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Nobody was born screwup-proof. I mean, look at the times you've made a mistake, like, in the past year, and your blank page will be full by the second month of the year.
But there’s one thing about getting caught lying and entirely another when someone literally makes a regretful decision that starts the plague in their country, or when an entire business goes bankrupt.
So when someone put up the question “Which is the worst single decision in history ever made by a person?” on AskReddit, it immediately became a hit on the subreddit. 47.3k upvotes and 17k comments later, we’ve got the most illuminating replies that may, in fact, make us change our perspective of things. Welcome to the land of historical screwups, the place where any given error is worse than your very worst one times infinity.
This post may include affiliate links.
#1
Bush’s decision to invade Iraq in 2003. There was no cause or direct threat, and it led to hundreds of thousands of deaths, trillions of dollars spent, and the creation of ISIS.
Blackheart 4 years ago
You are naive if you thing ISIS would not have formed anyway, whether or not you agree with the Gulf War. The rise of terrorism has been predicted for decades, but ignored. Look at other countries such as France, if you do not believe me. What did France do? Yet it too was the victim of terrorism. That is what terrorism is, a form of intimidation.
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Peter Ian Staker 4 years ago
All US wars in the Middle East are about oil, let's not pretend otherwise, this one was no different, also let's not forget that the US installed Saddam as a puppet dictator in the first place.
CP 4 years ago
Let's not forget we helped Iraq use chemical weapons against Iran as well.
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Aski Markup 4 years ago
And the fact nobody was ever held accountable for this shitty decision.
Monica Martinez Castañeda 4 years ago
USA has the highest expense on defense in the world, by far (so far from the second) so I'm guessing the thoughts are: "why increasing expense on healthcare or education, when we can keep invading countries?"...
Sergio Bicerra Descalzi 4 years ago
He knew what he was doing. War is a great bussiness, oil is a great bussiness. HE KNEW. But for sake of the question, yeah, very very stupid.
Radek Suski 4 years ago
But what about all those military contractors who made billions out of text-payers money?
Kurt Mckenney 4 years ago
Ya mean off of Clinton awarding them Nobid Contracts?
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Okay Dokey 4 years ago
The goal of this invasion was achieved. It was never about a threat, it was in almost no war in the middle east which the US started. Oh and btw, they also funded ISIS
Bacony Cakes 4 years ago
It was funded to take out the terrorist organisation they funded to take out the terrorist organisation they funded to take out the terrorist organisation they funded to take out the terrorist organisation they funded.
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#2
Allan Savory the ecologist who killed 40000 elephants because it was believed that grazing was causing the desertification of Africa, only to find out later that elephants were essential to prevent desertification.
Leonard Kyle Gibbons 4 years ago
He accepted he was wrong, and has since tried to teach people why having grazing animals sustains the environment, rather than eroding it
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Alex Luiz 4 years ago
If you watch him talk on YouTube you'll see that he admits this was an awful mistake, and has spent his life trying to fix it. Obviously it was a really bad decision in the first place, though. Not condoning it.
Luther von Wolfen 4 years ago
I'm pretty sure that there has never been a case where destroying one part of an ecosystem was good for that ecosystem.
Dynein 4 years ago
Well, there's a case to be made for keeping populations in check when the natural predators can't do the job anymore, or when the species is invasive. This should be done mindfully, though, and with taking population growth into account... Safe to say, this man failed on all 4 accounts: 1) elephants were an established part of the ecosystem, 2) elephant populations are presumably not much "kept in check" by predators anyway because 3) elephants don't breed that fast and 4) killing 40000 in one go would have severely affected even much faster-breeding species unless there was a literal plague of them. This was a predictably stupid decision...
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Lydia Dean-Melchior 4 years ago
40,000. Elephants!! That is horrible. How do you accept that as a viable solution? 40,000. Elephants. Jerk!
Leo Domitrix 4 years ago
He was not a *good* ecologist, or he'd have realized that the ECOsystem isn't that simple.
#3
Burning of the Library of Alexandria
engineer_nope.avi 4 years ago
Oh God, this still hurts for historians like us. (Or just general history geeks.)
Tracy Sellars 4 years ago
I still can't understand why people do stuff like this, so much information lost.
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Wyn Williams 4 years ago
By the time it was burned it was a shadow of its former self but still an almost incalculable loss to humanity
Kira Okah 4 years ago
Indeed it was not. Alexandria library was also in a poor condition as well.
Load More Replies... Kira Okah 4 years ago (edited)
Probably not much - the library didn't hold stuff that wasn't available in other libraries, it was already in decline when Julius Caesar accidentally set a part on fire, it was still a perfectly usable library for another 200 years, and some of the best known work connected to it was written after the fire.
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#4
“Hey, let’s create a coffee machine that uses a single use plastic cup for every cup of coffee or tea. How bad can the trash from that really be?”
I actually read that the creator of the K-Cup, John Sylvan, regrets inventing the pod system.
Col BatGuano 4 years ago
since he sold out his share for only $50,000 I expect he's not a big fan.
tuzdayschild 4 years ago
It's a great machine and it's convenient. They make plastic reusable pods. We need to ban the disposables in favor the the reusables. It can work if we do it right.
Gustavo Di Salvo 4 years ago
Or just use an old classic espresso machine with ground coffee and stop using plastic pods at all. It's equally convenient.
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Roxy Eastland 4 years ago
The first time I heard about it I laughed. I'm not a coffee drinker myself but the huge amount of waste was clearly outstanding. I wasn't even thinking about the environment, just the fact that you continually have to pay for tiny containers to throw away. It seemed like buying tiny pots of jam instead of using a normal sized jar. Why would anyone do that? I still have literally no idea. If any coffee drinkers want to explain, please do.
Yvonne Blau 4 years ago
I can only explain it with laziness (aka convenience). You only have to press a button to get a cup of coffee. You don't even have to bring your own cup. Personally I think that nowadays anything that produces that much waste for no reason should simply be banned.
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judy baker 4 years ago
This disposable society we live in is eventually going to have a reckoning.
third molar 4 years ago
Best way to sell 1lb coffee grounds 500% more value is to put them all in small plastic containers.
Oogiebogieaugiedaddy 4 years ago
How about all of the plastic bags, bottles,etc are dumped in the ocean to kill hundreds of thousands of ocean creatures!!!!
Georgia Valentine 4 years ago
Don't think about that What about all the run offs going into the ocean?! Must be exhausting to only be able to think of one thing at a time....
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Tylar Martinez 4 years ago
I have reusable to loose coffee and y pods have no plastic and they're compostable....there are other ways to use this machine more eco friendly....that honestly cost less for the manufacturer..... -_-
#5
My great great grandfather, a carpenter, did some work for a poor painter in the neighbourhood. The painter had no money, so he offered either a bottle of wine or a painting. My great great granfather chose the wine.
The painter was Edvard Munch, and the painting would have been worth millions upon millions today, or even just a few decades later (if translated to todays money).
Laugh or not 4 years ago
My grandfather refused a painting as payment from Picasso: it was just a Spanish refugee helping another Spanish refugee, no need for payment.
Leo Domitrix 4 years ago
Well, that was niceo f your grandfather. I mean, super-nice. So... it was morally a great decision. Money-wise, maybe not?
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Raven Sheridan 4 years ago
I bet your grandfather's reaction to how much money the painting was worth, looked much like the figure in the painting itself!
Francesca Annoni 4 years ago
my husband's grandfather went to some relatives' house several years ago to share the inheritance of a deceased aunt, he could choose a painting with a boat and one with horses on a beach .. guess which one he chose? the boat, because he didn't like horses! pity that the painting with the horses was a de chirico .. and the painting with the boat is really ugly !!
Bjørnar Bjørkhaug 4 years ago
This is absolute nonsense. Munch was a renowned artist in 1893 when he finished the 4 paintings of Scream which made him a international superstar in his time.
Lauren Caswell 4 years ago
It doesn't say the painting was the scream, that's just the title image with the post
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#6
“Alright gentlemen we’ve successfully fended off the Greeks for 10 years, our great city of Troy still stands. If we keep this up surely they will realize the siege is fruitless and return home before long.”
“Yo captain there’s this big ass wooden horse outside”
“Oh rad bring it in”
River Webb 4 years ago
and nobody, except a crazy old woman, thought it was even remotely suspicious
Pervinca 4 years ago
*cursed, young and beautiful priestess Cassandra. She had the gift of seeing the future, but because of a curse, none could believe her.
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Maria 4 years ago
Greeks and Trojans did make war, but all the other details are unverified.
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Jon S. 4 years ago
For context: Recognising it as an offering to Poseidon, the trojans considered burning it to wreck the greeks chances of getting home. But then decided poseidon's wrath would fall on them, so chose to bring it in to their temple and treat it with reverence. These kind of wooden animals are depicted in artwork of the late bronze age, so the story would have made a lot of sense to people at the time.
Nicole Weymann 4 years ago
THAT is the kind of context missing in almost every synopsis. I only read/heard about it recently. Before that the Troyans' reasoning never made sense to me.
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Martha Meyer 4 years ago
The woman was neither old nor crazy if you are talking about Cassandra.
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Samtheperson 4 years ago
Actually I don’t mean to be a party poooper but this is probably myth
Leo Domitrix 4 years ago
We have it in the Greek classics, and it's possible it's based on an incident that was then fictionalized for the Iliad and Odyssey by Homer. More likely the Greeks just got someone to unlock the doors, but htat doens't make for epic poetry.
