30 Stories When Someone Destroyed Their Solid Reputation In A Few Minutes, As Told In This Online Group
In 1988, Canadian sprinter Ben Johnson won the Olympic 100m with a new world record of 9.79 seconds. The next day, the doping test of the champion was positive and he was disqualified. One of the newspapers came out with the great headline "From hero to zero in 9.79 seconds."
Why are we telling you this? Because, in fact, world history is full of cases when a person carefully built their impeccable reputation for years, and then, by some incredible coincidence, spoiled everything, turning into an absolute outcast. Of course, not as fast as 9.79 seconds, but nevertheless...
There is a popular thread on Reddit where a topic starter asked: "Warren Buffet said, 'It takes 20 years to build a reputation and five minutes to ruin it.' What's a real-life example of this?" By now the post has gained almost 50K upvotes, and examples are still being added. From Rudy Giuliani to John DeLorean, from Jim Marshall (sorry, Vikings fans!) to Lance Armstrong, from hero to zero in almost 20K comments.
Bored Panda compiled a selection of the most popular examples from this thread for you, so feel free to scroll to the very end with pleasure, and if you have your own candidate for this list, be sure to write in the comments!
More info: Reddit
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Rudy G could have retired as America’s mayor, instead his obituary will have a picture of his make up dripping during a press conference at a landscape parking lot
I had a lot of respect for him after the way he stepped up during 9/11. But now he's an absolute joke and asshat.
Same. I loved his Saturday night live sketches. He's a joke and a criminal in my opinion now.
Load More Replies...This guy didn't exactly ruin his reputation in five minutes. He started ripping up his reputation a few years ago, and once he saw that he was surrounded by the ripped up shreds of his reputation, he picked them up and kept up shredding. Now all history has to decide is whether he was a buffoon or a monster.
I wish this guy was just a self-written satire. Unfortunately, a few of his utterances have ruined the lives of the undeserving, such as election workers who received threats and now have PTSD.
Exactly. He's a criminal and the department of Justice needs to go after him.
Load More Replies...Drunk ravings and an intention to have sex with a girl he understood to be a minor, promoting outrageous lies and getting sued for it, getting disbarred.....ahhh, what a fine legacy.
I thought he had forgotten to wipe after pulling his head out of Trumps behind.
It really is one of the funniest things ever. You have to wonder what the landscaping company thought when he called to book it. 😂😂😂
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The CEO of Abercrombie and Fitch when he said something like “I want cool people to wear our clothes, not fat people” when asked why they didn’t carry any plus sized clothes for women. The term “cancelled” wasn’t really a thing back in 2013 but man did A&F get cancelled HARD after that
Yeah, and then some... "If you're not young, white, and skinny, we don't want your money." If I recall the uproar correctly, the sales staff was expected to discourage non-whites from purchasing.
Load More Replies...I remember this! Suddenly it was very uncool to wear their clothes. It was a lovely show of solidary for people of all sizes.
I feel embarrassed because I'm wearing there clothes right now
Load More Replies...I was a nanny for two boys from the time my son was a month old until he was school age, and one of the boys modeled for them. This did not happen until several years after and I remember his disappointment at the company after that comment. He said he took it off his resume.
Define “cool people”, you utter fat-phobe. Oh, wait, you can’t. You wouldn’t know “cool” if Mr Freeze farted in your face! 🤨
This is how dumb CEO's are. Wonder how much sales would increase if they made the cutest clothes for plus size?
He told his employees that he didn't want anyone working in the front of the store who wasn't 'very good looking.' This guy--> mike-jeffr...e7b268.jpg
That lady that got accepted to the NASA internship, wrote an explicit tweet about it, and when someone told her to watch her language, she told them to STFU. He was a head or something at NASA. she did not have that internship for long.
The "head or something at NASA" was Homer Hickam. There's a movie about him -- October Sky!
The movie is based on the book Rocket Boys (also by Homer Hickam). Good read!
Load More Replies...The reason she reacted this way is because she was getting harrassed and thought he was just one of the lot.
So I'm the only one that thinks it's absolutely ridiculous that *swears* and telling someone to p**s off is what caused an intelligent woman to lose an important internship? Someone please explain to me how a television celebrity with zero experience was ELECTED PRESIDENT after making comments about grabbing pussies, but telling some stranger to suck your d**k because they don't like your language is a career ruiner. 🤔
1. NASA has high quality standards 2. Telling one of the high mucky mucks that works there to suck your d**k does not meet those standards. 3. The American people don't vote on who works at NASA
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That flat earth documentary where they try so hard the entire time and then in the last five minutes they do the measurement with the laser and realise the earth isn’t flat.
My absolutely favorite flat earther line "there are flat earthers all AROUND the GLOBE"
Any sensible person knows that if the Earth was flat, cats would have pushed everything off by now.
I've seen that posted many times elsewhere by others. And I AGREE!
Load More Replies...I'll just never understand how people can believe this nonsense during modern times
for anyone wondering what the movie is, it's called, "Behind the Curve." it's on netflix
Them flat earthers are behind the curve alright,...the dumbell curve
Load More Replies...Ironically, I can remember a (broadcasted) attempt to prove the ovoid shape of the Earth to a Flat Earther that the Earth is not flat...using the exact requirements as laid-out by the person in question. The double speak and spinning the guy tried to use was hilarious... -- I have only one question for these idiots... "If the planet is a pancake, why is it that at the solstices there is almost 24 continuous hours of sunshine at the poles, and only 12 at the equator?"
There are many, many holes in the flat earth theory. Like: all the stars a different at the north and south poles.
