# How Horrible is the most Horrible Thing You've Ever Seen? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [May 24, 2013, 11:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-horrible-is-the-most-horrible-thing-youve-ever-seen/659272 "2013-05-24T23:01:03Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Larry\_Mudd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f14d63/32.png) [@Larry\_Mudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Mudd)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2013, 2:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-horrible-is-the-most-horrible-thing-youve-ever-seen/659272/41 "2013-05-25T14:06:29Z")
Traumatic (and fatal) head injury sustained by a worker who was instructed to use an indoor manlift on an uneven outdoor surface to wash windows. It went over at full extension and he broke his fall with his head. His eyes came out of his sockets. What made it particularly horrible was that less than fifteen minutes before, I’d walked right past him on my way back from lunch and thought “Gee, that doesn’t look very safe. Huh, I guess they know what they’re doing.” ---
**Author:** ![Loach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/loach/32/350_2.png) [@Loach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loach)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2013, 2:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-horrible-is-the-most-horrible-thing-youve-ever-seen/659272/42 "2013-05-25T14:32:04Z")
> [@FoieGrasIsEvil](#): > > Yeah, the ex-wife has got me ranked pretty high up there too. I didn’t mention mine. That puts me off the scale. Of course nothing compared to a dizzy squirrel. ---
**Author:** ![PapSett](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ecc23a/32.png) [@PapSett](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PapSett)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2013, 2:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-horrible-is-the-most-horrible-thing-youve-ever-seen/659272/43 "2013-05-25T14:33:26Z")
I saw a woman scalped by a fast running factory conveyer belt. Her ponytail fell over her shoulder, got caught in the belt, and it ripped her scalp off. You could see her skull, and it looked like her face was melting because there was nothing on top to hold it up. I will never forget her scream and seeing her. It was about an 8 for me. ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2013, 2:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-horrible-is-the-most-horrible-thing-youve-ever-seen/659272/44 "2013-05-25T14:42:16Z")
This was back in the 70s, when I was in my mid-20s, living and working in Manhattan. I was a pedestrian, trying to cross Houston Street, but a big semi was coming, so I waited for it to pass, halfway across the street. Just to the left of the semi was a teenager on a bicycle. As he and the truck approached me, he somehow lost his balance and went down right under the semi’s tires. He was squashed like a bug, organs squeezed out all over the street (and me). Part of him, probably his intestines, were wrapped around one of the tires. All of us who saw it just started screaming, and some people yelled at the truck driver, who had no idea what had happened. When he saw what was left of the kid, he just fell to the ground on his hands and knees, wailing his heart out. Seeing him was almost as horrible as the accident itself. People tried to console him, telling him it wasn’t his fault, but nothing got through to him. I remember feeling very cold and shaking, like all the blood had drained out of me. I was one of the people the police questioned, and I remember struggling to get words out of my mouth coherently. I was a basket case, and couldn’t stop crying for the next couple of hours. ---
**Author:** ![Junkman209](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/junkman209/32/5522_2.png) [@Junkman209](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Junkman209)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2013, 2:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-horrible-is-the-most-horrible-thing-youve-ever-seen/659272/45 "2013-05-25T14:48:41Z")
> [@Trinopus](#): > > I once saw something very similar: flesh-colored growths, grape-sized – they were sprouting from a lady’s neck, shoulders, upper arms, and upper back. Yet…this was at Disneyland, and she seemed to be having a good time! I can only guess that this kind of growth doesn’t actually hurt (much?) But very odd, and definitely horrible! I’d forgotten seeing a woman like that! It was back in 1968, and it might have been in Disneyland–I don’t remember. Still, I would only rate that a 0 or 1. Grotesque, but not horrible. The most horrible thing I’ve seen I’d rate a 5 or 6: I saw a drunk man stagger in front of a moving car and saw his chest crack open. I’ve never seen so much blood. If there had been malice or intent I might have rated it higher, but the driver was not at fault and the drunk only had himself to blame for his demise. I’m very grateful I’ve never been in a war. ---
**Author:** ![Orb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/e47774/32.png) [@Orb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Orb)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2013, 2:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-horrible-is-the-most-horrible-thing-youve-ever-seen/659272/46 "2013-05-25T14:58:12Z")
100 out of 10. Don’t ask. ---
**Author:** ![kayT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayt/32/3633_2.png) [@kayT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayT)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2013, 3:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-horrible-is-the-most-horrible-thing-youve-ever-seen/659272/47 "2013-05-25T15:01:01Z")
> [@Rowanchilde](#): > > Crap is in the eye of the beholder, “dearie”. An animal death is every bit as horrible as a human tragedy. I thought Arrendajo downplaying it made him sound arrogant; and last I checked I was allowed to voice my opinion… > > Read that again. I didn’t say either of you demonstrated a lack of human compassion. I said that he lacked a \*\*\*universal \*\*\*compassion. You can learn a lot about people from the way they view their relationships to the world around them. Not just the world of humans… Did you notice that the squirrel in the OP did not die? ---
