13 Idolized Figures Who Did TERRIBLE Things
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VOICE OVER: Peter DeGiglio
WRITTEN BY: Aidan Johnson
From celebrated leaders to revered icons, some historical figures aren't as heroic as we've been led to believe. Join us as we explore the controversial sides of individuals often idolized in Western culture, revealing the complex and sometimes troubling legacies behind their celebrated personas. Our list includes figures like Winston Churchill, Christopher Columbus, Mother Teresa, and Thomas Jefferson, among others. We'll delve into their lesser-known actions and beliefs that challenge their heroic status. Which of these revelations surprised you the most? Share your thoughts in the comments!
Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we’re discussing 13 figures who are idolized or revered in the west, but were more shady than we make them out to be.
P.T. Barnum
P.T. Barnum, also known as “the Greatest Showman,” was the inspiration for the 2017 Hugh Jackman movie of the same name. The film portrayed him as a champion of those whom society shunned, but in reality, he was the complete opposite. This circus pioneer was an ableist Victorian, and the pioneer of “freak shows.” Many view his treatment of individuals with physical oddities to be exploitative. For example, his first hoax involved purchasing Joice Heth, a blind slave, and marketing her as the 161-year-old former nurse of George Washington. He also used exotic animals, which he often mistreated. Despite all these awful practices he’s mythologized as a visionary showman and entrepreneur in Western culture.
Florence Nightingale
Florence Nightingale is celebrated as the founder of modern nursing, her efforts during the Crimean War earning her the title “The Lady with the Lamp.” However, she held some extreme views about race and class. She supported the killing of indigenous people under the British Empire, seeing it as a necessary evil to “civilize” such cultures. She was a staunch white, Christian supremacist, believing other cultures to be inherently inferior. She also supported the Miasma theory, which claims bad smells, dirt, and immorality created diseases. This means she believed sex workers spontaneously generated illness, which as we now know today, is an outlandish theory.
John A. MacDonald
Canada’s first prime minister John A. MacDonald is celebrated as one of the nation’s founding fathers, but some find him unworthy of reverence. In 1876 he implemented the Indian Act, which aimed to assimilate indigenous peoples and completely control their lives. This system forcibly displaced over 150,000 indigenous children, placing them in state schools with often terrible conditions. They were banned from speaking in their native tongues and were regularly mistreated, so much so that many perished. His controversies didn’t end there. He was racist toward non-European immigrants, particularly Chinese laborers. He implemented a Chinese Head Tax to deter Chinese immigration, which would later turn into an outright ban in 1923, 30 years after his death.
Henry Ford
Henry Ford founded Ford Motor Company, famous for pioneering affordable cars at the beginning of the 20th century. He also published the Dearborn Independent, which frequently ran harmful anti-Semitic articles. These writings were so influential he gained support from Adolf Hitler, who called Ford an inspiration, mentioned him in “Mein Kampf,” and had his portrait in his office. He was also staunchly anti-union, employing a private security force that intimidated and abused workers and used surveillance to suppress labor unions. The Battle of the Overpass in 1937 was the most famous incident, with his security brutally beating union leaders. He also monitored his workers’ private lives, using inspectors to ensure they followed his strict moral standards.
Thomas Jefferson
Thomas Jefferson is celebrated as a Founding Father of American democracy, but his beliefs regarding slaves, race, colonialism, and Native Americans fell short of his ideals of liberty. He famously wrote that “all men are created equal,” yet he owned over 600 slaves throughout his lifetime. His wealth and extravagant lifestyle were made possible by forced labor, and he took no substantial action towards ending it. His writings also reveal he believed in the biological and intellectual inferiority of black people. Like many early Americans, he also encouraged displacing Native American communities, motivating settlers to take indigenous lands across the continent.
Henry Kissinger
Henry Kissinger was the Secretary of State and National Security Advisor during Nixon and Ford’s presidencies. He was a key figure in the Cold War, with some viewing him as an American hero and others as a symbol of imperialism and its disregard for human rights. He opened diplomatic relations with China, but he also played a major role in the Vietnam War, specifically the bombing campaigns in Cambodia, causing massive civilian casualties. He also supported a coup in Chile in 1973, overthrowing democratically elected President Salvador Allende, and beginning a dictatorship. Kissinger also supported Indonesia’s 1975 invasion of East Timor, leading to a violent occupation and the deaths of more than 200,000 East Timorese.
