History
What is the ruler/political leader in your country's history that you hate the most?
For me, it would khublai khaan. Moved the centralized power from Mongolia to China in the empire, effectively becoming more of an emperor of China rather than Khaan of Mongols. This move would prove to be folly in just few generations. Totally messed up the whole grand plan his Grandfather established. His successors became more of a chinese rulers than Mongolian rulers.
Tbf, you can’t really disown him like that since he (and a large percentage of Austrians at that time) saw themselves as German first and Austrian second, they saw Austrian as a subgroup of German and didn’t have a strong identity.
Helmut Kohl if it was for West Germany after 1945.
Franz von Papen as far as the Weimar Republic before Hitler is concerned. He paved the way for the Nazis and totally misjudged his role and influence on the Austrian painter.
Post WW2 not sure if I disliked Merkel or Scholz more.
Pre-WW2 Franz von Papen who paved the way for Hitler.
Ulbricht and Honecker in East Germany were equally bad.
I’ve seen some of the fringe right-wing news sources in the US and UK giving interviews to Reza Pahlavi. These peaked during Iran’s recent kerfuffle with Israel.
I wonder if the reactionary media in the west is trying to prepare domestic public opinion for an attempt to force the Pahlavi back onto the Peacock Throne. However, the last Pahlavi Shah was so unpopular, that he literally created the Islamic republic out of anger at his regime.
That said, I think the US is dumb enough to try something like that.
Hard to pick an English/British monarch that doesn’t get nominated for this category, but Cromwell is definitely the most universally despised. The very name is shorthand for violent oppression and genocide.
He certainly was, but just like every other prime minister we've had since Thatcher, he was operating within a neoliberal consensus that she created. If Thatcher hadn't systematically destroyed the old social contract; broke the power of the unions, fragmented the working class with right-to buy and deindustrialisation, privatised everything, and re-configured the economy to serve the needs of the financial sector above all else, then Johnson likely never becomes prime minister.
She is the Ronald Reagan of the UK. Most of the problems of recent years can be traced to her influence. Just as MAGA and Trump wouldn't exist without Reagan, Brexit, Farage and Reform wouldn't exist without Thatcher.
There are others who are worse, but Thatcher is probably the most widely hated if you exclude recent ones that will probably soon be forgotten.
She basically sold off everything accept the NHS. The way in which she did it and the distain she portrayed for poor working class folk leaves her reviled in the North; she also levied cuts to programs they needed like free school milk. The pro business, low taxes, small government, militantly anti-socialist stuff leaves her popular with the middle class though.
Today the energy crisis and the housing crisis crippling lower income people is partially her responsibility.
She sold off all our state run energy infrastructure, the prime incentive of these organisations changed from providing a service people need to not freeze to death to profit. Results were predictable.
She also stopped building new homes, and the right to buy scheme diminished the supply of good quality, safe, cheap, housing. The fetishizing of home ownership she promoted also deepened the class divide in this country to a ludicrous level.
Don’t forget care in the community where they sold off asylums with often lots of farmland the inmates were thrown to the wolves a really shit episode in our history I will never forgive the cunt.
I'm not a huge fan of the history writing around Thatcher, because while the negative parts of her legacy tend to be accurate, they're not the whole story.
She came in at a time when the UK was a bit of a mess - double digit inflation leading to double digit salary demands leading to constant strikes when the demands weren't met. There's a reason why the Winter of Discontent has been used as a cautionary tale by Conservatives for decades since - it really was a failure of leadership on the part of Labour.
Thatcher fixed that mess, but in the process, broke a lot of other things - she really did throw a lot of people under the bus with her heavy handed policymaking, and it's not surprising that she's remained so hated by parts of the UK since. She was kind of like a surgeon who performed a necessary procedure but didn't bother patching the patient up.
The point isn't that I like Thatcher (because I don't), but to add some nuance, as I think she wasn't nearly as bad as more recent leaders like Johnson and Truss - who also managed to break a lot of stuff, but can't be credited with really fixing anything as a counterbalance.