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More Thinking Needed 4 years ago
They would have been smarter to use a wooden rabbit or badger. "Run away".
#7
Mao Zedong
Pest capaign: He basically told his nation to take pots and pans to kill all the sparrows. However, the ecosystem was disturbed and the locust population skyrocketed.
Seeds: he thought that planting seeds 1 meter in the ground would result in greater roots and better harvest. He also thought that putting tons of seeds in one compact area would cause a better harvest. All the seeds died however. Around 30 million or so died from Famine under his rule.
"Hey! Look at the other nations industrializing! Lets smelt all our metal to build better infrastructure. What? It creates pig iron which is super unstable and impure therefore being ultimately useless? Oops!" -Mao
Eliška Hůlková 4 years ago
He was also the one behind Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution. Bloody tyrant.
engineer_nope.avi 4 years ago
He's considered to be in the top of most fearful tyrant of all time and tbh, I can't see why not.
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Holly Allen 4 years ago
One of the readers in my classroom is about a king who tells his people to kill the sparrows due to too many of them but then the people had to deal with an infestation of bugs....wonder if that's based on Mao hmmmmm
Sathe Wesker 4 years ago
I lived in China for 2 1/2 years. It's insane how much of their population (particularly the older) still praise him.
Johnnee 4 years ago
His supporters are the ones that survived. Very much like North Korea I think.
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Vorknkx 4 years ago
And if anyone is wondering why people listened to him - in communist regimes, the "dear Leader" has the status of the ultimate authority on any topic (no matter how specialized it may be) so if they gave you technical/agricultural/medical advice, you'd better follow it to the letter!
Jon S. 4 years ago
One article I read about the runaway idiocy of his policies blamed it on a culture of seeing pessimism as dissent. So when local administrators were asked to say how the programs were going, the ones who said, "Not great, we don't think these targets are realistic" were demoted. To save their jobs they all started saying "Fantastic! We're on track to do 10% over what you requested," then when they inevitably failed, they blamed it on 'traitors' among their subordinates. It became an echo chamber where the party leaders kept being told they were doing a great job, if it weren't for all these unpatriotic wreckers.
Load More Replies... Leo Domitrix 4 years ago
Mao was an idiot. Like many fascist-tyrants. And his people suffered so much for it....
Lejita 4 years ago
Communist. Very definitely communist, and they don't like to be confused for fascists, they don't ally together
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#8
Well, the decision of Inalchuq, the governor of the Khwarazmian city of Otrar, to attack Genghis Khan’s trade caravan was pretty bad. Khan was famous as a ruthless warlord, not the sort of guy you want to piss off.
But maybe they could have got away with it. Genghis sent three ambassadors to negotiate a settlement.
Which is when Muhammad II, the Shah of of Khwarzem, made the really bad decision to kill one of these ambassadors and send the other two back without their beards as a sign of humiliation.
Genghis Kahn was so enraged he assembled an army and destroyed the Khwarazmian Empire. Wiped out every town they had. He even re-routed a river to wipe out the village where the Shah was born, wiping it off the map. By 1120 there wasn’t much of anything left.
Mahesh Chandra Achuthanna 4 years ago
Note to self: Don't think you can piss off a vengeful person and think you can get away with it.
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ZooMom 4 years ago
There is an outdated insult that says “I’ll hit you so hard your grandkids will be feeling it” and I feel like that has never been more appropriate than to describe Khan’s retaliation
Mahesh Chandra Achuthanna 4 years ago
I doubt if his grandkids were there to feel it.
Load More Replies... Tracy Sellars 4 years ago
The moving a river to wipe the village off the map I still find so surreal.
Ole Peder Amrud Hagen 4 years ago
But they rebuilt, and now beautiful cities like Khiva and Bukhara are there. Magical places!
Vicki Perizzolo 4 years ago
I read that Genghis Khan went in more as a 'let's work together and be greater' kind of invader - he only attacked if the other side didn't want to join him. A very harsh result for a very stupid and shortsighted move
Vanta Black 4 years ago
But Genghis Khan seemed so friendly in Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure! He even liked Twinkies!
#9
Eastman Kodak deciding not to go forward with their own newly invented digital cameras and instead sticking with film because it made them so much money at the time.
Grumble O'Pug 4 years ago
Well, you probably aren’t much if a photog if you think that. I work in both formats with legacy lenses on bothe film bodies and digital bodies and, trust me, it’s the eye, not the medium. If you go on youtube and look up old DigitalRev shows with Kai and Lok, they did a series where they had guest pros used stuff like toy cameras to produce some excellent stuff.
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Leo Domitrix 4 years ago
For quality of photo, I do still prefer film, but they don't make it affordably anymore, alas. Hubby's cell phone it is.
Royer Potts 4 years ago
I am with a company that “spun off” from Kodak (someone bought a treasure trove of equipment for a song), and the stories the old Kodak people tell is a poignant tale of executives doing anything and everything to guarantee their own golden parachutes to the detriment of tens of thousands of employees and the city of Rochester.
Neurotic_Octopus 4 years ago
Reminds me of my dad. He was working with computers in the 70s, and when they started to work more on software than hardware, a lot of his colleagues went with hardware because this is solid stuff, nobody's going to like that programmed stuff. After 40 years in it, most of those poor guys/ladies lost their jobs to the young kids who had learned programming, and my dad was still going strong and knew how to fix stuff that even the newly trained kids couldn't fix.
#10
How about the guy who bought 20,000 Albanian slaves, brought them to Cairo, trained them to be the greatest warriors of their time, and then got overthrown by said slave warriors because they were so well trained.
Raven Sheridan 4 years ago
What did he expect!? Give a pissed off, kidnapped slave the training and weapons they would need to overthrow their owner. I guess he was expecting a thank you card or something.
François Carré 4 years ago
And then the Mamluks ruled Egypt for the next 300 years to come, which is not bad.
#11
Invading Russia. Always invading Russia.
Lauren Caswell 4 years ago
People always seem to think "surely it's not that cold".....Well yeah
Karin Jansen 4 years ago
"Surely, we'll get to Moscow before wint- - - and it's burned." Don't mess with Russia.
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Premislaus de Colo 4 years ago
And except one time Polish went up to Moscow and ruled Kremlin for almost a year
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RoseTheMad 4 years ago
I think invading Finland is an even worse idea though, if Russia got their asses kicked so badly. xP
Terilee Bruyere 4 years ago
I once read a joke (cannot for the life of me remember where) that the only county that could handle Russian winters would be Canada, but they would be too polite and just have a beer and teach them how to play hockey.
Samantha Lomb 4 years ago
Worked out just fine for the Mongols. So I guess its when Europeans do it it goes south.
Grumble O'Pug 4 years ago
Mongolia is cold. Russia is amateur hour cold when you come in from Mongolia.
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Penny Fan 4 years ago
How to have a European War: 1) Invade Poland. 2) Have lots of battles in Belgium. 3. Reach English Channel and think "nah, too cold and wet, lets go to 4) Invade Russia. 5) Fail miserably, lose most of Army and retreat ignominiously. 5) Wait for Country B to repeat steps 1-4.
Toko Danganronpa 4 years ago
Yeah people underestimate how cold it is.. I love it cause I'm from Russia but you have to be prepared
Tracy Sellars 4 years ago
Okay I could be wrong but I'm sure I've read some where that Finland was in battle against Russia, extremely out matched in regards to man power and war machines and yet still kicked Russia's butt.
Uchman 4 years ago
Yeah but they did not invade Russia, they were keeping them out of Finland.
Load More Replies... #12
Thomas Midgley Jr can lay claim to three:
First, he discovered and helped popularize the use of lead in petrol/gasoline, causing unimaginable harm to the atmosphere and our brains. He contracted lead poisoning when working on the project, but apparently neglected to draw any conclusions from this.
Second, he lead the team that discovered freon, the first chlorofluorocarbon, and helped popularize the use of CFCs in refrigeration and industrial applications, causing further unimaginable harm to the atmosphere
It’s suggested that he had a greater impact on the atmosphere than any other single person in history.
As for the third, well:
In 1940, at the age of 51, Midgley contracted poliomyelitis, which left him severely disabled. He devised an elaborate system of ropes and pulleys to lift himself out of bed. In 1944, he became entangled in the device and died of strangulation.
Andrew Bridge 4 years ago
To be fair though freon is better than what they were using, and no one was to know of the consequences
Morgan Eades 4 years ago
To be fair it wasn’t better than what we were using. We’ve gone back to some of those refrigerants like ammonia, propane ect. 1kg of r11 damages around one tonne of ozone.
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The Dave 4 years ago
Yeah, I’m not sure this totally fits the bill of this post. I think there’s an implication that the person should have or could have known that their decision would change the course of history. I don’t think the introduction of freon passes that litmus test. Maybe the introduction of leaded fuel, especially if the poisoning occurred after the adoption of leaded fuel.
InfectedVoice 4 years ago (edited)
Can't really blame him for what he didn't know, this is a possibility with any major discoveries or advances especially with chemicals of this nature. Hindsight is always 20-20.
Celeste Grant 4 years ago
This was discussed in bill Bryson's a short history of nearly everything is anyone wants to know more about it. They did know that
Dr. Gregory House 4 years ago
He had no way of knowing the effects, besides you cant blame him alone for the environment impact
#13
Here’s a recent one...
After successfully invading Iraq and toppling Saddam Hussein, the US decided that all members of the ruling Baath party should be banned from government and military positions in the new government.
The result was a crop of knowledgeable bureaucrats and military leaders available to join a group of terrorists under Zarqawi to form a little group that would go on to become ISIS.
