Join the Fun!

40 People Respond To 'Which Is The Worst Single Decision In History Ever Made By A Person?' Allan Savory the ecologist who killed 40000 elephants because it was believed that grazing was causing the desertification of Africa, only to find out later that elephants were essential to prevent desertification.

corylew , Savory Global Report

Final score:

569points

POST

Samantha PandaNotBored 3 years ago

Grrr scummy 🤬

154points

Russian_Spy_slav , Oak Knoll Press Report

40 People Respond To 'Which Is The Worst Single Decision In History Ever Made By A Person?' Burning of the Library of Alexandria

Final score:

518points

POST

Samantha PandaNotBored 3 years ago

Ohhhhhh yesssssss

66points

40 People Respond To 'Which Is The Worst Single Decision In History Ever Made By A Person?' “Hey, let’s create a coffee machine that uses a single use plastic cup for every cup of coffee or tea. How bad can the trash from that really be?”

I actually read that the creator of the K-Cup, John Sylvan, regrets inventing the pod system.

Gorctam , frankieleon Report

Final score:

403points

POST

Col BatGuano 3 years ago

since he sold out his share for only $50,000 I expect he's not a big fan.

85points

40 People Respond To 'Which Is The Worst Single Decision In History Ever Made By A Person?' My great great grandfather, a carpenter, did some work for a poor painter in the neighbourhood. The painter had no money, so he offered either a bottle of wine or a painting. My great great granfather chose the wine.

The painter was Edvard Munch, and the painting would have been worth millions upon millions today, or even just a few decades later (if translated to todays money).

Brillek , wikipedia Report

Final score:

401points

POST

Laugh or not 3 years ago

My grandfather refused a painting as payment from Picasso: it was just a Spanish refugee helping another Spanish refugee, no need for payment.

193points

40 People Respond To 'Which Is The Worst Single Decision In History Ever Made By A Person?' “Alright gentlemen we’ve successfully fended off the Greeks for 10 years, our great city of Troy still stands. If we keep this up surely they will realize the siege is fruitless and return home before long.”

“Yo captain there’s this big ass wooden horse outside”

“Oh rad bring it in”

Mr_Boi_ , Adam Jones Report

Final score:

379points

POST

River Webb 3 years ago

and nobody, except a crazy old woman, thought it was even remotely suspicious

143points

40 People Respond To 'Which Is The Worst Single Decision In History Ever Made By A Person?' Mao Zedong

Pest capaign: He basically told his nation to take pots and pans to kill all the sparrows. However, the ecosystem was disturbed and the locust population skyrocketed.

Seeds: he thought that planting seeds 1 meter in the ground would result in greater roots and better harvest. He also thought that putting tons of seeds in one compact area would cause a better harvest. All the seeds died however. Around 30 million or so died from Famine under his rule.

"Hey! Look at the other nations industrializing! Lets smelt all our metal to build better infrastructure. What? It creates pig iron which is super unstable and impure therefore being ultimately useless? Oops!" -Mao

s_sekowski , Public domain Report

Final score:

345points

POST

Eliška Hůlková 3 years ago

He was also the one behind Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution. Bloody tyrant.

118points

Horacecrumplewart , commons.wikimedia Report

40 People Respond To 'Which Is The Worst Single Decision In History Ever Made By A Person?' Well, the decision of Inalchuq, the governor of the Khwarazmian city of Otrar, to attack Genghis Khan’s trade caravan was pretty bad. Khan was famous as a ruthless warlord, not the sort of guy you want to piss off.

But maybe they could have got away with it. Genghis sent three ambassadors to negotiate a settlement.

Which is when Muhammad II, the Shah of of Khwarzem, made the really bad decision to kill one of these ambassadors and send the other two back without their beards as a sign of humiliation.

Genghis Kahn was so enraged he assembled an army and destroyed the Khwarazmian Empire. Wiped out every town they had. He even re-routed a river to wipe out the village where the Shah was born, wiping it off the map. By 1120 there wasn’t much of anything left.

Final score:

317points

POST

Hans 3 years ago

Ouch

65points

40 People Respond To 'Which Is The Worst Single Decision In History Ever Made By A Person?' Eastman Kodak deciding not to go forward with their own newly invented digital cameras and instead sticking with film because it made them so much money at the time.

starshame , Ente75 Report

Final score:

305points

POST

Col BatGuano 3 years ago

Film is better.

45points

TheRealSumRndmGuy , British Museum Report

#10

40 People Respond To 'Which Is The Worst Single Decision In History Ever Made By A Person?' How about the guy who bought 20,000 Albanian slaves, brought them to Cairo, trained them to be the greatest warriors of their time, and then got overthrown by said slave warriors because they were so well trained.

Final score:

300points

POST

Samantha PandaNotBored 3 years ago

Oooops

48points

#11

40 People Respond To 'Which Is The Worst Single Decision In History Ever Made By A Person?' Invading Russia. Always invading Russia.

warriorwoman96 , Lencer Report

Final score:

292points

POST

Lauren Caswell 3 years ago

People always seem to think "surely it's not that cold".....Well yeah

124points

JamesCDiamond , commons.wikimedia Report

#12

40 People Respond To 'Which Is The Worst Single Decision In History Ever Made By A Person?' Thomas Midgley Jr can lay claim to three:

First, he discovered and helped popularize the use of lead in petrol/gasoline, causing unimaginable harm to the atmosphere and our brains. He contracted lead poisoning when working on the project, but apparently neglected to draw any conclusions from this.

