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Nobody was born screwup-proof. I mean, look at the times you've made a mistake, like, in the past year, and your blank page will be full by the second month of the year.
But there’s one thing about getting caught lying and entirely another when someone literally makes a regretful decision that starts the plague in their country, or when an entire business goes bankrupt.
So when someone put up the question “Which is the worst single decision in history ever made by a person?” on AskReddit, it immediately became a hit on the subreddit. 47.3k upvotes and 17k comments later, we’ve got the most illuminating replies that may, in fact, make us change our perspective of things. Welcome to the land of historical screwups, the place where any given error is worse than your very worst one times infinity.
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#1
Bush’s decision to invade Iraq in 2003. There was no cause or direct threat, and it led to hundreds of thousands of deaths, trillions of dollars spent, and the creation of ISIS.
RELATED:
#2
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.
#3
Burning of the Library of Alexandria
#4
“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.
Col BatGuano 3 years ago
since he sold out his share for only $50,000 I expect he's not a big fan.
#5
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).
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.
#6
“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”
River Webb 3 years ago
and nobody, except a crazy old woman, thought it was even remotely suspicious
#7
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
Eliška Hůlková 3 years ago
He was also the one behind Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution. Bloody tyrant.
#8
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.
#9
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.
#10
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.
#11
Invading Russia. Always invading Russia.
Lauren Caswell 3 years ago
People always seem to think "surely it's not that cold".....Well yeah
#12
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.
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
#13
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.
#14
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.
#15
The guy who rejected Hitler's art academy application?
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.
#16
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.
#17
The decision by the Scottish to invade England during Black Death must be up there.
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.
#18
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.
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.
Bacony Cakes 3 years ago
Yes, but the thing that ran through the doorframe like a peeved elephant was that Britain and Co. put the blame on Germany and demanded a kajillon of whatever they could give up as reparations.
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engineer_nope.avi 3 years ago
Here's a true fact about the assassination: it's a complete accident. A few hours before this actual event, Gavrilo Princip's faction, the Black Hand, had already planned to assassinate the Archduke when he came to Sarajevo. They lodged a grenade, hoping to kill him but failed. The grenade missed the Archduke's car and exploded behind him, injuring bystanders instead. Princip pretty much gave up and on his way to fleeing the country, he stopped by a local diner for a quick meal. Meanwhile, the Archduke, despite all warnings from his advisors, decided to go to the hospital to visit the victims of the grenade. But the driver got lost since he didn't know the Sarajevo streets that well and after a few hours, the car just gave up on them. The thing is that the car stopped right in front of the diner where Princip was sitting and enjoying a meal. And of course, seeing the Archduke, Princip fired his gun, killing him and his wife and the rest is history.
Marlowe Fitzpatrik 3 years ago
that is NOT the definition of a "complete accident".
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Marcellus the Third 3 years ago
A weird view of history. It's like saying the Nazis rose and WW2 happened because the Reichstag burned in 1933, or that an avalanche is caused by speaking to loud... No it's the trigger; the avalanche happens because there's an enormous force built up and kept back by something fragile.
Linus Nilsson 3 years ago (edited)
This is false on so many levels that I don't even know where to begin. To claim that this person single handedly started WWI is simply wrong. The nations started the war since everyone believed that they were stronger than their enemies.
Roxy Eastland 3 years ago
I completely agree. There were huge tensions building up and something was going to tip it over the edge, even if he hadn't fired that shot.
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Stephen Wild 3 years ago
People keep telling me this story, as though it's entirely new... The causes of the First World War are extremely complex and have been the basis of countless books and PhD theses... to break it down to this particular cause is specious. The Archduke's assassination was the trigger for the war, not the cause, and the war would almost certainly have been triggered by something else if Franz Ferdinand hadn't been killed. In the 20 years previous to 1914, the war had almost been triggered at least three times...
