# What's the most disturbing thing you watched on purpose? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [April 11, 2010, 9:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-most-disturbing-thing-you-watched-on-purpose/535769 "2010-04-11T21:31:57Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![Khaki\_Campbell](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/9de053/32.png) [@Khaki\_Campbell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Khaki_Campbell)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2010, 11:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-most-disturbing-thing-you-watched-on-purpose/535769/81 "2010-04-15T11:37:50Z")
> [@BrandonR](#): > > A video of what I want to say was Czech rebels putting a knife through a Russian soldier’s throat (I could be mixing up the people or circumstances). The accompanying sound was horrifying. If ever there was an “unsee” feature for the brain, this would be the use for it… Those were Chechen rebels. The sound was far more horrifying than the images. ---
**Author:** ![Spice\_Weasel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spice_weasel/32/5435_2.png) [@Spice\_Weasel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spice_Weasel)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2010, 4:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-most-disturbing-thing-you-watched-on-purpose/535769/82 "2010-04-15T16:03:00Z")
> [@Anaamika](#): > > And that is what is so horrifying about it. Inside that body is a perfectly formed human mind, healthy and desiring of love, happiness, and all of the things we strive for. But she’ll never have it, I don’t think. See, I think her very existence, her appearance on Oprah and all the work she does to educate people about drunk driving challenges the notion that she has lost love, happiness, and all the things we strive for. By all accounts she has a close-knit family and a sense of purpose. It’s startling and difficult to grapple with, the realization that she is us, but it also provides a sense of hope and gratitude for those of us who haven’t been faced with this challenge. I mean she has absolutely made the best of this situation and I can’t help but be absolutely floored by her strength. To answer the OP, I tend to avoid watching disturbing things because I’m hypersensitive to imagery of people suffering, but I’ve read some crazy shit. I would say [The History of Murder](http://www.amazon.com/Mammoth-Book-History-Murder/dp/0786707143) ranks up there as the most disturbing thing I’ve ever deliberately exposed myself to. I made my way through Caligula, Jack the Ripper and Elizabeth Bathory before I stopped reading altogether. I didn’t sleep for months. ---
**Author:** ![jjimm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba8739/32.png) [@jjimm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jjimm)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2010, 4:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-most-disturbing-thing-you-watched-on-purpose/535769/83 "2010-04-15T16:33:41Z")
When I was working in Thailand I saw way too many videos and pictures of the 2004 tsunami and aftermath. Stuff that never made it to the western media. I have managed to deal with what I saw, and am no longer haunted by it. But the worst thing I have ever, ever seen, was when I accidentally watched an unexpurgated video of the Ukranian [Sknyliv air show disaster](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sknyliv_airshow_disaster) (don’t worry - it’s a Wikipedia link) on one of those Ogrish-type sites. It wasn’t Ogrish or I would have known to avoid it. Just after the plane plowed through the crowd, someone with a camera ran towards the wreckage - through dozens of bits of people. Heads, body parts, or worse, half-people, people with missing limbs, or with their innards out, still alive and screaming for help. It’s the most disturbing thing ever; so ghastly I cannot even fathom my emotional reaction to it, several years after I saw it. ---
**Author:** ![BrandonR](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/779978/32.png) [@BrandonR](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrandonR)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2010, 7:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-most-disturbing-thing-you-watched-on-purpose/535769/84 "2010-04-15T19:57:30Z")
> [@Khaki\_Campbell](#): > > Those were Chechen rebels. > > The sound was far more horrifying than the images. Ahh yes that was it, not Czech rebels. ---
**Author:** ![WordMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e8c25b/32.png) [@WordMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WordMan)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2010, 8:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-most-disturbing-thing-you-watched-on-purpose/535769/85 "2010-04-15T20:23:49Z")
> [@Brandus](#): > > She was also tracked down by people outraged by the video. In addition to receiving charges for cruelty (as well as the cameraman), she was basically ostracized from society. Yep - that was covered in the NY Times Magazine in a March 7 article called “Human-Flesh Search Engines” - I have tried linking to it a couple of times and it has locked up my browser (Grr). While it was good that this particular person was located and ostracized, the overall practice of getting an online vigilante posse together has as many cons as it does pros… Back to the topic in the OP…carry on… ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Rieux](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/aeb1de/32.png) [@Dr.Rieux](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Rieux)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2010, 8:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-most-disturbing-thing-you-watched-on-purpose/535769/86 "2010-04-15T20:27:09Z")
That video of Leonard Nimoy singing “The Ballad of Bilbo Baggins.” :eek: [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-most-disturbing-thing-you-watched-on-purpose/535769.md?page=4)