Second, he lead the team that discovered freon, the first chlorofluorocarbon, and helped popularize the use of CFCs in refrigeration and industrial applications, causing further unimaginable harm to the atmosphere

It’s suggested that he had a greater impact on the atmosphere than any other single person in history.

As for the third, well:

In 1940, at the age of 51, Midgley contracted poliomyelitis, which left him severely disabled. He devised an elaborate system of ropes and pulleys to lift himself out of bed. In 1944, he became entangled in the device and died of strangulation.

Final score:

280points

POST

Andrew Bridge 3 years ago

To be fair though freon is better than what they were using, and no one was to know of the consequences

86points

#13

40 People Respond To 'Which Is The Worst Single Decision In History Ever Made By A Person?' Here’s a recent one...

After successfully invading Iraq and toppling Saddam Hussein, the US decided that all members of the ruling Baath party should be banned from government and military positions in the new government.

The result was a crop of knowledgeable bureaucrats and military leaders available to join a group of terrorists under Zarqawi to form a little group that would go on to become ISIS.

JayArlington , Iraqi News Agency Report

Final score:

271points

POST

Samantha PandaNotBored 3 years ago

TONY BLAIR SHOULD BE IN PRISON , ALONG WITH BUSH

147points

#14

40 People Respond To 'Which Is The Worst Single Decision In History Ever Made By A Person?' Maybe the worst business decision ever made was by Xerox with their Alto computer.

Xerox invented the graphical interface modern computers use. Desktop, folders, copy/paste etc. They basically invented the modern computer in the '70s. But the problem was, the people in charge at the time were businessman without any technical knowledge so they didn't realize what they had. They did nothing with it and gave it away to universities and showed other companies. The famous story is that Steve Jobs saw this and within 5 minutes realized this was the way computers would work in the future. He copied it, because Xerox didn't patent their invention and didn't do anything with it and the rest is history.

cheesyvoetjes , Joho345 Report

Final score:

265points

POST

Tequila4Two 3 years ago

Oh, the irony. Xerox got copied.

33points

#15

40 People Respond To 'Which Is The Worst Single Decision In History Ever Made By A Person?' The guy who rejected Hitler's art academy application?

Nondramatic , public domain Report

Final score:

254points

POST

Lauren Caswell 3 years ago

I sometimes fear what would have happened had a more stable yet amoral leader been in control of the nazis: a lot of mistakes were made that could have spelled disaster for the allies had the axis not screwed up, and that was down to a tyrant ruling through fear and instability and shooting the messenger. Mistakes got covered up. Its awful enough as it is, and with a more able person at the helm? I dont want to even imagine that.

93points

#16

40 People Respond To 'Which Is The Worst Single Decision In History Ever Made By A Person?' John H. Sununu might count. He was an MIT educated engineer, brilliant guy, PhD in mechanical engineering. He even served on MIT's Advisory Board of the Technology and Policy. He remains a member of the National Academy of Engineering. More importantly, he was a governor of NH and later the White House Chief of Staff under George H.W. Bush.

As Bush's adviser, he was the first one with a STEM background to doubt climate change. He publicly questioned the validity of James Hansen / NASA's modeling efforts. In fact, the US was on the verge of signing a binding climate treaty with 65 other nations (in 1989!)

Prior to this point, the argument was "how do we balance emission reductions versus economic losses", with conservative forces recognizing the danger but insisting we protect businesses from overreaching regulation. After Sununu's public doubts, the entire debate shifted to "is climate change even real?". It inspired the "everything's fine" PR campaign that has been ongoing ever since. I honestly suspect treaty opponents didn't even realize that pure denial would be a realistic strategy until Sununu called James Hansen a liar.

I guess in another 50 years we'll see the true extent of the damage he did. Ironically all this falls not on some moron, but on a brilliant guy who decided to speak on something outside his expertise.

Ut_Prosim , Commons Report

Final score:

249points

POST

Radek Suski 3 years ago

Holy guacamole. Thanks for sharing that

64points

#17

40 People Respond To 'Which Is The Worst Single Decision In History Ever Made By A Person?' The decision by the Scottish to invade England during Black Death must be up there.

jtswtf , Rosser1954 Report

Final score:

238points

POST

N G 3 years ago (edited)

That on its own doesn't sound like a screw-up - they (more or less correctly) assumed the English would be weakened by the disease and invasion would be easy. The screw-up takes effect when the Scots started catching it and dying, and the remaining Scots fled... Back to Scotland, taking the disease with them.

87points

#18

40 People Respond To 'Which Is The Worst Single Decision In History Ever Made By A Person?' Gavrillo Princip shooting Archduke Franz Ferdinand.

On that day, a man acted upon his self-constructed vendetta against a non-tyrranical monarch, thinking the world would remember him as a symbol against foreign tyranny. A symbol of national sovereignty.

A year later, 10 million men were dead.