Tiger Pearl 4 years ago (edited)
I agree that this was a bad decision for America, but it was also a good thing for the majoity of the Iraqi people. There are many many horror stories that my in-laws have told me. They suffered so much under this man, and lived in fear of him for years. Even saying a bad thing about him could get your entire family wiped out. Not to mention the chemical warfare that he used on his own people.
Bill Newsome 4 years ago (edited)
The biggest mistake for Bush was thinking that an Islamic society country could embrace democracy.
georgios pahatouridis 4 years ago
jahahahahahahahaahahahahahahahaha so you really think that Bush invaded Iraq to bring democracy? Really? Wow, I thought that people like you exist only in the BBC comments.
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Pervinca 4 years ago (edited)
It's crazy how much time we use to study ancient egypt or rome (at least in my country), but after the second world war schools teach us crumbs. I discover all of these thanks to this post. Absourd that usa rulers didn't get punishied for these behaviours. Are they at least been investigated? I hope so, but I guess they are not. Wonderful
Marcellus the Third 4 years ago
This is a footnote inside the "Bush invaded Iraq" catalogue of disasters entry at the top, not a separate entry.
Vincent Jay 4 years ago
This one is not on George Bush. Bush insisted that Sunnis be included in the new Iraqi government, so the former Baath bureaucrats were in that government. The Iraqis had no choice, because Bush had thousands of American troops there to enforce Bush's wishes. Obama removed most of our troops, to the Shias in the Iraqi government forced all the Sunni Baathists out of the Iraqi government, because the U.S. did not have enough troops there to prevent it. Those Sunni Baathists joined ISIS. It's all on Obama.
Robert O 4 years ago
Not to mention dismantling the police/military who they could have relied on to keep order. After that what are large numbers of people with military training to do?...oops!
Sharon Ingram 4 years ago
Wait! What? They defunded the police? What could happen?!
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backatya 4 years ago
Your sarcasm didn't help make things right either. Why would they let them in the government and back into the military? The only way they would have stopped what happen is to execute them all. Which then the world would be outraged for the slaughter. So to the writer of this, what would you have suggested?
#14
Maybe the worst business decision ever made was by Xerox with their Alto computer.
Xerox invented the graphical interface modern computers use. Desktop, folders, copy/paste etc. They basically invented the modern computer in the '70s. But the problem was, the people in charge at the time were businessman without any technical knowledge so they didn't realize what they had. They did nothing with it and gave it away to universities and showed other companies. The famous story is that Steve Jobs saw this and within 5 minutes realized this was the way computers would work in the future. He copied it, because Xerox didn't patent their invention and didn't do anything with it and the rest is history.
Marcellus the Third 4 years ago
This is a ridiculous entry. "Xerox was run by a businessman without any technical knowledge so they didn't know what they had"... right, that's why they were the only company selling computers with a mouse 1973--1982 practically. They were hardware makers [just like Apple and IBM] who saw software as part of the system/setup. Until a decade ago we had to pay every few years a mountain of cash to get a disastrous but obligatory new version of Windows (Win3, XP, ME, Vista!!, ... or before that DOS) while Unix, mainframe and Apple users laughed in your face with their free or near-free overhauls.
Sheila Stamey 4 years ago
Also... Digital Research literally had their entire OS ripped off by Gates. I was there, almost literally, because I sold, you got it, Digital Research products.
Radek Suski 4 years ago
Ironically Microsoft stole then the interface from Apple (who stole from Xerox) to create Windows 🤣
Todd Hunter 4 years ago
This is also where Bill Gates saw the Graphic User Interface and ripped it off to create Windows.
Danieletc 4 years ago
They were also very aggressive about not letting their company name become a generic name, like "aspirin" did. Everyone said "make a Xerox" in the '70's and mostly because of Xerox's aggressive campaign, we now say "make a photocopy". Congrats, Xerox, you successfully made yourself more forgotten.
#15
The guy who rejected Hitler's art academy application?
Lauren Caswell 4 years ago
I sometimes fear what would have happened had a more stable yet amoral leader been in control of the nazis: a lot of mistakes were made that could have spelled disaster for the allies had the axis not screwed up, and that was down to a tyrant ruling through fear and instability and shooting the messenger. Mistakes got covered up. Its awful enough as it is, and with a more able person at the helm? I dont want to even imagine that.
Ann Pattinson 4 years ago
See Stephen Fry's'Making History' which deals with that dreadful idea.
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Cigdem Kanburoğlu 4 years ago (edited)
It was the essence of time. I am sure if not Hitler, somebody would do it. So everybody is responsible for their period of time bad goings. At least you have to write or speak what is right or wrong.
Sharon Collier 4 years ago
He was a very good watercolorist/artist; it's a really difficult medium. I know, because I paint (not so well) in watercolors. His stuff is good.
Athenalikesowls 4 years ago
I actually domnt understand why they rejected him. His artwork is very good. Very detailed.
hobbitly 4 years ago
Because him being rejected from art school made him an anti-semitic fascist?
Jon S. 4 years ago
He would have been that anyway, but he might have had more direction in his life and not felt the need to go into politics.
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Helen Wood 4 years ago (edited)
then some with more intelligence and better military planning skills takes his place and achieves what Hitler could not...
Suzanne Haigh 4 years ago
It has always puzzled me that the Germans are forgiven, was not their fault that Hitler did what he did. Yet anything British is blamed on the whole damn country, even the war in America, against, guess what, the dam British Colonists, but it is every British persons fault (so long as they did not live in America).
#16
John H. Sununu might count. He was an MIT educated engineer, brilliant guy, PhD in mechanical engineering. He even served on MIT's Advisory Board of the Technology and Policy. He remains a member of the National Academy of Engineering. More importantly, he was a governor of NH and later the White House Chief of Staff under George H.W. Bush.
As Bush's adviser, he was the first one with a STEM background to doubt climate change. He publicly questioned the validity of James Hansen / NASA's modeling efforts. In fact, the US was on the verge of signing a binding climate treaty with 65 other nations (in 1989!)
Prior to this point, the argument was "how do we balance emission reductions versus economic losses", with conservative forces recognizing the danger but insisting we protect businesses from overreaching regulation. After Sununu's public doubts, the entire debate shifted to "is climate change even real?". It inspired the "everything's fine" PR campaign that has been ongoing ever since. I honestly suspect treaty opponents didn't even realize that pure denial would be a realistic strategy until Sununu called James Hansen a liar.
I guess in another 50 years we'll see the true extent of the damage he did. Ironically all this falls not on some moron, but on a brilliant guy who decided to speak on something outside his expertise.
John Ewert 4 years ago
Read what Dr. Mototaka Nakamura has to say about "climate change".
Load More Replies... Peter Ian Staker 4 years ago
Clearly not a brilliant guy, if he was he'd have said "get someone else to look at it, I'm an engineer not a climate scientist".
El Dee 4 years ago
Prior to much of what is said now, things like the Clean Air Act were about polluted air. I grew up in an industrial area where coal was also used for domestic heating. The pictures you see of pollution in China were as nothing to my childhood. Now our pollution is invisible to the eye we are content to let it continue..
Leo Domitrix 4 years ago
Pix of the US in teh 1960s under smog alerts ----- and people are like, 'oh but I can't see it, so it's harmless". Yeah, so is the virus that causes Ebola, to the naked eye. *sigh*
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Leo Domitrix 4 years ago
I loathe this. Loathe loathe loathe this idiot. yes, an idiot. Einstein didn't do surgery, this dude should've shut the f**k up. I've been following climate change since since 1982, when I was a *kid*.
John Ewert 4 years ago
Read what Dr. Mototaka Nakamura has to say about "climate change".
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Anna Woodhull 4 years ago
His son is the current governor of NH, and every bit as "awesome " as his dad. 🙄
#17
The decision by the Scottish to invade England during Black Death must be up there.
N G 4 years ago (edited)
That on its own doesn't sound like a screw-up - they (more or less correctly) assumed the English would be weakened by the disease and invasion would be easy. The screw-up takes effect when the Scots started catching it and dying, and the remaining Scots fled... Back to Scotland, taking the disease with them.
Grumble O'Pug 4 years ago
Well, in a pre-germ theory world, they never considered the actual outcome.
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Andrew Gibb 4 years ago
If you've seen Brave Heart (not that it is that historically correct), this is before the plague. The English had it coming. Shame that the Scots caught the plague- that was a big mistake
Chris Hutchinson 4 years ago
Neither side are blameless. The English and the Scots have both invaded each other over the centuries. Although the Scots have ferocity the English have much greater numbers which tell over time. Thankfully the only invasions now are friendly (except when we play each other at rugby or football!)
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Little Panda Bear 4 years ago
Is it funny that in humanities we have been learning this and started our CAT for it today (common assesment task)?
#18
Gavrillo Princip shooting Archduke Franz Ferdinand.
On that day, a man acted upon his self-constructed vendetta against a non-tyrranical monarch, thinking the world would remember him as a symbol against foreign tyranny. A symbol of national sovereignty.
A year later, 10 million men were dead.
Eliška Hůlková 4 years ago
The War politically destabilized Central Europe and thus opened door to Hitler. This must be one of the biggest fails in history.
Bacony Cakes 4 years ago
Yes, but the thing that ran through the doorframe like a peeved elephant was that Britain and Co. put the blame on Germany and demanded a kajillon of whatever they could give up as reparations.