Load More Replies...Such a good documentary! I felt that the filmmakers were fair and kind in their portrayal of flat Earthers. Such a sad bunch of people, honestly; the documentary really showed how outcasts form communities around unpopular people and ideas in order to feel better about themselves. It's also how cults begin.
u make such a good point! bitter, insecure arrogant, self-absorbed people always flock towards cults and weird ideas dismissed as false by the majority bc it gives them a way to feel superior & s**t on others. basically project their own resentment & self-doubts onto others & converge w people that agree w & bolster their stupidity
Load More Replies...Flat earthers *know* the earth is round. They just have a pathological need for attention, any attention. Good, bad...it's all the same to them.
I haven't watched the documentary or researched the movement. I've always assumed that it was a satire meant to be a metaphor for questioning assumptions.
Load More Replies...I've always wanted to know if these flat earthers believe in God. Or Gods. It seems like they would, but then there's no mention of a giant earth covering dome in the bible. Also, what do they think the dome is made of? Why do they think people would invest in this kind of host? What stops people falling off the edge? How do they think the world was formed? Are we actually being swum along by the Great A'tuin? So many questions!!!!!!!
The documentary answers a lot of your questions! There's a part that goes into each of the theories.
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My grandpa. For 23 years of my life, I thought he was the most honest and upstanding person I had the honour of knowing. Then last year, I found out he’s always had a habit of manipulating his dying family member’s/friend’s wills into leaving him and his wife the good, expensive stuff (houses, cars, etc). It’s how he’s avoided bankruptcy for so damn long. Selling off these stolen houses to pay for his own. He stole a house out from his own step daughter after her son had been in a near fatal accident, and she herself had just survived a suicide attempt. So yeah. Turns out the best man I know is one of the worst. And what’s better? He passed on his house stealing skills to his cvnt daughter (my aunt). So the cycle continues. Ugh. Sorry for the rant.
Ugh, I feel this. My grandmother. Our family had a long history of working at our local ASPCA. The director once co-signed for my mom to get her first apartment. My grandmother got a job as the hospital administrator for the veterinary practice on site. She knew my whole life I wanted to be a veterinarian. She told me to talk to the Director and explain my passion to him. Mr. Rambo was an awesome man and had me interview with the vets as a kennel assistant. As a high schooler, cleaning cages and tidying up was the perfect entry level position. I helped with vaccination clinics and showed my ernest desire to learn everything. I was soon tasked with giving meds to in patients and helping in the exam rooms. I was loving life!! My grandmother was not my supervisor, Mr. Rambo over saw everything for me. She got in trouble for stealing narcotics from the clinic. The media dragged me into it citing nepotism. I was asked to step down. I was devastated. It took me years to heal.
I wish I had manipulated more in my life maybe I wouldn’t be struggling now! I just couldn’t find it in myself to marry for money or make friends with someone old and dying so I could get their money or however people do it ! Hopefully being decent will pay off for me but it’s not looking great !
My sister robbed my mother blind as mom was in hospital dying. I’ll never forgive her
Travis Scott’s apology and behavior during the Astroworld tragedy. Dude is an awful person and people just give him a pass because he’s rich and famous and is married to one of the Kardashian relatives. Ppl pick and choose man I swear. They will blindly defend people if they like them enough. Dude basically let 10 people die. His fans are brainwashed by his garbage music
zurx added:
I will never forget that morning on Reddit watching videos of dead fans being crowdsurfed while people screamed and he just carried on with his garbage auto tune s**t.
Adele and Billie Eilish know to stop a concert and summon help when their fans are in distress. We're waiting for the karma truck to back up and deliver a load of "you deserve this" to him.
I had no idea who the hell he was until I saw the videos of the tragedy. How the f**k this man can stand on stage and continue his garbage music whilst people are dying is beyond me. Shows how much he actually cares. If I were a famous musician I'd have stopped and made sure everything was alright as soon as I saw medics swarming in.
On November 5, 2021, a fatal crowd crush occurred during the first night of the 2021 Astroworld Festival, a music event founded by American rapper Travis Scott that was held at NRG Park in Houston, Texas. Eight people died on the night of the concert, and two more died in the hospital over the following days. The cause of death for all ten was ruled to be accidental compressive asphyxiation, with one of the ten affected by the additional influence of a toxic combination of drugs and alcohol. Twenty-five people were hospitalized, and more than 300 people were treated for injuries at the festival's field hospital. Multiple concertgoers documented the incident, posting videos and recounting their experiences on social media.
Load More Replies...I would hope it was people trying to bring his attention to it and get him to stop the concert
Load More Replies...And yet Milli Vanilli were burned at the proverbial stake for faking their music... All I can say is , "Ms. Ogg, why have you not charged him yet?"
They're not married, but have two kids together. HATE that I know that!!🤭
Wait until their children are old enough to understand what happened.
Load More Replies...that whole astroworld thing was a sacrifice. Travis Scott sold his soul. look it up and stay safe
People in Houston aren't giving him a pass, we are still mourning the dead.
I was just reading a story about how a police officer with a perfect career, ruined everything by buying donuts and scanning a barcode for a carrot to make it cheaper. Lost his job for that.
{John Peel voice}: "That was 'Penny Pinching Arsewipe' with their new track 'Do-nut bring me down'"
Load More Replies...If only he had shot an unarmed person instead… would have kept his job then.
This happened in the UK where most cops aren't even armed.
Load More Replies...THIS is what gets a cop fired? Not killing unarmed minorities, but f*****g with the donuts?
Bill Cosby. He was "America's Dad" for 50 years until a random Hanibal Burress cell-phone bootleg went viral and women started speaking out in droves.
I feel like I should be allowed to sue him for robbing me of very fond memories listening to his albums as a kid with my family.
I'm glad my grandfather wasn't around to see this, it would have broken his heart. He used to do the Dr Huxtable crazy dances for me and would imitate Fat Albert. Breaks MY heart! Still beautiful memories with Grampa, though :-)
Load More Replies...Yes! Let's be clear women did not start speaking out after Burress' comments went viral. People started paying attention to the women because now that Burress had said it to, suddenly they had credibility.
