The Most Bad@ss People Who Ever Lived
Reddit user BlackManBatmann asked: 'Who is the most bad@ss person to have ever lived?'
A bad@ss is defined as:
"a tough, uncompromising, or intimidating person."
The term is attributed to North America, dating back to 1809. But use remained fairly minimal throughout the 19th and 20th centuries.
The term really took off at the beginning of the 21st century and continued a swift upward trajectory until the present.
Even though the widespread use of the term is relatively recent, the attitude and attributes of a bad@ss goes back to the beginning of human existence.
Reddit user BlackManBatmann asked:
"Who is the most bad@ss person to have ever lived?"
Grandparents
"My Grandpa Liberatus."
"Was working solo on his farm in the 1950’s, when both hands were sucked into an auger slicing them up right to the shoulders. Was able to kick the controls to reverse the blades and get himself out, then drove himself in a grainery truck 45 minutes to the hospital, steering and shifting gears with his knees."
"Doctors were able to save one arm above the elbow but none of the other."
"Still worked another 40 years with hooks for arms, fathered 9 children, 6 after his accident and harvested 1000 acres on a hundred year old family farm."
"Smoked like a chimney, drank like a fish, ate red meat 3 times a day, passed away in his sleep 2 days before his 99th birthday."
"He was a hard man, but absolutely devoted to his family and was a great Grandfather to over 20 grandkids. He taught me about resiliency, resourcefulness and mental toughness."
"Every grandkid, on their first birthday, got a rocking horse that he built in his workshop using hand tools that he built custom attachments for his prosthetics."
"I still have mine, from 56 years ago, as a reminder of him when times are tough."
"Grandma was named Elspeth and was a formidable woman in her own right. Raised a family of 11 in a two room farmhouse they lived in until the early 1960’s."
"She outlived Liberatus by 4 years and was always canning and preserving food. When we finally started clearing out their house after her death we found in excess of 10,000 jars of pickled and preserved food n her cellar."
"They were hard people, they had to be, but they were also in love right to the end."
"Married for almost 77 years I still remember them in the living room watching Hockey Night in Canada, holding hands on the couch. His arm around her, her gripping one of his hooks."
~ LOUDCO-HD
Giles Corey
"Giles 'more weight' Corey was pretty badass."
"Refused to testify at the Salem witch trials, so they 'pressed' him."
"They piled rocks on top of him as torture to force him to testify that his wife was a witch. They piled rock after rock on top of him."
"His last words were 'more weight', then he died."
~ epicmoe
Rotmistrz Witold Pilecki
"Rotmistrz Witold Pilecki."
"He purposely made himself be caught and thrown into Nazi death camp in Auschwitz to infiltrate it and organize underground resistance and do general recon."
"He then escaped with another prisoner to fight in Warsaw uprising."
~ IloveZaki
"Not just that, but immediately following the Warsaw Uprising, he was thrown into a German POW camp."
"After the war, he returned to his homeland of Poland, even with the knowledge he would likely be killed by the Polish Communist party for being loyal to the government-in-exile and he was in 1948."
"He had also co-founded the Polish Resistance."
~ designing-cats
Joe Medicine Crow
"Joe Medicine Crow, the last Warchief of the Crow."
"He completed all the ritual rights to become Warchief while fighting in WWII."
"Which included taking an enemies weapon, touching an enemy without killing him, leading a war party and stealing an enemies horse—he stole 50 from the SS."
"The war party came naturally and he got the disarm and the touch without killing at the same time but the horses was going to be challenging."
"They came across some SS holed up in a barn. They surrounded the barn and were waiting for dawn to attack, Joe convinced his CO to let him go and release the horses because they don't deserve to die."
"He snuck past the guard and opened up the whole corral and got onto a horse bareback and rode off with 50 horses while chanting a Crow war song. Meanwhile the Americans are mowing the platoon of SS down as they come out and try to stop Joe from riding off with their horses."
"The dude was a straight up f**king gangster."
~ RIPnts
Desmond Doss
"Private Desmond Doss (Hacksaw Ridge is the movie about his life)."
"He refused to use a gun but carried 75 men to safety including two of the wounded Japanese soldiers on the other side & used his medical knowledge to save their lives."
"He is the only conscientious objector to be awarded the Medal of Honor as awarded by President Harry S. Truman."
~ Redditor
"Hacksaw Ridge is missing a neat fact about him."
"At that battle he was wounded (I think 6 times but I'm not positive) but it was left out of the movie because it was felt to be too unbelievable."
~ Supraman83
Mary Vincent
"Mary Vincent."
"She had her arms amputated a serial killer, was left for dead in a drainage pipe, and somehow got herself to safety and survived."
"She was able to testify, but 14 years was the maximum penalty.
"She worked to get him put on death row after he was released early for good behavior and killed a mother of three in 1998."