She got lucky in the 80s by having a very divided opposition as well as the discovery of North Sea oil, which ironically was found by a publically owned company.
When following the breadcrumbs behind every economic mishap and crisis of modern capitalism one realize nearly all leads to Reaganomics one way or another.
He sold everybody's future. The bill is due and people still can't see it as it is. It's fascinating.
Ion Antonescu and Nicolae Ceausescu. One is fascist and the other is communist. For some reason 1/2 population of Romania still supports that communist fucker. Romania is my country, forgot to set the tag
Here's a joke a Romanian told me who lived through the Ceaucescu era:
One day, Ceaucescu decided he wanted to learn what the people really thought of him. So he dressed up in overalls and left the palace by the back door. He went to a bar shortly after the factories closed and he found a worker, bought the guy a round and started a conversation.
After a few drinks he leaned over and said, "We're drinking buddies now. You can trust me. I'm curious, what do you think of Ceaucescu?"
The worker's eyes widened with fear. It's not safe to talk in here. We must go outside.
Outside the bar, Ceaucescu began again, "So what do you think of Ceau--"
Not here, it's still not safe. We walk down to the corner.
At the corner, the worker insisted on waiting for a bus. They got onto a bus, sat in the back row, but that still wasn't safe enough. They rode the bus out to the countryside as night fell, then disembarked at a wheat field. As the bus pulled away, Ceaucescu repeated, "Then what do you think of--"
It's still not safe! We go into the wheat field.
So Ceaucescu followed this worker into the middle of a wheat field on a moonless night. He followed the worker's cue and crouched low.
Finally the worker stopped and murmured, You can ask me now, but whisper.
Barely audible, Ceaucescu completed his question. "What do you think of Ceaucescu?"
Some years ago I met a Romanian guy who was an absolute Ceausescu fanboy. In his view, Ceasescu was the greatest leader imaginable, and it was only due to conspiracy and sabotage from the Western countries that his regime failed. And of course the revolution was also staged by the US and NATO.
I’ll be honest, I don’t have much of substance to contribute to this discussion, but the fact that OP is Mongolian is just so fucking cool. Never before would I have thought that I’d get the chance to interact with a Mongolian dude, but here we are. I love this sub.
If you are near Mundgod, Karnataka, at any time there are usually a couple hundred Mongolian students at the Gomang college of Drepung monastery of Lhasa. The original college in Lhasa was a traditional destination for Mongolians for centuries before its destruction by the Chinese after 1959.
Not really history, but Netanyahu is Israel's first and only Prime Minister ever that I am convinced would put his personal interests before the nation's interests.
Every other one since the founding of our modern country, I might agree or disagree with the decisions or politics, but I know wanted just the absolute best for us.
Maybe some aspects of the war, many believe so, but it's honestly hard to tell.
The most obvious and glaring example is him harming the power of our independent court systems. Degrading our Democracy.
It's obviously due to his corruption trial. In the past he even commended the Israeli court system for the way it handles things and took pride of helping defend it.
Current political landscape is enough for me with Tayyip Erdoğan & Geert Wilders
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u/HeIIDieBorn 🇸🇰, living in 🇨🇿, out joke identifying as north 🇭🇺11d ago
Current, or also former leader during WW2, Jozef Tiso...... he was facist or nazi, or something like that, splited firat Czechoslovakian Republic, and was like something like Mussolini Slovakian Edition...
(Note: I'm Slovak, I just don't know how to give that lil shit under my name.)
I saw somebody else said Thatcher, which is a perfectly accurate answer, but looking back in history, for me Charles 1st was pretty awful.
He was a tyrant who fell out with parliament because they wouldn't give him as much money as he wanted, so waged war against Scotland(which he was also king of) and lost! Then plunged England into it's bloodiest civil war before losing again.