Load More Replies...Yeah, remember he was the "clean" comedian who was offended by all the "trash" talking, "filthy" comedians. While he was putting himself on an altar, he was also sexually assaulting women after drugging them. My wife and I saw a show of his *just* before the Hannibal Burress thing broke. We were so excited to get great seats close to the stage. We're not so proud of going to his show now...
You know, WAY back around 1980, a friend of mine and I worked mid shift on the flight line preparing the jets for first launch. It was really quiet out there…we would yell at each other across the area lines from Bill Cosby’s comedy albums. One of us would start a line and the other would finish it. It was a lot of fun 😊 Now, to see all that he did to women, and I believe it, it has certainly soured me on him.
I knew his albums by heart. I was so heartbroken and pissed.
Load More Replies...I came to say the same thing. He spent his lifetime attacking women, it’s just that it caught up to him at the end.
Load More Replies...He was just found liable for assualting a 16 year old in 1975. His reaction to only paying $500,000? "That's it? Booya!"
Yeah, this one hurt. We still have LaVar Burton and Mr. Rogers though
A lot of these examples don't suit the title "destroyed their solid reputation in a few seconds" Cosby was drugging and raping women loooong before he got the America's Dad title and continued his crimes throughout his career. He didn't destroy his reputation, his reputation was built on top of a lifetime of sexual crimes and deceit. It was the strength of his victims and countless days of work that brought him to justice, which was undone (incidentally, in a matter of seconds) by a legal technicality.
Haven’t seen Lance Armstrong’s name yet. Scientists studied his body for years to find the cause of his incredible performance, just to have him openly admit to using steroids.
So they did years of scientific studies on him and not one of them was a drugs test?
I think it was blood doping (adding chemicalsto make extra red blood cells or storing them and reinjecting) not the typical steroids.
Load More Replies...Let's not forget how he left his wife for Sheryl Crow, who nursed him through his cancer, only to dump her when she got cancer. Total a**e
The whole cycling scene at the time was one big dope scandal. Are we ever going to take cycling serious again?
There is one year, during this era, that no longer has a winner in the records. Because something like the top ten were all later caught doping and had their past victories taken away.
Load More Replies...Not to call you out maliciously, but steroids haven't been a thing since the early 90s. They're too easy to trace. They've got far more sneaky since then.
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Gerald Ratner
at one time 'Ratners' were a nationwide chain of jewelry shops in the UK, they were known as an 'affordable' jewelry shop.
In 1991 he was a guest at the 'Institute of Directors' and made a speech where he called the stuff sold by his shops, 'total C**p'. A popular range of earrings was described as being cheaper than a prawn sandwich and compounded it by saying the prawn sandwich would last longer.
shares in the company dropped like a stone and he was fired by the majority company shareholders
...and it shouldn't - not when your aim is to stick it to your customers.
Load More Replies...He was obviously honest about selling tat. I guess there are others who make a living selling tat but they keep it to themselves.
It was also funny to see his PR firm desperately trying to prevent a meltdown by trying) to spin how "c**p" meant "Cheap Reliable Affordable Products" lolol.
When asked how he became so massively wealthy by showing his mansion to a couple of guests, Haim Saban said: "5 retards in leotards" (referring to the Power Rangers). He was very lucky the internet wasn't the thing it is back then.
What he made the power rangers are we talking about the tv show I'm lost (please explain)
Load More Replies...I've heard of the phrase "doing a Ratner" for when you royally screw things up, good to know its origin.
Jared from subway
He got beaten in prison a few years ago and there are still random people sending commissary money to his attacker.
Jared Scott Fogle is an American former spokesman for Subway restaurants. Fogle appeared in Subway's advertising campaigns from 2000 to 2015 until an FBI investigation led to him being convicted of child sex tourism and possessing child pornography
Load More Replies...PLEASE do not equate this sick pedophile's predatory behavior with being gay. I can't quote statistics but, from experience, 99% of gays (like anyone) are NORMAL and would be horrified by him.
He was the dude who talked-about how good Subway was, turned out he touched children.
Load More Replies...As a graduate of Indiana University, this hits extra hard. What a douche canoe
A pizza delivery guy was belittled out of tip by rude local car dealership employees. They went really off on one, treating him badly, and threatened to get the pizza delivery guy sacked. The incident was caught on camera, and the internet went out for revenge. The car dealership was review bombed and I think one of the colleagues were fired.
First time I EVER donated money to an internet cause. Lol. I donated the tip amount, which is all they asked to donate. I cannot stand people that are rude and think they can treat people in service like c**p. I treat the folks delivering my food great, and they in turn treat me awesome too! The one young woman even stopped by once just to check on us because it had been a couple weeks. 😂😂 We usually order from them at least once a week.
Good on you. Although tipping isn't big here in Europe we usually do leave a tip. And being polite and kind costs nothing.
Load More Replies...For those wondering about this car dealership and how to avoid it: it was closed down and in the state of Massachusetts.
Michael Richards who played Kramer in Seinfeld.
Ruined his image literally in five minutes when he lost his cool and went on a racist rant
This still blows me away. He had a helluva onscreen character. Really funny, but I guess the truth of who you are comes out eventually.
That has to do with the job title "actor". The onscreen persona has nothing to do with the real life person most of the time.
Load More Replies...I saw the episode of Comedians Getting Coffee in Cars with him in it. Was pretty grossed out by how Seinfeld gave him a platform to do the whole "I was just angry, it was an off night" type of b.s. Plenty of times I've been enraged and never once uttered a racial slur. That's just your filter coming off, bro.
He was on Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee and he said he really regrets what he said and he's never gotten over it. It haunts him to this day. It's a sad situation all around.
Haunts him to this day. More like haunts his career to this day. That’s his real regret.