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engineer_nope.avi 4 years ago
Here's a true fact about the assassination: it's a complete accident. A few hours before this actual event, Gavrilo Princip's faction, the Black Hand, had already planned to assassinate the Archduke when he came to Sarajevo. They lodged a grenade, hoping to kill him but failed. The grenade missed the Archduke's car and exploded behind him, injuring bystanders instead. Princip pretty much gave up and on his way to fleeing the country, he stopped by a local diner for a quick meal. Meanwhile, the Archduke, despite all warnings from his advisors, decided to go to the hospital to visit the victims of the grenade. But the driver got lost since he didn't know the Sarajevo streets that well and after a few hours, the car just gave up on them. The thing is that the car stopped right in front of the diner where Princip was sitting and enjoying a meal. And of course, seeing the Archduke, Princip fired his gun, killing him and his wife and the rest is history.
Marlowe Fitzpatrik 4 years ago
that is NOT the definition of a "complete accident".
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Marcellus the Third 4 years ago
A weird view of history. It's like saying the Nazis rose and WW2 happened because the Reichstag burned in 1933, or that an avalanche is caused by speaking to loud... No it's the trigger; the avalanche happens because there's an enormous force built up and kept back by something fragile.
Linus Nilsson 4 years ago (edited)
This is false on so many levels that I don't even know where to begin. To claim that this person single handedly started WWI is simply wrong. The nations started the war since everyone believed that they were stronger than their enemies.
Roxy Eastland 4 years ago
I completely agree. There were huge tensions building up and something was going to tip it over the edge, even if he hadn't fired that shot.
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Stephen Wild 4 years ago
People keep telling me this story, as though it's entirely new... The causes of the First World War are extremely complex and have been the basis of countless books and PhD theses... to break it down to this particular cause is specious. The Archduke's assassination was the trigger for the war, not the cause, and the war would almost certainly have been triggered by something else if Franz Ferdinand hadn't been killed. In the 20 years previous to 1914, the war had almost been triggered at least three times...
Sanne H. 4 years ago
The location where the killing took place, is still clearly marked in Sarajevo, the capital city of Bosnia Herzegovina. (I’d recommend to visit the country by the way, it’s not very touristy (yet) and therefore not very spoiled, and has many sites of historical relevance)
ZenitaBonita 4 years ago
I second this! I visited Sarajevo a couple of years ago and absolutely loved it. Also went for a hike in the mountains (Lukomir) and it’s just gorgeous (especially being from the flattest country ever). Still dream of the amazing coffee as well 😄
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Cara Kelly 4 years ago
There is plenty of evidence that if this hadn't have happened, a war would have occurred anyway sadly
Tracy Sellars 4 years ago
What I find surprising is the first Christmas in WWI there were sections on the battlefield that stopped fighting. Instead they ate together, played games and got to know the "enemy". They then went back to killing each other days later. Human nature is weird.
Jessica Shookhoff 4 years ago
Yes, it really, truly is. We're such bizarre creatures
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#19
Game of Thrones Season 8
Bender Bending Rodríguez 4 years ago
We NEVER talk about GoT season 8. Season 8 never happened, it never came out.
TV Junkie 4 years ago
When people ask what I thought, I say it was not my story to tell. That being said, it would have been nice to see them actually TELL the story. Imagine how fun another Aria and The Hound road trip would have been! And even though I was disappointed to see someone end up on the throne who wasn't even involved with the "game of thrones," I didn't mind it so much. Again, not my story.
CatWoman312 4 years ago
I didn’t mind the ending I just hated how they basically fast forwarded to it. Plus Cersei deserved to die a more brutal way imo
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Louise B 4 years ago
I hear you. Too soon. I've only just stopped crying.
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MarcAngelina Alcober 4 years ago
i liked season 8- why does everyone not like it? what am I missing?
Scarlett Fox 4 years ago
The plot felt rushed and the characters felt disingenuous. The writing took a major nosedive.
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grey galah 4 years ago
hahahahahahahahahahaha....the writers throwing an energetic, intriguing and well developed plot off a cliff in favour of the sensationalism of the moment with scant regard for well-rounded characters. they got their money and ran, and the viewers were left with the mess
#20
That one time nintendo had a partnership with sony to develop a CD based console but in the end changed their mind and kicked Sony out cuz they decided to stick with cartridges.
Sony then thought "screw this, We'll make our own console, with blackjack & hookers" and created the playstation as a f**k you towards nintendo...
engineer_nope.avi 4 years ago (edited)
Sega actually made a similar mistake. So after Nintendo humiliated Sony, they actually went to Sega and asked about a collaboration. The US Division were actually on board and loved the collaboration. The Japanese Division, however, hated it and shot it down so the deal never came through. Then there's the infamous Saturn early launch, which basically screwed the company forever.
The Dave 4 years ago
The Sega Genesis was a great console. It’s sad that they couldn’t continue to develop such great video games.
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Lauren Caswell 4 years ago
I've got it, it was bender in Futurama! Sorry I know it's off topic, but that would have bugged me to no end
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Nadine 4 years ago
Someone was asking about the "blackjack and hookers" reference (I don't know why but the comment vanished when I clicked on "respond". It's a Futurama reference, said by Bender.
Lauren Caswell 4 years ago
Thanks :) I just knew it was animated but it was eluding me!
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Owen Salmon2028 4 years ago
im glad i can buy my games still from game stop thank you r/wallstreetbets redditors
bancoran 1 year ago
Also the little fact that Sega found out that as part of their agreement, Nintendo would retain the rights to practically every game created for the new console. Not to mention Nintendo had some suspicions about Sony using Nintendo as a prop for its music and movie ventures... en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Super_NES_CD-ROM#:~:text=Nintendo%20had%20become%20suspicious%20of,prop%20in%20Sony's%20console%20ambitions Moral: Don't be like Nintendo and Sony. Don't be greedy.
#21
Blockbuster not buying Netflix.
Sum Guy 4 years ago
Just because someone buys something, doesn't mean it will continue with that trajectory. If Blockbuster bought netflix when they were still posting disks, then it would continue like that.
... 4 years ago
I came here to say this. When companies buy other companies, they often do major changes and may make bad decisions. Seen that many times in smaller scale.
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Random Anon 4 years ago
There was a practice back in the 90s where acquisition is used as a tool to kill the competition. So sometimes it's actually a blessing for consumers certain acquisition did not take place.
Daniel (ShadowDrakken) 4 years ago
No, this was a good one for the consumer. Blockbuster would have kept doing their thing and let delivery and digital die off before continuing their downward spiral.
Il Douchey Farker 4 years ago
Blockbuster could have easily smothered Netflix in the crib; but Netflix could have just as easily smothered Redbox in the crib.
Carol Emory 4 years ago
Blockbuster didn't buy Netflix because they were already in negotiations with a company to create their own live stream service. Unfortunately the company they were teaming up with was Enron.
Steve Wilson 4 years ago (edited)
How about Sears-Roebuck, whose fortune was made by selling goods from a mail-order catalog, cluelessly watching Amazon drive them under with a 21st century version of their own business plan and never catching on.
#22
Two terrible decisions for the price of one:
The British gave Native American's blankets diseased with smallpox to "thin" out their ranks during The French and Indian War. They didn't anticipate just how deadly this would be; some tribes losing as much as 90% of their number due to the epidemic.
When Edward Jenner invented the smallpox vaccine, Britain made fast allies by exporting it out to the world. Some of those shipments were to be sent to the United States, with the intention of helping both the Colonial American populace and the Native American Populace.
Only problem was that the Colonials and the Natives were having a bit of a war for the west at the time. The US Army took the vaccines hostage, with the intention of letting more Natives die, until they gave up and moved into the reservations the US Army had built for them.
Native Americans just can't catch a break at all.
kasa alex 4 years ago
I was going to say the same thing, and a similar thing occurred in Australia with giving disease-ridden blankets to the Indigenous population as a method of genocide during British colonisation
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CatWoman312 4 years ago
Some tribes were completely made extinct. What we did to them caused this country to be born on blood. Every natural disaster, every mass death, is simply karma for what we did to the natives of this land.
Jon S. 4 years ago (edited)
The small pox blanket story is not considered historical fact as far as I am aware. The only evidence for it is that the plan was discussed by two British naval officers, but no indication that anyone ever acted on the idea. EDIT: It was done at least once, I found one fairly clear sounding source on the matter
Mahesh Chandra Achuthanna 4 years ago
And these mofos call themselves the greatest country on the planet. Modern day Nazi Germany at best.
Fiona Messenger 4 years ago
Much like some 'blame' the First Nation giving up their firearms so the US army could execute them. Genocide, pure and simple.
#23
Radcliff Line - The process to divide India and Pakistan boundary in 1947 was done hastily and without major considerations to local populace religion. Radcliff was not a geography guy and majorly messed up the process. Millions died.
Colin Matthews 4 years ago
No accident-the Brits were quite keen on divide and conquer. Let the Asians keep fighting each other etc
Aria Singh 4 years ago
Agreed. Nowadays India and Pakistan are still fighting espically over Kashmir. (I am from India.)
Steve Wilson 4 years ago
Almost as incompetent as the folks who created the borders in the Middle East.
Leo Domitrix 4 years ago
Cartographical convenience is a big thing in South Asia. Western convenience, of course. *sigh*
Stephen Foley 4 years ago
Mountabtten as the Last Viceroy must take some of the blame for the rushed withdrawal from India. I have read that Attlee, the then UK PM had 1950 as the target date not 1947.
