage a pizza place — mosquitos in the drain, nests of mice, stink bug infestations…”
“…Flies feasting on food that falls behind the appliances that isn’t cleaned up frequently like it’s supposed to be, mold in the soda machine, expired ingredients still being used, etc.”
“It’s just.. a lot. I was very, very surprised. I knew that most restaurants naturally deal with these things from time to time, but I didn’t expect it to be this often.”
“I also didn’t expect for management to be so nonchalant about going against inspections and regulations.”
“Other restaurants that friends of mine have managed/otherwise worked at have also had similar issues and it’s pretty wild.”
“I’ve never eaten at the restaurant that I worked at since quitting. I wouldn’t trust it.”-lemonlady7
The Sad Truth Of Our Daily Lives
“For any single instance of crime, the chance of getting caught and punished is exceedingly low.”
“It’s dependent on the crime, and easily influenced via various precautions like planning and proper target acquisition.”
“Only 40% of murders are solved and the majority of those which are are fairly obvious. 15% for assault and 10% for rape and sexual abuse.”
“Most of the folks caught for violent or sex crimes are committing crimes of passion (when emotions overwhelm all else) often involving family members (especially common for child abuse) so put little thought into concealing it, hence, they get caught.”
“The number one serial killer alive today has a high score of 300+ and is still at large. He targets prostitutes and the homeless and other folks that nobody important gives a fuck about.”
“For property crimes you have to be either stupid or frequent. closure rates for these are like 4% for mugging and 2% for burglary, and like 0.1% for white collar crimes like wage theft. The best crook in this game is your boss.”
“Drug crimes are like 0.01% if you count each individual instance. Half of you folks reading this comment have committed one.”
“Basically, corporate crime is easy and everyone does it, property crime is more difficult and less worth the effort, violent crime is especially bad risk-reward, and drug crime is just an excuse to violence brown people.”
“Basically, criminal justice is an oxymoron. It’s all a game of luck.”-Reagalan
“Area 51 soldiers have special orders compared to other military bases.”
“If were to drive your car or truck a hair to close to the limits of property, soldiers will detain you and they actually can shoot you right then and there if they decide you’re a threat.”
“Normally other soldiers would just let other authorities like the higher ups handle trespassers but Area 51 soldiers have the right to kill someone if they feel like it.”-KrookedCell
It’s a privilege to live and to know.
We as humans are afforded that privilege so readily we even sometimes wish we didn’t have it.
Learning can be a blessing or a curse.
Choose wisely which things you truly want to know the truth about because what is known can’t be unknown.