Dickcheese_McDoogles , wikipedia Report

Final score:

237points

POST

Eliška Hůlková 3 years ago

The War politically destabilized Central Europe and thus opened door to Hitler. This must be one of the biggest fails in history.

62points

#19

40 People Respond To 'Which Is The Worst Single Decision In History Ever Made By A Person?' Game of Thrones Season 8

figtoria , wikipedia Report

Final score:

234points

POST

engineer_nope.avi 3 years ago

Oh God!

26points

#20

40 People Respond To 'Which Is The Worst Single Decision In History Ever Made By A Person?' That one time nintendo had a partnership with sony to develop a CD based console but in the end changed their mind and kicked Sony out cuz they decided to stick with cartridges.

Sony then thought "screw this, We'll make our own console, with blackjack & hookers" and created the playstation as a f**k you towards nintendo...

YoungDiscord , Paquitogio Report

Final score:

220points

POST

engineer_nope.avi 3 years ago (edited)

Sega actually made a similar mistake. So after Nintendo humiliated Sony, they actually went to Sega and asked about a collaboration. The US Division were actually on board and loved the collaboration. The Japanese Division, however, hated it and shot it down so the deal never came through. Then there's the infamous Saturn early launch, which basically screwed the company forever.

14points

powerlesshero111 , Ildar Sagdejev Report

#21

40 People Respond To 'Which Is The Worst Single Decision In History Ever Made By A Person?' Blockbuster not buying Netflix.

Final score:

211points

POST

Sum Guy 3 years ago

Just because someone buys something, doesn't mean it will continue with that trajectory. If Blockbuster bought netflix when they were still posting disks, then it would continue like that.

86points

#22

40 People Respond To 'Which Is The Worst Single Decision In History Ever Made By A Person?' Two terrible decisions for the price of one:

The British gave Native American's blankets diseased with smallpox to "thin" out their ranks during The French and Indian War. They didn't anticipate just how deadly this would be; some tribes losing as much as 90% of their number due to the epidemic.

When Edward Jenner invented the smallpox vaccine, Britain made fast allies by exporting it out to the world. Some of those shipments were to be sent to the United States, with the intention of helping both the Colonial American populace and the Native American Populace.

Only problem was that the Colonials and the Natives were having a bit of a war for the west at the time. The US Army took the vaccines hostage, with the intention of letting more Natives die, until they gave up and moved into the reservations the US Army had built for them.

Native Americans just can't catch a break at all.

killingjoke96 , Ernest Board Report

Final score:

192points

POST

Deborah B 3 years ago

This was not a 'mistake' it was an active and intentional genocide.

378points

#23

40 People Respond To 'Which Is The Worst Single Decision In History Ever Made By A Person?' Radcliff Line - The process to divide India and Pakistan boundary in 1947 was done hastily and without major considerations to local populace religion. Radcliff was not a geography guy and majorly messed up the process. Millions died.

earliestowl , commons.wikimedia Report

Final score:

185points

POST

Nea 3 years ago

Radcliff was not a geography guy, he was an imperialist sore with the facts that they wer going to leave india after years of loot and tyranny.

57points

#24

40 People Respond To 'Which Is The Worst Single Decision In History Ever Made By A Person?' Anatoly Dyatlov making sure with every step, that reactor 4 at Chernobyl exploded in 1986.

dikarich , 02790015 Report

Final score:

181points

POST

Lauren Caswell 3 years ago

Countries that fear looking weak during a crisis seem to almost always do the absolute opposite of what's needed. If there are any cases where this stance hasn't backfired, I'm not aware of it anyway, or not considering it for some reason (I'm a tad forgetful)

56points

#25

40 People Respond To 'Which Is The Worst Single Decision In History Ever Made By A Person?' Yahoo refused to buy Google for 1 million and later for 40 billion again.

Edit: They refused 1 million, later offered 3B, and Google wanted 5B so no deal. And Yahoo was offered 40B by Microsoft and they didn't want to sell. And later they sold for 4.6B.

Jasper_Reddit , Flickr Report

Final score:

177points

POST

Samantha PandaNotBored 3 years ago

Yahoo is full of junk anyway

62points

#26

40 People Respond To 'Which Is The Worst Single Decision In History Ever Made By A Person?' David Cameron's decision to call a referendum on Brexit, closely followed by Teresa May caking a snap General Election and losing her party's majority.

RegalGibbon , wikipedia Report

Final score:

175points

POST

Jon S. 3 years ago

The level of incompetence in the Tory party is truly staggering. They came to power promising to eliminate national debt and instead gave us the biggest debt in modern history. And that was before covid.

27points

Dutch Swimmer Goes Viral For Super Revealing Trunks During 2024 Olympics: “Is This Legal?”

See Also on Bored Panda

Thrill-Seeking Diver Jumps Down Extreme Waterslide, Ignoring The Strict Ban For Women

#27

40 People Respond To 'Which Is The Worst Single Decision In History Ever Made By A Person?' Robert Ballard, one of the guys who discovered Titanic, says that his biggest regret is that he and Jean-Lous Michel didn’t bring a piece of the Titanic up with him when he first discovered it in 1985. At the time, they didn’t want to disturb the wreck, and leave it pristine. But if they had done so, then they would’ve been able to claim legal ownership of the wreck under international maritime law, and therefore more control over it. Because they chose not to do that, everyone and their grandma is free to take artifacts and pieces of the wreck, and this makes preservation impossible.