Load More Replies...There's always this one person you don't like and can't put your finger on why!
I've lost my cool about a million times and not one of those times has involved anything close to a racist rant. You don't do that unless you ARE a racist.
I named my dog Kramer after him. Standard poodle with the giant fro. Ironically he’s a black poodle!
F*****g Seinfeld gave him a platform to pass it off as "a bad day." F**k them both. I've had enormously bad days and never once utteredd a racist slur. F**k you, Michael Richards.
At one point, Ryan Lochte was arguably on the way to becoming as big in the swimming world as Michael Phelps. Then his lies about being robbed at the Olympics torched his reputation and career
Whatever does is on a very short journey. Pretty flat and barren up there.
Load More Replies...I remember being embarrassed for him representing America to lie and blame another country in his made up scenario.
Yes. And say what you will, Phelps only smoked weed. 😂😂😂 Not exactly an enhancement drug. I mean, I have never smoked weed and decided to do anything more productive than organizing my CD’s.
Load More Replies...And some years after that lie he posted a picture on social media of him literally in the process of doping...
Who? Wasn't their a story on the backpage of the Sports section about that?
Mel Gibson.
Man I used to adore him as a kid but after all that c**p came to life, especially his antisemitism, I can't stand him.
Grew up watching Lethal Weapon with my dad. Now neither one of us can sit through them. Mel can try telling my great grandpa the holocaust wasn't real. He died with dementia. For those who don't know what that means, it means he went back and was basically trapped there by his own mind after escaping as a child. He wasn't even close to the only one who went like that. I've heard it multiple times from others. Now I've made myself mad again. Mel's face does that to me these days. 😡
Load More Replies...One of the sucky things about aging these days is finding out how many people whose work you admired at some point are actually unwashed mushrooms.
I'm just glad Paul McCartney isn't an antivaxxer or something- COVID really showed us a lot of people's true colors.
Load More Replies...He's working again, so I guess Hollywood just sends you on a brief time out for being an antisemitic woman beater a*****e.
Drunken, violent, anti/Semitic rages, for a start.
Load More Replies...Yes. Ppl are still hiring him. Though not the blockbusters he used to get. I cannot believe anyone will still work with him.
Load More Replies...He's one of the reasons that I learned (to be fair, this took decades) not to equate great acting with good humanity.
Lol. Mel Gibson. Period. End of story. It's an entire essay with 2 words.
Growing up in Australia, I had several friends who went to high school with him. Long before he forget how to play act nice, they had all said he was a racist bully.
Not just antiseptic but sexist and racist (said he hoped his SO got raped by a gang of n words).
There was a PC building company earlier this year that disqualified a prize winner because the company owner thought the winner's social media presence was too weak. Not fake, mind you, just not popular enough to be worth sponsoring.
I followed that story, they were utter cretins who broke their own contest rules by which she had rightfully won.
The happy ending is that the streamer got a pc from a different builder for free.
Jayz2Cents, one of the best water cooling builders.
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Will smith
Yup, Chris Rock outclassed him and his crazy wife.
Load More Replies...Yes, if you look at the clip, Will was laughing untill he looked at his wife.
Load More Replies...As idk . As a person who's family has gone through absolute hell over the past few years ... I sympathize with Will losing his s**t and doing something really wrong. He's always seemed like a good person. If anyone deserves understanding , I think he's one of the good ones .
While I can empathize with your position, the issues are overwhelming: He was violent, he swore and carried on in the most public way possible, and children were watching. Any one of us Panda's would have been arrested and even put in prison for assault after that. So he "proves" the privilege of wealth and fame... So even if I want to give him a pass... it's not so easy really...
Load More Replies...Well, I kinda did. On the other hand, I gained respect for Chris Rock in his handling of it.
Load More Replies...Anyone notice that he actually laughed at the joke initially? That part of it seems weird to me
I always enjoyed his films, but his kids just seem like brats to me.
Load More Replies...i think the whole situation was messed up. a lot of people say they gained respect for chris rock, but i lost respect for both. of course will smith shouldn't have slapped chris rock but chris rock didn't have to make that nasty comment. him handling the situation well was the least he could do after making fun of someone with alopecia on tv for millions to see.
I don't think that Chris rock knew she had alopecia. But I could be wrong.
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Former Brooklyn/Los Angeles Dodgers baseball player and executive Al Campanis.
He had a brief career as a player with the Brooklyn Dodgers, playing only 7 games with them in 1943, but spent a lot of time in the minor leagues and played one season in the minors with Jackie Robinson the year before Robinson became the first African-American player in the majors. After retiring as a player he became a scout and moved up in the organization to become the General Manager of the Dodgers in 1968.
On April 6, 1987 Campanis was invited to appear on the TV show *Nightline* to be interviewed by Ted Koppel about Jackie Robinson, as April 15th would be the 40th anniversary of Jackie Robinson's first game in the majors and they were good friends until Robinson's death in 1972.
Koppel asked Campanis about why there were so few Black managers and no Black general managers. Campanis answered, "I truly believe that they may not have some of the necessities to be, let's say, a field manager, or, perhaps, a general manager." When pressed later in the interview by Koppel, he said "Why are Black men or Black people not good swimmers? Because they don't have the buoyancy" and also saying that the Black race "certainly are short" on individuals with strong decision-making capabilities.
He was fired from the Dodgers less than two days later and never worked in baseball again, passing away in 1998.
If Jackie Robinson had still been alive, Campanis might have lost a good friend. I don't know if Jackie Robinson liked him in spite of his racism or if Campanis hid it until he felt safe enough to mouth off.
Campanis may have felt safe because it was "just us white guys talking"...ignoring the fact that it was in front of millions on live tv.
Load More Replies...This blows me away. I don't understand how people can think a human brain could be any less just because of skin color.
