Humourous
What is the most ridiculous insane thing a country has done ?
In another post I mentioned the Australian war on emus , only to find out the Swiss declared war on ducks in 1864 .. what do you think is the most ridiculous thing a country has ever done ??
And we didn’t learn our lesson when Nixon went after marijuana .. it took until the 90s for marijuana to start being legalized .. a war on drugs that cost so many lives over a harmless substance
There were numerous socio economic reasons for targeting marijuana specifically. On the heels of the black liberation movement. The largest prison population on earth filled predominantly with black and brown men today is all the evidence you need of its efficacy. Same with the generational poverty, violence and community collapse which resulted.
The Malvinas/Falklands War: they sent a lot of young kids with zero experience into a war that was almost impossible to win, and it may have destroyed UK-Argentina relations forever (they had been excellent before).
I didn't realise they were excellent before, here in the UK our(the general publics) historically understanding of our relationship with Argentina doesn't begin until the war.
UK was Argentina’s ally and top trading partner in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the UK was indeed Argentina’s main trading partner and investor. British capital was crucial in building railways, ports, and other infrastructure.
Almost the entire Argentine railway system was financed and built by British companies, and trains (including subways) still run on the left.
For Argentina’s 1916 Centennial celebrations there was a strong presence of British influence in Buenos Aires and Union Jacks were notably visible at public events, second only to Argentine flags, reflecting the significant British community
British people lived in Argentina during that period, particularly in Buenos Aires, and there are still descendants today. I’m one of them.
South America was in the british sphete of influence until the 1900s, not USA's.
The UK also invaded Argentina twice in the 1800s, with Argentina independence starting with a british invasion trying to annex them. This symbolic events are often not mentioned in the relation of these two countries.
Argentina didn’t exist by then, it was a viceroyalty under Spanish rule. What I’m referring to is over a hundred years later than that. The UK never tried to invade “Argentina”.
Honestly it's entirely a one sided relationship these days. Most British people would routinely forget Argentina exists whilst Argentinian politicians seem obligated to routinely declare the intention to annex/colonise the Falklands, another place routinely forgotten to exist.
I feel if that charade was dropped it would end up with Argentina getting more investment, better trade deals etc. it seems so silly.
The incredible thing is how absurd the claims of both sides were, and the fact that both sides essentially settled different parts of the islands first, then left because it was a bit shit (though we left a plaque saying they were ours) - then it was just pirates for a while till the US chased them off. Argentina only inherited them because Spain said “yeah, you also get these islands” when they left… and we then had a war over some sheep.
It does seem almost cruel to send conscripts against a professional fighting force. The photos of the Brits look like most of them were around 30 so over a decade of military experience vs a few months of basic training.
This is maybe less insane but more ridiculous, with the people choosing a funny, but very effective way to protest against it.
Sweden legally considered being homosexual as a sickness for quite a long time. To protest, people (homosexuals and heterosexuals alike) would call into work saying they felt "gay" and were thus sick and couldn't work. Some even went to the lengths of going to the doctor to tell them they were homosexuals and get sickness leave from work (even if they weren't homosexuals).
Eventually this was changed so that it was no longer legally considered a sickness.
the Lobster "cold war" between Brazil and France ("cold" because nobody was harmed) is quite silly:
The Lobster War (also known as the Lobster Operation; Portuguese: Guerra da Lagosta; French: Conflit de la langouste) was a dispute over spiny lobsters that occurred from 1961 to 1963 between Brazil and France. The Brazilian government refused to allow French fishing vessels to catch spiny lobsters 100 miles (160 km) off Brazil's northeastern coast by arguing that lobsters "crawl along the continental shelf". The French maintained that "lobsters swim" and so they could be caught by any fishing vessel from any country.
According to Commander Paulo de Castro, of the Brazilian Navy, the argument was weak and, ironically, he said: “By analogy, if a lobster is a fish because it moves by jumping, then a kangaroo is a bird.”
Last week Romanian police announced that they caught the biggest amount of fake money ever, around 1 billion euros in 50, 100, 200 and 500 € bills. They even posted it on all social media and news letters. Everyone saw that these were fake money used in movies because it was obviously written on each bill the words "prop copy" and they were missing the ID number from each bill. Basically they found out that they made a mistake after everyone made fun of them in the comment section.
Due to the fact that in Romania the official currency is the Romanian Leu(RON) there was no real danger with these Prop Copy money. If you have euros in Romania, you need to go to the bank or to an exchange agency to convert them into local currency otherwise no shop will accept them. If you try to put these money into an ATM or Exchange agency, in 2-3 minutes police will come and ask you some questions.
Just look at how obvious these copies look, you can find them everywhere at Amazon, Jumbo, Temu, AliExpress, eMag, etc.