RedWestern , Titanic Belfast Report

Final score:

166points

POST

Brandi VanSteenwyk 3 years ago

His mistake was not failing to bring up a piece. He erred in his faith in humankind. He trusted that everyone else would feel the same about keeping the wreck intact as a memorial to those who lost their lives. Unfortunately that faith was unrewarded.

7points

QuestioningAccount1 , commons.wikimedia Report

#28

40 People Respond To 'Which Is The Worst Single Decision In History Ever Made By A Person?' The Donner Party of 90 pioneers choosing to take a shortcut when heading West from Illinois to California in 1846. Said shortcut led to them getting trapped in the Sierra Nevada mountains and resorting to cannibalism.

Final score:

150points

POST

Col BatGuano 3 years ago

It's not like they intended to do that.

12points

#29

40 People Respond To 'Which Is The Worst Single Decision In History Ever Made By A Person?' Maybe not the *worst*, but maybe Ronald Wayne, he was a co-founder of apple along with Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak in 1976. Just 12 days after forming the company, he sold his shares for $800. He owned 10% of the company, which would be worth ~$80,000,000,000 (80 billion) today.

ProGenji777 , Kottke_Wayne Report

Final score:

132points

POST

Colin Matthews 3 years ago

Hahaha Money right, overrated right ?

21points

Woman Put A Water Fountain With A Camera In Her Yard, Here Are 24 Photos Of Regular Visitors (New Pics)

See Also on Bored Panda

“Ma’am I Live Here”: Woman Refuses To Back Out Of Driveway, Learns A Lesson The Hard Way

#30

40 People Respond To 'Which Is The Worst Single Decision In History Ever Made By A Person?' How about the greatest single decision that could have ended up as the worst single decision in history ever made by a person?

Vasily Arkhipov. The man who was solely responsible for preventing nuclear war in 1962. The three officers on board the diesel-powered and nuclear armed B-59 sub had to agree unanimously to launch the nuclear torpedo. Conditions due to the Kennedy administration's blockade began to take a toll upon the crew members. Diesel subs can get incredibly hot over extended periods of time, the batteries failed and the air conditioning stopped, and the lack of fresh air from increased carbon dioxide levels means delirious crew members. Eventually two officers, Captain Savitsky, and the political officer Ivan Semonovich Maslennikov got sick of waiting due to thinking WWIII had already begun and decided to go through with the launch. But Arkhipov was second in command and his position as flotilla commander meant they also needed his approval to launch it. If he wasn't a flotilla commander it wouldn't have been needed gain his approval even as second in command. Vasily disagreed and all three actually got into a physical confrontation, fighting over command of the torpedo. Eventually they agreed with Vasily and had brought the sub to surface. Needless to say, they faced criticism and were disgraceful to their superiors who would have rather saw them go down with their ship than be captured by the enemy.

According to Wikipedia: ''Each captain was required to present a report of events during the mission to the Soviet defense minister, Andrei Grechko. Grechko was infuriated with the crew's failure to follow the strict orders of secrecy after finding out they had been discovered by the Americans. One officer even noted Grechko's reaction, stating "upon learning that it was the diesel submarines that went to Cuba, removed his glasses and hit them against the table in fury, breaking them into small pieces and abruptly leaving the room after that."

It's safe to say that there's an almost unanimous amount of agreement over the importance of Arkhipov's decision. Everyone from Chomsky, to McNamara have agreed that this was the defining moment of whether or not we would prevail as a species. This was it. The test. The launch of the torpedo would have meant the nuclear destruction of the blockade above, and thus the invasion of Cuba and the launching of the NATO nukes in Turkey and other European countries. Meaning the missiles in Cuba which were operational at this point, would have decimated all the major cities on the Eastern seaboard, and the major cities in the Midwest.

Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr., an advisor for the John F. Kennedy administration and a historian, has stated, "This was not only the most dangerous moment of the Cold War. It was the most dangerous moment in human history."

SubatomicG , wikipedia Report

Final score:

124points

POST

Radek Suski 3 years ago

What about Lieutenant Colonel Stanislav Petrov?

18points

50 Of The Most Incredible Shots That Were Submitted To The Comedy Wildlife Photography Awards

See Also on Bored Panda

French Diver’s “Jewels” In Tight Swimming Trunks Become Talk Of The Town At Olympics

#31

40 People Respond To 'Which Is The Worst Single Decision In History Ever Made By A Person?' The guy that sold the bottling rights for Coca Cola, for $1, and never even made the guy pay the $1.

TheGarp , Ralf Roletschek Report

Final score:

123points

POST

Pazuzu 3 years ago

i had to stop snorting coke years ago,damned ice cubes kept getting stuck in my nostrils

14points

#32

40 People Respond To 'Which Is The Worst Single Decision In History Ever Made By A Person?' Hmm, here are a few candidates:

Hitler/Napoleon (for attacking Russia)

Dyatlov for various things he decided at Chernobyl (but there are so many Versions of that it's hard to say who was most responsible)

Whoever ordered Pearl Harbor (for ordering the attack)

Licencing Thalidomide for use against morning sickness (killed about 40% of the unborn babies and had horrendous effects on many of the rest)

Using Hydrogen to fly the Hindenburg

Aibeit , Imperial Japanese Navy Report

Final score:

110points

POST

Samantha Lomb 3 years ago

The hydrogen thing was the US's fault. The US had a monopoly on the production of Helium.