Blacks were barred from many public swimming pools for generations. THAT is the reason so few high level Black swimmers are seen, at least in the USA. Now, thankfully, they're appearing at high level meets more and more.
One hotel even drained their pool after Lena Horne, goddess that she was, dipped her foot in it. The ignorance still astounds me.
Load More Replies..."Bouyancy"? I mean if it was related to color and not body composition???
Years back, there was also this doozy: there were so few Black hockey players because "they have weak ankles". So I guess Black athletes had to stick to basketball, soccer, baseball, football, track and field, marathon running, etc.
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Had a supervisor who decided to get blitzed on morphine and alcohol before writing a racist, incomprehensible, unprofessional email and sending it to every subordinate. Every single person turned against him, and he was gone from his job really quickly after that. (And he was tenured and everything). Happened in an instant.
Glad to see academia taking real action against a tenured academic. They often feel bulletproof and are treated as though they are.
One of my instructors in both undergrad and grad school was pretty much of an a*****e anyway. My first year, of grad school we had a bad winter—-bad enough for the university to suspend classes until conditions improved and people who lived off campus could drive into town. Evidently this instructor, two of whose undergrad classes I had attended the year before, had lost his wife and daughter, who he was always talking about and showing us pictures of previously, but had suddenly stopped doing so. My best guess is divorce. Anyway, he must’ve spent those days totally alone, rambling around his house, getting really drunk, and deciding to write some kind of paper about Greek and Roman politics. It was utterly unreadable gibberish. I showed it to my graduate advisor, who was an instructor in the same department as the a*****e, and he couldn’t make head or tails of it either. He showed it to the department head. Same result. Thing is, the a*****e, who was already past retirement age, was tenured, so they couldn’t just put him out to pasture. All they could do was bide their time, give him as few classes to teach as possible, and wait for him to either finally retire or die. I got ma Masters in 2019. Last I checked, he was still there.
Load More Replies...My reaction would be "I QUIT from this racist place worse than hell", in all bold
Had a bunch of surgeries a few years ago, which involved a fair bit of morphine. Didn't turn me into a racist though...
Nelson Rockefeller was governor of New York before serving as vice-president under Gerald Ford. He was found dead at his secret townhome. His wife wasn't there but his girlfriend was. She was 49 years younger than him.
"Rockefeller's Law" states, "Never do anything you wouldn't be caught dead doing."
I'm sure she, uh, loved him for his, uhh. Personality. And virility. Sounds like a healthy clandestine relationship he could be proud of. Yep.
Load More Replies...I can hear Alanis Morrisette singing "...isn't it ironic, don't you think?"
If I remember correctly, didn’t he die on top of her during sex or something?
Dies banging a hottie on the desk...Attaboy!!! 1979, ahh, fun times, before AIDS
I had a relative (that married very well) who was giving me a tour of their newly renovated brownstone casually mention occasionally spotting him walking around naked from their second floor “Rear Window” style. No mention was ever made if it was a secret townhouse or not, but I assume the secret was out.
The PR chick traveling to South Africa who tweeted something like, "heading to Africa, hope I don't get AIDS. Just kidding, I'm white!"
Turned her phone off for the flight, and by the time she turned it on when she landed, it had gone viral and, if memory serves, she had already lost her job.
Edit: Quite a few people commenting that she must be awful at her job and/or she should have known better.
1. in the earlier days of social media, it was reasonably expected that your posts would remain private among your network. This is one of the first cases of a non-celebrity post going viral and being publicly shamed for it. There was no precedent. Bad judgement? Of course, but 2013 and 2022 are very different times
2. her ability to craft effective corporate communications is not diminished by the poor judgement mentioned above that she exercised *once*. Presumably, she was hired by other firms (and perhaps rehired by her old firm) not because of her "fame," but because she was actually skilled at what she does.
Edit 2: while I haven't seen it, the sheer number of references to The Family Guy seems to indicate that yes, they did parody this situation in an episode. Seems like Seth McFarlane's brand of humor.
What does white, black or any other culture have to do with catching AIDS?
Welllll, in this particular instance, AIDS is largely spread in Africa by the straight Black population who have been brainwashed by the Catholic church into believing that condoms actually increase the spread of AIDS (yes, this is genuinely a church teaching in Africa). That's why there are so many AIDS babies. So the tweet is not so much racist in intent as a leaden attempt at ham-fisted satire.
Load More Replies...There's a whole chapter on this in the book 'So You've Been Publicly Shamed' by Jon Ronson - which explains this in detail. In summary - it was a joke that people didn't understand and took at face value. Her joke was actually pointing out how sad it is that it disproportionately affects certain demographics. But as always - 'edgy' jokes read out, out of context are almost never funny.
The full story about her comment is so different to how it was perceived. Her tweet, to all of her seven followers (or however many, it was a very small number), was very much satire. She knew all of them would know what she meant, that just by the colour of her skin she has privilege that isn't always acknowledged. One of those friends shared it, maybe even thinking that also their friends would get the satire, but then the cat was out of the bag, and it went crazy without the context of knowing her personality and humour. I still think her employer was disgraceful for being led by mob rule, instead of speaking privately with her and sorting it out. And the outcome of that incident led to mob rule and deliberate attempts to ruin other people's lives for single comments.
10,000 Instagram pictures and thousands of social media likes and share. vs one sandwich photo. Rip Fyre festival.
NacreousFink added:
I believe there were some other social media posts at that time that was also bad for Fyre Festival's reputation.
And there was that one guy who for months in advance was warning people that the Fyre Festival was a scam.
There is a Netflix doc on this, called Fyre. The festival was a disaster before it even started!
One on Hulu too I believe. Watched them both because brazen overconfidence with other people's money always fascinates me.