**Author:** ![Idle\_Thoughts](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/838e76/32.png) [@Idle\_Thoughts](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Idle_Thoughts)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2013, 3:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-horrible-is-the-most-horrible-thing-youve-ever-seen/659272/48 "2013-05-25T15:01:57Z")
> [@Rowanchilde](#): > > In my top 10 of horrible things I’ve seen, the lack of paragraphs breaks would have to be up there… > > Oh, and your egocentric, all powerful human lack of universal compassion… Welcome to the SDMB, **Rowanchilde.** Just to let you know, we have a some rules and guidelines here that you might want to read up on, located [here](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/faq.php?faq=vb3_board_faq#faq_sdmb_rules). The main rule is “Don’t be a jerk”…and others include no insults outside the BBQ Pit and no trolling. So this post of yours, one of your first, should be dialed back in the future. ---
**Author:** ![Baker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bb73d2/32.png) [@Baker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baker)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2013, 3:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-horrible-is-the-most-horrible-thing-youve-ever-seen/659272/49 "2013-05-25T15:11:31Z")
> [@Rowanchilde](#): > > Crap is in the eye of the beholder, “dearie”. An animal death is every bit as horrible as a human tragedy. I thought Arrendajo downplaying it made him sound arrogant; and last I checked I was allowed to voice my opinion… > > Read that again. I didn’t say either of you demonstrated a lack of human compassion. I said that he lacked a \*\*\*universal \*\*\*compassion. You can learn a lot about people from the way they view their relationships to the world around them. Not just the world of humans… This poster and their posts? 10 +1:D ---
**Author:** ![gracer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/8e7dd6/32.png) [@gracer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gracer)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2013, 3:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-horrible-is-the-most-horrible-thing-youve-ever-seen/659272/50 "2013-05-25T15:42:03Z")
I dunno, saying someone has a led a charmed life based on that could put you off base. Who knows how she rates things? Maybe she just isn’t taking things into account. Incidents of child abuse (as have been described above) may not be what she associates with “most horrible thing seen”. I’m just saying that because someone once said to me “what do you know about it, your life is perfect”, and I was completely taken aback. I thought about for a long time, and realised that she couldn’t know, because the horrible are not things I tell people. Still, a falling squirrel?! That’s more like, negative, because it’s funny. So more like -5 or something. I watched a motorcycle accident from a balcony, I’d give that about a 6. The most horrible things I have seen are situations children have been in. Remember in the '90s when the footage of Romanian orphanages came out? That stuff, sometimes worse. I dunno what I’d give that. Some high number. I’m not sure how to count it if you see it after the worst is over, either. What about seeing the damage done by a father who beat his daughter nearly to death, then left her for dead? I didn’t see the beating, but the beating was still there. I saw _her_. Not sure if that stuff counts, and I’m not sure how to rate it. Just… high. But again, I wouldn’t assume anything about this woman. Maybe she has seen similar things and just doesn’t put them in the category of “most horrible thing I have seen that I am going to talk about”. ---
**Author:** ![gracer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/8e7dd6/32.png) [@gracer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gracer)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2013, 4:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-horrible-is-the-most-horrible-thing-youve-ever-seen/659272/51 "2013-05-25T16:02:27Z")
Adding to that, because I mentioned it in another post earlier today: I’ve also seen someone who’d been shot, but it wasn’t “horrible”. He was bleeding _ **a lot** _, and he was fading in and out, but it just wasn’t horrible. So there could be something like that as well for her. She might’ve seen something she just didn’t experience as horrible. ---
**Author:** ![Trinopus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/2bfe46/32.png) [@Trinopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trinopus)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2013, 8:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-horrible-is-the-most-horrible-thing-youve-ever-seen/659272/52 "2013-05-25T20:06:36Z")
On the scale, maybe a “6,” I once saw a small animal in the woods, dying but not yet dead. Very unpleasant. I finished it off quickly to spare it further suffering. In the same vein, a cat once wandered on to my family’s ranch. The cat had a horrible nasty erosive cancer of its face – much of the face was missing. I did a mercy killing there, too… “6” Mother Nature is not as nice as we might like. ---