36points

#33

40 People Respond To 'Which Is The Worst Single Decision In History Ever Made By A Person?' Eight years ago when that guy bought two large pizzas for 10,000 bitcoin.

Im_jk_but_seriously , Jan Kaláb Report

Final score:

106points

POST

Okay Dokey 3 years ago

8 Years ago that was already 25.000 USD

17points

#34

40 People Respond To 'Which Is The Worst Single Decision In History Ever Made By A Person?' Brutus decided to join Cassius in murdering the dictatorial tyrant, Caesar. The reason? They suspected his intent to become a king.

Which then started a chain of events leading to his adopted son Caesar becoming a military dictator without equal, having all the powers of a king without being called one.

When this Caesar Augustus dies, his name and title is passed on for the next four hundred years almost like you would a crown. Monarchies then returned all over Europe, in the style of Augustus Caesar.

And so, the decision of Brutus to join the conspiracy in effect changed all of Western civilization for the next 1900 years to adopt the very political style he wanted to avoid.

It would not be until the 1770s when America and later France would begin revolting and experimenting with Democracies and Republics.

Ipride362 , Marie-Lan Nguyen Report

Final score:

98points

POST

Láďa Durchánek 3 years ago (edited)

It is worth noting that democracy was mostly collapsing in Rome that time because of corruption and military reforms that shifted loyalty of legions to their commanders. There had been other attempts to seize the ultimate power before and Octavianus Augustus was merely the first one who fully succeeded. That said, even without the Brutus's decision, it would likely happen anyway at some point later and given that Augustus was actually an extremely effective leader, it could have been much worse.

48points

Woman Moves Out Of Parents' Home After They Asked Her To Give Her Space To Brother, They Freak Out

See Also on Bored Panda

Mom Leaves $250k Inheritance To Son, Throws A Fit When Daughter Stops Looking After Her

#35

Whoever signed the bill passing prohibition

Hibberd92 Report

Final score:

90points

POST

Coleonema 3 years ago

It's amazing all the ripple effects that can come from one, seemingly meaningless, decision

29points

#36

40 People Respond To 'Which Is The Worst Single Decision In History Ever Made By A Person?' Sultan Murad IV sending the first flying man in history (Hezarfen Ahmed Çelebi flying three kilometers over the Bospurus in 1638) , into exile instead of putting all efforts into aviation.

WeirdAstronaut , Levni Report

Final score:

89points

POST

Jon S. 3 years ago

Never heard of this guy before. I would be interested to know if there were more than one account of his life/work. Wikipedia says the account of the flight across the Bospurus is doubted. It puts me in mind of the chinses legend of Yuan Huangtou, who did something similar (against his will) in AD559.

34points

#37

40 People Respond To 'Which Is The Worst Single Decision In History Ever Made By A Person?' Alcibiades was considered a traitor in Athens for leading his men to death. A traitor in Sparta because he got the queen to cheat on the king with him and a traitor in Persia after including them in a war

itsmustafatime , Musée Fabre Report

Final score:

86points

POST

River Webb 3 years ago

maybe that guy was just a genuine asshole

76points

#38

40 People Respond To 'Which Is The Worst Single Decision In History Ever Made By A Person?' William Howard Taft running for US president:

Prior to ww1, the US elections took place with Woodrow Wilson winning with a 36% (give or take) majority, how could this happen? Taft. The election was split 3 ways, Wilson for the democrats, and Taft and Teddy Roosevelt for the Republicans, they split the vote and Wilson Won. Had Taft not split the vote Roosevelt would have won and serve a third presidential term. As president, Roosevelt would have almost definitely pushed the US one WW1 much earlier than Wilson did, possibly shortening the war by up to a year. The main impact of this would have been on Russia, while it wouldn’t have saved the Tsar, it would have put down Lenin and prevented the rise of Communism, as it would have denied Lenin the public backing he needed, given that the current govt. didn’t look quite so incompetent. With no Lenin, no Stalin, no mass genocides, speaking of genocides, the fear of communist take-over largely fuelled support for the Nazi party and without them, Hitler would have lived and died a fringe extremist with very few people even noticing him.

TLDR; Taft ran for president, split the vote, denied Roosevelt a third term, which lead to a prolonged WW1, the Russian Communist take over, WW2, Cold War, etc.

Dan-aufsE-IOO , Harris & Ewing Report

Final score:

81points

POST

Col BatGuano 3 years ago

Roosevelt and Taft were good friends until Taft turned all a-hole.

14points

Woman Refuses To Chip In For Babysitting Because She Doesn’t Even Have Kids, Asks If She’s A Jerk

See Also on Bored Panda

“This Breaks My Heart”: People Stunned—And Angry—After Woman Buys Lost Luggage From Airport

#39

40 People Respond To 'Which Is The Worst Single Decision In History Ever Made By A Person?' The Soviet government not informing their nuclear power plants of the defect which caused Chernobyl to melt down and almost destroy all of eastern Europe.

iconoclast63 , Carl Montgomery Report

Final score:

78points

POST

Samantha Lomb 3 years ago

It did not "almost destroy all of Eastern Europe".