Julius Caesar
Caesar was a monumental figure in human history, so much so one of our months is still named after him. He appointed himself dictator for life in 44 BCE, during the waning era of the Roman Republic. He’s revered as one of the greatest generals of all time, but his campaigns were brutal, resulting in the deaths of hundreds of thousands. This includes the widespread slaughter of Gallic tribes, which many consider to be a genocide. Entire tribes were wiped out or enslaved, a level of bloodshed that was even controversial by Roman standards. Now, he’s remembered as not just a military genius, but a figure whose ambition laid the groundwork for an Empire that would last more than a millennium.
Mahatma Gandhi
Mahatma Gandhi is considered an icon of peace, with a commitment to minimalism, vegetarianism, and self-reliance. He may have adopted this attitude because weapons were unavailable to him; surprisingly he once said “if we had the atom bomb, we would have used it against the British.” He also expressed racist views towards Black South Africans, referring to them with derogatory language. Gandhi is said to have expanded women’s rights but also had misogynist beliefs, believing women should be kept in the home. One of his biggest controversies was sleeping beside young women, including his grandniece, to test his discipline, defending these ‘experiments’ as a spiritual practice.
Thomas Edison
We credit many inventions to Thomas Edison, such as the phonograph, the light bulb, and the motion picture camera. However, many of the inventions credited to him properly should be credited to others. His most notable controversy was his rivalry with Nikola Tesla and George Westinghouse during the “War of Currents,” where Edison advocated for DC, but the other two promoted AC. Edison employed aggressive tactics to discredit AC, such as publicly electrocuting animals using AC to show its dangers, which can obviously be done with DC. He also treated his employees awfully, alongside pioneering the electric chair.
George Washington
Washington is the second Founding Father to make it on our list, and probably the most famous. He led the Continental Army to victory in the American Revolutionary War and became the nation’s first president. Controversially, he owned many slaves throughout his life, despite expressing conflicted feelings about the practice. He also severely mistreated Native American tribes, displacing them and encouraging American expansion into their lands. Furthermore, he sent federal troops to suppress the Whiskey Rebellion in 1794, raising concerns about using the military against citizens. Despite this, he remains a symbol of unity for the American people and significantly influenced their founding principles.
Mother Teresa
Mother Teresa founded the Missionaries of Charity in 1950, an organization dedicated to caring for the sick, the poor, and the dying. In 1979, she was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for her selfless work. After her death, she was canonized by the Roman Catholic Church, becoming Saint Teresa. But did you know she harbored some highly controversial views? For instance, she strongly opposed abortion and contraception, saying in her Nobel Prize acceptance speech “the greatest destroyer of peace today is abortion.” Her medical facilities were also accused of being inadequate, sometimes focusing on spiritual preparation for death rather than medical treatment. Teresa was additionally associated with controversial figures, like the family of Haitian dictator François Duvalier.
Christopher Columbus
Columbus is thought to be the first European to explore America since Leif Erikson some five hundred years earlier. He set up the first European settlement in America during the Age of Discovery, known as La Navidad. This marked the beginning of the colonial era, and the start of the end for Native American freedom. His expeditions led to the mass exploitation of native resources and peoples, alongside bringing diseases that ravaged the continent. Columbus enslaved more than a thousand natives, and 56 years after his voyage only 500 out of 300,000 natives remained on Hispaniola. His voyages were the most impactful in history, and while celebrated as a courageous explorer, his actions represent the darker consequences of colonization.
Winston Churchill
Winston Churchill had such extensive views on race they have their own Wikipedia page. Covering all his controversies would take multiple videos, but his most famous was the Bengal Famine of 1943, which killed 2-3 million people. America and Canada offered to ship food to Bengal, but Churchill actively refused to provide aid. Many consider him a white supremacist, with right wing imperialist and contemporary Leo Amery once saying he “didn’t see much difference between [Churchill’s] outlook and Hitler’s.” He slaughtered civilian protestors in Greece, helped cause needless deaths in Ireland, and forced Kenyans into concentration camps. Some consider his famous line, “we shall fight them on the beaches,” to have been plagiarized from an Irish Republican, who the British hanged and beheaded in 1803.
