Asbestos, indoor smoking and child labor are just some of the things that used to be a lot more common in the past and are, fortunately, less common now. However, it’s still important to note that back then, folks would have thought that these things are very normal parts of everyday life.

Someone asked “What's something that's normal to us now, that in 50 years people will look back on us as barbaric?” and people gave their best suggestions. So get comfortable as you scroll through, upvote your favorites and be sure to share your own ideas and thoughts in the comments below.

#1

40 hr work week.

Image credits: According_Smoke1385

#2

Holding entertainers as more important than educators.

Image credits: pseudolawgiver

#3

My votes are:
Countries that lack universal healthcare.
Environmental neglect.

Image credits: Danoga_Poe

#4

Women getting procedures on reproductive organs without pain medication.

Image credits: Life-Experience-7052

#5

For-profit prisons and for-profit health insurance hopefully.

Image credits: Lack_my_bills

#6

The pet industry. Especially the inbreeding.

Image credits: Sheilahasaname

#7

I think the way we treat the environment will be something future generations look back on and see as barbaric. We’ve been very careless with pollution, waste, and climate change, and in 50 years, they might wonder how we didn’t do more to protect the planet when we knew the damage we were causing.

Image credits: Substantial_Walk1061

#8

The way companies are using the internet and what its doing to our brains. I mean the constant garbage we consume on the internet and its long term effects on our mental health.

Image credits: abohra1122

#9

Driving. I think in 50 years it will seem crazy that people controlled vehicles themselves, leading to countless deaths on the road.

Image credits: lightwoodandcode

#10

Horse and dog racing.

Image credits: Eldel74

#11

Shoes that constrict our toes.

Image credits: shr3dthegnarbrah

#12

I think the use of single-use plastics for real. The amount of waste we create is crazy, like super barbaric. The future generations will probably be shocked that we didn’t find better solutions sooner.

Image credits: Electrical-Chef-9211

#13

Letting people die from lack of medical care because they're poor.

Image credits: EasyBounce

#14

The cruelty with which we treat animals.

Image credits: Alternative-Purple96

#15

Forcing terminally ill people in constant pain and discomfort to stay alive without the option to be helped to end their lives peacefully and with dignity.

#16

Forcing people whose disabilities prevent them from working to live in poverty--the average amount of a monthly Social Security Disability Insurance benefit check is $1400.

Image credits: writeyourwayout

#17

Keeping aquatic mammals in captivity for entertainment.

Image credits: Prestigious-Wall5616

#18

Might be too soon, but the goddamn school shootings. There’s got to be a way out of this.

Image credits: jc80greybeard

#19

Hopefully, underpaying workers. No one who works full time should only be able to afford a studio apartment and top ramen.

Image credits: radioactive-sperm

#20

Lack of effective American gun laws, I hope.

Image credits: Okay_Holiday_9178

#21

Smoking. I know the mentality is slowly shifting and it’s proven to cause all kinds if health related issues, yet there are still 1.25B smokers worldwide.

Also, sitting. Same as with smoking. We’re starting to understand the risks. I expect companies in the future to hold standing or walking meetings a lot more than they do now.

Image credits: Organic-Algae-9438

#22

Letting women die from septic and ectopic pregnancies.

Image credits: Sibby_in_May

#23

Hopefully chemotherapy: I mean, it's the best we got in many cases to treat cancer, so i'm thankful it's an option, but basically you're putting poison in your body.

Image credits: VampireHunterAlex

#24

Hopefully child beauty pageants but especially child marriage.

Image credits: OhTheHueManatee

#25

Our meat industry.

Image credits: memeandme83

#26

Single use plastic.

Image credits: diegojones4

#27

Factory farming, fur farms, animal experimentation, animal cruelty--all the horrific things we're doing to nonhuman animals that would get you in jail for life if it were done to a human.

Image credits: Leafmonkey_

#28

Seeing images of children left unattended with electronic devices. Similar to how we see old pictures of children smoking cigarettes today.

#29

All testing on animals.

#30

Data collection in order to bombard us with targeted information, misinformation, and ads. 

If most people knew how much data their phones collected, they’d smash them with a hammer.

Google can tell if you’re standing still, walking, running, cycling, in a car, bus, taxi, or train. They can tell if your device has been stolen from your hands while walking down the street. If you have an Apple Watch, the watch the can detect when you’re having sex. Our phones can gather enough data to know that our family is over for dinner, or that your wife messaging her friend about jewelry will cause you to get jewelry ads. This stuff isn’t even the top of the iceberg.

#31

In no particular order:

Homelessness. Healthcare for profit. Prisons for profit. Any/all exploitation for profit (see billionaires) (edit: see also murder, war)

Slaughterhouses. Perhaps even keeping pets.

Climate change through fossil fuel dependency. Gridlocked highways crammed with single occupancy vehicles instead of efficient transit.

All of the ways in which we act against our real (not imaginary like tribalism) collective interests. For a few examples.

#32

The fact that any child can turn on the TV and find several shows where violence is rife. Oftentime, it's even promoted and glorified, but if a channel shows one teet, it's banned. I've heard this is not the case in Europe, but in the U.S., it damn sure is.

#33

Any form of circumcision ( male OR female ) that isn't absolutely medically necessary.

#34

Sweatshop labour. It’s basically modern slavery.

Image credits: captaintrips_1980

#35

Removing iud without anesthetic

Most uterine medical ‘care’.

#36

-Allowing private health insurance companies to get away with only half-insuring people.

-Allowing companies to fund political campaigns

-Allowing a revolving door of employment between military contractors and government defense/intelligence agencies

-Allowing congress to invest in the stock market

-Allowing human beings to drive automobiles.

#37

Burning fossil fuels for most of our energy.

Image credits: Apayan

#38

Maybe in a hundred years--eating meat that is not lab made.

Most of us (including me) will be on the wrong side of history.

#39

Mammography machines. Maybe they'll finally invent an anatomically appropriate machine instead of the torture device?

#40

Dear god, let it be BBLs and fillers.

#41

I wish I had the optimism necessary to believe we'll still have a functioning society in 50 years.

#42

Over 90% of NFL players getting chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE). The NFL will be viewed like we view gladiatorial battles now.

Image credits: CupOk5800

#43

Dentistry in it's current form.
I hope, anyway. I keep hearing things about being able to regrow teeth or enamel and I hope they're true.

I want fixing teeth in the future to be so quick and painless that we look back at how things are now the same way we look back at surgery pre-anasthetic. Like "I know it was the best option at the time but holy s**t that's horrifying. You had to just yank them out? And live like that? And they used a needle in your mouth to make your face numb? ".

Image credits: HalcyonSix

#44

50 years is probably not quite long enough, but I think that in the near future people will look back on the process of industrialized agriculture and wonder how we could have *possibly* been so foolishly stupid. I'm talking about plants here, not animals which is a whole different bag of hammers. People are going to judge us and revile us for the way we farm animals, but it's the plants that are more harmful in my opinion, and it all boils down to insects and how unimportant people today consider them to be.

#45

Full time work.

UBI will give all of us a comfortable life to pursue our own productive interests whilst the robots do all the work.

Real work-life balance will be achieved.

#46

How much single use plastic is part of our daily lives.