Sanne H. 3 years ago
The location where the killing took place, is still clearly marked in Sarajevo, the capital city of Bosnia Herzegovina. (I’d recommend to visit the country by the way, it’s not very touristy (yet) and therefore not very spoiled, and has many sites of historical relevance)
ZenitaBonita 3 years ago
I second this! I visited Sarajevo a couple of years ago and absolutely loved it. Also went for a hike in the mountains (Lukomir) and it’s just gorgeous (especially being from the flattest country ever). Still dream of the amazing coffee as well 😄
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Cara Kelly 3 years ago
There is plenty of evidence that if this hadn't have happened, a war would have occurred anyway sadly
Tracy Sellars 3 years ago
What I find surprising is the first Christmas in WWI there were sections on the battlefield that stopped fighting. Instead they ate together, played games and got to know the "enemy". They then went back to killing each other days later. Human nature is weird.
Jessica Shookhoff 3 years ago
Yes, it really, truly is. We're such bizarre creatures
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Maximiliano Rodriguez 3 years ago
Even worse, the attack had failed thanks to the archduke's security, but the man who was driving Franz Ferdinand's car, upon leaving the event in which they were, turned the wrong corner and had to stop when he realized that the street was blocked. who was standing there? Gavrillo Princip
Ivana Bogdan 3 years ago
Actually that's not completely true (but mostly yes). Austria-Hungary occupied huge territory in Balkan and he believed he will bring us freedom and he did. Maybe world doesn't remember him as a symbol against foreign tyranny but some countries on Balkan really do. Also situation was already problematic and shooting Archduke was just excuse of bigger countries to start war.
David Schloss 3 years ago
Not only that, but Ferdinand was sympathetic to his cause, so Princip shot one of the few monarchs that were in his favor.
Mateo Buysse 3 years ago
Honestly, the killing of franz ferdinand was just the last straw of things
François Carré 3 years ago
This is less obvious but the assassination of Tsar Alexander II in 1881 in an anarchist bombing was a very bad idea of the same kind. It comforted the Russian monarchy in its very conservative, regressive policies, which indirectly led to 1905 and 1917 revolutions, the latter of which was not especially a success towards democracy and freedom.
Suzanne Haigh 3 years ago
Have you not been reading the previous posts? It was all Britain fault, no one else
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Wilf 3 years ago
The complex tensions in the Balkans would have exploded onto wider European power politics anyway. It was a question of when, not if. As the character Blackadder says in the famous comedy show when asked why did the war start- "it was just too much effort NOT to have a war". The real tragedy is Germany didn''t succeed in winning it in the first few weeks. Blame General French who stopped the Germans at the Marne. Oh, and the Paris taxi drivers who used their cars to drive the French troops up to the front!
Russian Otaku 3 years ago
Post is stupid and guy wanted more and bit different from that and ironically shot one of the only people he shouldn't have leader wise
Stephanie Fox 3 years ago
If it had not been him, somebody would have done something and WWI would have happened anyway. Things were a mess and Europe was just waiting for an excuse to go to war.
M Kate McCulloch 3 years ago
and boys, and girls, women, elders, animals... the cost of war should never be counted in only the soldiers killed because the others always outnumber the soldiers and are referred to as "collateral damage." When we stop dehumanizing others, we may end all war.
Elizabeth Molloy 3 years ago
Not self-constructed, he was one of a group men, each of whom was placed along the route. He was the only one who succeeded.
Michael Vickery 3 years ago
This assumes that no war would have ever happened, which probably isn't true.
Sava Ličina 3 years ago
historical mistake, first vas Austria anected teritory of Bosnia and provoke the revange...read the books...
Igor Grujic 3 years ago
Fist of all, it's not a "self-constructed vendetta". Learn the damn history. He IS remembered as a symbol against foreign tyranny.
Ivan Bratić 3 years ago
I know my comment will get many downwotes but i dont care, he is a HERO . The war was about to happen anyway... this just speed up the process.