Are there any other controversial Western heroes we forgot to mention? We love to learn, so let us know in the comments section!
P.T. Barnum
P.T. Barnum, also known as “the Greatest Showman,” was the inspiration for the 2017 Hugh Jackman movie of the same name. The film portrayed him as a champion of those whom society shunned, but in reality, he was the complete opposite. This circus pioneer was an ableist Victorian, and the pioneer of “freak shows.” Many view his treatment of individuals with physical oddities to be exploitative. For example, his first hoax involved purchasing Joice Heth, a blind slave, and marketing her as the 161-year-old former nurse of George Washington. He also used exotic animals, which he often mistreated. Despite all these awful practices he’s mythologized as a visionary showman and entrepreneur in Western culture.
Florence Nightingale
Florence Nightingale is celebrated as the founder of modern nursing, her efforts during the Crimean War earning her the title “The Lady with the Lamp.” However, she held some extreme views about race and class. She supported the killing of indigenous people under the British Empire, seeing it as a necessary evil to “civilize” such cultures. She was a staunch white, Christian supremacist, believing other cultures to be inherently inferior. She also supported the Miasma theory, which claims bad smells, dirt, and immorality created diseases. This means she believed sex workers spontaneously generated illness, which as we now know today, is an outlandish theory.
John A. MacDonald
Canada’s first prime minister John A. MacDonald is celebrated as one of the nation’s founding fathers, but some find him unworthy of reverence. In 1876 he implemented the Indian Act, which aimed to assimilate indigenous peoples and completely control their lives. This system forcibly displaced over 150,000 indigenous children, placing them in state schools with often terrible conditions. They were banned from speaking in their native tongues and were regularly mistreated, so much so that many perished. His controversies didn’t end there. He was racist toward non-European immigrants, particularly Chinese laborers. He implemented a Chinese Head Tax to deter Chinese immigration, which would later turn into an outright ban in 1923, 30 years after his death.
Henry Ford
Henry Ford founded Ford Motor Company, famous for pioneering affordable cars at the beginning of the 20th century. He also published the Dearborn Independent, which frequently ran harmful anti-Semitic articles. These writings were so influential he gained support from Adolf Hitler, who called Ford an inspiration, mentioned him in “Mein Kampf,” and had his portrait in his office. He was also staunchly anti-union, employing a private security force that intimidated and abused workers and used surveillance to suppress labor unions. The Battle of the Overpass in 1937 was the most famous incident, with his security brutally beating union leaders. He also monitored his workers’ private lives, using inspectors to ensure they followed his strict moral standards.
Thomas Jefferson
Thomas Jefferson is celebrated as a Founding Father of American democracy, but his beliefs regarding slaves, race, colonialism, and Native Americans fell short of his ideals of liberty. He famously wrote that “all men are created equal,” yet he owned over 600 slaves throughout his lifetime. His wealth and extravagant lifestyle were made possible by forced labor, and he took no substantial action towards ending it. His writings also reveal he believed in the biological and intellectual inferiority of black people. Like many early Americans, he also encouraged displacing Native American communities, motivating settlers to take indigenous lands across the continent.
Henry Kissinger
Henry Kissinger was the Secretary of State and National Security Advisor during Nixon and Ford’s presidencies. He was a key figure in the Cold War, with some viewing him as an American hero and others as a symbol of imperialism and its disregard for human rights. He opened diplomatic relations with China, but he also played a major role in the Vietnam War, specifically the bombing campaigns in Cambodia, causing massive civilian casualties. He also supported a coup in Chile in 1973, overthrowing democratically elected President Salvador Allende, and beginning a dictatorship. Kissinger also supported Indonesia’s 1975 invasion of East Timor, leading to a violent occupation and the deaths of more than 200,000 East Timorese.
