# The first time you realized that the world could be an ugly place **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [February 6, 2017, 3:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-first-time-you-realized-that-the-world-could-be-an-ugly-place/779170 "2017-02-06T15:39:42Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![superwombat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/superwombat/32/16616_2.png) [@superwombat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/superwombat)\ **Post date:** [February 12, 2017, 10:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-first-time-you-realized-that-the-world-could-be-an-ugly-place/779170/41 "2017-02-12T10:19:00Z")
I… I just want to hug you all. ☹ ---
**Author:** ![Marion\_Wormer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d07c76/32.png) [@Marion\_Wormer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marion_Wormer)\ **Post date:** [February 12, 2017, 10:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-first-time-you-realized-that-the-world-could-be-an-ugly-place/779170/42 "2017-02-12T22:47:14Z")
I worked with a couple of people that I can call mildly psycho. Both of them would do anything they could to destroy the career of anyone who looked better than them. The psychobitch would be transferred into a branch and over a period of months people would get a transfer or get a job somewhere else because they knew she was a backstabbing fiend. Management knew this. When she crossed me I took her down bureaucratically and it was a thing of beauty. The blow back was magnificent. She never crossed me again. Sadly, I couldn’t protect the other people whose lives she ruined. Boys and girls, if some older and wiser employee mentions to you “contemporaneous records” and “Memo for record”, take the advice. Don’t sit in your chair hoping it will get better. Document.Document. Document. I had a boss who blatantly committed travel fraud, but I could never nail him for it, I just moved on. You can’t fix everything. ---
**Author:** ![monstro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ba9def/32.png) [@monstro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/monstro)\ **Post date:** [February 12, 2017, 11:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-first-time-you-realized-that-the-world-could-be-an-ugly-place/779170/43 "2017-02-12T23:13:45Z")
I think the only upside to having a parent with a hot, violent, unpredictable temper is that from an early age, one develops an understanding of unfairness and ugliness. But I do remember one of my first lessons in just how much unfairness and ugliness is in the world. I was in the seventh grade. On the local news, there was a horrible story of a girl my age whose body had been found in her kitchen. She’d been sexual assaulted with a broomstick. I didn’t know the world could be THAT fucked up. ---
**Author:** ![DorkVader](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/73ab20/32.png) [@DorkVader](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DorkVader)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2017, 12:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-first-time-you-realized-that-the-world-could-be-an-ugly-place/779170/44 "2017-02-13T00:25:28Z")
I don’t remember when I realized the world was an ugly, cruel place. It seems like its an ongoing thing with me. Every so often, something happens that refreshes my understanding of how terrible a place our world truly is (or can be). Its always a shock when I’m reminded how despicable and low humanity can be. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2017, 12:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-first-time-you-realized-that-the-world-could-be-an-ugly-place/779170/45 "2017-02-13T00:47:38Z")
When I was in elementary school, I read a comic book that mentioned Jews dying in concentration camps; my mother helpfully explained that (a) yes, it’s true; and (b) you know, it would probably make more sense to just call them _death camps_. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-first-time-you-realized-that-the-world-could-be-an-ugly-place/779170.md?page=2)