Which historical figure has received the most undeserved bad rap?

[LostInAnomie]

[Fenris]

1. Of those, probably George III

[elperromagico]

2. Other: Harpo Marx.

He was actually quite talkative.

[Kellanved]

3. MacBeth?

:shrug:

[boneygrey]

4. Dr. Mudd

the guy who treated John Wilkes Boothe's injury. He didn't know what he had done at the time. Hence the phrase, "Your name is Mudd."

[LostInAnomie]

5. I did not know that.

Hmmm... you learn something new everyday.

[boneygrey]

7. Saw it on the history channel

I think Dr. Mudd actually went to prison.

[elperromagico]

9. Yes, he was convicted along with the Lincoln conspirators.

Spent about five years in a federal prison at Dry Tortugas, but was released early because of his treatment of the yellow fever epidemic at the prison.

That's the way I recall it, anyway. Dennis Weaver starred in a rather good TV movie about it back in the early 80s.

[boneygrey]

10. Yeah, I saw that. n/t

[no_hypocrisy]

6. Eugene V. Debbs

He went to prison after a federal conviction. But he rallied against the first World War and he fought vigorously for workers rights. He was a Socialist and an American hero.

[boneygrey]

8. Looks like we posted at the same time. n/t

[CanuckAmok]

12. I was going to say the Rosenbergs, but I think Debbs is a better call.

Time has been somewhat kind to the memory of the Rosenbergs, but Debbs was never socially exonerated.

[HEyHEY]

11. Dizzy Gillespie

[GreenPartyVoter]

13. Lucretia Borgia

[Fenris]

14. Very true.

Now, Liz Bathory on the other hand...

[tinfoilinfor2005]

20. Yes. She was falsely accused and doesn't deserve the infamy.

[CubsFan1982]

15. George III

Really wasn't all that bad, when you consider the two lousy Germans that came before and the two clowns that came after.

[Swede]

16. Tamerlane got a real bad rap.

Really,really really bad.

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

17. Other: Neville Chamberlain.

As they say, hindsight is 20/20.

[Deja Q]

18. Benedict Arnold?

Of course, traitor as he was, somebody still managed to create a consumable food with his name on it...

[More Than A Feeling]

28. Yes Benedict Arnold!

Traitor? Yes! Would we have a country today without him? No!

In 1776, the British were planning to invade the colonies down Lake Champlain, and thereby cut the colonies in half. Arnold was put in charge of the defense. He built a tiny fleet out of scratch, and managed to delay the British, until winter.

Without him at Saratoga, we would not have won, because General Horatio Gates was an idiot. Then we wouldn't have gotten the French in the war on our side.

Benedict Arnold was the best general America had in those times. Militia would fight longer and harder for him than for any other commander (and the militia were basically an undisciplined mob)

He switched sides because the Americans weren't giving him any respect, and also for the love of the tory woman he had fallen for.

What he did before the switch though, vastly outweighs the damage he did afterward.

Also, he was punished. When he went back to England, he was a second class citizen until his death, and he did repent of his betrayal.

[Lone_Wolf_Moderate]

19. Brutus. n/t

[JimmyJazz]

21. Malcolm X

[Mr.Green93]

22. Pol Pot

[JimmyJazz]

23. Waaaa? Are you kidding me? Do tell why you think he got a bad rap!

We really aren't that far left here, ya know.

[Lone_Wolf_Moderate]

25. Sweet Jesus. Tell me something, my Stalinist friend.

Do you smoke crack all the time, or just on weekends? History records Pol Pot as a butcher and a tyrannical despot. I'd say history hot it right.

Unless of course, you're just being silly?

[Mr.Green93]

29. Do you trust

the ones that write 'history' to tell the truth?

[LostInAnomie]

30. On this one, yes.

I think they hit the nail on the head. He was a monster.

[Lone_Wolf_Moderate]

34. So is there some conspiracy against Pol Pot? Was he just misunderstood?

Did all his victims just disappear? Certain things are established fact, pal. Your boy Pol Pot was a tyrant.

Again, this response assumes you're being serious. This is the Lounge after all.

[LostInAnomie]

26. Jeez-O-Pete! That's Horrible.

Why not just go all out and say Hitler?

[Frogtutor]

24. Benedict Arnold n/t

[shimmergal]

27. Julius Caesar

[Bok_Tukalo]

31. McClellan or Longstreet

Depending on the which side of this line you lived on:

[Borgnine]

32. Bob Saget.

His stand-up material was actually funny before he started Full House.

[hickman1937]

33. President Johnson, Vivian Eliot.

He didn't just carry on the work of President Kennedy, he got it done. Vivian Eliot was misdiagnosed, and misused, and left to rot in an asylum, and blamed for her husband's lack of output.

[Atlas Mugged]

35. Marie Antoinette

The birth of the smear campaign.

[TyeDye75]

36. I voted for Lee

but Id also like to add Henry VIII... he is remembered for the gluttony the obesity and the wife chopping... but in his youth he was a very charismatic and effective leader.

[T Town Jake]

37. Other...

...Lyndon Baines Johnson. eom.

[terrya]

38. Warren G. Harding

Not a bad man as President. Just too trusting with some members of his cabinet.