History is littered with the dregs of humanity. Taking a course in English Lit and World or American History can be a reason for anyone to drink. Then you come home and watch an episode of "Dateline NBC" or CNN or FOX and realize.... our current history isn't producing the best of the best either. Simply put, there are not nice people out there. They've always been there. And we should shame them. But then learn from them what not to do.... after the shaming.
Redditor u/GyapaetusWeed wanted everyone to compare notes and divulge who is the worst of the worst by asking.... Who's the biggest asshole in History?
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Chucky the 1st!
Most evil would be Hitler, but you asked for a**hole. My vote for one is Charles Dickens. He wrote once that he could not care less about his new born son, cheated on his wife with an actress and eventually left his family for the actress which was 27 years younger. Since leaving his family he wrote them 2 letters. Once when he left and once before he died. He didn't even write back to his ex after she informed him that one of their sons had died.
The Inept
Mao.
More like biggest idiot in history. I do genuinely believe that he wanted to help Chinese society but was incredibly inept in doing so.
Mao Zedong. He literally killed 200 million Chinese because of political differences and kept millions more in imposed poverty. At the same time he used to live a life fit for the Kings.
History Lessons
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Aaron Burr is up there. Died broke and alone; everybody was done with him.
I mean, we've had worse. Just look at any $20 bill...
Winnie the Bad
It's an unpopular opinion but Winston Churchill. When in 1943 a famine broke out in Bengal, up to 3 million people starved to death while British officials begged Churchill to direct food supplies to the famine stricken region. He bluntly refused and raged that it was their own fault for "breeding like rabbits".
Oh Chris....
Christopher Columbus.
Dude was so bad, that even the King and Queen of Spain were like, "yeah Chris, I know we're busy with the Reconquista and the Inquisition, but if you could just tone down the genocide a bit, that'd be great."
Che Away
Che Guevara. Murdered thousands in the Cuban revolution. Was extremely racist and homophobic and had gays and black Cubans murdered.
And somehow has become popular among misguided college students who don't understand that when a Communist revolution occurs, its the students and intellectuals who helped start it who get put to the wall first.
Communists fool with you then chuck you. After all, once you're the one in power you don't want revolutionaries any more. You want obedience.
How this genocidal maniac ended up in so many dorms is ridiculous.
Joe
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I really don't know but I'll just put Stalin up here. Killed many more than even Hitler did.
The Awful Mick
Mick Philpot notorious in the UK for being the scummiest man alive. He was an abusive father of 17 and a polygamist who refused to work instead choosing to make a living by receiving child benefits cheques. Then one of his wives got sick of his abuse and left him taking her 6 kids with her. Mick was enraged by this and burnt her house down with her and the kids inside it, killing them all. The whole country was sickened by his actions and it is very unlikely he will ever see the light of day again.
The Fool
Sigmund Freud 👀
You mean the coked-up moron of a psychologist? If so, then yeah, that's the one.
Leo the Awful
King Leopold II. His very great-grandson is my best friend and he agrees with me, even wants his statues down.
He reportedly killed more people than Hitler and arguably treated the Congolese people worse than him.
Not that Spock
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Let's just say there's a reason that both the comparison to and the phrase "literally Hitler" exist.
Now? If we're just talking "a**hole," you might check out ol' Doc Spock and the number of babies he inadvertently killed by pretending to know science.
THEM
Some that most people don't even know about:
- Shirō Ishii
- Viacheslave Molotov
- Vsevolod Balytsky bryceland23
In the Name of....
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God him/herself.
They are responsible for every natural disaster, the invention of the nuclear bomb, detonations of said bombs, creating hitler, Stalin, Mao, Genghis Khan, everything that has happened and everything that will happen.
Forget God.
The Inventor
Thomas Midgley.
Just could not stop inventing horrible things.
Freon AND leaded gas? WTF!
Oh Doc...
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Dr. Seuss cheated on his dying wife and married his mistress after she did of cancer.
A full Country
Great Britain they have committed what is basically multiple mass genocide (but no one really calls them that)...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bengal_famine_of_1943
http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/british/victorians/famine_01.shtml
Bad Mama
Mother Theresa leeched off poverty like no other.
She also completely disregarded the sanctity of Indian places, I think one of her first "hospitals" was actually some kinda of temple or holy place she literally took over. She didn't try to provide any kind of healthcare or cure, only a place for people to die in.
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Try not to follow the bad advice given here, because you don't want to get the results that these guys did.
