20 of the Most Destructive Lies of All Time

Barring some kind of Liar, Liar-style witchcraft, everyone lies. “That sweater looks great on you.” “This will only hurt a little.” “A masked man broke in, shoved me in the washing machine, and left without taking anything just to see if I would fit. Yeah. He wanted to know that.” For the most part, these lies don’t cause any lasting damage. Well, maybe the washing machine one. It is really hard to disassemble those things, and good luck convincing anyone to put it back together.

But some lies are much more consequential. Historical. Genocidal. They’re the lies of those in authority — politicians, scientists, guys with a lot of followers on Twitter — about grave matters of health, money and even war. These are the lies Redditors refused to forget when user thoughtofeverything asked r/AskReddit, “What has been the most destructive lie in human history?”