18 'Good Guys' Who Were Actually Monsters
Carly Tennes
Published
06/04/2024
in
wow
Think Coco Chanel is an elegant designer? Or that Dr. Seuss is the friendly face behind your favorite childhood books? Think again. Contrary to their beloved public personas, several popular heroes are anything "but," a lesson several Redditors have discovered the hard way.
From Steve Jobs' questionable parenting skills to Chevy Chase's SNL snafu, here are 20 'good guys' who were actually monsters.
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1. Oprah Winfrey
“As a black woman, this was a hard one for me to let go. Growing up, I looked up to her so much. Every day after school, I’d watch her and Dr. Phil. When she launched the OWN channel, I was OBSESSED with the show about her producers to the point that I considered pursuing it as a career. My mom and I would talk about her all the time, I have so many great memories of sharing Oprah with my mom. Which makes Oprah and her empire all the more insidious. I know my story is not at all unique. I recently rewatched some old episodes from the early 00s. She was just as exploitative than as she’s ever been. The bubble started to burst for me when my mom was watching Dr. Oz. My mom had me doing all the juice cleanses and lemon water with her (I was 18+). I started to realize what we were doing was unhealthy.” -
2. Mahatma Gandhi
“When Gandhi's wife was stricken with pneumonia, British doctors told her husband that a shot of penicillin would heal her; nevertheless, Gandhi refused to have alien medicine injected into her body, and she died. Soon after, Gandhi caught malaria and, relenting from the standard he applied to his wife, allowed doctors to save his life with quinine. He also allowed British doctors to perform an appendectomy on him, an alien operation if ever there was one. Also he served on the British side in South Africa and earned a medal for valor.” -
3. Steve Jobs
“Steve Jobs, refused to acknowledge his daughter until forced, provided no help or support during her upbringing, treated his employees and business partners like s—t.” -
4. Chevy Chase
“Will Farrell has stated Chevy Chase was the worst SNL guest host. Farrell states that Chase was r—e and mean to staff writers, going so far as to tell one female writer, ‘Maybe you can give me a h—b later.’” -
5. Steven Tyler
“Steven Tyler once had a [16]-year-old girlfriend that her parents signed over to him” -
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7. Helen Keller’s Teacher, Annie Sullivan
“Annie Sullivan, AKA Teacher. Despite helping Helen Keller rise above her disabilities, it's well-documented that she often beat Helen (as a means of disciplining her when she was still a "wild" feral child), and colluded with the Kellers in preventing Helen from marrying the man she loved.” -
8. Barbara Walters
“The fact that she asked Justin Timberlake if Britney Spears was REALLY a virgin... when Britney and Justin were 19-20 and both grew up on camera from their days on the Mickey Mouse Club.” -
9. Albert Einstein
“Einstein wasn’t a great guy. Brilliant, sure, but kinda d—y in his personal life. He refused to marry his long time lover for years, even after she got pregnant. The child was assumed to be given up for adoption, but no record has ever been found. He and his wife, Mileva Marić, worked together on their research. People saw them do it. They made jokes about it at parties. He proudly told people that she did all his calculations. They only put his name on their work and he went on to claim all the credit - ignoring any work she had done. Part of their agreement was that she would get the Nobel prize money but he tried to prevent that. She raised two children - one schizophrenic - took care of the house and tutored to bring in extra money because he couldn’t get a job for a long time. He started getting more notoriety and then began an affair with his first cousin. He moved to a different country to be with his new hillbilly mistress. He divorced his wife and quickly married the new, younger model. He had rules she had to abide by, such as leaving the room immediately when told and not expecting or asking for any sort of affection except when necessary for appearances sake. Elsa, his second wife, was dying and he worked nonstop because he didn’t know what to do (I guess). She was basically abandoned her last few months. He cheated on both his wives, numerous times. Ignored his children. Oh - and he was pretty into his second wife’s daughter and thought about marrying her instead.” -
10. Dr. Seuss
“Dr Seuss. Cheated on his wife while she was sick, which lead to her suicide then married his affair partner the very next year.” -
11. Woodrow Wilson
“Woodrow Wilson was extremely racist — even by the standards of his time.” -
12. Charles Dickens
“Charles Dickens had his wife, the mother of his children, committed to an insane asylum so he could run off with a teenage actress… I have been informed that this wasn't successful, he tried to have the mother of his ten children committed but it didn't work. Which is still quite bad.” -