Julius Caesar
Caesar was a monumental figure in human history, so much so one of our months is still named after him. He appointed himself dictator for life in 44 BCE, during the waning era of the Roman Republic. He’s revered as one of the greatest generals of all time, but his campaigns were brutal, resulting in the deaths of hundreds of thousands. This includes the widespread slaughter of Gallic tribes, which many consider to be a genocide. Entire tribes were wiped out or enslaved, a level of bloodshed that was even controversial by Roman standards. Now, he’s remembered as not just a military genius, but a figure whose ambition laid the groundwork for an Empire that would last more than a millennium.
Mahatma Gandhi
Mahatma Gandhi is considered an icon of peace, with a commitment to minimalism, vegetarianism, and self-reliance. He may have adopted this attitude because weapons were unavailable to him; surprisingly he once said “if we had the atom bomb, we would have used it against the British.” He also expressed racist views towards Black South Africans, referring to them with derogatory language. Gandhi is said to have expanded women’s rights but also had misogynist beliefs, believing women should be kept in the home. One of his biggest controversies was sleeping beside young women, including his grandniece, to test his discipline, defending these ‘experiments’ as a spiritual practice.
Thomas Edison
We credit many inventions to Thomas Edison, such as the phonograph, the light bulb, and the motion picture camera. However, many of the inventions credited to him properly should be credited to others. His most notable controversy was his rivalry with Nikola Tesla and George Westinghouse during the “War of Currents,” where Edison advocated for DC, but the other two promoted AC. Edison employed aggressive tactics to discredit AC, such as publicly electrocuting animals using AC to show its dangers, which can obviously be done with DC. He also treated his employees awfully, alongside pioneering the electric chair.
George Washington
Washington is the second Founding Father to make it on our list, and probably the most famous. He led the Continental Army to victory in the American Revolutionary War and became the nation’s first president. Controversially, he owned many slaves throughout his life, despite expressing conflicted feelings about the practice. He also severely mistreated Native American tribes, displacing them and encouraging American expansion into their lands. Furthermore, he sent federal troops to suppress the Whiskey Rebellion in 1794, raising concerns about using the military against citizens. Despite this, he remains a symbol of unity for the American people and significantly influenced their founding principles.
Mother Teresa
Mother Teresa founded the Missionaries of Charity in 1950, an organization dedicated to caring for the sick, the poor, and the dying. In 1979, she was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for her selfless work. After her death, she was canonized by the Roman Catholic Church, becoming Saint Teresa. But did you know she harbored some highly controversial views? For instance, she strongly opposed abortion and contraception, saying in her Nobel Prize acceptance speech “the greatest destroyer of peace today is abortion.” Her medical facilities were also accused of being inadequate, sometimes focusing on spiritual preparation for death rather than medical treatment. Teresa was additionally associated with controversial figures, like the family of Haitian dictator François Duvalier.
Christopher Columbus
Columbus is thought to be the first European to explore America since Leif Erikson some five hundred years earlier. He set up the first European settlement in America during the Age of Discovery, known as La Navidad. This marked the beginning of the colonial era, and the start of the end for Native American freedom. His expeditions led to the mass exploitation of native resources and peoples, alongside bringing diseases that ravaged the continent. Columbus enslaved more than a thousand natives, and 56 years after his voyage only 500 out of 300,000 natives remained on Hispaniola. His voyages were the most impactful in history, and while celebrated as a courageous explorer, his actions represent the darker consequences of colonization.
Winston Churchill
Winston Churchill had such extensive views on race they have their own Wikipedia page. Covering all his controversies would take multiple videos, but his most famous was the Bengal Famine of 1943, which killed 2-3 million people. America and Canada offered to ship food to Bengal, but Churchill actively refused to provide aid. Many consider him a white supremacist, with right wing imperialist and contemporary Leo Amery once saying he “didn’t see much difference between [Churchill’s] outlook and Hitler’s.” He slaughtered civilian protestors in Greece, helped cause needless deaths in Ireland, and forced Kenyans into concentration camps. Some consider his famous line, “we shall fight them on the beaches,” to have been plagiarized from an Irish Republican, who the British hanged and beheaded in 1803.
Are there any other controversial Western heroes we forgot to mention? We love to learn, so let us know in the comments section!
