We need heroes to look up to, admire, and to learn from. Fortunately, history is full of amazing people who accomplished amazing things...sometimes. What stinks, however, is occasionally these people we put our faith in don't always end up paying it back to us. With the fuzzy lens of history being skewed just a bit, they aren't always decent human beings.
Reddit user, u/DeadAshes, wanted the truth revealed when they asked:
Who in history is looked up to as a hero but is actually a terrible person?
Not The Best Actor Or President
Ronald Reagan.
People love his story, but he set California back for decades from his time as governor. Also, the war on drugs didn't solve anything but created a new set of issues. Reaganomics too, smh.
Iran contra, ignoring AIDS, refusing to leave office when he became mentally unable to do the job, and his treatment of union strikers just to add a couple more.
More Than Just A Funny Moustache
Pablo Picasso.
I know he's not exactly considered a hero, but most people don't realise how much of a sociopath and ahole he was, especially towards his wives/partners and children.
IIRC he gave little to no money to his kids. They were in dire straits and came to his mansion to ask for help. Pablo let them in, had them watch him eat dinner without giving them any, and once the meal was over said "no".
Also rumored that he never carried a wallet nor money with him, only a pad of paper and a pencil. When paying for things in town instead of money he would scribble an autograph and hand it to them.
He Shouldn't, Wouldn't, With Another
GiphyDr suess. He straight up cheated on his wife for a few years while she had cancer and then when the wife finally killed herself he married the mistress almost straight away
Not The Best Bite
Steve Jobs. Terrible father to his kids, and clearly favored his son over his three daughters. Had to be separated from the rest of the workforce at Atari because he reportedly didn't shower.
And parked on disabled spots and wherever he wanted because he changed his mercedes every 6 months and this way he could not use a license plate, hence not being given a ticket.
And he was against giving to charity.
Fired people without reason. Just because they had a different opinion than him.
Only acknowledged the first daughter after she graduated.
Hid part of the bonus that Atari had given because of the game that Wozniak developed (Breakout) (only mentioned to Woz 1y after)
and more...
Sting Like A Bee
Although a great boxer and a fine showman, I have a lot of problems with things [Muhammad] Ali said when he was younger. That interracial couples should be murdered, that sort of thing:
"A black man should be killed if he's messing with a white woman," he said. And it was the same for a white man making a pass at a black woman. "We'll kill anybody who tries to mess around with our women." But suppose the black woman wanted to be with the white man, the interviewer asked. "Then she dies," Ali answered. "Kill her too."
No, I'm not kidding - Google the exact quotes, they're brutal.
To Be Fair, He Didn't START In A Good Space
He isn't looked up as a hero but a lot of people overlook Geghis Khan's atrocity over the fact that he removed a lot of pollution and has 16 million descendants.
The man caused the death of around 5% of the worlds population and practiced biological warfare by throwing dead animals over city walls
He is responsible for the destruction of a lot of Chinese libraries and research areas. Either though burning or by throwing them in the river.
He destroyed a lot of irrigation systems in the middle east that set back agriculture for a few centuries.
Let It Be
Oh, John Lennon for sure. Just a terrible father to his first son, barely kept in touch with him while he was with Yoko. There was also the time he got in a fist fight with a guy for insinuating that his trip with his gay manager was a romantic one.
A Tricky Line To Walk
Thomas Edison He just stole a bunch of inventions then patented them to make money
Honestly, I think Thomas Edison gets a bad rep. Yeah, he was a ruthless businessman and a capitalist, but from most accounts he was also a pretty decent dude. He was a hard worker and he didn't expect his employees to do anything he wouldn't. He had his morals; like when he refused to help invent the electric chair because he was against the death penalty, or how he made sure injured workers were provided for out of his own pocket. He was by no means perfect, but I wouldn't call him a monster.
Edit: here; for everyone talking about the elephant myth.
I agree. Monster? No. A--hole, and cutthroat businessman with a reasonably loose relationship on ethics? Absolutely.
Dude Still Has A Holiday
Christopher Columbus.
Oh, I remember those 8th grade Social Studies (or basically history) classes where we talked all about his abuse of the indigenous peoples of the early North America, and how he was a major slaver.
BTW sorry to all people who thought he was a hero, in ways he is, but he still is messed up
Heroes With A Dark Past
Emilio Aguinaldo, " first" President of the Philippines. I [put] quotations on first because one of the issues about him is he cheated on the first presidential elections.
He also ordered the assassinations of Gen. Luna and the Bonifacio brothers to name a few. He also sold the Philippines to the Americans for a few hundred bucks.