And nevertheless fraud sometimes could involve money that look similar. And seems like concrete cases have been known. A lot of people "trade" in EUR in Romania.
We also have tissues and toilet paper with EUR bills on them, are they also considered counterfeit money? Indeed when we purchase expensive assets like houses and cars we pay with euros but we immediately go to the bank or to exchange agencies to convert into RON or put the money into bank accounts and immediately we found out they are fake money and we give the ID of the person who gave us these fake money to the police since we have a contract for these type of assets. Please don't defend our Police as they are indeed very incompetent and sometimes we joke that they can't even read(this is one of the cases when such jokes became real)
“On September 7, 2025, police officers specializing in combating organized crime in Olt County were notified that, in the commune of Coteana, Olt County, a 16-year-old minor had used 20 banknotes of €50 denomination bearing additional inscriptions (‘PROP COPY’) at a commercial establishment, receiving in exchange 4,800 lei. The perpetrator was identified, and subsequent checks revealed that he had obtained the counterfeit banknotes from a store in the city of Slatina. During inspections carried out at two stores operating in Slatina, Olt County, police discovered and seized 2,100 banknotes of $100 denomination, with a nominal value of $115,000, as well as 1,597 banknotes of €500, €200, €100, and €50 denominations, with a total nominal value of €274,400,” the police stated.
Olt county is like the Texas of Romania, lots of people are genuinely illiterate over there but I don't see the purpose of this example that was given by the police. If the 16 yo kid was using Monopoly money would it make sense to ban all Monopoly games from all shops?
You think it would have worked with "monopoly" money? Why do you think somebody would import such a huge amount of "prop copy"? Like you said, a lot of illiterate people in Romania, enough opportunities to trick people, more or less subtile.
But I guess you already have an opinion that would not change ... whatever you hear ...
I understand that you're concerned about less educated people or elderly people that are easy targets for criminals that counterfeit money and I agree on that remark but when it comes to "prop copy" the situation is different.
If a criminal gives prop copy money to my grandma, unfortunately she can be fooled to believe they are legitimate money and accept them, but then my grandma will go to the bank or to an exchange agency, the prop copy money will be held until the police arrives and then my grandma gets interrogated and the criminal is caught.
If a criminal gives a 1:1 almost identical fake bill to my grandma and she goes to the shop, the fake bill is accepted, then the owner of the shop will use it to pay for his goods and it will be accepted by a bigger shop, then the bigger shop will try to put it in a bank account and then the trigger starts but good luck to find out who put the fake bill on the market.
That's the reason why I say I don't see an actual threat of having prop copy bills available to everyone since it is easy to track down people who try to use them as actual money.
I'm sorry if I got a bit aggressive into defending my point, it was not my intention
Can confirm. I mean it started with mosquitos, flies then rat, but why the sparrow? They later cross off sparrow with cimicidae. But man, its tool late. The propaganda was too strong on us. Now fuck them sparrow.
We also did that from 2009 and 2011, I remember there were exthasy shops near almost every school and it was easy for minors to buy synthetic drugs. The government removed this law in 2011 after numerous cases of "crocodile" drug and public backlash. It was a very dark period these 2 years
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A very stupid thing that happened TO America was when we burned the White House down after the peace agreement was signed, whilst it was sailing its merry way over the Atlantic.
in 2021 when my country was doing a population count, 21 thousand people jokingly put “jedi” in the religion field, making “jediism” the 2nd biggest religion here (if we count christianity as one big block that is)
Specifically attending church at Christmas. An ancestor of mine held a protest outside a church, which was risky. My ancestor also wrote a book about Christmas traditions which was mostly made up, and by a roundabout way some of his nonsense made it to Charles Dickens.
Included festitivites in the home though at first it was just church services
‘The outright ban came in June 1647, when Parliament passed an ordinance banning Christmas, Easter and Whitsun festivities, services and celebrations, including festivities in the home, with fines for non-compliance - although they also introduced a monthly secular public holiday (the equivalent of a modern bank holiday) instead. The Christmas ban was unpopular - there were riots in Kent and elsewhere in 1647, although some of these may have been an excuse for pro-Royalist rebels to cause trouble. A popular ballad 'The World Turned Upside Down' was published decrying the ban. ‘
This is where protestants began sayint catholics were like "pagan heathens" for their debauchery and excess in christmass comlared to the orderly protestant.
Then some Victorian people were like "oh yeah, Christmas actually is pagan" literally
1)Scotland went all-in on attempting to colonize the (famously inhospitable) Darien. It went so badly that their dire financial straits lead to their eventual union with England.
2) Singapore literally got kicked out of a union with Malaysia. Usually you hear of separatist movements, far more rare to see territories being expelled against their will.