~ kittengoesrawr
"She couldn’t afford to buy high-end prosthetic arms, so she created her own using parts from refrigerators and stereo systems, and she taught herself to draw and paint using her inventions."
"A depraved killer cut off her arms, and not only did he only get eight years, but the state couldn't even be bothered to pay for her prosthetic arms."
~ MrDownhillRacer
Galvarino
"Galvarino."
"He was a Mapuche warrior whose hands were amputated by Spanish conquistadors."
"His response?"
"He rigged blades to his wrist stumps and led a rebellion against the Spanish."
~ DontBuyAHorse
Vasily Aleksandrovich Arkhipov
"Vasily Arkhipov, the man who saved the world."
"He was a Soviet naval commander (brigade chief of staff) during the Cuban missile crisis who refused to launch a nuclear weapon.
"The ship he was on required three officers to be in agreement to fire the weapon, and only Arkhipov was against it, despite the potential career and personal repercussions."
"It's possibly apocryphal, but it's said that he swallowed his key so the weapon couldn't be fired unless he was cut open."
"Stanislav Petrov also saved the world from nuclear war in the 80's, and that should never be forgotten, but I'd argue that the stakes were higher for Arkhipov and the threat of nuclear war was much, much more imminent in the midst of a pissing battle between the Kennedy's and Khrushchev."
~ designing-cats
Raul Perez "Roy" Benavidez
"Master Sergeant Roy Benavidez, an Indigenous Yaqui and Mexican member of the Army Special Forces."
"On May 2, 1968, a 12-man Special Forces patrol with nine Montagnard (Indigenous Vietnamese) tribesmen, was surrounded by a North Vietnamese Army (NVA) infantry battalion of about 1,000 men."
"Benavidez heard the radio appeal for help and boarded a helicopter to respond. Armed only with a knife, he jumped from the helicopter carrying his medical bag and ran to help the trapped patrol."
"According to his Medal of Honor commendation, Benavidez 'distinguished himself by a series of daring and extremely valorous actions and because of his gallant choice to join voluntarily his comrades who were in critical straits, to expose himself constantly to withering enemy fire, and his refusal to be stopped despite numerous severe wounds, saved the lives of at least eight men'."
"During his Medal of Honor ceremony in 1981, President Ronald Reagan told the press, 'If the story of his heroism were a movie script, you would not believe it'."
"At one point in the battle an NVA soldier accosted him and stabbed him with his bayonet. Benavidez pulled it out, drew his own knife, killed him and kept going, leaving his knife in the NVA soldier's body."
"He later killed two more NVA soldiers with an AK-47 while providing cover fire for the people boarding the helicopter."
"After the battle, he was evacuated to the base camp, examined, and thought to be dead. As he was placed in a body bag among the other dead in body bags, he was suddenly recognized by a friend who called for help."
"A doctor came and examined him but believed Benavidez was dead. The doctor was about to zip up the body bag when Benavidez managed to spit in his face to show that he was alive."
"Benavidez had a total of 37 separate bullet, bayonet, and shrapnel wounds from the six-hour fight with the enemy battalion."
~ ComesInAnOldBox
But, there's more...
"His Medal of Honor isn’t even the craziest part. Let’s talk about his career before that."
"In 1965 he stepped on a landmine, and doctors said he would never walk again. He was so upset by this diagnosis that against doctors orders he secretly got up in the middle of the night and rehabilitated himself."
"Benavidez would crawl using his elbows and chin to a wall near his bedside and (with the encouragement of his fellow patients, many of whom were permanently paralyzed and/or missing limbs) he would prop himself against the wall and attempt to lift himself unaided, starting by wiggling his toes, then his feet, and then eventually (after several months of excruciating practice that, by his own admission, often left him in tears) pushing himself up the wall with his ankles and legs."
"After over a year of hospitalization, Benavidez walked out of the hospital in July 1966, with his wife at his side."
~ iamspartacus5339
Benavidez served in the Texas Army National Guard beginning in 1952 at age 17 during the Korean War until 1955 when he enlisted in active duty Army where he served until retiring in 1976 at age 41.
In retirement, Benavidez became a public speaker, volunteered for youth organizations and wrote three autobiographies: The Three Wars of Roy Benavidez, The Last Medal of Honor and Medal of Honor: A Vietnam Warrior's Story.
He died on November 29, 1998, at the age of 63. Master Sergeant Roy Benavidez was buried with full military honors at Fort Sam Houston National Cemetery.
There are some definite bad@sses in this list.
Who would you add?
Parents Who Cut Off All Contact With Their Adult Children Break Down Why They Did It
All parents want to support their children.
Of course, when they grow up and fly the coop, they can't always help them out of every pickle.
But every so often, when their children find themselves in a bad place or are struggling financially or emotionally, most parents will help their children out without a second thought.
Until that is, their children begin to take advantage of their generosity or find themselves getting into trouble a little too often.