U/Duckerton375 asked: What's the worst advice someone ever gave you, but you still followed?
The workplace can bring a cornucopia of terrible advice. Don’t follow these unless you want to get fired.
Bad jobs are usually not worth it.
Stick with a job no matter how bad it is. I stayed with a terrible job working retail, dealing with horrible customers and sexual harassment. I was told I wouldn't find anything better.
"No, no, you misunderstand. I said you wouldn't find anything better at making you feel like complete garbage."
This gets really creepy really fast.
frustrated workplace GIFGiphy"After you put in a job application, you need to call them at least once a day every day until they hire you."
Note: this did not get me hired. It got me called out by the HR person I was calling and forbidden to ever contact their facility again.
I work for a law firm that employees over 1500 people in the home office alone. Once I received a call from the building security saying, "Insert Name is here to speak with the owner." Well we are run by a committee so that's odd. Found out they just applied for a job and wanted to talk directly to the person that would potentially hire them. Told him the firm will contact them to schedule an interview. They refused to leave without "talking to the owner." Had security escort them out of the building.
This is absolutely not true.
"Sleep is for people who do not want success" great words from my uncle, it almost killed me.
Now I may be oversleeping.
Interpersonal relationships are also a big breeding ground for terrible advice. Don’t listen to any of these.
Heartbreaking.
My father always tought me and my brother that "having friends is bad and in the end they will never be there for you" so everytime I told my father about my friends he would get kinda mad and give me the advice to stop talking to them.
Now I am afraid of people and have several trust issues, thanks dad.
This won’t end well.
A Christmas Story GIF by filmeditorGiphyIn the fifth grade my teacher was talking about bullying, then she said "if anyone tries to bully you just agree with them." So the next time I got bullied I agreed with the bully and they bullied me more.
Dude one time I saw an anti bullying video that told the victims to just BE NICE TO THE BULLY. Like the bully was hurling insults and the victim was smiling and complimenting him. My first thought was about how much I hated the mere thought that this would work. My second thought was of how the people who came up with that method had clearly never been bullied.
Oof.
When I met my now wife at the age of 19, one of my coworkers said that it's very important to start at the bottom with presents and work your way up, she still has the socks I gave her on our first anniversary on the wall over our bed as a reminder...
I'm still trying to teach my boyfriend about good presents and bad presents. Biscuits from the supermarket = bad present. Cheap unbranded laptop battery from China as my only present = bad present (and only lasted 2 months). Anything off my 7-page wishlist = good present. It's literally a list of things I want to receive as presents.
Can tell you from experience that this is a bad idea.
Had a falling out with some friends. My husband recommended I reach out to an old friend who ghosted me suddenly in a manner that induced some pretty severe abandonment trauma. Went for it anyways because "it's been so long, surely they changed". Am now experiencing the same things as last time.
When you follow bad advice, it can lead to mistakes that you just can’t come back from.
Buying a house is tricky.
for sale dancing GIF by Lisa VertudachesGiphy"Buy a home now before the prices go up!" -my FIL in 2006.
We bought in 2007 and paid $259,500 for our 1,300 sq ft house (we really couldn't afford it and had an 80/20 so we had 8% interest for one loan and 6% on the other) and in 2008 it was worth $97,000 so refinancing wasn't even an option. We watched all of our neighbors walk away or get foreclosed on but we kept paying our bills and as of this very moment our house is worth $462,000. I'm so happy we stuck it out, we both worked our @sses off and the house will be paid off in 2 years.
It worked out for us, it's a horrible idea. Especially since 1300 sq ft houses are $460+k
My heartbreaks for future generations, I honestly don't know how people are going to afford housing in the future.
It’s there for a reason.
"Never apply for any government assistance."
Cue years of suffering trying to work full-time with a painful disability. Quit a particularly terrible job, and wanted to apply for food aid until I could find another gig; a friend with lots of DHS experience recommended I apply for Social Security "just to get in the system." Turns out my disability was bad enough to get accepted the first time, which I wasn't expecting. Really could've used that support, oh, the 30+ previous years of my life.
Credit is important to have.
I was told to not get a credit card until after college. I was super fortunate to have my college paid for so I had no loans, car paid in cash, no credit card or anything to start building credit. Found myself out in the world at 22 years old with a credit score of 0.
So while a lot of this bad advice came from trusted people, oftentimes they were too misinformed to give that advice in the first place. Don't trust the word of one person--do your research, and make decisions for yourself.
It'll be way better in the long run