Considered one of the heroes of Philippines but lately his wrongdoings are being brought to life.
Not The Wisest Of Chouces
Socrates.
He touched a lot of people emotionally, and what he did in philosophy is pretty incredible.
He also touched a lot of young boys. That's a lot less incredible.
Sins Of The Founding Fathers
Thomas Jefferson and almost all the American Founding Fathers. I single out Jefferson because I think he retains the best reputation these days, including a reputation for tolerance (I hear about how he argued for religious toleration, read the Koran and respected Islam etc.) But he owned over 600 slaves. Washington owned slaves too and so did many of the other Founding Fathers. Ben Franklin owned slaves but became an abolitionist later in life and freed them. John Adams did not own slaves. Thomas Paine did not own slaves and was known to be a strong abolitionist very early on in American history. I will give these three a pass, but I do not think the rest of these men deserve a pass because of the times in which they lived.
Many people at the time of the American revolution pointed out the hypocrisy of demanding freedom while purchasing another man's life. The founders would not have been unaware of that concern. Furthermore, they were great thinkers, scholars, and philosophers who didn't hesitate to entertain radical new ideas about government and human society. They were completely capable of understanding that slavery was wrong. Washington willed that his slaves be freed after he and his wife both died, suggesting that he understood it was right for the slaves to be freed. Yet he was unwilling to do it in his own lifetime. George died first and Martha Washington freed his slaves before her death.
Wilson For The Loss
Woodrow [Wilson] was a hardcore racist and iirc he increased the amount of power the President had in politics.
I wouldn't call him a "monster," but he's certainly not to be praised as an all-around good guy. He also thought he could get away with going to the Versailles Treaty and get what he wanted for America without Congress' consensus on what America wanted.
Forced To Love
Soeharto, his only good was like the fact he prevented Indonesian Civil War and a thriving economy (that only last like a few years)
But he is by far the worst human being, done a sh-t ton of genocides, put two tribes into war, taking over personal lands as HIS OWN land, being the most corrupt predident ever existed, being CIA's b-tch for the whole Cold War, having his entire family tree in the politic thus forming a political mafia that lasted until today, and many more. (probably including myself listed in their hitlist)
The only reason some people loved because they were simply told to.
Part Of A Balanc-Excuse Me?
Not a hero per se, but Kellogg, the inventor of Corn Flakes.
He basically invented them so you'd stop masturbating.
Definitely Not The Greatest Showman
GiphyP. T. Barnum didn't start the greatest show on earth till he was about 60. Before that he ran what was more or less a freak show, where he held a slave who he touted to be the 160 year old nanny of George Washington, and when she died charged 50 cents to let 1500 people watch her autopsy. He also would go to various other cultures around the world and take native people home to his show with promises to return them and he never would. He took an African cook and displayed him as half -orangutan under the name "WHAT IS IT?", he displayed an El Salvadoran man as "the Aztec wonder", and basically kidnapped the original Siamese twins (the ones from Siam) and never let them go home. The man ran a racist scam of a freak show for a lot of his career.
Why Take That Test?
A significant amount of people.
Ghandi used to sleep in bed with girls to "test" his ability to resist temptations and was a known racist.
Gandhi
Throughout much of his adult life, Gandhi kept plenty of young female companions close to him and allowed these relationships to take several different dark turns.
For starters, he often kept pairs of girls as his daily companions to address his needs right down to basic movement, with Gandhi referring to them, according to Adams, as his "walking sticks."
Who should we know the truth about from history? Tell us all about them!
"What dark facts do you know about food industry?"
Unwanted Extra Ingredients...
"Sometimes the salads aren't bug free."
"There were times where I received crap for taking too long washing lettuce."
"Staff would wash a large container of lettuce like once or twice."
'I did it 3 or 4 times."
"I didn't stop until the water was clear and had no bugs."
"The others had a 'who cares' attitude."
"One time my boss needed my help and said to me frustrated, 'The lettuce is already washed, unpack it in salads quickly'."
"The lettuce looked dirty so I said to myself 'I can't sell this to people'."
"I washed it and guess what the water looked like."
"Dark brown from soil, 50+ dead gnats, a living and swimming spider the size of a penny."- FightStageYouTube
The Contaminants Will Not, Though...
"Worse I participated in as kitchen staff in a rather top-flight restaurant."
"On a slow summer Sunday afternoon, the boss sent us down to the walk-in meat coolers to spray paint the rusted walls."