It's situations like these where sadly, the best thing parents can do to help their children, is to cut ties, either temporarily, or in extreme cases, permanently.
"Parents who have gone No Contact with your adult children, what happened?"
Substance Abuse
"Sigh."
"He’s an addict who kept stealing from me."
"I had to draw a line."- Readsumthing
"I went no contact with my daughter."
"She had serious drug and alcohol issues."
"I had to lock up my prescription meds."
"She was also mentally ill but refused to take meds to treat it."
"Illicit pills."
"Yeehaw."
"Prescribed pills."
"Nope not gonna take them."
"I finally drew the line when she threw my suitcase at me while visiting her and threatening to kill me."- KrankySilverFox
Untenable Demands
"Our mentally ill son told us we had to do exactly what he told us to do (and could not push back on his requests or even explain our point of view), or we would never see our grandson."
"It was emotional terrorism."
"We told him those conditions were unacceptable to us, and he went no contact."
"Shortly thereafter, his wife divorced him, won custody, and encouraged us to continue building a relationship with our grandson."
"Today, our son wonders why we will not come to family events (and just 'ignore each other') when he is around."
"He set clear boundaries (no contact), and we still believe in respecting those boundaries until he tells us otherwise."- nielsondc
Rocky Relationships
"My brother basically has no contact with my parents."
"Basically it boils down to him getting divorced and remarried after 20 years and then demanding they never talk to the ex ever again (they got along well) and immediately accept and shower the new wife with love and affection even though the first couple interactions were her telling them how crappy they were as parents and how they didn’t love him."- Hopeful-Translator70
"So, I’ll tell this as a third party."
"My wife’s mother and her sister had a falling out."
"It was a slow burn."
"I’ve been part of the family for close to 25 years now and my wife has told me stories of how her older sister and their mother didn’t get along well."
"Couldn’t tell you who instigated the fights or anything, but my wife told me on many occasions the two of them would get in to shouting matches, objects would get thrown, things like that."
"My mother-in-law, until recent years, could be very difficult to get along with."
"My wife’s sister has a very Alpha, bullheaded personality."
"Not just when dealing with their mother, but you could see it in how she treated her (now ex) husband and their children."
"I’m not certain which straw broke the camels back but their already turbulent relationship was further strained when her sister moved several states away and took the kids with her, virtually never to been seen again."
"It’s been over 10 years since their move and I want to say her sister has come to visit maybe twice?"
"This past Christmas my wife and I went to see her mom and while visiting, her sister was brought up in conversation."
"Her mother said, 'I can tell you, she’ll never step foot in my home again'.”
"But didn’t elaborate."
"I don’t think there was ever anything like drugs or legal troubles involved, only two really dominant, aggressive personalities that clashed virtually every time they met."- Deftallica
Difference In Beliefs
"My wife and I recently made the very painful decision to completely cut all ties with our oldest son because he has become a dangerous believer in that Qanon sh*t."- GlooBloo92
Unworthy Partners
"My grandmother just did this to my aunt. It's because she doesn't approve of her new fiancé."- jdog_014
A Simple Minded Grudge
"My older brother went NC with my dad first."
"Reasons are mostly my brother."
"He's got mental disorders and never went to therapy to fix them."
"Then he went NC with me since my mom enables my brothers toxic behavior."
"Basically sponged off my mom and demanded money from her and my poor mom gave in."
"When my brother had a son, I finally wanted all of us to meet him and reunite (we all live in different states. Bro in Cali, parents in Ohio and Me in Washington)."
"When I paid for everyone tickets to visit me in Washington my brother flipped out since my dad was coming so he went NC on my mom.'
"Again let me emphasize my parents and I have done nothing my brother has very toxic behavior and will hold grudges for million years."
"I truly believe he has undiagnosed autism and he was bullied so badly back in Ohio where we grew up from school he's scorned and blames my parents which isn't their fault."
"Dad pretty much gave up trying and my mom keeps trying especially to see her grandson but my toxic brother keeps us NC."- Wesmom2021
No Reason At All
"My ex went NC with our son."
"He kicked him out of his house when my son turned 18, even though he had medical needs and no job."
"'Dad' called to tell me that he did it, and to strongly recommend that I kick him out, too."
"Not because he had done anything wrong, just because."
"Of course I didn't, because I don't believe children are disposable objects and I couldn't see what he was supposed to learn while living on the streets and eating out of garbage cans."
"They had some sporadic contact after that until his dad remarried and moved out of state."
"Now my ex (thankfully) hasn't called in about 6 years."
"My son still lives we me because he can't work and you can't live off only $1200 in monthly disability payments."
"That man was very toxic and abusive to us and we both have PTSD from living with him."
"Knowing he won't be calling either of us ever again is a huge relief."- Xylorgos
A Lamp
"She was physically violent, lied, threw things at me, stole from me."
"But the final straw was she wanted my lamp and was moving out."
