6 Celebrated Historical Figures Who Were Actually Assholes
You may soon begin to question these "heroes."
Published 9 years ago in Facepalm
These men and women were hailed as bringers of peace, love, unity and progression, but you may soon begin to question these "heroes."
1
Mahatma Gandhi: In his autobiography Gandhi admits to beating his wife while they were in South Africa. Speaking of which, he was also openly racist against South Africans. He said, "[South African black people] are as a rule uncivilized–the convicts even more so. They are troublesome, very dirty and live almost like animals . . . The reader can easily imagine the plight of the poor Indian thrown into such company!"5
Thomas Edison: The World’s Most Famous Thief. A staggering amount of his work was stolen from other inventors. Edison once offered Tesla $50,000 (more than $1,000,000 in today’s money) if Tesla could improve one of Edison's inefficient devices, which Tesla was able to do extremely well. Edison then refused to pay up for Tesla's hard work (which would surely save Edison more than $50,000). Edison instead said, “Tesla, you don’t understand our American humor.”6
Many of Mother Teresa's needy causes that she raised money for never saw a penny. A religious fanatic, Mother Teresa was more focused on opening new convents in her name, which in retrospect sounds like some sort of religious Ponzi scheme. 7% of the donations she received went to the actual causes for which they were donated.7
Steve Jobs stole ideas for both software and hardware, including the iconic iPod. Jobs also worked at Atari, where he lied to his partner, Steve Wozniak, about how much bonus money they were receiving for creating a scaled-down version Pong. Even with all that cash, Jobs wanted more money for himself.