40 People Respond To ‘Which Is The Worst Single Decision In History Ever Made By A Person?’

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

technicalaversion , Lance Cpl. Brian L. Wickliffe, U.S. Marine Corps Report

Final score:

610points

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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

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

Russian_Spy_slav , Oak Knoll Press Report

Final score:

518points

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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.

Horacecrumplewart , commons.wikimedia Report

Final score:

317points

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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

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#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.

TheRealSumRndmGuy , British Museum Report

Final score:

300points

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#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

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#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.

JamesCDiamond , commons.wikimedia Report

Final score:

280points

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#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

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#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

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#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

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#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

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#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

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#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

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#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

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#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

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#21

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

powerlesshero111 , Ildar Sagdejev Report

Final score:

211points

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#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

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#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

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#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

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#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

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#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

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#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

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#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.

QuestioningAccount1 , commons.wikimedia Report

Final score:

150points

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#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

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#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

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#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

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Pazuzu 3 years ago

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

14points

Gin Marie 3 years ago

Stop spreading that Fox "News" crap.

11points

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Scagsy 3 years ago

Boycott Coca-Cola for their 'Be less white' mandate to their staff. Racists

12points

Mewton’s Third Paw 3 years ago

I don’t know what happened there but Coke is also ranked #1 as a company for being the worst for the environment. Too bad that RC isn’t sold in more places.

7points

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Dave In MD 3 years ago

More to the story as there always is, do some research.

6points

Silas O'Connell 3 years ago

That, my friend, is a myth. Please, please, please do your research before posting.

2points

Thomas Turnbull 3 years ago

No and I am with millions of others

0points

Füll Ñæmę 3 years ago

This comment has been deleted.

0points

Anna roberts 3 years ago

Doesn't surprise me from them, sadly. Going to be hearing it from others too, I am afraid. The current climate is blowing that way

-1point

InfectedVoice 3 years ago

Horrible syrupy stuff, haven't drank coke for many years, good riddance.

2points

D H 3 years ago

I was expecting New Coke

2points

Gabby M 3 years ago

Another reason to stop buying Coca-Cola: https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.nytimes.com/2018/07/14/world/americas/mexico-coca-cola-diabetes.amp.html

1point

Dee Tag 3 years ago

I will never boycott Coca-cola, not ever!

1point

Suzanne Haigh 3 years ago

Surely if they never met the fee then the sale would have been invalid?

0points

backatya 3 years ago

dumb

0points

Marnie 3 years ago

Boycott all Coca-cola products. They steal water from local populations.

0points

Vicki Perizzolo 3 years ago

and their plastic is everywhere continuing to trash the planet...and they are one of the major causes of rainforest destruction for palm oil too... horrible company

0points

Cybele Spanjaard 3 years ago

I can see him also shrugging his shoulders as he sauntered off...

0points

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#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

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#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

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#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

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#35

Whoever signed the bill passing prohibition

Hibberd92 Report

Final score:

90points

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#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

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#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

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#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

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#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

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#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.

AdouMusou , Thomas Heinrich Voigt Report

Final score:

74points

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#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

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#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

The-Sound_of-Silence/ , wikipedia Report

Final score:

31points

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#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

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#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

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#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

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#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

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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.

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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.

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What do you think ?

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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!

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

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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.

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

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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

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Steve Ramaekers 3 years ago

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Mewton’s Third Paw 3 years ago

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

9points

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POST

Tracy Sellars 3 years ago

38points

Doubleheader 3 years ago

29points

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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!

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

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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.

Load More Replies...

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

1point

Niffler_13 3 years ago

1point

Ro MoLip 3 years ago

Eating a bat

0points

$fracarr avatar$

François Carré 3 years ago

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

0points

Luis Hernandez Dauajare 3 years ago

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

-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