"I said no."
"Left."
"Came back to lamp gone."
"She screams she didn't take it, how dare I accuse of her something she didn't do and called my mother and sisters to complain how I accused her of stealing."
"They called and harassed me about accusing my daughter of stealing and that I needed to apologize."
"A week later, in the garage, in the far corner under a box was the lamp."
"She admitted she did it and I still needed to apologize because she didn't steal it." - Reddit
Cutting off ties with your children, or any family member might feel like an utterly unfathomable thing to do.
Unfortunately, sometimes the first step toward forgiveness and recovery is letting go.
Have you ever had to cut someone out of your life? Let us know in the comments below.
Some people just can't take a joke.
While we often find ourselves making sarcastic remarks amongst our inner circles, which are usually taken in stride, the same type of humor doesn't always go over quite as well with everyone.
Some might not see the humor in it and are easily hurt or offended.
In some cases, they might even get downright angry, making you realize all too late that this is the type of person you should never f**k with under any circumstance.
In these cases, people might have learned too late, but thankfully there are often some pretty telltale signs of when you are in the presence of someone you should never f**k with under any circumstances.
"What is a dead giveaway someone is not to be f**ked with?"
Just Don't Risk It. Ever...
"If you can't tell by looking, it's best not to f**k with anyone."- gregariousnatch
Don't Let Their Focus Fool You
"1000 yard/ disassociated stare."
"Especially when in a confrontation."
"That person is not all there and when they go they will GO."- OGschtinkie
Not As Tough As He Thought He Was
"Dude I used to work with who was absolutely massive got punched really hard once on a night out, unprovoked."
"He simply looked at the dude, smiled a wide genuine grin & said 'why would you do that man?'"
"The guy who hit him did not try for a second punch."- jinxsays
Punch You Oh No GIF by GritTVGiphyLighting A Match Around Spilled Gas...
"When they try to diffuse the situation instead of talking sh*t."- SeenY64
It's All In Their Carriage
"There's just a way that some people carry themselves."
"As a tiny nerd in 8th grade I accidentally became friends with a 7th grader from a very rough background."
"That was the moment I stopped being bullied, and my buddy genuinely never did a thing."
"I knew he was involved in some horrific violence, but in the time we spent together, he never put his hands on anyone."
"Basically the moment he turned to the offending person and assumed *that* posture and *that* stare, the argument was over."
"So I remembered that for ever, and now whenever I see people carry themselves like that I assume they're hardcore."- curmudgeonpl
Tactical Avoidance
"The biggest giveaway for me has always been someone looking around in a situation where they are about to have to fight."
"A person in their face yelling or posturing at them, and they aren't looking at that person at all."
"But are instead looking over them or around past them."
"That is someone who is about to f*ck another person up."
"If you are ever mad at someone, or shouting at someone, and they start looking past you, behind you, or to the sides, you are about to get f*cked up."- GeneralDisturbed
looking history channel GIF by Endemol BeyondGiphySize Doesn't Matter
"Never f*ck with the small bouncer."
"The big guys got hired because they’re big and intimidating."
"The little guy got hired because he’ll f**k you up."- shandragon
When In Doubt, Be Kind
"Spent a large chunk of my teenage years in juvenile correctional facilities and getting into stupid sh*t."
"Between age 14 - 20 I had been in more fist fights than some UFC fighters (quantity not quality)."
"I have nerve damage in my hands and they get stiffer and clumsier as I get older, had to pick up painting miniatures to keep fine motor control."
"I have tattoos to cover the scars at work (IT job)."
"With that I have learned:"
"1: Loud guys are soft guys. They want to be loved and accepted, but start sh*t out of fear they’ll be rejected or as a reaction to rejection."
"2: Cauliflower ear." They probably know what they’re doing.Avoid unless you’re a seasoned fighter or also know what you’re doing."
"3: Smart guys.They might not be the fastest or strongest, but they’ve learned the kinetics of fighting - momentum, balance, and gravity. 1 kid kept a hand towel near him at all times and used it in a fight and almost killed another kid once (caught his arm when he swung, wrapped, twisted, and flung him into a toilet and gave him a concussion)."
"4: Guys that walked slow and never broke eye contact. They weren’t afraid of anything and more often than not had a high pain tolerance. Usually pretty quiet."
"5: bulky/muscular guys aren’t always 'good fighters'. But if they caught you lacking - it was lights out."
"Most importantly though - I learned you don’t f*ck with anybody."
"The wirey funny guy always cracking jokes could be the one take you out of your shoes."
"And, some people can just snap."
"The guy that gets f*cked with can be the one that pops and that adrenaline rush gave the burst of strength to suplex you into a concrete bench."
"Be kind to everyone until you’re forced to not be so kind."- Vadersbff
Be Nice GIFGiphyThey Look Bruised And Beaten For A Reason
"Hands."
