Dystopia may be the stuff of fiction but honestly it’s starting to feel a lot like real life. Between the AI that people are apparently going on dates with and the tech that seems to know more about you than your closest friends, something about the world right now just feels a little off in a way that’s hard to shake.
So when a Redditor asked people to share the most dystopian photos from their home countries, it’s probably not that surprising that they had plenty to work with. We’ve rounded them up below.
#1 United States Of America. Bulletproof Backpack For Kids
Image source: EntakuNoKishin
#2 Australia
Image source: Bangkok_Dave
#3 Brazil. City Of São Paulo, On The Border Of The Paraisópolis And Morumbi Neighborhoods
Image source: Long-Helicopter3602
#4 United States Of America
Image source: GornBread
#5 Russia. I Know That The Internet Likes This Picture (Chuvash State Opera And Ballet Theatre)
Image source: _prepod
#6 USA
Image source: CaptServo/
#7 During The George Floyd Protests. The Militarization Of Us Police Forces Is Out Of Control
Image source: QuokkaMom/
#8 The Netherlands 🇳🇱 – Egypt 🇪🇬
#9 Australia. Old Farmhouses In The Outback Always Give Me That Feeling
Image source: SufficientWarthog846
#10 Serbia. Our Workers Working In Korean Factory Forced To Bow As Company Promotion. Also They Have To Wear Diapers And Are Beaten By Managers If They Complain
Image source: Veles95
#11 Russia
Image source: Ok-Response-7854
#12 Korea South
Image source: Taerang-the-Rat
#13 Malaysia. We Actually Built It. Second Highest Building In The World And We Let Doctor Breen Setup His Hq In It
Image source: Occidentally20
#14 🇿🇦 South Africa —> 🇩🇪 Germany
Image source: VeryPoliteYak
#15 United Kingdom
Image source: BryOnRye
#16 China. This Photo Gives Me An Indescribable Feeling
Image source: HongKongNinja
#17 Japan. “Are You Looking Forward To Today’s Work?”
Image source: kanmidokoro
#18 Finland. Kouvola – All The Nice Things Concrete Can Build!
#19 Palestinian Territory
Image source: ForgotMyStethoscope/
#20 Ukraine. It’s Written “Children”
Image source: REZ_Lev
#21 Germany: Old People Looking Through Rubbish Because The Amount Of Money For Retirement And Social Help Is Not Enough To Buy Food And Stuff
Image source: Llewellian/
#22 A Swiss Town After The Melting Of A Glacier. The Whole Town Has Been Evacuated 3 Days Prior To Disaster
The New York Times reports that the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change said the Alps are heating up at about nearly twice the global average rate.
Image source: Karma-police88
#23 France
Image source: Altruistic-Medium-23
#24 Romania
Image source: Western-Pear5874/
#25 Photo By Pierre Lavie. USA
Pierre captured a photo of another member of the press, John Abernathy, being a******d and throwing his camera to safety to ensure ICE wouldn’t destroy his camera and photos while they detained him (without cause).
Image source: ElleHopper
#26 India
Image source: Educational-Grab7830
#27 Italy
Image source: ltraistinto
#28 Ukraine
Image source: No-Park1695
#29 Canada
Image source: Objectalone
#30 Bangladesh. This Photo Of Brac Uni Looks Pretty Cyberpunk/Dystopian
Image source: Vegetable_Fishing986
#31 Bucharest
Image source: CaramelCultural7196
#32 USA
Image source: Flairion623/
#33 Niscemi, Sicily, Italy
The whole town was built without permits, on the edge of an active landslide. The inhabitants now demand compensation from the government, so they can relocate in penthouses in Palermo or Milan.
Image source: Crucco/
#34 Poland. Someone Build A Castle On A Nature 2000 Territory. I Have No Idea How Many Millions They Used For Bribes But It Was Clearly Enough
Image source: Zdzisiu/
#35 New Zealand
Image source: Toastaexperience/
#36 Nothing Looks More Dystopian Than Gaza Right Now
Image source: InsideHeart8187/
#37 Also In Brazil: Manaus City Limit And The Amazon Forest
Image source: HelicopterTricky7821
#38 Venezuela. Yeah, Well, The Barrios As Always Been The Most Horrible Think About Our Cities, Interestingly If You Complain About It You’re Elitist And “Racist”? Towards The Poor
Image source: IronKnox
#39 Oslo Government Quarter Right After The Bombing 22/7-2011. The First Of Two Terrorist Attacks (Second Being The Mass Shooting At Utøya Youth Camp)
Image source: blashyrkh9
#40 USA. This Image Is From My Hometown In 1967. The Great Lakes Were So Polluted By Waste Dumping You Couldn’t Swim In Them
Its gotten significantly better in the last few decades because of better regulations, as well as Zebra Mussels attached to trade ships filtering the water
Image source: 777Void777
#41 Hungary. The Text Is “Brussels’ Sanctions Destroy Us!”