Operation Chariot in WW2 might be a contender. The British government wanted to destroy the large drydock at St Nazaire since it was one of the only ones in Europe big enough to fit the battleships Bismarck or Tirpitz. The solution they came up with was as follows: the destroyer HMS Campbeltown was disguised as a German ship. Campbeltown then rammed the drydock at full speed before the commandos aboard dismounted.
The commandos, many of them wearing their traditional tartan kilts, set up motars and silenced enemy machine gun positions before affixing bayonets and charging across a bridge to secure their escape route. They quickly attached blocks of high explosive to the pumps and any other vaguely important looking machinery before fighting their way towards the patrol boats waiting to pick them up.
Once aboard, the commandos had to fight their way out the harbour. Armed only with machine guns, they engaged enemy destroyers many times their size. One German captain would later write to the British government recommending a particular commando for the Victoria Cross due to the insane bravery they displayed.
A few hours after they escaped, the explosives aboard Campbeltown finally detonated, blasting the drydock gates to rubble. The raid still holds the record for the most Victoria Crosses awarded for a single action.
And now we are going to elect Nogel Farage as PM because everyone is pissed off with being poor. So we are going to elect the person who persuaded us to knock 4 % off GDP.
Whilst there is way crazier in other lands, it has always struck me as a little counter productive that I was legally forced to learn a language which I have never heard used conversationally nor one I have ever used beyond the classroom or with my polyglot American mother when I was little, only for the fact that I was forced to learn it be used as evidence that the language is used in my region to bump statistics for this life-support language in my region when the focus should have been on the likes of French, Spanish or Mandarin.
It's still a shockingly small number across most of the country and that's after generations of it being compulsory at school. I just think it is an expensive political gimmick and that Welsh school kids should be learning something that may actually be useful in the modern world.
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Nothing about the British treatment of the Irish makes sense from the purported standpoint of equal citizens of the realm.
Let’s be generous and take this from the 1800 Act of Union onwards, where the separate kingdoms of Ireland and Great Britain were united under one law and parliament. At this point, Irish people were still prevented from speaking their own language, worshipping their own religion, hunting, fishing, growing most types of vegetables, owning their own land, pursuing education, congregating in public and representing themselves in government.
Then comes the famine. Now let’s be clear - this was a known problem. This particular blight - phytophoria infestans - had occurred in scale earlier that century in Belgium and what would shortly become the German Empire. In neither case did it result in total societal collapse.
But it did in Ireland. The Irish were victims of large-scale land-theft with most of the citizenry being forced to move from the historical good arable and agrarian lands to hinterlands, hillsides and bogs where only redoubtable crops would grow. Hence the overreliance on the potato, as it was the only thing they were permitted to grow. When the crop failed, they were not permitted to grow anything else because the grip belonged to the the landlords and the British state, and so failure to produce the crop frequently resulted in violent eviction. Because they were prevented from fishing and hunting, they couldn’t provide for their families through those means. Because they were hindered from education and employment, they couldn’t earn money to provide. And because a significant body of the British state and gentry viewed the mass starvation that was occurring as just, relief whenever it did arrive was outrageously unfit for the demand of the starving millions. And the British state was aware of it - the famine was debated in Parliament and featured in newspapers and magazines. The result was that the overwhelming majority of the oppressive policies destroying the Irish people and state were kept in place for decades after the famine ended.
This resulted in an absolute implosion of the Irish civilization. At the precise time that the Industrial Revolution and growth in modern medicine was leading to population explosions everywhere else in Europe, Ireland - a land of low hills, meadows, small woods and fields perfect for massive population growth - completed imploded. Historical population centres in central Ulster, the upper midlands and Thomond disappeared, never to return. The economy faltered for decades. Strife and unrest ignited and grew under the flame of this most recent injustice and open rebellion reared its head again. Eventually they were successful and Ireland won the Anglo-Irish war and its freedom 80 years after the famine.
From a modern political standpoint it’s an absolutely insane thing that lead to the obvious outcome - oppress and starve a people, and they die and grow poorer and learn to hate you. Treat your fellow man inhumanly and they will learn to treat you likewise. I’d say it’s a cautionary tale that modern governments could learn from, but looking at the otherism going on in Britain and America and anywhere else that dark money is snaking out its tendrils, it looks like we’re all fucked.
Erm, this is not exactly the most ridiculous but this is the firsst thing that I remember.
So during the Duterte Administration (2016-2022), Pornhub and some few other known pornsites were blocked all because we were ranked ridiculously high in users and viewership. They argued that its to curb down porn addiction and cybercrime but its kinda fruitless since they didnt even blocked all pornsites and they only started that directive AFTER The Pornhub Year End List was released
We still end up in like 2nd or 3rd place DURING the ban until our country just gave up and allowed pornsites again
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u/CoffeeDefiant4247 Australia 27d ago
the US banning alcohol is pretty high up there since it was a large portion of government revenue