"You look at the hands."
"If the knuckles are all chewed up on a big set of meat hooks that dude has punched quite a few things and people."
"Also never fight stupid people."
"They don't know when to stop."
"They will just keep pounding your face until its mush."- punchinthelunch
Beware The Strong Silent Types...
"Those quiet people have a lot bottled up."
"They’ve been through it all in life."
"Don’t be the one to open it up."- Appropriate-Ad-2068
Calm Under Pressure
"Never f*ck with the person who is calmly minding their own business while everyone is freaking out/highly tense."
"That person’s seen some sh*t."
"Conversely, you shouldn’t f*ck with someone who is seemingly nervous in a calm situation."
"They have also seen some sh*t."
"I remember seeing this girl, she was a high-strung mess of a person, who just wanted to sit alone for lunch and chill by herself."
"She literally went to eat outside during the winter bc the boys kept messing with her and picking on her."
"At some point one of the guys tried to grab her arm, and I kid you not, she turned around and automatically beat the sh*t out of him."
"Didn’t miss a beat, and this dude was allegedly sent to the hospital."
"Happened years ago in middle school."
"She was always a nervous wreck, but since then, no one messed with her."- rzrbladess
Sucker Punch Fight GIF by Back to the Future TrilogyGiphyMost Idioms Come From A Place Of Truth
"Usually quiet, calm when confronted."
"The phrase 'the loudest one in the room is the one who is scared the most' is usually true."- Boringdad25
When push comes to shove, and as many people above have noted, it's never a particularly wise decision to f**k with anyone.
Whether or not they possess the telltale signs.
No two people have the same style when it comes to parenting.
Some people have a more nurturing approach, who never force anything on their children, and allow them to develop certain skills, from using the potty to riding a bicycle, in their own time.
Others have a more "tough love" approach.
The sort of people who, as the saying goes, throw their children head first in the deep end and let them figure out how to swim.
No doubt, such a technique will teach their children resilience and determination.
Even though, the chances of some of these situations backfiring is extremely likely.
As are the chances of lasting trauma for the children.
"What's your worst story from the "throw him in the pool, he'll learn how to swim" parenting style?"
Becoming One With Nature
"I had never gone camping before I was 11, I really wanted to go with my ten-year-old cousin."
"My parents took me to the woods, and handed us the tent and a half-full bag of ranch Doritios , and like a pack of bratwursts, and my seven-year-old sister."
"Then they pulled off, leaving us to camp for the first time alone in the woods with a seven-year-old."
"Not a fun weekend."
"I never went camping again, but it was apparently fine because that's how my dad and uncle learned."
"I'm just grateful for the lack of serial killers, and black bears."- UrDadTxtMe
Out On The Open Road
"My dad, when he decided to give me driving lessons when I was a teenager, which turned out to be a driving lessON, singular."
"He took me to the parking lot across the street from our house, and had me tool around to get used to the steering and pedals for about 15 minutes."
"Then, annoyed that I wasn't catching on fast enough for his taste, he decided we should go on the actual road and I'd learn faster in a more challenging environment."
"Cue him barking orders to 'speed up, slow down, HIT THE BRAKES!' in an increasingly frustrated voice as I tooled along, terrified I was going to hit someone."
"The culmination of our lesson came when he noticed we were low on gas, and told me to pull into the gas station."
"Keep in mind- my sum total of driving experience at this point was about 25 minutes, which did not include parallel parking."
"I pulled into the gas station and came at the pump at something like a 30-degree angle."
"He grabbed the steering wheel to correct and actually yelled at me, 'JESUS CHRIST!! DON'T YOU KNOW HOW TO DRIVE?!'"
"To which I said, 'NO!!! I DON'T!! YOU'RE TEACHING ME, REMEMBER?!'"
"He drove back home silently."
"That was the end of Dad's driving lessons. I signed up with a driving school after that."- SigourneyReaver
Tough Love At It's Toughest
"I got stung by a bee and my mother was convinced I was faking."
"At the point I started to struggle to breathe, she finally irritatingly relented and made me walk to the hospital pushing my baby brother's stroller the entire way."
"When I got there, the staff were horrified, rushed me in to give me an epinephrine shot, and luckily that did the trick."
"Many months later, a bee got into my bedroom, and my father called me a pu**y for coming and getting him to deal with it, instead of dealing with it myself."
"'You have to learn how to deal with these things sometime!'"
"Or, like, you know, I could just ask someone not allergic to bees to come and safely deal with the bee instead of risking hospitalization?"
"My parents were terrible, and abusive for for more than just this one single incident."
"I have been NC for about twenty years because of the way they treated me as a child."
"I have countless incidents like this from both of them, this one just stood out at the time I was replying to this."- ShofieMahowyn
The Only Way To Teach Children How To Swim is by TEACHING THEM HOW TO SWIM!
"Not my story, but my mom's."