40points

AdouMusou , Thomas Heinrich Voigt Report

#40

40 People Respond To 'Which Is The Worst Single Decision In History Ever Made By A Person?' Kaiser Wilhelm II firing Otto von Bismarck. Bismarck had a plan. He always has a plan. But not when an incompetent Kaiser boots him out of his means of putting his plans into action. Bismarck had everything set up perfectly, but Wilhelm II decided to f*ck up everything he had set up, and got into WWI for it.

Final score:

74points

POST

Cip IESAN 3 years ago

No. Bismark wanted a new war with France even in 1875! Wilhelm was a kind of a pacifist, as a cousin of the British King and the Russian Tsar, he didn't wanted war. The German Empire entered WWI because of the treaties signed with the Austro-Hungarian Empire... And von Bismark died in 1890, 24 years before WWI.

13points

Continue reading with Bored Panda Premium

Unlimited content

Ad-free browsing

Dark mode

#41

40 People Respond To 'Which Is The Worst Single Decision In History Ever Made By A Person?' Hong Xiuquan declared the Taiping rebellion after he had a nervous breakdown from failing the imperial examinations. He proclaimed that he was the brother of Jesus Christ. 20-30 Million people died.

Caesar321 , public domain Report

Final score:

31points

POST

Samantha Lomb 3 years ago

I don't think we can declare being mentally ill a bad decision. He legitimately believed he was the brother of Christ

28points

The-Sound_of-Silence/ , wikipedia Report

#42

40 People Respond To 'Which Is The Worst Single Decision In History Ever Made By A Person?' The development of nuclear weapons was probably inevitable, and several situations arose that balanced armageddon on a knife edge. Many historical decisions could have tipped the balance via butterfly effect, so I take these questions in that light - all those terrible decisions, luckily, led to us to still be around to make a few more

Final score:

31points

POST

J. F. 3 years ago

I think that the invention of nuclear weapons prevented a lot of deaths in the long run (Hiroshima and Nagasaki were quite unnecessary). Without these weapons nothing really could have stopped an escalation between the Warsaw pact and the NATO - the MAD principle (mutual assured destruction) forced everybody to prevent direct confrontations. Didn't helped with all the proxy wars during that time but at least no World War 3

2points

"I Didn't Start The Dryer": Karen Gets Taught A Lesson After Throwing Out Neighbor's Wet Clothes

See Also on Bored Panda

Guy Divorced 3 Years Ago Drops Off 3 Y.O. With His Ex-Wife Completely Out Of The Blue

#43

40 People Respond To 'Which Is The Worst Single Decision In History Ever Made By A Person?' Sharif Hussein trusting the British.

reddit , wikipedia Report

Final score:

29points

POST

cassiushumanmother 3 years ago

Oh yes, he was the "dindon de la farce". (litteraly the turkey of the filling) Meaning the "fall guy" of the great Arab revolt. Fooled by Brits on so many levels.

6points

#44

40 People Respond To 'Which Is The Worst Single Decision In History Ever Made By A Person?' Henry Tandey who supposedly spared Adolf Hitler's life during the war.

The story is set on 28 September 1918, while Tandey was serving with the 5th Duke of Wellington's Regiment, and relates that a weary German soldier wandered into Tandey's line of fire. The enemy soldier was wounded and did not even attempt to raise his own rifle. Tandey chose not to shoot. The German soldier saw him lower his rifle and nodded his thanks before wandering off. That soldier is purported to have been Adolf Hitler.

Will1162 , Richard Harvey Report

Final score:

24points

POST

Coleonema 3 years ago

I don't think this should count. He hadn't done those thing yet, he spared a mans life, instead of just adding to the bloodshed.

20points

#45

40 People Respond To 'Which Is The Worst Single Decision In History Ever Made By A Person?' Gerald Ratner talking s**t about his own business.

He was ousted and the firm almost collapsed before restructuring and rebranding.

unknown , Gerald.ratner Report

Final score:

23points

POST

BlahBlahBlackSheepah 3 years ago

What business? Idk

8points

#46

Whoever said "The worlds Biggest MMO" Runescape should remove the wilderness and free trade. They threw a literal fortune down the drain just because they didn't understand their own product.

Newaccy21 Report

Final score:

21points

POST

Mewton’s Third Paw 3 years ago

I don’t know what this means but I vaguely remember RuneScape

4points

“All Three Shot Out Pink”: Triplets' Baby Shower Turns Sour, Pregnant Wife Wants A Divorce

See Also on Bored Panda

College Student Does Exactly As Told After Roommates Demand They Keep Their Stuff In Their Room

Liucija Adomaite is a creative mind with years of experience in copywriting. She has a dynamic set of experiences from advertising, academia, and journalism. This time, she has set out on a journey to investigate the ways in which we communicate ideas on a large scale. Her current mission is to find a magic formula for how to make ideas, news, and other such things spread like a virus.

Read less »

I'm the Visual Editor at Bored Panda, responsible for ensuring that everything our audience sees is top-notch and well-researched. What I love most about my job? Discovering new things about the world and immersing myself in exceptional photography and art.

