There are a lot of lies from history that have been so successful that they’ve even changed the world…and it’s led to a lot of chaos.
And these AskReddit users talked about what they think are the most successful lies in history.
Check out what they had to say!
History lesson.
“The Protocols of the Elders of Zion
It’s indirectly caused World War II, among other things.
Ironically, Japanese leaderships believing it caused them to want to shelter them instead. Thinking elders would invest to their war machine.
Saving approximately 24,000 Jews. Refusing Josef Meisinger’s pressure to go “Final Solution” though compromised a bit by creating a Ghetto.”
Awesome.
“In a Portuguese town there are the remains of a 14th-century castle that withstood a desperate prolonged siege in 1368. A local woman broke the enemies resolve by baking some cakes with the last of the flour.
The bread was then sent to the Spaniards, in a fake show of plenty, with the message, ‘if you need any more, just let us know’. Fearing a much more prolonged siege, the Spaniards withdrew.”
Quite a story.
“Juan Pujol García.
He wanted to be a spy for the Allies during WWII. The British rejected him, so he just started making crap up to send to the Nazis by using reliable British news sources he could get in Spain/Portugal. The British figured out what he was doing and recruited him.
He ended up with a “spy ring” that the Nazis bankrolled including paying for a funeral and pension to the widow of someone who never existed. He helped create confusion with the Normandy landings by feeding information for Operation Fortitude (fake army to throw off the actual landing location).
Then on D-Day, he radioed German officers at 3 am to warn them of a pending invasion, but no one was there to receive his call. When they finally established communications at 8 am, the invasion had already begun and he was authorized to basically give every detail of the invasion since it was too late. Of course, he was also able to berate the communications officer for being late and wasting the opportunity to fight off the invasion.
He was awarded the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire for his contributions to the war. Oh yeah, he was also awarded an Iron Cross from the N**is that Hitler had to personally authorize.”
Here we go again…
“Va***nes cause Autism.
Managed to convince several generations of parents not to get their kids va***nated and because of that, all kinds of diseases that were once d**d have made a comeback.”
Good Lord.
“God wants you to give money to the church.
“He loves you, and He needs money! He always needs money! He’s all-powerful, all-perfect, all-knowing, and all-wise, but somehow just can’t handle money!””
Not exactly…
“Just get good marks in high school.
Once you go to a top tier college, your life is practically set and sorted.”
All three of ’em.
“Peace in our time.” –Chamberlain
Trickle-down/supply-side Economics
The “fat is bad” campaign waged by the sugar industry.”
Controversial.
“Mormonism.
17 million members worldwide.
Made from complete and absolute utter nonsense and bulls**t.”
Nope.
“”Teaching is easy. Just show up at 8am, say some stuff for a few hours, get a bunch of breaks, go home at 3 and get four months off.”
Yep. Easy peasy.
Nope. Teaching is the hardest job and the pay is horrible.”
So many of these I never realized!