17 Really Messed Up Events From US History
Recently, Reddit user Apprehensive_Way8674 asked, "What US historical fact/event do you tell people when they say America has never been as screwed up as it is now?"
People had A LOT to say in the comments. Here are some of the best and most interesting replies:
"We were literally minutes away from nuclear war during the Cuban Missile Crisis."
—bushinkaishodan"Maybe only prevented because one Soviet Navy officer, Vasily Arkhipov, refused to consent to a nuclear torpedo launch (three officers had to consent; the other two did.)"—kurinbo
"Hundreds of years of chattel slavery that tortured millions of people."
—National_Ad_682"And the whole Civil War."—Mooonstoner
"The Vietnam War. Citizens were fighting each other over it. The government drafted young men against their will and sent them off to an unpopular war to be killed. Those who made it home were ignored and vilified."
—ACynicalOptomist
"The Ohio National Guard murdering four Kent State college students protesting the Vietnam War wasn't great either."
—smithsapam
"The Japanese internment camps post-Pearl Harbor were pretty bad."
—Agreeable_Cat_9728
"I realize that the existence of Hamilton has made it kind of iconic in pop culture, but it's super messed up that an acting vice president shot and killed a former cabinet member. And all the charges were dropped!"
—blueeyesredlipstick"Dropping the charges and convictions of January 6 rioters is far more shocking. Those traitorous animals were on video attacking our nation's capital!"—Blecher_onthe_Hudson"And don't forget that Dick Cheney shot a guy, too!"—CYMK_Pro
"The Trail of Tears was all kinds of bad."
—AudibleNod
"The murder of Emmett Till. In addition to how disgusting this was, it wasn't even that long ago. Both my parents were alive at the time, and I'm only 36."
—Didntlikedefaultname
"Red Summer, aka the destruction of Black neighborhoods in 1919 by white vigilantes (sometimes referred to as 'race riots' to downplay their destruction)."
—No-Drive-8922
"The forced Americanization of Hawaiian natives following the unlawful invasion of the Hawaiian Islands in 1893."
—kalahiki808
"I honestly believe that this country was broken from its inception. A bunch of wealthy, slave-owning white men didn't want to pay taxes anymore, so they rebelled. Before and after the Revolutionary War, people came here in the hopes of getting rich off of the new world. We expanded west and committed genocide for that purpose."
—BrynxStelvagn
"The US Army's buffalo extermination campaign in the ongoing war against Native Americans."
—Walkingnerd_
"Many Americans supported eugenics in the early 1900s. The Nazis took many of their ideas from the American eugenics movement."
—af_cheddarhead
"The unethical and immoral Tuskegee Syphilis Study perpetrated against Black men."
—satan_messiah
"The Gilded Age was pretty bad for average people. Up until banking reforms, the economy crashed every few years."
—SiegelGT
"The Italian Hall Disaster on Christmas Eve, 1913. Someone yelled 'fire' (there was no fire) at a crowded party that was attended by striking copper miners and their families. People panicked and rushed to the exits. 73 people died from being crushed to death."
"There was a lot of confusion because most of the witnesses did not speak English. It is widely believed that the shouter was wearing a badge from a local anti-union group. The anti-union group later shot and kidnapped the president of the union."—Think_Seaweed_7314
And finally, one Reddit user asks an important question: "Does this context make our current situation any better?Shouldn't we be learning from our mistakes throughout history so we don't end up in fucked up situations like the one we're in now?"
H/T r/AskReddit
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