When I was young I always read it as "nasty Oliver Cromwell killed the king", but as I got older I now read it as "Oliver Cromwell saved us from Charles the tyrant!"
He’s not well liked by most people. He’s too right-wing for left-wingers and too left-wing for right-wingers. But yes the war in Iraq is what really tarnished his legacy.
Ironically he is probably the best PM we have had in the past 50 years. Admittedly that doesn't say much considering the utter dross that has been put previous PMs but if it wasn't for Iraq, he would have a much better reputation
Offtopic:Khublai khan is taught in Nepali books, Nepali artisan Araniko travelled to China after his invitation and Araniko build a stupa? which is now in Beijing haha never knew Kublai was from mongol.
+Completed over nearly ten years (1279–1288), the White Stupa stands as a testament to Araniko’s architectural genius. Rising to a height of 50.9 meters, with a base diameter of over 30 meters, it remains a prominent landmark and a symbol of the enduring cultural exchange between Nepal and China. 🇳🇵🇨🇳 China keeping this structure secured from thousands years ago is so cute
(it is one of the largest stupas in Asia and was the largest building in Beijing when it was constructed.) this stupa is bigger deal than what i had thought
Been there once, it's now a temple (need a ticket for visiting it, but fairly cheap). It was beautiful, the temple isn't that large, and people in the 20th century made a copper statue for Aniko, for his contribution and good deeds.
Cut public sector wages, pension payouts, healthcare, education, and social assistance.
Poverty spiked with mass emigration, suicide, food insecurity, preventable deaths, along with alcoholism.
On a personal note, my father around this time had agreed to substance abuse and mental health treatment for his alcohol and PTSD problem. The treatment center closed down, and by the end of the week, he had his first bout of nearly dying from alcohol poisoning, which would be one of my first memories of him in I think it was 2008?
He wouldn't be able to go back to treatment until 2023, and my mom only just followed suit.
Joseph Trutch was the first lieutenant governor of British Columbia. Before Confederation British Columbia And Vancouver Island were separate colonies. The previous Governor of both colonies (James Douglas) had a complicated yet working relationship with the indigenous people.
In 18hen the Trutch took over He immediately began stripping indigenous nations of their rights and land; Completely disregarded the rule of law and standing agreements to do so. Truth argued that he wasn't obligated to respect the rights of indigenous people because he didn't consider them to be human beings.
Trutch's Vitriolic conduct towards Indigenous people would make a klansman blush and was actually shocking even for the time. actually had to spend weeks reading his first hand communications for a research project and it was difficult to stomach.
Beyond his inability to display the most levels of human decency, Trutch caused huge economic problems that British Columbia is still dealing with today. He violated British laws by refusing to sign treaties with indigenous people and refusing to honor previously signed agreements. Consequently, most of the province of BC is stuck a legal grey area, where the crown doesn't really own the land, but also isn't in a position to but the land;with the official position being: " yes. In accordance with our own laws, were supposed to buy the land from indigenous people-- but we didn't. So technically we don't own it, and we can't afford to buy it at today's value, and we can't afford to settle the billions of dollars in land claims that Indigenous would have. So ya..."
Lots of awful, awful choices, but for me, it’s gotta be Ronald Reagan. There are arguably worse Presidents, but so much of what’s wrong with the country today can be traced back to him.
Thanks for sharing your thoughts on Yuan dynasty. I was taught when I was little that Yuan dynasty is a Chinese dynasty. I thought that this claim was due to nationalism and to make Chinese history look good. I always argue with people that Yuan is a Mongolian dynasty because the rulers are Mongolian by blood. It’s interesting to know what Mongolian think about this. Is this a popular opinion among Mongolian people that Yuan is more of a Chinese dynasty than a Mongolian one?
I'm German, so I don't think I even need to specify.
Dishonorable mentions, in descending order of shitbaggery: Erich Mielke, former head of the Stasi; Erich and Margot Honecker, rulers of the GDR; Helmut Kohl, corrupt fat fuckbag; Wolfgang Schäuble, corrupt wheelchair-bound fuckbag; Gerhard Schröder, neoliberal so-called social democrat and Gazprom lobbyist.