M Kate McCulloch 4 years ago
ya know, the English shoulda just left. Sorry England, there are lots of things I like about y'all, but the fact that the US contracted the Imperialism disease from you is not one of those things.
Suzanne Haigh 4 years ago
The Northern Irish wished to remain with Britain, that is why Britain kept the North. Personally I think they should have had the choice of coming to live on the mainland or joining with Eire, but I was not in charge.
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Cybele Spanjaard 4 years ago
More foreign decisions creating invasions that led to so much tragedy.
Suzanne Haigh 4 years ago
Funny how all these years after Britain has left they are still fighting
Load More Replies... #24
Anatoly Dyatlov making sure with every step, that reactor 4 at Chernobyl exploded in 1986.
Lauren Caswell 4 years ago
Countries that fear looking weak during a crisis seem to almost always do the absolute opposite of what's needed. If there are any cases where this stance hasn't backfired, I'm not aware of it anyway, or not considering it for some reason (I'm a tad forgetful)
Allen Lavine 4 years ago
You mean like Trump with the pandemic he was literally telling people it was a hoax but behind closed doors they said he was worried because he didn't know what to do
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Niffler_13 4 years ago
He supervised the safety tests and he was imprisoned for not following the proper safety protocols that lead to the disaster
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Val Izhakevich 4 years ago
A skewed version of events, I'm afraid. Dyatlov wasn't the chief culprit.
Michael Capriola Jr. 4 years ago
The lessons of the Chernobyl are: 1) Don't build graphite reactors (there were only 4, all in the SovUn). 2) Don't skimp on the containment building. 3) Don't run experiments at 1 AM (people are not their finest at that hour. You hear me, Exxon? Next time, wait until after sunrise before you try to dock your tanker, you greedy assholes).
Vicki Perizzolo 4 years ago
The scientists behind this whole thing failed to take into account human frailty and freaking out when something happens...by then, in this instance anyway, there was nothing they could have done...the steps were in place and the world knew a whole new horror...tragic.
Robin Roper 4 years ago
“Midnight in Chernobyl: The Untold Story of the World's Greatest Nuclear Disaster” by Adam Higginbotham is an excellent read about how this happened.
#25
Yahoo refused to buy Google for 1 million and later for 40 billion again.
Edit: They refused 1 million, later offered 3B, and Google wanted 5B so no deal. And Yahoo was offered 40B by Microsoft and they didn't want to sell. And later they sold for 4.6B.
Mewton’s Third Paw 4 years ago
Right that’s kind of the point though. It wasn’t always. It used to be the main search engine. Back in the Lycos days.
Load More Replies... engineer_nope.avi 4 years ago
For the first refusal, it's kinda understandable since Google was pretty new at the time. But the 2nd and 3rd one? It's like the time when both Nintendo and Sega rejected Sony because "they didn't know anything about hardware and software."
Wyn Williams 4 years ago
If they had brought it it would not of evolved Into the Google worth an absolute fortune today
Deniz Vitvitskiji 4 years ago
I haven't met a single person who uses yahoo unless they downloaded a virus
Marcellus the Third 4 years ago
Another disastrously-miswritten computing history entry. This one starts with an untrue one-liner (they did never offer 40B$ to Google) and then makes a muddle of correcting.
#26
David Cameron's decision to call a referendum on Brexit, closely followed by Teresa May caking a snap General Election and losing her party's majority.
Jon S. 4 years ago
The level of incompetence in the Tory party is truly staggering. They came to power promising to eliminate national debt and instead gave us the biggest debt in modern history. And that was before covid.
Nicole Weymann 4 years ago
If I was Scottish (I'm German) I'd be majorly pissed off about Brexit. After giving in to massive pleas fom London about Scottish independence ("Don't go! Solidarity! We're only as strong as we are united, as weak, as we are divided!") the government turns around and leaves the European Union, because, you know, solidarity is a one-way road.
Suzanne Haigh 4 years ago
I lived in Scotland when there was the referendum/EU vote, the true Scottish people did NOT wish to separate England whatever.
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Ray Martin 4 years ago
Let's face it, the only thing more incompetent and absurd than British politics, is U.S politics.
Welcome Welcome 4 years ago
Hadn't finished reading your comment and was already thinking the same.
Load More Replies... Cara Kelly 4 years ago
His was cowardice to call for a vote on Brexit without seeing through it implementation. May had to win a majority to get Brexit done, didn't work but didn't change the outcome just her personal legacy
Suzanne Haigh 4 years ago
Conservatives did not wish to leave, simple. They tried behind the scenes to block it ever which way, but they failed, there poor profits will be hit, so sad.
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Sarah Stalder 4 years ago
Can somebody please tell me what caking a snap means exactly. Sounds bad.
Aaron W 4 years ago
In 1984, New Zealand's Prime Minister got visibly drunk and called a snap election on live TV. He lost.
Marlowe Fitzpatrik 4 years ago
Did he also call for Brexit? Was New Zealand part of Australia before? (jk, I know it wasn't)
Load More Replies... Chris Hutchinson 4 years ago
This was further compounded by allowing such a close result to dictate policy. The vote was a referendum not a mandate and it fell roughly split down the middle. Too many people had vested interests in leaving Europe to not let such a close result lie. It is also a concern that amongst the young there was a large majority who wished to remain and it was their future that the older voters were happy to vote away. There was also a large number of protest votes against the government by idiots failing to realise that you shouldn't protest vote in a referendum with only two choices who were to claim afterwards that they didn't think 'Leave' would win. And yes, I'm still seething about it!
Jon S. 4 years ago
I agree whole heartedly. In countries that regularly have referendums you need a super majority to change the constitution because variations of 1-2% can occur weekly, based on the news stories of the day. In the UK you cannot even legally call a strike with only 51% of the workforce behind it. The referendum result should have triggered a deep planning phase so the government could present the country with a definitive plan for brexit and asked if they still wanted it.
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Mark Evans 4 years ago
It's more then that. This may have destroyed the United Kingdom. You haven't seen what's going on in Northern Ireland and here in Scotland.
Suzanne Haigh 4 years ago
I do not understand why both were mistakes. The majority wanted out of the EU and obviously they were not impressed by Teresa May but whoever had been leader at the time would have been voted out, she was used as a scapegoat.
Jon S. 4 years ago
But 'out' meant so many things to different people. Many would rather have stayed in than have the deal we have now. And Terresa May didn't need to call an early election (in fact she promised she wouldn't), but she thought she was guaranteed a victory so saw she did it anyway, only to lose her majority and be rendered unable to push through her version of the Brexit deal (which most people agree would have been much better than the one we ended up with under Boris).
Load More Replies... #27
Robert Ballard, one of the guys who discovered Titanic, says that his biggest regret is that he and Jean-Lous Michel didn’t bring a piece of the Titanic up with him when he first discovered it in 1985. At the time, they didn’t want to disturb the wreck, and leave it pristine. But if they had done so, then they would’ve been able to claim legal ownership of the wreck under international maritime law, and therefore more control over it. Because they chose not to do that, everyone and their grandma is free to take artifacts and pieces of the wreck, and this makes preservation impossible.
Brandi VanSteenwyk 4 years ago
His mistake was not failing to bring up a piece. He erred in his faith in humankind. He trusted that everyone else would feel the same about keeping the wreck intact as a memorial to those who lost their lives. Unfortunately that faith was unrewarded.
Phil Vaive 4 years ago
Thing is that the Titanic is slowly rusting away. By bringing pieces of the ship up, people are actually doing a better job of preserving it than if it was left at the bottom of the sea. I've read that the entire hull will probably be gone within the next 20 years as it rusts away.
Wim Cossement 4 years ago
Or the Russians selling their Priz rescue submarines so people could go see the wreck of the Titanic while the crappier one they still had could not dock with the sunken submarine Kursk because of worn out rubber seals. All crew died, and they even refused help from other countries because they denied everything at first!
François Carré 4 years ago
Many grandmas are not very good at diving to the depths of the ocean to loot the wreck, so that's pretty safe all the same.
Thomas Turnbull 4 years ago
I would like to see how everyone and their grandma can dive down that deep to get anything.
#28
The Donner Party of 90 pioneers choosing to take a shortcut when heading West from Illinois to California in 1846. Said shortcut led to them getting trapped in the Sierra Nevada mountains and resorting to cannibalism.
Leo Domitrix 4 years ago
Slow down. The Donner Party had a ton of errors that led to their ultimate crisis. It also wasn't ONE person's choice/decision/mistake. Lansford Hastings promoted an unsafe route (eponymous) and marketed it to westward-ho sorts. Jim Bridger's trading post profited from the Hastings route, so he lied to them about its difficulties. And it snowballed. Good read on this: "Desperate Passage" by E Rarick. Also, it was the Donner-Reed party. See? Complicated!
judy baker 4 years ago
They left too late in the year, had over loaded wagons and didn't pack enough food which were some of their mistakes.
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Catherine Côté 4 years ago
Look up the native's recollection of the events. They tried helping the party with ressources and local knowledge but the party's decision to refuse the help killed them.
Sean Gross 4 years ago
Also, no one really talks about the fact that there was a nearby tribe of natives that offered them help, shelter, and food...and they declined the offer.
Raven Sheridan 4 years ago
Bet it was coz the guy leading the party refused to ask for directions.
Grumble O'Pug 4 years ago
Read about the trip through the Wasatches that really was nothing short of tortuous and ridiculous.