Read less »

What do you think ?

POST

Tracy Sellars 3 years ago

The dumbest decision are being made be people now, not social distancing, not using hand sanitizer and not wearing a mask when required. We have access to so much information and research that is factual and scientific , yet people are still dumb.

38points

Doubleheader 3 years ago

Isn't it funny though? We literally live in a time where we can research every little thing known to man in the most convenient of ways even (small handheld computers at the palm of our hands!) - and yet, people still willingly choose to be ignorant. So much for the information age! :/

29points

Hannah Edwards 3 years ago

Bye, I’m off down a Wikipedia rabbit hole.

35points

Iggy 3 years ago

Make sure you stock up on carrots!

14points

Nea 3 years ago

Very informative post, i learnt a lot of new things. Need to look up more details about some of them.

17points

Allan Hedges 3 years ago

Trump saying COVID will be over in 2 weeks. Trump saying climate change isn't real. Trump having that speech on Jan 6, 2021. Trump blowing off science.

11points

María Hermida 3 years ago

Trump

5points

kjorn 3 years ago

1914. when Gavrilo Princip kill the Archduke Franz Ferdinand. this led to WW1 which led to WW2, wich led to the jewish extermination wich led to the creation of a jewish territory and let the palestinian away from these territories wich led to the raise of the islamist extremists in that region wich led to the trouble we have today.

7points

Silre 3 years ago

Allowing trump to stay president for as long as we did.

6points

Tobias the Tiger 3 years ago

At least he didn't get re-elected. That would've been even more of a screw-up!

1point

Bacony Cakes 3 years ago (edited)

Andrew Wakefield being a greedy guts and publishing that paper which did nothing but point out a correlation between the use of a rival MMR vaccine and cases of autism. Bred a whole new breed of morons.

6points

Sandra Charlot 3 years ago

Russian decision to decline international help for nuclear submarine Kursk and letting 118 soliders dying slowly during several days after explotion.

5points

Lola 3 years ago

What about that time when Bonaparte sold 25% of the US's territory for $15m? (yes, the same guy who decided to invade Russia, revoke women's rights and reintroduce slavery)

5points

Bacony Cakes 3 years ago

And Russia selling Alaska to the US. That was pretty dumb.

1point

Donnie Mc0 3 years ago

I woukd have thought Decca records deciding not to sign the beatles after an audition would have been in there!

4points

Javiera Gotelli 3 years ago

Whoever invented god and religion. We still face the consequences of their lsd fueled trip.

3points

Leo Domitrix 3 years ago

Could've been someone who tested a new shroom 200K years ago. Hard to know. Humans are good at these things even if sober, alas.

3points

Vicki Kloske 3 years ago

I was gonna say the guy who forgot the binoculars for the RMS Titanic, but there was the days-long fire in the hull before the maiden voyage that weakened the structure, and all the well-heeled types sending their greetings via radio from the ship (preventing the radio operators from hearing the warnings)... overall, everybody gets a participation ribbon for this one.

2points

elia 84631 3 years ago

Nickelodeon rejected Adventure time which saved Cartoon Network and defined the modern animation. Instead, they picked up Fanboy and Chum Chum. One of the worst mistakes in Animation.

2points

Night Owl 3 years ago

OK, now my bad decisions don't seem so bad

2points

Aria Singh 3 years ago

What about America voting a cheeto for president huh?

2points

SBW71 3 years ago

This comment is hidden. Click here to view.

Anggi Santika 3 years ago

Nokia wasn't in the list? That was still a major loss when they finally give up

2points

Rainbow Panda 3 years ago

And yet some people still don’t learn from history. 😒

1point

Andy Acceber 3 years ago

Ferdinand and Isabella deciding it was cool to fund this dude, Christopher Columbus' expedition to further Catholicism.

1point

just a hamilfan (hufflepuff) 3 years ago

I’d say, the great molasses flood, people saw the tank leaking molasses, guess what the government did? Painted the tank brown! They also didn’t correctly test the tank. Resulting in millions of dollars of damage.

1point

Niffler_13 3 years ago

Oh! I know, how about Home Children, when the British Government decided to take children and send them to Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and South Africa (1869-1970) . Many were orphans, but a lot of them were taken from their parent(s) if the government decided their parent(s) were not caring for them properly. Many of the children were abused as they were sent to those places to fix the labor shortage.

1point

Ro MoLip 3 years ago

Eating a bat

0points

$fracarr avatar$

François Carré 3 years ago

French Emperor Napoleon II declaring war to Prussia in 1870 after the diplomatic incident caused by the Ems telegram. Chancelor Bismarck had planned it all, he lured Napoleon into this trap by giving him a casus belli. He wanted that war against France that he was sure to win - which he did eventually, uniting Germany for good and annexing the two provinces of Alsace and Lorraine. World War I had a slight chance to be avoided if not for that humiliating defeat the French waited for 45 years to take revenge from.

0points

Jim Foster 3 years ago

Everyone got it wrong. The real worst misake evef was made by Umphd Reymokoo when he swatted that butterfly around 375,000 B.C. Nothing has gone right since then.