Load More Replies...Oh my gosh, this reminds me of this really good book I read called You're So Dead. I'm guessing it was loosely based on what happened at Fyre Festival. It's about this musical festival called Pyre Festival all these influencers are invited to. I won't spoil anything, but let's just say the festival isn't really all it's cracked up to be, and just a way for this crazed serial killer to try and unalive all these influencers. It sounds stupid but it's a really gripping book, I'd definitely recommend it to anyone who likes thriller-type books :D
Activision Blizzard
Cometstarlight replied:
And this is on multiple fronts.
Their industry?
-bugged launches, lying about game content, having games with microtransactions totaling up to over $100,000 as a pay to win scheme
Their actual company?
-"Cubicle romps" to harass women co workers, the "Bill Cosby" suite, harassing a woman to suicide, passing over women for promotions because they might "get pregnant and take time off work," etc.
There is so, so much wrong with that company and the kicker now is that their "in house investigation" said they did nothing wrong.
A woman unalived herself on a business trip with her boss where he threatened to fire her if she didn't sleep with him. After that droves of women who worked at Activision/Blizzard spoke out about the "fret boy culture", sexual harassment and day drinking. The shares tanked and Microsoft bought the company.
Load More Replies...I had a friend who worked for Activision as a coder - 70-80 hour weeks to make their deadlines. She was completely crippled by carpal and radial tunnel nerve injuries by 25. And she was just one of sooooo many.
Oh yeah, and the Overwatch character Jesse McCree was named after a staff member who later turned out to be a creepy f**k. IIRC he was the one who stayed in the Cosby Suite. Nowadays the character is known as Coke Cassidy, and there’s now a rule against naming characters after staff members. Not reassuring.
I mean, they've been putting out racist, sexist, and homophobic content for ages, the extent of the issues was surprising but the fact that they had them wasn't
How their all of thier coding teams walked off the job in support of the harrassed women...
I refuse to spend money on this company, while I do play their games, it’s either free to play games, or games that are cheap and I don’t have to spend over $20 to get. Diablo immortal? People have spent over $20,000 on that game and it’s still in beta and they haven’t gotten what they wanted. There’s a story out there of a guy spending over $25k before he finally got a 5 star item from the micro transactions.. Yeah… That, is how crappy the company is. Dude erased the game free that and went on playing something else from. Different company and posted a blog about it, warning everyone about the game/company. Hence, why I won’t spend more than a few dollars on their asses..
Game of thrones season 8
got soooo bored with the later books, not sure how far I got in (6? 7?) but there was one book where nothing much happened except the various characters moved about from one place to another.
Load More Replies...My biggest issue with the final season was pacing. We all knew it wouldn't be a happy ending. But they resolved story lines in one episode that would have taken half a season or more in prior seasons. It just felt rushed, especially Dany's decent into madness, the only real foreshadowing of that was "all targaryens go mad eventually"
I have never read the books (probably won't). Never saw the last season (probably won't). I watched ONE late night interview with Mr Martin and knew then that he was a jackass that was enjoying too much of the hollywood life to do his ACTUAL job and honor the fans that put him where he was.
Honestly I think he's a better editor. His other books suck in my opinion, and don't really have the same "voice". I'm actually convinced his partner Paris wrote the books and used his existing fame to get them published. My only proof of this is he pushed back the release of one of the books around the same time there were reports of them having a bit of a lover's quarrel
Load More Replies...Books have seasons? I thought they had printings... ;) lol -- Honestly, the only thing I know about it is a co-worker was obsessed with the "porn" angle, and a German(?) teacher controlled his classes by threatning to tell them who dies BEFORE...and proved his point, by predicting half a dozen deaths of prominent characters - he'd apparently read the entire series before the first show was broadcast.
The r/antiwork mod that did an interview with Fox News and completely tanked the sub's momentum almost overnight.
There is a significant “I suffered and so you should too” sentiment here. From my point of view, people are more manipulated than any of us care to admit.
That is what my trump supporting coworker said when I asked for a good reason why housing and food aren't just provided when we have sup much food going to waste and houses unoccupied. With how much food that goes to waste you either support life or profit. I guess he puts money over life. I'm not asking luxury foods and housing for everyone, and he instantly went that direction. Because he realised he had no leg to stand on that didn't make him look like an a*s
Load More Replies...Reading an article about this made me join, though. America hates socialism and lack of ambition as a generalisation. But I am all for working smarter, not harder
Not all America hates socialism. Just the loudest yelling, flag waving, maga wearing armchair patriots
Load More Replies...Socialism for Big Corporations is GOOD. Socialism for American Citizens is BAD. It's a Big Lie!
r/antiwork is a subreddit (a forum on Reddit) where users can talk about work and the bad things that happened, some of which are even illegal towards the employees. A moderator (mod) decided to give an interview on their own, "representing" the people on that subreddit in an awful way. Thus, people stopped taking the subreddit so seriously and it had a mocking backlash.
Load More Replies...I don't quite understand the vernacular here. What does 'tanked the sub's momentum' mean?
If I'm understanding it right, a lot of people stopped using it and saw it as more of a joke rather than a serious place to meet and talk about things. Jayne Kyra's explanation is really good, so I'd look above and check out that too, but I hope this at least helps!
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Howard Dean. Was either Lt Governor or Governor of Vermont from 1987 to 2003, and making a respectable run for president when it stopped dead in its tracks when he made...a weird sounding cheer at a campaign stop. That was it. No sex scandal, no bad policy proposal, no poor debate performance, a clip that just sounded kinda funny.
This still doesn't seem like something somebody should be ridiculed like that for--for years!. I generally do one or two more embarrassing things before lunch.
I just watched it - and I wouldn't even have registered the scream. Poor guy.
Load More Replies...Ah, but early rightwank media made a huge deal out of "The Dean Scream," including playing the video over and over again--with altered audio. The Dan Rather memo, "But her e-mails," Hunter's laptop which seemed to have an ever-increasing litany of horrible things on its drive the longer it remained in the hands of Republicans...all manufactured "scandals" that abruptly became irrelevant the instant their purpose was either fulfilled or failed...