Iggy 3 years ago
Exact figures are very hard to ascertain. Some estimates go as high as 15 million. https://www.standard.co.uk/lifestyle/ww1-soldiers-in-numbers-how-many-died-world-war-one-facts-for-armistice-day-a3986761.html
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Jon S. 3 years ago
How was it worse? There were fewer deaths, fewer civilian casualties and campaigns of ethnic eradication were much more limited.
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Samantha Lomb 3 years ago
With the exception of the Russian Women's Battalion of Death ( which didn't form until 1917) women were not allowed in combat positions. While they certainly were killed as nurses, drivers and civilians, the majority of casualties in WWI were men and if you look at battlefield deaths they would be almost entirely men.
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#19
Game of Thrones Season 8
#20
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...
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.
#22
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.
#23
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.
#24
Anatoly Dyatlov making sure with every step, that reactor 4 at Chernobyl exploded in 1986.
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)
#25
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.
#26
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.
#27
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.
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.
#28
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.
#29
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.
#30
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."
#31
The guy that sold the bottling rights for Coca Cola, for $1, and never even made the guy pay the $1.
#32
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
Samantha Lomb 3 years ago
The hydrogen thing was the US's fault. The US had a monopoly on the production of Helium.
#33
Eight years ago when that guy bought two large pizzas for 10,000 bitcoin.
#34
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.
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.
#36
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.
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.
#37
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
#38
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.
#39
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.
#40
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.
What do you think ?
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.
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! :/
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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.
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.
Tobias the Tiger 3 years ago
At least he didn't get re-elected. That would've been even more of a screw-up!
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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.
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.
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)
Bacony Cakes 3 years ago
And Russia selling Alaska to the US. That was pretty dumb.
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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!
Javiera Gotelli 3 years ago
Whoever invented god and religion. We still face the consequences of their lsd fueled trip.
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.
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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.
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.
Anggi Santika 3 years ago
Nokia wasn't in the list? That was still a major loss when they finally give up
Andy Acceber 3 years ago
Ferdinand and Isabella deciding it was cool to fund this dude, Christopher Columbus' expedition to further Catholicism.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Mike Radant 3 years ago
Not sending blacks back to Africa after the Civil War and bringing them here in the first place!
Mike Rodrick 3 years ago
Please! The ULTIMATE stupid decision was definitely voting for trump, & millions were stupid enough to do it TWICE!
Mette Stenersen 3 years ago
The west creating the state of Israel in 1948 should be on this list.
Damon Tripodi 3 years ago
I'm really getting sick of the uneducated and unwilling to learn libtards on boredpanda
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.
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...
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.
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 
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?
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Mewton’s Third Paw 3 years ago
“I hate freedom and women. And women with freedom.” - Steve Ramaekers
Load More Replies... 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.
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! :/
Load More Replies... 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.
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.
Tobias the Tiger 3 years ago
At least he didn't get re-elected. That would've been even more of a screw-up!
Load More Replies... 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.
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.
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)
Bacony Cakes 3 years ago
And Russia selling Alaska to the US. That was pretty dumb.
Load More Replies... 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!
Javiera Gotelli 3 years ago
Whoever invented god and religion. We still face the consequences of their lsd fueled trip.
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.
Load More Replies... 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.
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.
Anggi Santika 3 years ago
Nokia wasn't in the list? That was still a major loss when they finally give up
Andy Acceber 3 years ago
Ferdinand and Isabella deciding it was cool to fund this dude, Christopher Columbus' expedition to further Catholicism.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Mike Radant 3 years ago
Not sending blacks back to Africa after the Civil War and bringing them here in the first place!
Mike Rodrick 3 years ago
Please! The ULTIMATE stupid decision was definitely voting for trump, & millions were stupid enough to do it TWICE!
Mette Stenersen 3 years ago
The west creating the state of Israel in 1948 should be on this list.
Damon Tripodi 3 years ago
I'm really getting sick of the uneducated and unwilling to learn libtards on boredpanda
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.
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...
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.
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
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?
Load More Replies... Mewton’s Third Paw 3 years ago
“I hate freedom and women. And women with freedom.” - Steve Ramaekers
Load More Replies...
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