0points

Khristine Wingerson 3 years ago

Making abortion legal

0points

May Day 3 years ago

How about the record company that turned down The Beatles, with the argument "Guitar music isn't popular right now" (or someting like that)?

0points

Mike Radant 3 years ago

Not sending blacks back to Africa after the Civil War and bringing them here in the first place!

0points

Mike Rodrick 3 years ago

Please! The ULTIMATE stupid decision was definitely voting for trump, & millions were stupid enough to do it TWICE!

0points

Colin Matthews 3 years ago

How about introducing Rabbits in to Australia?

0points

Mette Stenersen 3 years ago

The west creating the state of Israel in 1948 should be on this list.

0points

Damon Tripodi 3 years ago

I'm really getting sick of the uneducated and unwilling to learn libtards on boredpanda

0points

TheKnightOwl 3 years ago

The introduction of social media. Too many ignorant, uninformed people retweeting unresearched bullshit, and calling it fact. Also, people assume Twitter/FB opinion is the majority opinion; it is not.

0points

Luis Hernandez Dauajare 3 years ago

What about Pope Gregory IX decision to decree all cats to be Satan's vessels and having them massively exterminated in the 1200's? The result was a surge in rats' population and the Black Death pandemic killing two thirds or Europe...

0points

Aleksei 3 years ago

Dumbest decision in history probably is wondering "What if I drew this animal as a nude humanoid?"

0points

Steve 3 years ago

Trying to decide which cup holds the Iocaine powder

0points

Felix Feline 3 years ago

Japan attacking Pearl Harbor. The USA not continuing Moon missions. Hitler attacking Russia. CSA traitors allowed to carry on as usual after the Civil War. Western Europe not aiding the Byzantines.

0points

Dee Tag 3 years ago

Anybody noticed how men are behind ALL of these decisions. I'm just saying....

0points

Sándor Piller 3 years ago

The single worst decision in history was made by a couple who decided to stay in the same household for 25 years in a toxic interracial love&hate relationship. The amount of pain they caused to each other was immense, and when their romantic attraction finally surfaced, they couldn't cope with it and committed a mutual suicide. tom-and-je...e227cf.jpg

-1point

Ger Tus 3 years ago

You forgot the biggest mistake of all Kill off every european wich set food on american soil by the natives

-1point

Aprl Fair 3 years ago

I think the single worst decision ever made was the invention of the farm. None of the stuff listed up there would have happened if we had never developed a need for money.

-1point

SBW71 3 years ago

This comment is hidden. Click here to view.

Doubleheader 3 years ago

Oh FFS. There was no voter fraud! You guys can criticize the president all you want, but when you make comments like that you're willfully pushing democracy farther and farther away. Just look at what's happening in Myanmar. Do you want that here? A coup leading to a dictator that steals away our voting rights? The general staging the coup also lies and says that it was a "fraudulent election." Sounds familiar, eh?

7points

Steve Ramaekers 3 years ago

This comment is hidden. Click here to view.

Mewton’s Third Paw 3 years ago

“I hate freedom and women. And women with freedom.” - Steve Ramaekers

9points

POST

Tracy Sellars 3 years ago

38points

Doubleheader 3 years ago

29points

Hannah Edwards 3 years ago

Bye, I’m off down a Wikipedia rabbit hole.

35points

Iggy 3 years ago

Make sure you stock up on carrots!

14points

Nea 3 years ago

Very informative post, i learnt a lot of new things. Need to look up more details about some of them.

17points

Allan Hedges 3 years ago

Trump saying COVID will be over in 2 weeks. Trump saying climate change isn't real. Trump having that speech on Jan 6, 2021. Trump blowing off science.

11points

María Hermida 3 years ago

Trump

5points

kjorn 3 years ago

7points

Silre 3 years ago

Allowing trump to stay president for as long as we did.

6points

Tobias the Tiger 3 years ago

At least he didn't get re-elected. That would've been even more of a screw-up!

1point

Bacony Cakes 3 years ago (edited)

6points

Sandra Charlot 3 years ago

Russian decision to decline international help for nuclear submarine Kursk and letting 118 soliders dying slowly during several days after explotion.

5points

Lola 3 years ago

What about that time when Bonaparte sold 25% of the US's territory for $15m? (yes, the same guy who decided to invade Russia, revoke women's rights and reintroduce slavery)

5points

Bacony Cakes 3 years ago

And Russia selling Alaska to the US. That was pretty dumb.

1point

Donnie Mc0 3 years ago

I woukd have thought Decca records deciding not to sign the beatles after an audition would have been in there!

4points

Javiera Gotelli 3 years ago

Whoever invented god and religion. We still face the consequences of their lsd fueled trip.

3points

Leo Domitrix 3 years ago

Could've been someone who tested a new shroom 200K years ago. Hard to know. Humans are good at these things even if sober, alas.

3points

Vicki Kloske 3 years ago

2points

elia 84631 3 years ago

Nickelodeon rejected Adventure time which saved Cartoon Network and defined the modern animation. Instead, they picked up Fanboy and Chum Chum. One of the worst mistakes in Animation.

2points

Night Owl 3 years ago

OK, now my bad decisions don't seem so bad

2points

Aria Singh 3 years ago

What about America voting a cheeto for president huh?

2points

SBW71 3 years ago

This comment is hidden. Click here to view.