13. Joseph P. Kennedy Sr.
“He decided that Rosemary (his daughter) who was 23 at the time should have a lobotomy; he did not inform his wife of this decision until after the procedure was completed. And then they sent her away to an institute. In her early young adult years, Rosemary Kennedy experienced seizures and violent mood swings. In response to these issues, her father arranged a prefrontal lobotomy for her in 1941 when she was 23 years of age; the procedure left her permanently incapacitated and rendered her unable to speak intelligibly.” -
14. Alfred Hitchcock
“Alfred Hitchcock, the guy probably was one of the best filmmakers ever, yes. but it's worth mentioning how much he abused his actors, including s—y harassing Tippi Hedren.” -
15. Mother Theresa
“Mother Theresa. Believed suffering brought people closer to god. Her hospices were just places for people to die in agony, but as soon as her own health was at risk she fled to the best European hospitals. She was a hypocrite and caused untold suffering. That could have very easily been avoided with even basic medical intervention.” -
16. Elvis Presley
“Elvis Presley was 24 years old when he started seeing 14 year old Priscilla.” -
17. Ronald Reagan
“Ronald Reagan. He began the dismantling of the social safety net, ushering in a new gilded age and leading to the great disparities in wealth we now live with. I will never understand his hold on the American imagination.” -
18. Winston Churchill
“Winston Churchill. He was great in WW2 but his actions in India are indefensible, and he was racist even for 1940s-50s.” -
19. P.T. Barnum
“Most people know but due to the romanticisation of The Greatest Showman, people should know that he was a maniac that did ungodly experiment on living beings, locked people in cages, abused them and mocked them. All whilst earning pocket from them.” -
20. Pablo Picasso
“Pablo Picasso was an unrelenting b—d to his romantic partners. He once said "for me there are two kinds of women: goddesses and doormats." And his granddaughter described his treatment of the women in his life by saying: "He submitted them to his animal sexuality, tamed them, bewitched them, ingested them, and crushed them onto his canvas. After he had spent many nights extracting their essence, once they were bled dry, he would dispose of them." And that wasn't hyperbole, two of Picasso's partners suffered nervous breakdowns due to his emotional abuse. Worse yet his lover Marie-Thèrése Walter and his second wife Jacqueline Roque were driven to suicide.” -
21. Coco Chanel
“I don't know if she's considered a ‘great person’ but Coco Chanel is held up as a fashion icon and she was a literal N—i. After they took Paris she stayed with N—i commanders in the hotels they took over and built her empire - which still exists - by stealing businesses from her Jewish bosses through the N—i laws that took Jewish owned businesses and distributed them through members of the party.” -
22. Drake
“It's finally coming out, but Drake.” - “I haven’t trusted him since Millie Bobby Brown said they’d text constantly about boys and life. As someone who watched all of Euphoria it hits a little different now.” -
23. Jared Leto
“Jared Leto. For someone who does a month long spirit journey in the wilderness each year, he's a huge piece.” -
24. Tom Cruise
“Tom Cruise gives millions to an aggressive cult that destroys families.” -
25. John Harvey Kellogg
“John Harvey Kellogg (the cereal guy) was a real piece of work.” - “TLDR; John Harvey Kellog was the cook, and his brother was the industrialist. As far as I can remember, the insane brother invented the cereal. The sane brother invented the factory process of making them, and had the idea to cover them in sugar (frosted flakes). The insane Kellog believed that the default state of man was an apathetic unfeeling void and anything that caused excitement such as good food, warm baths, obviously intercourse for anything other than procreation, was sinful and against God's design. I believe he was also a proponent of yoghurt enemas, which HAS to be a fetish thing, right?” -
26. Doctor Phil
“I'm glad Doctor Phil is finally getting his comeuppance. He's said and done terrible things to people who needed real help for the sake of viewership and acts like he cares so much. Well it's obvious he doesn’t.” -
27. Maulana Karenga
“The guy who invented Kwanzaa. The more you read, the worse it gets.” - “ Karenga hit on me in front of his wife. I was 18 and a freshman at Cal State Long Beach. Most of the male instructors in the Black Studies (that’s what they called it in the 80s) were creepy motherfuckers. I was a TA the semester before I graduated. The instructor sexually harassed me relentlessly. When he found out my boyfriend was white, he spent an entire lecture ranting against interracial relationships.” -
28. Brett Favre
“Brett Favre. People finally figured it out after the welfare thing but he's always been scum. I went to USM (his alma mater) as well as my parents who were there at the same time he was, and every story I heard from locals about him was about him blowing off charity events that he was paid for and smacking his girlfriend in public back in his college days. Apparently he used to get his ass beat by the locals when they'd see it but he was well into his NFL career before that stopped happening publicly. The man is a menace but people hear that South Mississippi accent and assume he's a nice guy.” -
29. Caitlyn Jenner
“Caitlyn Jenner. During the time she was getting person of the year, she killed someone, and was praised for it.” -
30. Brad Pitt
“Brad Pitt - reading the account of what happened on the plane between him, Angelina Jolie and their kids is terrifying.”
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