CharliAnn Olney 4 years ago
Correction. Only PART of the Donner Party chose to take the shortcut. The rest of the Donner Party took the standard route and arrived safely at their destination. Had the entire Party taken the shortcut, how would it have been known that the people who did take the shortcut were missing? The missing members of the party were reported by the arriving members of the Rest of the Donner Party.
athornedrose 4 years ago
A local native american tribe tried to leave them food and supplies early on, but the donner party shot at them. later the tribe observed people eating other people and were so terrified that they decided not to get involved any more.
#29
Maybe not the *worst*, but maybe Ronald Wayne, he was a co-founder of apple along with Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak in 1976. Just 12 days after forming the company, he sold his shares for $800. He owned 10% of the company, which would be worth ~$80,000,000,000 (80 billion) today.
Mewton’s Third Paw 4 years ago
It’s not about that though. Anyone with a 10% stake in any company should not sell their shares that low. $800 won’t help your life. Might as well just sit there on your loss and take the risk if you’re just going to throw it away for $800.
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#30
How about the greatest single decision that could have ended up as the worst single decision in history ever made by a person?
Vasily Arkhipov. The man who was solely responsible for preventing nuclear war in 1962. The three officers on board the diesel-powered and nuclear armed B-59 sub had to agree unanimously to launch the nuclear torpedo. Conditions due to the Kennedy administration's blockade began to take a toll upon the crew members. Diesel subs can get incredibly hot over extended periods of time, the batteries failed and the air conditioning stopped, and the lack of fresh air from increased carbon dioxide levels means delirious crew members. Eventually two officers, Captain Savitsky, and the political officer Ivan Semonovich Maslennikov got sick of waiting due to thinking WWIII had already begun and decided to go through with the launch. But Arkhipov was second in command and his position as flotilla commander meant they also needed his approval to launch it. If he wasn't a flotilla commander it wouldn't have been needed gain his approval even as second in command. Vasily disagreed and all three actually got into a physical confrontation, fighting over command of the torpedo. Eventually they agreed with Vasily and had brought the sub to surface. Needless to say, they faced criticism and were disgraceful to their superiors who would have rather saw them go down with their ship than be captured by the enemy.
According to Wikipedia: ''Each captain was required to present a report of events during the mission to the Soviet defense minister, Andrei Grechko. Grechko was infuriated with the crew's failure to follow the strict orders of secrecy after finding out they had been discovered by the Americans. One officer even noted Grechko's reaction, stating "upon learning that it was the diesel submarines that went to Cuba, removed his glasses and hit them against the table in fury, breaking them into small pieces and abruptly leaving the room after that."
It's safe to say that there's an almost unanimous amount of agreement over the importance of Arkhipov's decision. Everyone from Chomsky, to McNamara have agreed that this was the defining moment of whether or not we would prevail as a species. This was it. The test. The launch of the torpedo would have meant the nuclear destruction of the blockade above, and thus the invasion of Cuba and the launching of the NATO nukes in Turkey and other European countries. Meaning the missiles in Cuba which were operational at this point, would have decimated all the major cities on the Eastern seaboard, and the major cities in the Midwest.
Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr., an advisor for the John F. Kennedy administration and a historian, has stated, "This was not only the most dangerous moment of the Cold War. It was the most dangerous moment in human history."
Leo Domitrix 4 years ago
Thank you. We forget that one man's double-check stopped humanity's checking out for good.
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David Schloss 4 years ago
And not the only time. There's also a soviet officer who didn't launch a counterstrike to a radar glitch. It would have ended civilization if he had followed protocols.
PandaMonium 4 years ago
Yes! Great example of the immense impact of one individual - this time positive. Thanks for bringing this up!
grey galah 4 years ago
..and let's not forget Stanislav Petrov a colonel in charge of a Soviet first response missile facility which in the 80s incorrectly reported a missile launch from the US. "Stan the man," if i can call him that, disobeyed orders and didn't launch a retaliatory strike. Thus avoiding another Nuclear Winter. To quote Han Solo, "that's two you owe me kid."
Vicki Perizzolo 4 years ago
you have to hope there was some major common sense involved here...horrific to think what horrors humans can bring upon the ONLY home we'll ever have
Cybele Spanjaard 4 years ago
Phew.. Ok who will be next to hit their ego button and wipe themselves out as well as everything else.. war is so stupid..really stupid..cruel and mindless games
The Cute Cat 4 years ago
But the guy is a hero for not starting nuclear war, right? How could it classified as bad idea??
#31
The guy that sold the bottling rights for Coca Cola, for $1, and never even made the guy pay the $1.
Pazuzu 4 years ago
i had to stop snorting coke years ago,damned ice cubes kept getting stuck in my nostrils
Mewton’s Third Paw 4 years ago
I don’t know what happened there but Coke is also ranked #1 as a company for being the worst for the environment. Too bad that RC isn’t sold in more places.
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InfectedVoice 4 years ago
Horrible syrupy stuff, haven't drank coke for many years, good riddance.
Suzanne Haigh 4 years ago
Surely if they never met the fee then the sale would have been invalid?
Vicki Perizzolo 4 years ago
and their plastic is everywhere continuing to trash the planet...and they are one of the major causes of rainforest destruction for palm oil too... horrible company
#32
Hmm, here are a few candidates:
Hitler/Napoleon (for attacking Russia)
Dyatlov for various things he decided at Chernobyl (but there are so many Versions of that it's hard to say who was most responsible)
Whoever ordered Pearl Harbor (for ordering the attack)
Licencing Thalidomide for use against morning sickness (killed about 40% of the unborn babies and had horrendous effects on many of the rest)
Using Hydrogen to fly the Hindenburg
Samantha Lomb 4 years ago
The hydrogen thing was the US's fault. The US had a monopoly on the production of Helium.
Radek Suski 4 years ago
I wouldn't say it's US' fault though. It was right decision not to sell Helium to Nazi Germany at that time
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Mosheh Wolf 4 years ago (edited)
Mythbusters did a show on the Hindenburg. They demonstrated that it wasn't the Hydrogen that was the problem, but the material and paint of the balloon. Hydrogen wouldn't have burned like that. It's too bad that it burned in the USA and not in Berlin, taking some Nazis along with
Arenite 4 years ago
Actually, Pearl Harbor could have destroyed the US Navy, giving Japan a free hand in the Pacific. The mistake was not ensuring the carriers were there and being sure to destroy them. Also, the blind spot in Hawaiian defenses were discovered by an American officer, who used the same attack in war games years before and won. Yet command did nothing to secure that spot. Yamamoto used the exact same tactics to exploit it and sucker punched the US.
Michael Capriola Jr. 4 years ago
Pearl Harbor was not properly coordinated. The Japanese ambassador was supposed to deliver a declaration of war just before the attack, but it took too much time to decode and prepare the declaration. Sloppy, pure and simple.
Ridom Ray 4 years ago
Japan had to bomb Pearl Harbor, people do misunderstand it a lot. Prior to that Japan invaded and occupied US-controlled Philippines and other colonial lands like the French Indochina and Indonesia for oil. If they did not do preemptive strike in US naval fleet and make it obsolete, they would have been screwed anyway. By no way it was mistake. People usually consider that ww2 was only going on in Europe and Africa, but its been going in Asia too
Suzanne Haigh 4 years ago
Notice everyone is keeping quiet about the Atom Bomb, what about Thalidomide, who produced that?
The_tattered_hippie 4 years ago
My aunt and uncle both have lifelong disabilities due to their mother taking Thalidomide.
J. M. Montes 4 years ago
Japan did not have many options st that time. War with the US was only a matter of time. And it was executed really well
Caroline Overill 4 years ago
The guy who invented the Thalidomide drug killed himself when he realised what had happened
Michael Capriola Jr. 4 years ago
Also, Charles XII of Sweden invading Russia. Hitler didn't learn from Napoleon's mistake, and Nappy didn't learn from Chuck XII. A salute to arrogance.
#33
Eight years ago when that guy bought two large pizzas for 10,000 bitcoin.
Thomas Turnbull 4 years ago
Or the guy who dumped his hard drive with millions of pounds of bitcoins on it while doing a clean out.
Dale Overturf 4 years ago
They’re still worthless. Oh the broke people when the truth comes out.
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#34
Brutus decided to join Cassius in murdering the dictatorial tyrant, Caesar. The reason? They suspected his intent to become a king.
Which then started a chain of events leading to his adopted son Caesar becoming a military dictator without equal, having all the powers of a king without being called one.
When this Caesar Augustus dies, his name and title is passed on for the next four hundred years almost like you would a crown. Monarchies then returned all over Europe, in the style of Augustus Caesar.
And so, the decision of Brutus to join the conspiracy in effect changed all of Western civilization for the next 1900 years to adopt the very political style he wanted to avoid.
It would not be until the 1770s when America and later France would begin revolting and experimenting with Democracies and Republics.
Láďa Durchánek 4 years ago (edited)
It is worth noting that democracy was mostly collapsing in Rome that time because of corruption and military reforms that shifted loyalty of legions to their commanders. There had been other attempts to seize the ultimate power before and Octavianus Augustus was merely the first one who fully succeeded. That said, even without the Brutus's decision, it would likely happen anyway at some point later and given that Augustus was actually an extremely effective leader, it could have been much worse.
El muerto 4 years ago
1.- Rome never had a democracy! 2.-there where several atemps by several people to take power as dictators throughout the republic, Ceasar was only one that almost achievd it...3.- Rome had been weighting the pros and cons of republic vs monarchies for many years as the empire became difficult to rule as it grew...4.-Monarchy was normal under, before and after Rome had it's emperor...5.- the title king wouldn't be a thing i Europe until after the fall or Rome...6.- Rome wasn't democracy, neither did they share power. It was ruled by very few people, that inherited their power from generations...lastly attempts and the idea of democracy have been tried many times before the 1700. funny enough some of them i cities in what is today Itali...stop spreading lies
Premislaus de Colo 4 years ago
America and later France? How about Poland and it's Constitution?
