People Explain Which Things Were Ruined For Everyone By A Few Idiots

Did you know that you used to be able to walk unguided on the interior stairs to or from the top of the Washington Monument in Washington D.C.? My Mother did it twice in the early and mid 1960s.

The 896 steps of the Washington Monument's interior stairs were always intended to be seen, with commemorative stones—193 in total—on the walls along the route. States, cities, foreign nations, businesses, labor unions, and civic organizations provided stones as part of fundraising efforts to complete the monument or for later renovations.

Construction began in 1848 and the monument opened 40 years later in 1888. Progress was halted for 23 years, from 1854 - 1877, due to funding issues and the Civil War.

The stones feature materials like marble, limestone, pipestone, petrified wood, coral sandstone, jade, soapstone, granite, and even copper, silver, and gold.

Some feature simple engravings while others feature elaborate carvings.

National Park Service

The stairs were closed to the public—in 1971 for ascending and in 1976 for descending—due to vandalism and safety concerns. For several years, the National Park Service offered a twice daily descent tour of the stairs, dependent upon availability of park personnel, but even that became untenable.

Some damage to the commemorative stones was caused due to being made of softer materials like sandstone. People touching them over and over for years, despite being told not to, caused engravings and carvings to wear away.

But people had also begun marking the walls with their initials, or other graffiti, and chipping off pieces of the commemorative stones or of the monument itself to get a souvenir.

Giphy

So some people who couldn't keep their grubby hands off stuff, shut down access to part of American history.

Reddit user PeddlerInWonderland asked:

"What did a minority of idiots ruin for everyone else?"

Public Land

"Where I used to live there’s a public park with a big hill and when it snowed people would sled down it. A kid ran into a pole and had to get stitches and his mom tried to sue the city."

"Now it’s against the law to sled down the big hill."

~ gunnar08

"There was a park with a pond that had no swimming signs and a teenager decided to swim in it, drowned, parents sued."

"They emptied the pond and now it's just an empty pit of nothing."

~ WaterforestsDream

Free Lightbulbs

"When I was growing up, the electric company would offer free lightbulbs to customers. A local business complained that he wasn’t selling any bulbs as a result so no more free bulbs for anyone."

~ Luneowl

Free Wi-Fi

"I'm an industrial painter. The factory I'm painting in right now has WiFi but some dumb a** downloaded two seasons of Supernatural on the company WiFi."

"Now no one can have the password."

~ DoesntMatterEh

Skate Heaven

"This is personal and anecdotal, but in my home town there was a loading dock, some ledges, and a couple of concrete pads behind a Kohl's or Marshalls."

"Basically skate heaven, and the manager of the store would let local kids skate back there so long as they didn't scare off customers, weren't drinking or doing drugs, etc..."

"So one day a couple of dumba**es vandalized the spot and did a bunch of property damage, and after that nobody could skate back there."

~ Grape_Pedialyte

Airport Security

"Airport security, used to be so easy."

~ FlySlowAndLow

"The f*cking shoe bomb guy. I'm over 40 years old, I remember pre-9/11 airport security and how that day changed airports."

"But shoe bomb guy is why we have to take our shoes off, and that is both a special level of irritating and demonstrably doesn't make us more safe."

~ JollyJeanGiant83

Kaitenzushi

"In Japan, a couple teenage hooligans went to a Kaitenzushi chain (Conveyor-belt sushI) and started licking the sushi and condiments while leaving them on the conveyor belt, all the while filming this for TikTok."

"Now half of all the Kaitenzushi chains have outright stopped having the sushi on the conveyor belt to be taken—you have to order it for it to arrive. The whole joy of Kaitenzushi is to take it as it comes, so this is MASSIVELY disappointing."

~ Kosmonavtlar1961

"So THAT'S what happened‽ Between one trip and the next, I was so confused when there was no actual sushi on the belt to be taken anymore."

~ Jantra

"World governments are finally doling out real punishments to these types of people—one of the people who posted the "sushi terrorism" to social media ended up getting arrested and sentenced to three years in prison, so hopefully these pranks stop."

"And on another note, whatever happened to pranks just being throwing a water balloon at your friend or something."

~ Charming-Ebb-1981

Amusement Parks

"Going unsupervised to amusement parks as a kid or teenager. Here in Southern California, Knott's Berry Farm used to allow teenagers and kids to come and hang as they please."

"I myself have tons of my best memories going to Knott's with friends. Literally had my first kiss at Knott's."

"But because of Tiktok and a handful of idiot teenagers starting fights and mass panic over a non-existent mass shooter—literally kids were yelling that there was an armed shooter as a 'joke' for TikTok."

