Didn't Think This Through: Difference between revisions

** Biggest example: The Chernobyl Disaster. It was one of many things that lead to [[The Great Politics Mess-Up]].

** The resultant policy of Glasnost the Soviet Union enacted after the disaster is another example, but in the reverse. Turns out, when you can't even feed your own people, enacting a policy of total transparency with the press is not such a good idea after all.

* The Mongol Invasion of Japan. Kublai Khan was in such a rush that he ordered the Chinese boat builders to make a huge fleet (a fleet second only to the invasion fleet that launched the Invasion of Normandy) within a single year. The Chinese laborers had to supplement the sea-worthy boats with river boats that had no keel, and thus were unworthy for sea travel. Bad enough when you are crossing an ocean, even worse when that ocean is prone to violent storms and typhoons. The now-famous ''kamikaze'' lead to the single greatest loss of life in a disaster at sea in recorded history, with many of the over 3,000 ships sinking with most of their crew.

* [[Guy Fawkes]] (or rather, the mask modeled after him) is often regarded as a symbol of those who would fight “the system” and defy [[The Man]], which is odd, because the [[Gunpowder Plot]], the act of terrorism he is associated with, is one of the most incompetent in history. The year was 1605, and Britain had been ruled by Protestants for nearly a century, making life increasingly difficult for the English Catholic holdouts, and because the Catholic-dominated Spain was considered an enemy, and the Vatican excommunicating the British royalty, [[Guilt By Association| English Catholics were considered enemies of the state]]. So Guy Fawkes and his eleven (known) accomplices figured they’d use the newest (at the time) weapon of mass destruction, gunpowder, to get rid of Parliament in one swift, dramatic stroke. Their plan was as follows: They’d rent an apartment next to the Parliament building, stock it with ''lots'' of gunpowder (36 barrels, precisely), and use it to destroy said Parliament building - with Parliament inside it - on their State Opening of November 5th. This would be a prelude to starting a full civilian revolution in the countryside, where they’d capture the King’s Catholic daughter, use her as a puppet queen, and finally, get the Pope to support their new Catholic government. All this, of course, depended on everyone accepting a group of mass-murderers and terrorists as legitimate rulers, something that was, in hindsight, a weak part of their plan. Still, it never got that far. First of all, Fawkes rented the apartment [[Mr. Smith| under the name “John Johnson”]], and even in 1605, using such a pseudonym was one of [[The Oldest Ones in the Book]]. Another problem was that at least a few of the conspirators had friends in Parliament, and despite strict orders from Fawkes not to tell anyone, one of them (it was never revealed who) sent an anonymous letter to warn one of their friends. End result, someone gave the letter to the Chamberlain, who forwarded it to the King, who quickly ordered an emergency search of the whole area. Fawkes was caught red-handed guarding 36 barrels of gunpowder and a pile of firewood in an otherwise-empty apartment, and the constabulary quickly discerned his pseudonym was a fake one. He was tortured into revealing the names of his accomplices (who weren’t having much luck at all convincing people to join their revolt) they were captured and hanged. Worst of all, for the next century, treatment of Catholics in Britain became even worse. They weren’t even allowed to vote until 1829. Seriously, [[Nice Job Fixing It, Villain| Nice Job Breaking it, Fawkes!]]

* Many of [[Donald Trump]]'s detractors have stated that simply thinking a few minutes before hitting the "Send" button on Twitter might have solved a lot of his problems.

*** The actual participants take this trope into the [[Stupid Crooks]] territory, taking selfies of themselves while trespassing, and posting them online, where they were easily identified as hate group leaders; one such member actually sobbed in an online post because doing so had put him on the No Fly list after being labeled a terrorist. One of them actually took a selfie of himself [https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/man-pictured-carrying-pelosi-s-lectern-during-capitol-riot-arrested-n1253628 stealing the House Speaker's podium] and later tried to auction it on eBay. None of them ever considered that they were not only revealing their identities to the FBI, but giving ample evidence to federal prosecutors.

** The storm of pardons he issued in his final weeks in office. Accepting a pardon by American law is an admission of guilt by the pardoned party, but worse, doing so removes the recipient's protection against self-incrimination under the Fifth Amendment (because they can't be prosecuted they can't incriminate themselves); consequently they can be compelled to testify -- in this case, against Trump. It took several weeks for this to occur to anyone in Trump's White House (at which point it was too late); Federal investigators, of course, were aware of this and are more than happy to trade the convictions of a few underlings for testimony against Trump himself.

*** '''It would make smugglers rich.''' Just like draconian rules on drug trafficking is used by The Cartel as an excuse to raise prices, a wall would have the same price on Coyotes, as they’re called, criminals in Mexico who are paid to guide people across the desert and across the border. In fact, it’s already made a lot of them rich, as they’re using this as incentive to gain more clients (as in, “Go now, before the wall is built.”) and to charge stiffer fees. They’d be even richer if the wall actually went up.

*** '''Mexico would never pay for it.''' A big part of Trump’s proposed plan was to force Mexico to pay for the wall. Despite having no legal authority to do so. Supposedly, he would demand payment, threatening to put a tax on money that Mexican workers send from the U.S. back to their families in Mexico (which would require mail tampering, a serious crime). Or he’d raise tariffs on goods coming from Mexico (which would, in fact, take money from corporations and consumers in both countries, but not the Mexican government). Not to mention, the President simply does not have the authority to raise taxes, he’d have to ask Congress to do so, and given how much it would raise food prices, which would enrage their constituents and many Mexican agriculture companies are partially owned by American businesses, many of whom have lobbyists on their speed dial. Very few members of Congress would go on the record for it. The option of confiscating money sent through mail to Mexico likely wouldn’t work even if Trump did find a way to legalize it, as Bitcoin and other digital currencies are slowly replacing Western Union as the go-to means to send money across borders. This method is faster, safer, and virtually impossible to block. Of course, Trump's assumption may have been he was giving them [[An Offer You Can't Refuse]], and that they'd fold and simply give him the money to avoid all that trouble. Which was never likely. Here’s a short summary of how the Mexican government works; they have elected officials (much like the United States does), they hold elections (much like the United States does), they have political parties with Liberals and Conservatives (much like the United States does), they campaign on issues (much like the United States does), and these parties [[Not So Different| hate each other as much as the ones in the United States do!]] But one thing they all agree on is that siding with Trump on the Border Wall is political suicide in their country, making it unlikely they’d even consider it.

 

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