**Author:** ![JoseB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/joseb/32/1530_2.png) [@JoseB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JoseB)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2013, 9:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-horrible-is-the-most-horrible-thing-youve-ever-seen/659272/53 "2013-05-25T21:55:06Z")
My father had an undetected aortic aneurysm. It ended up bursting one day at home, when we were all together. Basically seeing my father die in front of me at the age of 16… An 8. My best friend was run over by a car in front of me. She lingered for a while, but died in the end. That would also be an 8. I was witness to some guy losing control of his motorcycle and hitting a lamppost head on. I make that a 7. ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2013, 10:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-horrible-is-the-most-horrible-thing-youve-ever-seen/659272/54 "2013-05-25T22:25:01Z")
> [@gracer](#): > > Still, a falling squirrel?! That’s more like, negative, because it’s funny. So more like -5 or something. Especially since it fell _in the middle of having sex._ ---
**Author:** ![gracer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/8e7dd6/32.png) [@gracer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gracer)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2013, 11:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-horrible-is-the-most-horrible-thing-youve-ever-seen/659272/55 "2013-05-25T23:17:51Z")
> [@panache45](#): > > Especially since it fell _in the middle of having sex._ I forgot that. That’s -10 on the horrible scale: -10 (fucking hilarious) -5 (heh) 0 (meh) 5 (oh dear) 10 (oh-dear-og-make-it-stop-and-pass-the-eye-ball-bleach-kill-me-now) ETA: I think we can conclude the woman in question was not sheltered. She was suffering from acute failure of the sense of humour. ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2013, 11:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-horrible-is-the-most-horrible-thing-youve-ever-seen/659272/56 "2013-05-25T23:32:45Z")
It would probably have to be the African man dying of AIDS in his squalid mud hut in Bamako, Mali. That would likely hit a ten on the sadness scale and a nine on the horrible scale. He was one of our maintenance workers. Another would be a fellow Seabee crawling into our bunker bleeding from multiple wounds after a rocket attack. ---
**Author:** ![Rowanchilde](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/a698b9/32.png) [@Rowanchilde](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rowanchilde)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2013, 11:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-horrible-is-the-most-horrible-thing-youve-ever-seen/659272/57 "2013-05-25T23:49:55Z")
> [@Attack\_from\_the\_3rd\_dimension](#): > > Welcome to the Dope, **Rowanchilde**. I look forward to your future contributions. I’m sure they will stimulate discussion. > ETA my contribution: [My Day Was Like A Horror Movie](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=477963). I’d give it a four, maybe less. Not sure if it’s the worst thing, but it was memorable enough to post. Thanks for the welcome, Mr. dimension. I would have loved to have seen you chasing the bat around 🙂 > [@Idle\_Thoughts](#): > > Welcome to the SDMB, **Rowanchilde.** > Just to let you know, we have a some rules and guidelines here that you might want to read up on, located [here](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/faq.php?faq=vb3_board_faq#faq_sdmb_rules). > > The main rule is “Don’t be a jerk”…and others include no insults outside the BBQ Pit and no trolling. > > So this post of yours, one of your first, should be dialed back in the future. Noted… > [@Baker](#): > > This poster and their posts? 10 +1:D Whatever made you emoti-smile so big? Don’t be quizzical, what are you saying? ---
**Author:** ![Chessic\_Sense](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/7c8e57/32.png) [@Chessic\_Sense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chessic_Sense)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2013, 12:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-horrible-is-the-most-horrible-thing-youve-ever-seen/659272/58 "2013-05-26T00:18:46Z")
[9 or 10.](http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/01/05/AR2006010500351.html) It wasn’t the magnitude of the gore, really. It was _the volume_. ---
**Author:** ![Batsinma\_Belfry](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ea5d25/32.png) [@Batsinma\_Belfry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Batsinma_Belfry)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2013, 4:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-horrible-is-the-most-horrible-thing-youve-ever-seen/659272/59 "2013-05-26T04:31:24Z")
My neighbor tried, and failed suicide via gas grill. And he wanted his family to witness it. He even made the kids, (6 and 12) stay home from school. They thought they were going to have a cookout. ☹ Seeing him without his face and ears, screaming and rolling on the ground, I’ll give an 8. Seeing his wife trying to hook up the garden hose, while her whole body was shaking, and the 12 yr old boy, screaming for her to help him “put Daddy out,” and the little girl, crying under the picnic table, I’ll give a 10. ---
**Author:** ![Clarisse\_McClellan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f0a364/32.png) [@Clarisse\_McClellan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Clarisse_McClellan)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2013, 4:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-horrible-is-the-most-horrible-thing-youve-ever-seen/659272/60 "2013-05-26T04:39:23Z")
Well, I cant really compare to Batsinma Belfry. Holy crap. I once saw a pickup truck going too fast miss the curve of an on ramp and roll over at least a dozen times. On about the 6th or so rollover the driver was thrown out the driver’s side window and the truck the landed on him and continued rolling. I passed by just in time to see his body mushed into the ground and know he was dead. About a 6. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-horrible-is-the-most-horrible-thing-youve-ever-seen/659272.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-horrible-is-the-most-horrible-thing-youve-ever-seen/659272.md?page=4)