Kelly Hartle 4 years ago
But if they hadn’t killed him, we wouldn’t have had such great leaders as Nero... and Caligula...and...never mind.
#35
Whoever signed the bill passing prohibition
Coleonema 4 years ago
It's amazing all the ripple effects that can come from one, seemingly meaningless, decision
Seabeast 4 years ago
At the time it seemed like a good idea. Excess drinking (by men) caused a lot of poverty and spousal abuse. But the real answer would have been to give women more power to get jobs, birth control, and divorces.
Load More Replies... WilvanderHeijden 4 years ago
They never imagined that it would be the start of organized crime taking over the nation.
Mosheh Wolf 4 years ago
It had a lot to do with the WASP majority hating the fact that the Catholic minority didn't think that alcohol was sinful. People forget that to be truly "White" in the early 20th century, one had to also be Protestant.
NMN 4 years ago
I have no idea how all of the comments guessed what this prohibition was. The post is incomplete. "passing prohibition"... of what?? I bet there are many prohibitive bills that were passed in many many subjects
Anna roberts 4 years ago
Probably all in US, or at least raised in US. Was very clear to me
Load More Replies... Anna roberts 4 years ago
Kurt Mckenney : You mean like the tax hikes just announced to pay for the monies the (US) government has given people?
Carol Emory 4 years ago
The main problem with prohibition was the strength it gave to the Mafia to take control of some of the biggest metropolitan cities like New York and Chicago.
Donald Drake 4 years ago
The "bill" was the 18th Ammendment to the U.S. Constituion, and was ratified by more than the required 2/3 of the States by 13 months later. Might have been a bad idea, but it wasn't something that one person "signed".
#36
Sultan Murad IV sending the first flying man in history (Hezarfen Ahmed Çelebi flying three kilometers over the Bospurus in 1638) , into exile instead of putting all efforts into aviation.
Jon S. 4 years ago
Never heard of this guy before. I would be interested to know if there were more than one account of his life/work. Wikipedia says the account of the flight across the Bospurus is doubted. It puts me in mind of the chinses legend of Yuan Huangtou, who did something similar (against his will) in AD559.
lara 4 years ago
The problem with this idea is that there was absolutely NO supporting technology available at the time. An "industrial" revolution only occurs when ALL parts of society are equal. Education, technology, good production, metals, energy, etc. You cannot build something that requires technology without having the technology. The Industrial Revolution was actually several revolutions, all needed.
Gökhan Yenice 4 years ago
This is not true, First of all Hezarfen Ahmed Çelebi is a fictional character created by Evliya Çelebi in his semi-fictional books. There is no evidence that such man ever exist. Yet since he flyed from most diplomatic center of Constantinople which is Galata, there is no report at all to any Kingdoms from any diplomats seeing an Ottoman flies.
Brandi VanSteenwyk 4 years ago
A narcissist who refused to let the masses see that he wasn't the all-knowing, all-seeing humanist that he had convinced the populace he was. Heaven forbid that someone appeared to have knowledge beyond the Sultan.
#37
Alcibiades was considered a traitor in Athens for leading his men to death. A traitor in Sparta because he got the queen to cheat on the king with him and a traitor in Persia after including them in a war
Alex K 4 years ago
Greek here, alcibiades could be a douchebag sometimes , but he was a great politician and military commander. the guy was just reealy ambitious.
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Michael Capriola Jr. 4 years ago
Alcibiades was the main driving force behind the Athenian plan to invade Sicily. Too bad he didn't go into exile before he convinced the Athenians to attack Syracuse.
#38
William Howard Taft running for US president:
Prior to ww1, the US elections took place with Woodrow Wilson winning with a 36% (give or take) majority, how could this happen? Taft. The election was split 3 ways, Wilson for the democrats, and Taft and Teddy Roosevelt for the Republicans, they split the vote and Wilson Won. Had Taft not split the vote Roosevelt would have won and serve a third presidential term. As president, Roosevelt would have almost definitely pushed the US one WW1 much earlier than Wilson did, possibly shortening the war by up to a year. The main impact of this would have been on Russia, while it wouldn’t have saved the Tsar, it would have put down Lenin and prevented the rise of Communism, as it would have denied Lenin the public backing he needed, given that the current govt. didn’t look quite so incompetent. With no Lenin, no Stalin, no mass genocides, speaking of genocides, the fear of communist take-over largely fuelled support for the Nazi party and without them, Hitler would have lived and died a fringe extremist with very few people even noticing him.
TLDR; Taft ran for president, split the vote, denied Roosevelt a third term, which lead to a prolonged WW1, the Russian Communist take over, WW2, Cold War, etc.
Brandi VanSteenwyk 4 years ago
"Turned all a-hole" or just showed his true colors?
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Angela Brisebois 4 years ago
This is a serious presumption and stretch re: Communism, Lenin/Stalin, et al.
Leo Domitrix 4 years ago
Wow, this perrson gives way too much credit to the impact of the US on Russia at that time, b/c the tsar wasn't going to be saved. That one was already in the works before WW1.
CP 4 years ago
Not quite. There was nothing in the works before WWI. Germany sent Lenin on a train back to Russia during WWI to cause problems for Russia. However the US gives itself way to much credit for the impact it had on WWI. We would have been just as happy to trade with Germany as we did with France and England. However the blockade stopped that from happening.
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Chris Hardtke 4 years ago
Someone needs to learn the difference between majority and plurality.
El Dee 4 years ago
This seems to say that only communist Russia had genocide. Not true, the Tsar was just as bad. Russia has always had 'strongman' leaders. The genocides have little to do with communism and everything to doo with Russian psychology. You'd simply have had a different dictator..
J. M. Montes 4 years ago
Not at that time. That came into effect after FDR.
Load More Replies... Vicki Perizzolo 4 years ago
Voting for Trump has to be up here in the top mistakes of all time...still can't figure out how that lying POS pussygrabbing white supremacist got anywhere near the WH - the repercussions are still coming I'm sure.
#39
The Soviet government not informing their nuclear power plants of the defect which caused Chernobyl to melt down and almost destroy all of eastern Europe.
El Dee 4 years ago
Oh yes it did. I live in Western Europe and we were all irradiated thanks to this. It's only in the last few years that certain areas are able to sell their lamb for human consumption. This had far reaching effects and it could have been significantly worse..
Load More Replies... Cip IESAN 4 years ago
I was 18 in 1986 (26th of April), and in Romania no one told us about the tragedy, even if the northern part of the country was dramatically affected. Communist media showed only happy workers and peasants. We heard about all this stuff at the Radio Free Europe - it was forbidden to listen to that American radio (broadcasting in Romanian from Munich), a lot of people was imprisoned because of this. Even listening music!
Jyri Hakola 4 years ago
Chernobyl`s worst fallout were not radioactive but mental. In one blast it practically singlehanded stopped all nuclear powerplant building projects and delayed green an CO2-free energy at least 3 decades with unimaginable effect to climate change.
Luuta 4 years ago
It wouldn't have destroyed all of Eastern Europe, but if people hadn't sacrificed themselves to contain it, it would have made a much, much greater area of land uninhabitable for much longer than Belarus and would almost certainly have poisoned the greater used water table, leading to thousands of deaths from radiation poisoning. The city of Chernobyl is still uninhabitable. The land effected was mostly affected by wind direction, but it would have been in the soil in every direction without the work of those who went in to bury it. Recently, it's come to light that they didn't do a good enough job. Radioactivity is beginning to leach out into the water table and through the tonnes of rubble and earth they tried to bury it under. They're now looking at having to tackle the meltdown AGAIN.
Vicki Perizzolo 4 years ago
the soviet government keeps secrets from their secrets and would do anything to make sure no one else knew there might be a defect...in fact, to admit that a defect existed could end you up in a gulag (and Samantha - the only reason it didn't almost destroy Eastern Europe is because there is about a trillion tons of concrete on it that will NOT last another 50 years...so the future is what it is)
Cybele Spanjaard 4 years ago
Akin to the current China's leaders and co. not acting correctly on notifying other countries today re the Pandemic Corvid -19 and now the ongoing variations. Or was this really a contrived test to see just how much power they could gain through germ warfare to rule the world as they claim they will. .
#40
Kaiser Wilhelm II firing Otto von Bismarck. Bismarck had a plan. He always has a plan. But not when an incompetent Kaiser boots him out of his means of putting his plans into action. Bismarck had everything set up perfectly, but Wilhelm II decided to f*ck up everything he had set up, and got into WWI for it.
Cip IESAN 4 years ago
No. Bismark wanted a new war with France even in 1875! Wilhelm was a kind of a pacifist, as a cousin of the British King and the Russian Tsar, he didn't wanted war. The German Empire entered WWI because of the treaties signed with the Austro-Hungarian Empire... And von Bismark died in 1890, 24 years before WWI.
Cip IESAN 4 years ago
My bad: he died on 30 July 1898 - but still 16 years before WWI!
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Brandy Grote 4 years ago (edited)
Wilhelm did do good things - for America. Because of his never ending drafts, including of farmers, there was never ending famine in his country. So lots of them left, and came to the US. Bringing their farming knowledge, work and family ethics, food, music all with them. (Of course, this included Trump's draft dodging great grandfather, but it also included many good men too.)
