The Craziest Most Stupid Moment in History

[Sinister]

I'm a history nut and I'm big on humor and irony. In my effort on combining the two, I want to start an intellectual debate on what was the craziest or most stupid moment in history. This can range from Scientific theories like Spontaeneous Generation or the Geocentric theory to tactical faux pas like staging a land war in Russia... The sky is the limit. So talk.

-Sin

[midgetbob]

I'm also a History fan, and would love to debate things like this, however, most of my knowledge kinda peters off during the Renaissance.

One of my favorite tactical blunders is the Battle of Hattin in the Holy Land. Nothing like screaming "Dues Vult!" fanatics thinking they could beat Saladin away from water and on a poorly plotted camp they decided to stay in instead of heading to the city.

[Bleachfangirl]

Several years ago, in Germany, a man went on a cannibalism website and posted something along the lines of, "I'd like to consume someone. Is anyone up for it?" And sometime later, another guy replies, "Yeah, I'd like to be consumed."

And so the two set up a date through emails or PMs. None of the other people on the site knew what was going on, so like a month later, the guy who wanted to be consumed (let's call him Meal), went to the other guy's apartment (He'll be Hungry). They sit down, have a few drinks, and after a while when Hungry decides he's had enough alcohol to set himself up for the task, he says, "Ok, I think I'd like to start consuming you now."

Meal, who is pretty drunk himself, gives the okay. And so Hungry chops off Meal's peepee and they both eat it (I don't know if it was cooked or not, but it's gross enough either way).

They finish that, and Hungry wants more. By now, Meal is totally out of it because even while they were eating, he was chugging down booze like no tomorrow. That and he was majorly bleeding down south. Anyway, Hungry waits for Meal to pass out, dismembers him, and puts him into marinade baggies.

About six months later, the other members of the site notice Meal hasn't been posting and get worried. They sniff around, see the question Hungry posted, get freaked out, and call the cops. The cops search up their PM/email history and go check out Hungry's place.

When they get there, they ask Hungry, "Did so-and-so come here on this day?" Hungry says "yes" all calm like. The cops ask if they can come in and search the place, and Hungry is fine with it.

By now, Hungry's done a great job cleaning the place up. There aren't any blood stains anywhere or a human skeleton hanging up in the corner, so the cops start feeling a little silly. Until one of them opens up the fridge.

In the fridge, they find the different baggies of different parts of Meal marinating in sauces and spices. Each baggie is even labeled for the day of the week that Hungry's going to eat it. Cops freak out, arrest Hungry, and he goes to court.

But because there were no laws against cannibalism, they didn't know what to do with him. Instead, he gets a few years for involuntary manslaughter and NOW there are laws against eating other people.


I got that story from my history teacher. He spent fifteen minutes in class scaring the crap out of us with it and I thought it was kind of odd enough for this.

[Sinister]

I've heard of that one, Bleachie... Can't remember where... Think a Rammstein song was written about it. Lyrics mummbled something about "you are what you eat".

My moment in history would be "Tulip mania". A whole country's economy rose and fell over a useless flower. Then they went through a period where it seemed almost as if they blamed the flower for ruining their country.

The real beauty of it was that the flower that was held in the highest esteem and was the most expensive(over ten-thousand florins. Which is ridiculous seeing an average person could live comfortably on an annual allowance of 300.) had white and red flames and breaks on it. This pattern was caused by a virus that would eventually overcome every afflicted plant. The flower was called Semper Augustus. It's non-existent now.

-Sin

[smurphy]

People underestimating missile or ranged weapons comes up quite a lot in history. The charge of the light brigade which was decimated by russian cannons, the battle of Agincourt, where a french force five times that of a english force mainly composed of longbow archers lost a whole generation of aristocracy as well as the french who lost a whole generation storming german machine guns in WW 1. Although none of these is the de facto mistake, mistakes regarding the underestimation of ranged weapons are the most frequent.