"She developed a phobia after she was thrown into a pool to learn how to swim."
"At the age of 70, she still doesn't know how to."
"She's terrified of being on the water, even in a safety vest."
"And then, some fake clairvoyant told her she would die by drowning."
"So we spent our summers in the mountains as far away from being on water."- myuniquenameonreddi
"I was scared of the deep end so my dad threw me in."
"My cousin parked an inflatable mattress in the corner I was in immediately."
"My parents supposedly yelled at him to move, he didn't."
"I don't know how long I was was under the mattress for, but I was spitting up water/choking when I came back up."
"I was maybe 6 at the time?"- Gone_cognito
Some People Really Are That Stubborn...
"My younger cousin, 4 at the time, was a climber and always needed help getting down."
"His dad told his mom to leave him."
"He’ll either learn how to get down himself or stop climbing."
"Cousin ended up climbing onto the roof, fell off and got impaled on a fence pole."
"One very expensive trip to the ER and he now has a cool scar on his thigh."
"He did not stop climbing, he just got better ways to get off the roof."- idontdigdinosaurs
A Baby? Seriously?!?!
"My father in law decided when his first child was born that they, he and his wife, would NOT go to the baby when he started crying in the middle of the night."
"In order to teach him that crying doesn’t get you anything in this world."
"Turns out, newborns need to be fed every two hours."
"So it’s a good thing my mother in law ignored him and went to their newborn son, otherwise he might have died."- ApolloStaples
Surprising As It May Seem, Some Children Do Tell The Truth
"Hurt my arm playing football during morning break at school, was sent home by the school nurse."
"My dad said it was fine, bandaged it and sent me to school the next day only for them to send me home again within an hour."
"My mum made my dad take me to hospital and my arm was broken."
"My wrist had spilt lengthways, it was in casts for 9 months."
"I was secretly buzzing to be honest because, well, that showed him the knob."-Reddit
Pills
"When I was about 5 or 6, I was very sick with a flu. Fever, vomiting, sweating, congestion, it was awful. There was some mixup at the pharmacy, and they thought I was my father and gave him adult medication-basically these giant horse pills."
"Now, normal child medication for things like this are syrups and chewable sh*t for obvious reasons. My dad comes home and tells me I have to take these meds. I have a hard time getting them down, almost choking a few times. My dad got frustrated and literally started shoving these huge pills down my sore throat with his angrily shaking fingers. I started crying, my nose was stuffed so I could only breathe through my mouth. I remember my dad’s wedding ring banging against my teeth, eyes watering, gasping for air while looking at my mom for help."
"Eventually, I coughed it back up, crying and throat on fire. I remember my mom demanding an apology from my dad, who just said 'Well, he’s going to have to learn to take pills like that sometime anyway' and stormed off."
"Damn. I haven’t thought about that story in 20+ years."
heyitsEnricoPallazzo·
Time To Swim Honey
"My dad and I once witnessed someone who literally did this for a little three-year-old girl. This little girl was just playing at the edge of the pool, happily minding her own business when her dad ran up behind her, picked her up, and tossed her screaming as far as he could into the deep end of the pool while yelling “time to swim honey”.
"At first my dad and I didn’t react, cause my dad has done this to me as a game (I learned to swim first) but we started to notice that she was struggling to surface while he dad just watched. My dad nervously asked, “can she swim?” To which the guy just shrugs and says “she’ll figure it out”.
"I have never seen my dad book it so fast to get it the water as I did that day. He quickly go the kid out of the water and started screaming at the guy about what kind of idiot he was while the girl was just bawling her eyes out. I swear my dad was ready to deck the guy. This was back in the 1990s so we didn’t have a cell phone to call the police, but we never saw them again after. It was the first time in my life I had seen insane parenting and to this day freaks me out that some people will still do this."
Lark1987
Margs
"My stepmom walked us (me, sister, brother 10-12) deep into the woods and left us there to learn 'survival skills'. We thought we were all out on a hike then she distracted us, and ran away. We wandered into camp hours later; we knew how to get back but searched for hours worried that something had happened to her. She was drinking margaritas and smirking."
visviva1
Sink or Swim
"I actually used to be a swim teacher in college teaching private lessons in people's backyards because of parents who had thrown their kids into the pool to sink or swim. It was usually Mom's calling me for help because they heard from a friend of a friend that I was able to teach their kid and get them to like the water again in about a month or less. One kid, he was 7, I had to sit with him on the pool deck the whole first lesson and bring buckets of water to him, his Dad had dunked him multiple times and insisted that his son would just figure it out eventually because "that's how he learned." Needless to say he was never home when I was there."
"The Mom had me come while Dad was at work. Four weeks later she had me come later in the afternoon so he would come home towards the end of the lesson. His Dad saw his son swimming and cried happy tears. He had no idea I had been there three days a week for a month. My favorite student was a 70-year-old man who wanted to do a triathlon but never learned to swim because his Dad threw him in as a child. It took about 3 months total, a lot of hand holding on the steps and shallow end, but he finally achieved his goal and I got to cheer him on at the finish line."