Il Douchey Farker 4 years ago
Moreover, in nineteen dickety two, this monster stole our word twenty
Caroline Overill 4 years ago
Papa Hitler: I'm feeling a liddle frrissky ziss evening shveety. How about an early night?:
Michael Capriola Jr. 4 years ago
Add to that General von Moltke the Younger weakening the left wing of the forces sent to invade France. If he hadn't, the war might have been over in short order.
#41
Hong Xiuquan declared the Taiping rebellion after he had a nervous breakdown from failing the imperial examinations. He proclaimed that he was the brother of Jesus Christ. 20-30 Million people died.
Samantha Lomb 4 years ago
I don't think we can declare being mentally ill a bad decision. He legitimately believed he was the brother of Christ
Brandi VanSteenwyk 4 years ago
"Being mentally ill" isn't the decision that was wrong here. The fault lies in those who gave Hong the ultimate power and believed every word he said despite evidence to the contrary.
Load More Replies... François Carré 4 years ago
It's impressive how in China, every time someone screws up, 20-30 million people die.
Kira Okah 4 years ago
To be fair, the Taiping Rebellion was the largest Chinese rebellion with the largest body count.
Load More Replies... #42
The development of nuclear weapons was probably inevitable, and several situations arose that balanced armageddon on a knife edge. Many historical decisions could have tipped the balance via butterfly effect, so I take these questions in that light - all those terrible decisions, luckily, led to us to still be around to make a few more
J. F. 4 years ago
I think that the invention of nuclear weapons prevented a lot of deaths in the long run (Hiroshima and Nagasaki were quite unnecessary). Without these weapons nothing really could have stopped an escalation between the Warsaw pact and the NATO - the MAD principle (mutual assured destruction) forced everybody to prevent direct confrontations. Didn't helped with all the proxy wars during that time but at least no World War 3
#43
Sharif Hussein trusting the British.
cassiushumanmother 4 years ago
Oh yes, he was the "dindon de la farce". (litteraly the turkey of the filling) Meaning the "fall guy" of the great Arab revolt. Fooled by Brits on so many levels.
Jon S. 4 years ago
Yeah, not our finest hour diplomatically. In 1916 we privately promised the same vast swathe of the middle east to 5 different nations in the same week. We said anything to get help during WW1
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#44
Henry Tandey who supposedly spared Adolf Hitler's life during the war.
The story is set on 28 September 1918, while Tandey was serving with the 5th Duke of Wellington's Regiment, and relates that a weary German soldier wandered into Tandey's line of fire. The enemy soldier was wounded and did not even attempt to raise his own rifle. Tandey chose not to shoot. The German soldier saw him lower his rifle and nodded his thanks before wandering off. That soldier is purported to have been Adolf Hitler.
engineer_nope.avi 4 years ago
This one is now more of an urban legend more than fact, as there are not enough evidence to support this claim.
Roxy Eastland 4 years ago
I always wonder about these ideas "if only someone had killed Hitler". Well, we wouldn't have known what might have happened. How many potential murderous tyrants have been halted in their path that we don't know about? And, on the hand, surely these tensions and factors that allowed Hitler to rise would still have been there and something would have come of them.
Batgirl Kitty 4 years ago
I mean, (and as a jew myself I can say this...) the soldier himself did nothing wrong. Even how horrible it is, how was he supposed to know that he was going to murder thousands of innocent people in the future? Good soldier, but (pardon my language) F Hitler.
François Carré 4 years ago
To be fair, he didn't have any reason to shoot him. That would have been disloyal, immoral and unbecoming of a British officer. It's like the stories about going back in time to kill baby Hitler, who would actually have the guts to do that when actually put in situation ?
Seabeast 4 years ago
Sounds more like a legend. Someone else would have taken Hitler's place, I'm sure.
María Hermida 4 years ago
Exactly. Tyrants don't appear out of the blue. They are the product of complex situations. Hitler had the charisma to manipulate many millions of people, but if he hadn't existed somebody else would have appeared. The conditions that created WWII were there. The whole situation in Germany was just an accident waiting to happen. Hitler didn't invent antisemitism; he only told people what they wanted to hear. He was the leader, but many millions people ( not only Germans) followed him willingly and enthusiastically.
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#45
Gerald Ratner talking s**t about his own business.
He was ousted and the firm almost collapsed before restructuring and rebranding.
Jeroen de Wijn 4 years ago
Ratners Group (now the Signet Group). The Ratners Group consisted of Ratners, H. Samuel, Ernest Jones, Leslie Davis, Watches of Switzerland and over 1000 shops in the US including Kays.
Load More Replies... WilvanderHeijden 4 years ago
Just goes to show that admitting in a speech that you sell overpriced crap, is not a smart business move.
Anna roberts 4 years ago
Rule #2. Anything you put out on the internet, never goes away and someone will find it and use it against you at the worst possible time
Load More Replies... InfectedVoice 4 years ago
Haha, my uncle worked for them at time as a quite high-up manager, I still give him crap for it now.
#46
Whoever said "The worlds Biggest MMO" Runescape should remove the wilderness and free trade. They threw a literal fortune down the drain just because they didn't understand their own product.
Chris Meyers 4 years ago
RuneScape, is a fantasy massively multiplayer online role-playing game - pretty inconsequential. It did cost their company a fortune with the decision because people left to play elsewhere.
Load More Replies... Kira Okah 4 years ago (edited)
This was because of bots and scammers, and was done due to lack of tech at the time. It was restored by popular vote, and they developed new tools to combat botting and scamming. I was playing this game at the time, I looked into it all. They are still the biggest MMO, most updated MMO, and the one MMO that will actually talk to the bloody players. They are currently dealing with a server crisis that harmed 1% of active accounts - most MMOs would tell their customers to svck it and make a new character, these dudes are manually fixing every single account harmed.
What do you think ?
Tracy Sellars 4 years ago
The dumbest decision are being made be people now, not social distancing, not using hand sanitizer and not wearing a mask when required. We have access to so much information and research that is factual and scientific , yet people are still dumb.
Doubleheader 4 years ago
Isn't it funny though? We literally live in a time where we can research every little thing known to man in the most convenient of ways even (small handheld computers at the palm of our hands!) - and yet, people still willingly choose to be ignorant. So much for the information age! :/
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Allan Hedges 4 years ago
Trump saying COVID will be over in 2 weeks. Trump saying climate change isn't real. Trump having that speech on Jan 6, 2021. Trump blowing off science.
kjorn 4 years ago
1914. when Gavrilo Princip kill the Archduke Franz Ferdinand. this led to WW1 which led to WW2, wich led to the jewish extermination wich led to the creation of a jewish territory and let the palestinian away from these territories wich led to the raise of the islamist extremists in that region wich led to the trouble we have today.
Tobias the Tiger 4 years ago
At least he didn't get re-elected. That would've been even more of a screw-up!
Load More Replies... Bacony Cakes 4 years ago (edited)
Andrew Wakefield being a greedy guts and publishing that paper which did nothing but point out a correlation between the use of a rival MMR vaccine and cases of autism. Bred a whole new breed of morons.
Sandra Charlot 4 years ago
Russian decision to decline international help for nuclear submarine Kursk and letting 118 soliders dying slowly during several days after explotion.
Lola 4 years ago
What about that time when Bonaparte sold 25% of the US's territory for $15m? (yes, the same guy who decided to invade Russia, revoke women's rights and reintroduce slavery)
Bacony Cakes 4 years ago
And Russia selling Alaska to the US. That was pretty dumb.
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Donnie Mc0 4 years ago
I woukd have thought Decca records deciding not to sign the beatles after an audition would have been in there!
Tracy Sellars 4 years ago
The dumbest decision are being made be people now, not social distancing, not using hand sanitizer and not wearing a mask when required. We have access to so much information and research that is factual and scientific , yet people are still dumb.
Doubleheader 4 years ago
Isn't it funny though? We literally live in a time where we can research every little thing known to man in the most convenient of ways even (small handheld computers at the palm of our hands!) - and yet, people still willingly choose to be ignorant. So much for the information age! :/
Load More Replies... Allan Hedges 4 years ago
Trump saying COVID will be over in 2 weeks. Trump saying climate change isn't real. Trump having that speech on Jan 6, 2021. Trump blowing off science.
kjorn 4 years ago
1914. when Gavrilo Princip kill the Archduke Franz Ferdinand. this led to WW1 which led to WW2, wich led to the jewish extermination wich led to the creation of a jewish territory and let the palestinian away from these territories wich led to the raise of the islamist extremists in that region wich led to the trouble we have today.
Tobias the Tiger 4 years ago
At least he didn't get re-elected. That would've been even more of a screw-up!
Load More Replies... Bacony Cakes 4 years ago (edited)
Andrew Wakefield being a greedy guts and publishing that paper which did nothing but point out a correlation between the use of a rival MMR vaccine and cases of autism. Bred a whole new breed of morons.
Sandra Charlot 4 years ago
Russian decision to decline international help for nuclear submarine Kursk and letting 118 soliders dying slowly during several days after explotion.
Lola 4 years ago
What about that time when Bonaparte sold 25% of the US's territory for $15m? (yes, the same guy who decided to invade Russia, revoke women's rights and reintroduce slavery)
Bacony Cakes 4 years ago
And Russia selling Alaska to the US. That was pretty dumb.
Load More Replies... Donnie Mc0 4 years ago
I woukd have thought Decca records deciding not to sign the beatles after an audition would have been in there!
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