Apparently he had already lost quite badly (18% of the votes) in Iowa where he was expected to win so it didn't occur in a vacuum ...
True, it happened when his numbers were already starting to drop, and we don't really know what would have happened without the scream.
Load More Replies...What Did He Do ? Phart ? Look At What Certain people Get Away With Now
Speaks volumes about the U.S. Nation. All they care is bling and show and they do not give a flying f**k about the substance, logic, facts. What a joke.
The truth of this is, LIVE, the scream wasn't much... It was appropriate in tone and volume for a cheer. What killed him was the TV coverage. I guess when he screamed, he did it right at the microphone, so it distorted and was increased volume, so it stood out.
Ah the old’ “scream heard ‘round the world”. Was so dumb, he was a good candidate.
he was an excellent candidate. he was set up in the media (which kept harping on one sound he made) which effectively bumped him out of the running.
That X Factor judge who told a contestant, wearing a SUIT that he was trying to copy her husband lmfao. I think Natalia Kills was her name
Omg you need to watch the video on YouTube it’s honestly hilarious. The guy took it super well too
Feel great sympathy for the contestant, he looked like he was near tears. Another judge stood up for him, though, good for her.
Load More Replies...I worked with a guy who started doing meth so he could work extra. At first it just made him energetic, but eventually he got where he would get set off and go on these bizarre rants at people. He almost stabbed me once. The strangeness of this woman's rant reminded me of that.
The presenter had the same haircut and the singer's suit reminded me more of Michael Bublé!
I hadn’t either, but I guess she has written a lot of songs for Beyoncé and the like. Not really one of my genres of music, so there are a great deal of artists I have never heard of. 😂😂
Load More Replies...I loved her album and recently watched the clip again because I was wondering if I had remembered it as worse than it was but it is genuinely bad. She legit called the guy disgusting and acted like her husband invented suits and a quiff hairstyle like he wasn’t already copying a style from the 50’s. It is genuinely so bizarre.
Like somebody posted above, he looked like he was dressed more like Michael Buble, so did her husband copy Michael, who has been using that style as long as I can remember.
Load More Replies...On the Gold Coast in Australia, the theme park Dreamworld lost all it’s reputation after 4 people [passed away] in an accident.
The died in an absolutely horrible and completely preventable manner. It was on the river rapid ride, there were issues all day with dropping water levels, but park management refused to shut the ride down despite safety concerns. The water dropped so low that the boat they were in, got caught in the exposed gears and these people were literally ripped apart by the machinery. The footage of the boat afterwards, looked like it had been put through a wood chipper! The ride operators were high school kids, that were give minimal training on how to operate the ride. When the first signs of a problem appeared, they could have hit the emergency stop button, except that the kids were never shown what that button did! How thing was absolute negligence.
That's absolutely horrible. Thanks for letting me know! I mean, like, that'll give me pictures in my head for days, but I think it's important to know the whole story so thank you for telling me so I don't have to google it.
Load More Replies...There's a very good short documentary about it on the "Fascinating Horror" YouTube channel. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BurDAd6cNQ0
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Jim Marshall. One of the greatest defensive linemen in NFL football history.
To quote vikings.com : "A valued member of Minnesota's "Purple People Eaters" defensive line, Marshall holds numerous NFL records that include the most seasons played by a defensive player (20, along with Junior Seau and Darrell Green), most consecutive games by a defensive player (282), most consecutive starts by a defensive player (270), and most career fumble recoveries (30). Marshall, who was still a starter at age 42, helped the Vikings win three NFC titles along with the NFL championship in 1969."
However, one day, in one game, Jim Marshall had a quick lapse in judgement and now almost EVERY NFL fan remembers Jim Marshall for one mistake he made: He picked up a fumble and ran the wrong way.
Umm that picture is of Jim Marshall, founder of Marshall amplifiers. Different Jim Marshall
It's unfair to compare his mistake to these other people's conscience choice to be criminals and jerks.
Seriously. That totally sucks. We all make mistakes and I'd hate to be remember for something like this rather than all the heck-awesome stuff I did.
Load More Replies...Running the wrong way may be dumb, but it doesn't make you an a$$hole.
Jim Marshall (the American football player) deserve a better legacy. Jim Marshall (of Marshall amps) is pretty well set. Those amps *rock*!
John deLorean- admittedly kinda set up by the FBI for a sting- but the 'Better than gold' quote.
Drugs, womanizing, and conning a government out of a lot of money, apparently. The better than gold quote refers to a comment he made in regards to cocaine.
Load More Replies...Anyone thinking importing/selling cocaine to cover costs deserves whatever bad that happens to them.
I remember the delorean factory opening about 3 miles from where I grew up. My Dad was headhunted for a job. He just said that it wouldn't work .
The government invested a lot hoping the factory would revitalize the area. When it failed it was a big scandal.
Load More Replies...Everyone knew what he did. He wasn't "kinda set up". He was setup. It's called entrapment and it's not legal.The FBI flubbed up big time.
Billy Squier. His Rock Me Tonite video destroyed his rep as a rock star, and his sales, and he's been mocked ever since.
Wouldn't this have been the fault of the direction/choreographer? I watched in on YOUTUBE and can't understand what went wrong.
Different time, different standard. The video was seen as "gay" in the 1980's derogatory sense. Being in a profession with standards that today would be seen as "toxically masculine", any hint of "otherness" could wreck a successful career. If Squier's career and the video happened today, it wouldn't have even registered in that way at all.