"I still remember how each of my students clung to my arms and clawed at my neck in their first lessons. I never dunked or forced anyone out of their comfort zone. My lessons had to be customized for each student to keep it fun and relaxing. The trauma in their eyes was haunting though. It stayed with me and I NEVER force anything on my kids that they aren't ready to do. It's about trust, not force."
torneen
Rage Stroke
"I was at the beach one time and it was hot out-I could not walk on the sand without sandals on. I heard a cry and looked up to see a little girl standing barefoot on the sand, not more than two, screaming for her dad, 5 feet away, who just told her to ‘stop being such a little pu**y’. Just about had a rage stroke and ran over to pick her up myself, but he eventually did." - ubereddit
Picky Eater
"I was always a picky eater growing up. One time my mom sat me down with a small bowl of almonds and told me I couldn’t get up out of my seat until I finished it. I insisted that I hated them and they were making my mouth itch, she thought I was just being difficult. I just started to swallow the almonds like pills because my mouth was so itchy from chewing on them."
"A couple years later I saw and allergist and discovered I was allergic to tree nuts."
Good Learning Experience?
"This didn't happen to me but to my older brother, so I had a front-row seat to all of it."
"He was looking to purchase a house for cheap that was in a semi-rural area, and wanted at least some acreage near it. His budget was way smaller than it should have been for the houses he wanted, and was looking at the most dilapidated, terrible houses ever. He found one that was just what he wanted: multiple rooms, a basement, 2 acres of woods, and about 15-30 minutes away from nearby cities. It was only about $120,000, and he was sold on it. The problems were abundant however, and I told him not to do it. Our parents loved this idea."
"They pushed and encouraged him, looked at it and took pictures, helped fill out loan paperwork, and even started planning all of the restoration projects it would need. My brother was committed all the way to the point of confirming the loan and moving there immediately. I was mortified. This house was an absolute dump made in the early 1910s and redid once in 1950. It had mold, holes in the roof and walls, old rusted wiring, peeling wallpaper, and crumbling shelves. The only redeemable part was the size of the rooms, which were pretty decent. I begged him not to do it, and it finally made him think twice."
"Finally, he relented and listened to me. He stopped and decided not to do anything. Later, I brought up how bad of an idea that house was and my parents completely agreed. They thought it was garbage, but they wanted him to follow through because it would have been a "good learning experience." I was floored and asked why they would support this then, and they simply responded that it would teach him to be careful with these kinds of things."
"They were literally going to let him go into massive debt and struggle so hard in order to teach him to be more careful of opportunities, and they tried to push it and encourage it instead of just sitting down and explaining all of this!"
"Tldr: Parents were going to let my brother go into massive debt to buy a sh*tty old house in order to teach him a lesson on waiting to find a better house deal after encouraging and nearly forcing him to go through with it." - JJ_Fury97
Everyone needs a little tough love every now and again.
Of course, the important element of tough love is the love, not the toughness.
And one can't help but wonder if parents putting their children in potentially deadly situations are actually acts of love?
When we think of a bad@ss, several candidates come to mind.
"Who would you consider as the most badd@ss person in history?"
These heroes made their mark in history for their fearless humanitarian efforts.
The Resistance Leader
"Witold pilecki - A polish resistance fighter who voluntarily went to auschwitz to get intel on what was happening and then proceeded to escape, survived the war and was later executed by the USSR."
The Espionage Expert
"Nancy Wake. So skillled as she was, she was nicknamed 'The White Mouse' by the Gestapo due to her elusiveness in avoiding capture. Highly talented in espionage, she worked as a spy for the French Resistance and the Special Operations Executive to take down the Nazis. One of the more highly decorated women from WW2, yet not well known."
"God's Rambo"
"Helge Meyer, also known as 'God's Rambo'. A danish special forces officer who bought a 1972 Camaro and turned it into an uparmored beast so he could deliver humanitarian aid in war torn Yugoslavia during the civil war and ethnic cleansing."
Seen As A Traitor
"Definitely Major Hugh Thompson. I'm sure there are people who have done similarly brave things, but not that I know about. In 1968, Thompson managed to stop the My Lai massacre almost single handedly. He arrived after many civilians had already been killed, and couldn't understand how they had died."
"After realising his fellow American soldiers were firing on unarmed civilians, he landed his helicopter between the Vietnamese and the soldiers. He then told the troops that if they continued to do what they were doing, he and his crew would open fire on them. After getting back to base, he filed a complaint about what he had witnessed. His complaint was covered up, and he was shunned as a traitor. It wasn't until 1998 that the army acknowledged he did the right thing."