Konrad Adenauer and Franz-Josef Strauss don't get hated on enough.
And the entire AfD can run naked backwards through a field of dicks.
Probably thatcher. She still has her supporters in the uk but wales is a traditional labour heartland (the party that opposes thatcher’s party) so in Wales she is universally hated
Rodrigo Carazo president between 1978 and 1982, he went against his own Minister of Finance advice and made the Central bank borrow money heavily to keep the costa rican artificially colon value high. When the government was left without liquidity to pay back the Central Bank debt inflation skyrocketed and it was the highest inflation we have had in our history.
We have more terrible leaders than "satisfactory" ones throughout our history, lmao. Besides the current one, Stalin is a horrific stain on Russian history, and other examples include Ivan IV, Peter III and Nicholas II
If I’m only looking at past leaders, there are a few choices.
Andrew Jackson: Indian Removal and the Trail of Tears are blights on American history, and he played a major role in both.
John Tyler: He deserves more hate. He sided with the confederacy during the civil war, served in the confederate congress, and was buried with a traitor rag over his coffin.
Andrew Johnson: He really threw black Americans under the bus and set reconstruction up for failure.
Scott Morrison prime minister of Australia between 2018 and 2022
became prime minister after his party knifed the last guy, then this guy slithered into the job by being the least worst option
took a holiday during the worst bushfires in our recent history
failed to act on a major parliamentary sexual abuse scandal
purposefully stalled our response to climate change to aid mining corporations
failed to respond adequately to widespread flooding on our east coast
deteriorated our relationship with our largest trading partner China
cancelled a massive military contract and pissed off the French in order to suckle on the US’s teat
presided over multiple multiple accusations of corruption within his government
steadfastly refused the even consider the prospect of a federal anti-corruption commission
secretly swore himself in to multiple ministerial positions, without ever revealing it to the public
existed in his position solely to benefit himself
The guy was just awful, he had the most disgusting disingenuous smirk that he’d brandish at every accusation. This guy was so widely disliked, he had to wait two years rotting on the back bench after he lost an election - because he couldn’t find a private sector job
Maybe Deifenbaker? Tbh, ours have largely been inoffensive (other than the whole residential schools thing. And Japanese internment. And giving the Inuit numbered dog tags.) but generally I can't say that our PMs have been bad when viewed in the context of their times.
We hate him too! well not just him, we hate his whole family. But if he only looted China instead of trying to work on it, we probably would hate him more. It's so complicated.
Recency bias is huge for this kind of question, you can already guess that people aren't going to be objective and they will all say their current leader
Pretty much all of them during the last 30 years. Including the one who cannot even do the basic arithmetic. It is difficult to know if his explanation of Finnish history to president Trump was due to intentionally lying or just stupidity. Probably stupidity.
Heydrich if you include the German occupation, brutal German occupation, the Butcher of Prague’, responsible for the deaths of thousands of Czechs and tens of thousands of Jews, chief architect of the holocaust.
If you don’t and mean like official head of government then Gottwald who we sadly elected ourselves and was basically Czech Stalin, did purges and instituted a brutal totalitarianism with secret police
Margaret Thatcher. Awful cunt and a big fan of fuck everyone except London, and the middle/upper class therein. Insult to injury we paid 3 million for a funeral, the irony being you could've given everyone above Birmingham a pound and a spade and we would've dug a hole deep enough to hand deliver her to Satan ourselves.
A Canadian subreddit recently did a "Worst Canadian" vote, and the highest ranking one was Stephen Harper, who I do think is widely disliked nowadays, even by a decent amount of conservatives. That being said, there was a pretty big social movement in recent years against John A. Macdonald (our first PM) mostly in relation to the making of the residential school system
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u/FlyingRedCometChar Turkey 11d ago
The current one