Image source: tesznyeboy/
#42 United States Of America. Full Disclosure, I’ve Defended These Before As Being Deeply American With Close Ties To Our Culture Around Road Trips
That being said, it’s certainly unpleasant to look at. Also a quiet commentary on how the little man local business has been pushed out of the market in a lot of ways.
Image source: xSparkShark
#43 United States Of America
Image source: Minuteman_Preston
#44 Italy. Le Lavatrici Di Genova, The “Washing Machines” Of Genoa, Brutalist Architecture
Image source: cecidufromage
#45 UK. The Press Would Say Jaywick In Essex Is. But Those In The Know Will Point You To Scarfolk, Their Tourist Board Has It’s Own Facebook Group
#46 France. One Among Many Others, Here’s What The Cops Look Like When There’s A Protest From Anyone But The Far-Right
Image source: Unfair_Criticism4918/
#47 Canada. Open Pit Oil Sand Mines In Northern Alberta
Image source: yellowgiraffe29/
#48 Junkies Around The Frankfurt Train Station
Image source: Life-Edge-9547/
#49 Not The Most Dystopian In The Country But One In Texas
The Katy freeway west of Houston. A roadway eternally under construction and attempts to solve the problem of congestion by ever widening the road. Forget mass transit, add more lanes.
Image source: Divergent-Reality/
#50 Iran. This Was Taken In The Winter In Tehran, When The Air Is So Polluted We Have “Pollution Days” Where Schools Are Closed Because The Air Is Too Dangerous For Kids
Image source: aria3180/
#51 Egypt. The Definition Of Urban Hell
Image source: RollingCamel/
#52 Kazakhstan. Arkalyk Is Borderline A Ghost Town
Image source: b100d7_cr0w/
#53 I Don’t Think I Need To Give Context But The Women Are Forced To Cover Up Or Else They Get Beaten Etc
Image source: RefrigeratorThat1634
#54 Downtown Eastside In A City Ranked 10th In The Global Liveability Index By The Economist Intelligence Unit
Image source: fuzzy_emojic/
#55 USA. This Photo Of January 6th By: Evelyn Hokstein
Image source: Accomplished-Hotel88/
#56 Maybe Without Context You Could Frame This As “Living Under Glass”. (It’s The Inside Of The Gasometer Towers In Vienna)
Image source: oldmanout
#57 India. You Can’t Even Imagine What It Would Be Like To Be Here These Days. The Govt And People Both Failed
Image source: Bkm321/
#58 Towns Near Gaza Border After October 7th
Image source: SquirrelSorry4997/
#59 Greece
Image source: DaiFunka8/
#60 Croatia. Petrova Gora Monument
Image source: Peelingly
#61 Italy. Ugh… Sadnss Itself
Image source: zenaboy/
#62 This Is A Facial Recognition Poster My Cousin Spotted In A Different Town He Was Visiting
Image source: ImakeKnifesatnight76/
#63 This One Is Pretty Interesting And Bizzare. Zámek Jezeří
Basically a historic chateau that has a coal mine devastated area all around it. One of the reminders of communism and their complete lack of regard towards nature, scenery or anything nice.
Image source: byfo1991/
#64 Street In Macau, Photograph By Paul Tsui, National Geographic Travel Photographer Of The Year Contest
Image source: danno147
#65 Poland. Taken On 14th Of December 1981 During Martial Law Period. The Building In The Background Is “Moscow” Movie Theater With Poster For Apocalypse Now. Very Symbolic
Image source: Peterkragger
#66 D**d Woods In Harz, Germany
Image source: zukunftskonservator
#67 Chile
Image source: macana2026/
#68 USA. Not Sure How Well This Fits Here But I Believe It To Be A Good Representation Of How Things Are For The Homeless In The Us
For context: I had just parked my car on my way to the ol’ watering hole. When I tuned the car off I noticed this man just sitting there under a light. Not moving too much, he was probably sleeping since I didn’t see any ambulance or EMT at all that night and by the time I got back he was gone. When I captured this photo part of me was thinking “oh wow this would make a good picture” but for the most part it ripped at my heart strings. Thankfully I live in Southern California so it doesn’t get TOO cold at night but still.
Anyways I wish the best for him but goddamn dude, the hell are we doing as a nation?
Image source: childproof_food/
#69 Guatemala
Image source: Salt_Winter5888/
#70 This Picture Of An Upcoming Triangle Tower Just Came Out And I Hate It
Image source: c0mpu73rguy/
#71 East Hastings St In Vancouver
Image source: zcewaunt/
#72 These Type Of Buildings Are Called Vertical Ghettos In Santiago, Chile
Image source: lolazo21/
#73 USA. The Town Of Paradise, California After The Camp Fire In 2018
Image source: cmph72/
#74 USA
Image source: Juginstin/
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