"It's common to be brave in war when you know that you'll be lauded as a hero - it's another thing entirely to do it knowing you'll be seen as a traitor. He turned against his troops and country to protect innocent lives, despite what it would cost him, and I think that's about as brave as you can get."
Key Player In A Nuclear False Alarm
"Maybe not the most, but definitely an honorable mention: Stanislav Petrov. The man who saved the world from an all-out nuclear war in 1983."
– kwadd
The Brave WWII Combat Medic
"Desmond Doss. An army medic in WWII who was constantly belittled and abused by his battalion and superiors for refusing to use a weapon as it went against his beliefs. Then, when he landed in Okinawa and more than half of his battalion were shredded by Japanese machine gun fire, Desmond Doss crawled through the dirt over the course of several days to as many of his injured allies as he could and dragged them all the way back to the 40ft cliff they had scaled up from, then lowered them to safety.
Some of these injured men were lying 15ft from the enemy machine gun itself, and all the while Doss wore his medic helmet, which stood out like a giant bullseye on a battlefield where the Japanese soldiers were ordered to kill doctors first to crush morale. In the end he had saved the lives of 75 men, and survived with an arm fracture from a sniper round and several pieces of shrapnel embedded in his body from when he tried to kick a grenade away from him and his men. He is the only soldier without a gun to be awarded the Medal of Honor."
911 Dispatchers Share The Most Ridiculous Calls They've Ever Received | George Takei’s Oh Myyy
"The Québécois Rambo"
"Canadian Rambo AKA Leo Major. Dude liberated an entire town in the Netherlands by himself while injured in WW2."
These fierce warriors had their backs up against the wall but proved to be unstoppable.
Was Awarded The Conspicuous Gallantry Cross
"Dipprasad Pun the Gurkha who took out 15-30 Taliban singlehandedly when surrounded."
Fought Without Hands
"Galvarino. He was a fierce Mapuche warrior that had both of his hands chopped off as punishment when captured by the Spanish during the Arauco war. Rather than slaughter Galvarino, the Spanish sent him back to the Mapuche to send a message, but instead of causing the Mapuche to surrender, it had the opposite effect. Galvarino decided to have two knives lashed to the stumps where his hands used to be. He learned to fight without hands while using the knives as weapons. Less than a month later, Galvarino fought with the Mapuche against the Spanish again. Around 3,000 Mapuche warriors engaged 1,500 of the Spanish on Nov. 30, 1557. at the Battle of Millarapue. Although they didn't win, Galvarino killed several of the Spanish before the army of 3,000 were all killed."
R.I.P. Hitman
"The woman who killed the hitman her husband hired to kill her."
"It was so bada** I never forgot the part in the story where she has the hitman in a headlock or something and is yelling 'who sent you!?' Like, f'k."
Norse Axeman
"Battle of Stamford Bridge - the lone Norse axeman single-handedly held up the entire English army."
No Face/No Fear
"Simo Häyhä. 'The White Death'. 500 kills in WW2. Got half his face blown off by an explosive bullet and tried to get back into the war."
– Cyrakhis
The Archer
"Mad Jack Churchill (no relation) On D-Day, he stormed the beach armed with a broadsword and a longbow. He has the only confirmed kill with a longbow in WWII. At one point he was captured, escaped, and later found playing his bagpipes. Dude was a f'king legend."
These bada**es did anything it took to survive.
An Impressive Resume
"Peter Freuchen. He was a Danish explorer, journalist, author and anthropologist. He is widely known for his exploration of the arctic circle and discovery of vast areas of Greenland. He was an indigenous rights activist, having married an Inuit woman. He escaped a death warrant issued by the Third Reich for punching Nazis. Received an academy award for the best motion picture in 1933. Won the $64,000 question as a contestant on the game show. He wrestled a polar bear and won. And as if this all wasn't enough, he escaped a near-death encounter in a blizzard by fashioning a spade out of his own frozen feces."
Plane Crash Survivor
"That teenage girl that was the sole survivor of a plane crash and made her way through the Amazon…. She's definitely up there!"
From Slavery To Congress
"Robert Smalls. He escaped slavery, stole a Confederate boat, sailed away to freedom, and later served in Congress."
I would personally add Bruce Lee to the list.
I grew up Japanese-American, but I was often made fun of for my "slanted eyes" and was called "Chink" – an incredibly racist slur referring to people of Chinese descent – even though I'm not Chinese.
Being called Bruce Lee was a common occurrence throughout grade school, and because of the context under which I was being ridiculed, I loathed being associated with the martial arts legend and cultural icon.
But I should have embraced it because he was the epitome of a bad@ss.
The guy who inspired the Tekken character, Marshall Law, was a physical marvel – one who was capable of doing one-handed, two-fingered pushups and playing ping pong with nunchucks. He was also a cha-cha champion.
When it came to teaching, he was one of the pioneers in establishing inclusivity in martial arts and taught students from all walks of life.