"We were instructed to not remove the contents of cooler first; rather just shift the meat from one side of cooler to other."
"The coat of silver spray paint will come off during cooking."- Zealousideal_Lie_383
Season 11 Cooking GIF by MasterchefGiphyYou Have No Idea What's Been In There...
"The deep fryer grease is long overdue for a change; but it’s expensive to do so nightly."- Zealousideal_Lie_383
And People Go To Bed Hungry...
"The amount of waste thrown away every single day by grocery stores."
"I worked in the meat department of a decently sized grocery store and the waste their was nauseating."
"I sh*t you not, we would throw away an industrial sized garbage bin worth of meat, fish, and poultry every single day."
"The expiration dates dictated everything which is obviously a sensible policy to have, but they wouldn't do anything about it."
"They wouldn't donate it, let employees take it home, or make adjustments to the orders so we wouldn't have to throw so much away."
"The reasoning was always 'better have to much than not enough' which I guess makes a little sense, but when I am throwing away dozens of pounds of tenderloins, center cut fish and shellfish per night, its to much."
"Mind you, this is one department of one grocery store."
"Sorry for the rant but I feel like it needed to be said."- Zastrow_Studios
Waste Management Food GIF by UC DavisGiphyThere's A Reason They're "All You Can Eat..."
"In my country, buffets often sell spoiled food, like if the employees see mold on top of the sour cream, they just scrape it down and continue selling it."
"Also, if they sell cooked meat, they often leave them on the counter for days and add some oil to it every morning to look fresh."- Wooden_Potential_699
Don't Believe Everything You Hear... (But Remember, This One Was In Canada...)
"So odd to see all of the comments that chain places are dirty!"
"On the weekends I work as a server in the lounge of Boston Pizza (Canadian chain—not sure if there are any in the states) and when I started working there I was seriously impressed with the cleanliness procedures!"
"For one example, parmesan and chilli containers are emptied and cleaned every night, as well as salt and pepper shakers!"
"Kitchen protocols are very clean and organized as well!"- noobishpineapple
Happy Season 17 GIF by The SimpsonsGiphyNot Exactly "Haute Cuisine"...
"You'd never want to eat at a restaurant again once you saw how much of your $70 meal for two came frozen and pre-prepared in plastic bags."- PhilipLiptonSchrute
It's Not Just The Greens That Need Washing...
"Grocery distribution warehouses are often extremely filthy and rarely cleaned."
"Wash anything canned, bottled or jarred!"
"They're filthy as hell, covered in microplastics, rotten food, mouse pee, bird sh*t, etc etc."
"I used to do maintenance on conveyor systems for a major US chain and they just send sh*t flying down the conveyors so fast that, its fairly common for glass to shatter because of the vibrations, food to fall off, etc etc."
"I saw Bats, Birds and Mice in that facility, but it was within tolerance of their health policy."
"Also saw people that were sick sneezing and coughing on products."
"Never saw a floor scrubber go through the warehouse the entire 3mo I worked there and I was doing alternating double shifts!"
"The only time I saw a broom was if there was shattered glass."- -Plunder-Bunny-
mice GIFGiphyRemember, All These Incidents Are Case By Case...
"As a former chef, I've got to say that I've never seen any of the horrible stuff mentioned here over my career (mostly higher end and fine dining establishments)."
"We on ocassion would have things like frozen airline chicken breasts brought in, but other than that we did all prep and cooking by hand with fresh ingredients from mostly local purveyors when possible."
"We also broke down and deep cleaned every night from the ranges to the floors to the wells to the vents."
"Every night."
"Myself and staff have always taken this sh*t very seriously, and it's always disappointing when you hear of this kind of behavior."
"Do better, people."- iamtehryan
They Trick You With The Language
"It’s more like misleading labeling."
"No sugar."
"Right?"
"Wrong if you read ingredients on a lot of these packaging it will say things like maltodextrin and dextrose."
"That’s actually a sugar."
"Because of regulation they only have to label it no sugar and people think it’s healthy, etc."- SavemebabyK
Maybe Just Stick With Sausage...
"Worked in a pepperoni factory 20+ years ago as an accountant."
"Found that the more MSP in the bill of materials, the lower quality and cheaper the product."
"Looking at the stuff, it looked kind of like an old square crumbly eraser if you remember those."
"So I asked what MSP was."
"It's 'mechanically separated pork'."
"When I asked what that means, they told me that after all the good meat is cut off of a pig, a power washer is used to blast the remaining flesh off the carcass."
"That's scooped up, dried out and packaged as MSP."