Load More Replies...I hadn’t seen it before either I agree ! It seems pretty typical for the 80’s tho ! Like it’s really bad now but seems only kind of bad back then
Load More Replies...I just watched the video on youtube, and turns out people are still mocking it. Sure, it's not the best of music videos, but it definitely wasn't worth tanking somebody's career. Link for anyone that is interested: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WZvl2aqIyNg
"DON'T BE SILLY! THAT'S BEING SILLY! BEAR STERNS IS FINE!!!" Although to be fair, he's always been a skeevy little piece of s**t. BasroilII added: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bear_Stearns The host of one of those wall street advice type TV shows was quoted as saying they were fine, and pulling investments from them was silly, on live TV. The very next day the company was bought out and stocks nosedived. It was the start of the subprime housing crisis.
Steffi Rose: Bear Stearns was really involved in the hedge fund/credit default swap markets that were bolstering up the mortgages bought by all the people back in the early 2000's who really couldn't afford them. A good chunk of those mortgages were ARMs, or adjustable rate mortgages -- they started out at ridiculously low rate, then would increase, sometimes astronomically, in a short period of time. When people started defaulting on their mortgages, the hedge funds like Bear Stearns had to start paying banks a lot of money to cover the credit default swaps (basically default insurance) the banks had bought from them. Shearson Lehmon and AIG did the same thing. The poster here is correct. A friend of a friend worked for Shearson Lehmon, and quit before it collapsed. He said he could see the writing on the wall and got out. It was apparently scary as hell that everyone was so excited about all the money they were making in the subprime market that they didn't see the danger.
Load More Replies...Is this the lunatic roped into Iron Man that goes off on one when Tony stops producing weapons for the army? Because I wanted to use that bat on him.
You can literally take his advice and do the complete opposite. If he says sell you should buy. If he says buy you should sell.
Why is this man still on the air???? He's been dead wrong so many times!!!!
Because he shrieks and flails and rants and raves, and far too many people find angry primates entertaining.
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The most popular girl at my school farted in the bathroom. So loud, it lasted as a discussion topic for weeks
At school, I leant over to the side to pick up a pencil that had fallen on the floor. As my right cheek raised up off the seat, yeah I let Polly out of Prison. And it was very audible in a quiet class.
Polly out of Prison...hadn't heard that one. Great!
Load More Replies...So... girls aren't allowed to pass flatulence because only boys are? That's f*****g stupid.
The guy who made The Boondock Saints illmattic12345 added: There was a documentary called Overnight that was a good watch. Basically he went from nothing to the next big thing in Hollywood after he sold his script, got to direct boondocks saints. But he was such an arrogant unpleasant guy that after that nobody would work with him. Seemed like it went to his head pretty fast and crashed pretty hard.
An unknown, apsiring filmmaker and musician by the name of Troy Duffy sold his script for the movie Boondock Saints to Harvey Weinstein for $300 000. He was then allowed to direct the $15 million film, which was a big deal for an unknown. The film did poorly, and the other problem was that Duffy treated the people around him like absolute garbage, and he was known to publicly insult actors (Ethan Hawke, Keanu Reeves, Kenneth Branagh are a few). His attitude made people lose interest in working with him, and as he started to lose his career prospects he treated people even worse and effectively killed his own career.
Load More Replies...You can't just say a name and then give zero details. Some of these are not very informative.
Exactly. Don't assume that everyone has heard of the person and knows exactly who you're talking about.
Load More Replies...I mean, a lot of these may have been exposed in a particularly poignant event. But being a racist is not a singular event. It is a lifetime building to a big reveal.
Most of these, the reputation being ruined because they found out they were s**t people all along. I was expecting more along the lines of genuinely good companies that stuffed up an ad or something that changed their reputation.
Plus a lot of these people I'd never heard of anyway.
Load More Replies...No Jussie Smollett? Claimed he was beaten, doused with bleach, and had a noose tied around his neck by white racists chanting racist, homophobic, pro-Trump slogans. In Chicago. At 2am. During a polar vortex. While he was walking to Subway (sandwich chain). Turns out he paid two of his co-stars, one of whom he was sleeping with, to set "it" up.
most people won't know this guy, but Ryan Haywood from Achievement Hunter. dude had it all- sweet job playing video games, a family, great fan base. then it came out that he was abusing women, some underage. I'm still mad about it because i was a fan and he just ruined his life for some strange. also, since he'd been in AH for years and years, there's a ton of really good old content that's now tainted by his presence. what a jerk.
I remember that guy. Also, sēx workers are valid.
Load More Replies...No one thought to mention a certain US Presidential Candidate that was caught on a live mic saying that anyone not worth more than $1M was not a "Real American"?
You can't just say a name and then give zero details. Some of these are not very informative.
Exactly. Don't assume that everyone has heard of the person and knows exactly who you're talking about.
Load More Replies...I mean, a lot of these may have been exposed in a particularly poignant event. But being a racist is not a singular event. It is a lifetime building to a big reveal.
Most of these, the reputation being ruined because they found out they were s**t people all along. I was expecting more along the lines of genuinely good companies that stuffed up an ad or something that changed their reputation.
Plus a lot of these people I'd never heard of anyway.
Load More Replies...No Jussie Smollett? Claimed he was beaten, doused with bleach, and had a noose tied around his neck by white racists chanting racist, homophobic, pro-Trump slogans. In Chicago. At 2am. During a polar vortex. While he was walking to Subway (sandwich chain). Turns out he paid two of his co-stars, one of whom he was sleeping with, to set "it" up.
most people won't know this guy, but Ryan Haywood from Achievement Hunter. dude had it all- sweet job playing video games, a family, great fan base. then it came out that he was abusing women, some underage. I'm still mad about it because i was a fan and he just ruined his life for some strange. also, since he'd been in AH for years and years, there's a ton of really good old content that's now tainted by his presence. what a jerk.
I remember that guy. Also, sēx workers are valid.
Load More Replies...No one thought to mention a certain US Presidential Candidate that was caught on a live mic saying that anyone not worth more than $1M was not a "Real American"?
