History has taught us about tyrants, greed, and corruption–many of which are still prevalent in today's society.
But what makes any act of atrocity throughout the test of time stand out from the rest?
Redditor heavyflute4 helped narrow down some of those by asking strangers online:
"What is the single biggest d*ck move in all of history?"
History is rife with manipulation moves.
The Solution
"So the story goes that there’s this people in southern Iraq who’s agriculture, economy and way of living were built around them living within the swamps. They were not very fond of Saddam Hussein and his regime and did a protest march towards Baghdad. So meanwhile they moved towards the capital, Saddam took some excavators and drained the whole swamp."
– TheFinalResolution
The White Elephant In The Room
"The original White Elephant gifting from the King of Siam. This person would give this royal gift to people he found irritating and be entertained by the recipient's failing efforts to upkeep such an animal."
"Why don't they just give it away you ask?"
"Back in the day, receiving a gift and giving it away was perceived as an insult. Go figure. And giving away a gift from a neighboring kingdom is, well, that much BIGGER of an insult. So no dice."
"Economies apparently have failed in order to upkeep a royal gift like this. Honestly, d*ck move King of Siam."
"EDIT: I'm seeing some comments about giving away the elephant, killing it, or letting it die, so I'm going to clarify something."
"If you are given a gift, out of respect you take care of that gift because failing to do so would be taken as an insult from the gifting party. The King of Siam knew this and, for his pleasure, gave his opposing neighbors this annoyance of an animal; an ultimatum. Either fulfill the upkeep of this economy sucking, worthless elephant or I come invade your kingdom and slaughter you and your people. Being as powerful as he seemed to be, he probably sent delegations to these provinces to ensure the elephant was still around for years to come."
– 7113dEv
Tainted Fuel
"Thomas Midgley invented freon and putting lead into gasoline. He knew that putting lead into gasoline was a d*ck move and he did it anyway for money. He knew because he got lead poisoning himself and still lied about its effects on people."
"Environmental historians have said that he has had the single largest impact on the Earth's atmosphere of any single organism in the history of the planet."
"Not to mention that lead levels directly correspond to lower cognitive abilities in the general population and you can look up the dates to know who would have been affected."
– Mordanzibel
Ultimate Vengeance
"I always thought the FED putting Andrew Jackson on the $20 felt like a big 'F'k you' since he hated the idea of a centralized bank."
– otiswrath
Governments treating their citizens as nothing more than commodity or pawns for their gain have been a perpetual form of d'k moves.
Docking Relocation
"Putting your fishing boats to the coast of other countries because you already fished everything in your countries surrounding sea."
– Mazarev
Mexico And Indentured Servitude
"When the Mexican government rounded up thousands of Yaqui natives, made them walk over 300 km to the coast, put then on boats, and sold them as slaves for about 25 cents. Most ended up on plantations in Veracruz where they were worked to death. Slavery was already illegal in Mexico at the time."
– vaishuallinone
Punishing Scholars
"Before 1965 Indonesian Government sent academicians, especially STEM graduates to study in Eastern Europe. After the supposed communist uprising in 30th September 1965 the government revoked their citizenship and declared them stateless. They risked persecution and possible torture and murder if they insist on returning. These nuclear physicist, master engineer, and PhD graduates take menial jobs, becoming janitors and wait tables to carry on living with virtually no possibility of return to their country."
"PS: I'm adding some reading to anyone who are interested."
https://newnaratif.com/journalism/lost-homeland-indonesias-exile-story/
– ilhamalfatihah16
Even recent headlines make the cut qualifying as one of the biggest d*k moves of all time.
In Detail
"The psycho b*tch that pretended to sell baby clothes to lure a pregnant lady in and then cut her baby out and leave her to go to the hospital, all just to cover up the ongoing lie to her family that she was pregnant and just suddenly had a miscarriage ?? Yeah I live a couple streets from where that sh*t went down. Craziest sh*t I’ve ever had the misfortune of reading into."
"Dynel Lane"
"heres a somewhat recent article on it"
– coloradoflies
All throughout history, there have been many people or entities trying to advance their cause or trying to keep others down by doing whatever it takes.
Unfortunately, although the times may have changed, history continues to teach us that people will never change.