"Enjoy your next cheap pepperoni pizza."- Lahk74
Catering Happy Birthday GIF by Feliks Tomasz KonczakowskiGiphyIt's very easy to decide not to eat at a certain restaurant, or dine at a certain grocery store owing to a less-than-appealing appearance.
That being said, many people might be surprised to discover that conditions at the "higher end" options might be as bad or worse.
Then too... if the food is delicious, and has yet to make you sick, then perhaps ignorance is, in fact, bliss.
Redditor rayray1010 wanted to hear about the ways TV has been destroyed, so they asked:
"What single plot decision ruined a good television series?"
Break Out
prison break GIFGiphy"Prison Break was a great concept for a show. But then once they broke out of prison they kept making the show."
Se7enLC
"Fox doesn't know when to cancel a show. They either go for a season or two too long or they get canceled too early."
bangbangracer
Too Weird
"Deb being in love with Dexter. I don't know what they were thinking."
wilmontcm
"It was kind of pointless. If they brought it up in the first place, they should've run with it. Then, on their wedding day, Debra finds Dexter's slides."
"I can hear her now 'I was getting ready to marry my brother, but now I find out he's a f**king serial killer!!'"
GrandUnhappy9211
"Came looking for this. Weirdest plot choice ever."
RateNXS
Grievances
"We could fill this entire comment section with GoT grievances :/ "
DIWhy-not
"Season eight singlehandedly took one of, if not the most talked about shows at the time and made collapse into pop culture oblivion! Not a single person I knew or interacted with wasn't watching 'Game of Thrones,' I swear every other conversation looped back to that show eventually, but after S8 no one gave a sh*t about it."
Enganeer09
"There were so many, and this is so unpopular opinion, but Dany and Jon falling in love was just boring. I hope GRRM avoids it but I guess the chance for that is low. I mean, the chance he ever finishes another book for the series is low."
sharksarenotreal
Over It
"The Blacklist writers almost cruelly withholding answers from the audience year after year after year."
zsal830
"I gave up when Liz died and Dembe became an FBI agent, and the show was already dying before that for me. I loved watching James Spader's acting, but it got to the point that even that wasn't enough to keep me involved. I've heard it's in the final season now, so once it's over I'll just Google the ending and that's good enough for me."
Bobisburnsred
Bad Changes
Episode 3 GIF by BBC ThreeGiphy"Misfits when they started getting rid of the main characters from season 1."
discostud1515
"The second the group changed the show lost what made it great."
legend_forge
That show was delightfully strange and certainly fit its title.
Cast shake-ups can really zap a show of its magic... especially when the show itself is about super powers.
Oh Luke
season 4 netflix GIF by Gilmore Girls Giphy"When they revealed Luke had a child he didn't know about in Gilmore Girls."
writtenrain
"Like I feel bad because she’s a kid, but I hate April. Such a terrible plot device. There was plenty going on without her coming into the picture."
helloitstessa
Stop at the beginning
"When they left the park in Westworld."
Indian_Bob
"Unfortunately the writers were very keen to write a commentary on AI in society, and thus drove it in a direction, which as a show in itself is interesting, but went a lot further than the source material in this regard. There were two shows there and neither was done justice."
IHaveHivesWithBees
"I think Season 1 is one of the best shows ever made. It has everything: characters, story ark, riddle, and its closure and very good (just a bit open) ending. Other seasons are just an attempt of producers to milk the story and Id rather pretend they don’t exist."
techlogger
Too Soon
"Sherlock f**ked up by killing Moriarty too early."
"Andrew Scott's performance was so great that they then had to keep trying to shoehorn the already dead Moriarty into later plots or end up with the travesty that was the last series with Sherlock's even smarter sister, who secretly cooked up everything with Mortiarty, just so they could have more Moriarty scenes."
"The whole show went from top-class Peak TV to absolute dogs**t in a slow decline that started with the poor Doylist decision to kill Jimbo."
Histary_Studentary
A Re-Work
"The overall seventh season of Once Upon a Time. It should have been reworked in its entirety."
StillAnIntrovert
"I agree with that. Another bad point was when they made Emma the Dark One when they literally just introduced Lilly, who had the saviors' darkest potential."
"That could have been an epic villain as 'The Dark Savior.'" Also, them constantly having Rumple and Belle get back together. He was power-driven and would always put her second. I loved it in season 4 when she finally realized that and banished him from Storybrooke."
Electrowhatt19
sexy happy days GIFGiphyMany of these franchises jumped the shark, as they say.
Do you have anything to add? Let us know in the comments