"So now if you're under 15, you have to have a chaperone looking after you, and not just at the gate to get in."

"Honestly, I feel bad for the kids who were fine and now can't just hang with friends and ride roller coasters."

"If my nephew or nieces want to go, I or another family member have to agree to chaperone them. I don't know, I just think that sucks."

~ brokenbeardman

Business Casual

"One single idiot ruined the relaxed dress code we pushed for at work. Normally the company required a blue or gray suit with tie everyday."

"I worked in the creative department and it took a long time to convince the powers that be to let us wear khakis and a button up with no tie to feel a little more relaxed and creative. Part of this deal, we actually had to access the building via the back door and weren’t allowed in the main, client-facing areas."

"New guy gets hired and his first Friday, knowing full well the dress code, wears a ripped hoodie and jeans."

"That Monday we were all back to full suits. F*ck that dude."

~ F_is_for_Ducking

Archeological Tourism

"A lot of archeological tourism sites like Chichen Itza and Machu Pichu."

"People kept taking pieces as mementos."

"Now they won't even let you get close to a lot of these."

~ makesyoudownvote

"This is true for almost all caves. Everyone has stolen the stalactites and stalagmites that take centuries to create."

~ qmosoe

Senior Trip

"A few losers in the senior class before us took beer and booze on their senior trip, hiding it in shampoo containers in their luggage."

"They got drunk and found out, and all senior school trips were cancelled starting with ours, the class of 1983. Thanks a**holes of ‘82."

~ wespintoofast

"Similar story here. A few idiots caused mayhem on a school trip to France. No more school trips. Kind of pathetic entitlement. Can’t blame the teachers, though."

~ Sweet-Geologist9168

Hotel Gracery

"I've got a very specific one."

"I went to see the Godzilla head up close on top of a hotel in Shinjuku, Tokyo."

"It's been closed indefinitely because some absolute f*cks were climbing on it and causing too many safety issues and one eventually fell, so we could only look through a window instead."

"Lame. It was still pretty cool, but f*ck those guys."

~ PresidentLink

"Basically, everything in Japan is being ruined by disrespectful idiot tourists."

"I lived there for some time, visited again a couple of years ago, and found even more restrictions and hostility towards foreigners."

~ Spiritfox3

Over-the-Counter Medication

"Effective over-the-counter medications."

"At least here, you can still get Sudafed, but you have to buy it at the pharmacy counter. I think they only allow one box at a time."

~ flashingcurser

"I am still so salty about the real Alka Seltzer Cold Medicine."

~ glyneth

"You can't even get a bottle of isopropyl alcohol over the counter anymore where I live. I guess they use it in meth making or people were drinking it or something."

~ anonimna44

Public Bathrooms

"Public toilets teach you:"

"• that lots of humans have not mastered sh*tting and not having it spray all over the walls"

"• that lots of people like to have sex in public toilets"

~ lolas_coffee

"So today I was doing errands & had to go the bathroom. I couldn’t hold it until I got home.

"Wegman's grocery store has the best bathroom, but I was 2 miles away from it. I was thinking I wish there was some place I could go to pay for a clean bathroom. I swear I would pay up to $10, but they don’t exist."

"Ended up in Giant grocery store, it was clean, but was out of toilet paper, no paper towels, but they did have toilet seat covers. They had water & soap."

"Public bathrooms frighten me, I try not use them."

~ tansugaqueen

Senior Breakfast

"My high school used to do a BIG breakfast buffet for graduating seniors on the last day of school. Bacon, eggs, pancakes, sausage, fruits pastries, cereal, grits, oatmeal, juice, coffee, basically anything you could imagine, and they’d let you miss your first period class to hang out in the cafeteria for it."

"It was a big deal that everyone looked forward to, the whole school would smell awesome, and all the other students would be seething with envy in their first period classes."

"Well, my junior year, the graduating class ahead of me decided to stage a massive food fight. There were grits on the ceiling well into the following year, and of course the principal was so angry my class didn’t get a senior breakfast."

"I’m still bitter to this very day."

~ Brilliant_Disk

Food Donations

"Years ago, Long John Silver's would donate their excess food to a local shelter."

"One idiot tried to get rich by suing the chain, saying the donated food was tampered with, even alleging it was purposefully done to kill the homeless population."

"The case went nowhere because it was ridiculous, but it made all the restaurants hesitant to donate, and now none of them donate any food at all because of the risk of being sued."

~ Sentient_Prosthetic

"This hit all convention centers and large event spaces."

"We have to throw away so much food now, even if it’s individually packaged, because donating it is too much of a liability."

~ MVPoftheVPs

What things were ruined for everyone by an idiotic, selfish few?