When were you made frighteningly aware of how cruel people can be?

when my Mother threw me away after I was born...

In addition to a cruel parent; every time someone went to the trouble to make me homeless and steal my things.
A thief who stole my car keys and stole many things from me. A liar who threw me under the bus for no reason besides gaining attention for herself. 

This post was edited by Sunshine at January 9, 2018 9:26 PM MST

Watch True Crime shows.

Ahh I remain a hopeless optimist... I believe that very, very few people are wholly evil...or bad.. even bad people have good things about them... my own mother for instance... 

I do know there are people who do truly horrible things.. but I remain a believer in people's ability to grow 

My father had a fairly broad sense of humour, but one aspect of it was sadistic: he took pleasure in practical jokes if the person was seriously upset or hurt.
He also used the jokes as tests; if the person did not get upset, he respected and admired them.
I became consciously aware of at four years old. This post was edited by Benedict Arnold at January 13, 2018 8:59 AM MST

ive known that all along

Daycare pre-kindergarten :(

 I admit I had a part in all of it but I had no idea at the time I was hurting her so badly, or even hurting her at all --  she was in a totally different place than I had any idea -- then I became frightened of her. Then she purposely -- the person told me this was her plan - - set out to ruin me completely. Went after all of my employers and spoke badly of me. I'm told police were involved at one point. She wanted me to lose everything.

I set back and did not retaliate at all.

This post was edited by WelbyQuentin at January 13, 2018 9:00 AM MST

I truly believed that every person came out of the womb innocent and pure.  I thought people who were mean became so because of their environment and/or how they were treated.  For that I felt very sad and wanted to help them.
I had been told by my sister there were evil people out there and by others too, but I really was NOT able to believe it. 

Then, when I was 35, I met two people who changed my mind.  One is now dead.  They say it was suicide but I think he was murdered.  He was such a bad person, when the police came to the  scene, they didn't even think twice.  They were like, "Ya, suicide.  Let's call it a day."  If it was murder, they weren't going to go after the person who did it.  The police had already had enough of this guy and didn't even want to pursue it.  They knew it was for the better of the public he was dead.
The other still lives reeking her manipulative evil.

It is true.  They are out there.  A very sad... BUT REAL awakening for me. 

This post was edited by Merlin at January 13, 2018 9:01 AM MST

Apparently my mother though it best to treat me that way so that I would be sure to understand.

Bad and good thing and experiences were randomly visited upon me with no obvious understandable causality.

Back when I realized I'd be better off to read/heed The Negro Motorist Green Book before motoring across America... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Negro_Motorist_Green_Book This post was edited by Beans/SilentGeneration at January 11, 2018 9:07 PM MST

I don't know, maybe never.  But guess I have just always known it.  Though I have had pretty good luck with people.  Still some of what I see on TV reality crime shows I don't much care to think about. This post was edited by officegirl at January 13, 2018 7:37 PM MST