Hoist by His Own Petard/Real Life: Difference between revisions
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{{trope}}
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* John Carman
* Ongoing, non-evil example: Many people will tell you that the level of play in the National Basketball Association is way down from its Magic/Bird/Jordan peak. It is - and it's not for lack of star power. Two decisions meant to maintain continuity are largely to blame:
** The
** A
*** Expanding the league by nearly a third (From 23 teams to 30 over the last two decades) hasn't helped, either.
** Then again, there is a lot of evidence to suggest that this is just a result of looking through the [[Nostalgia Filter]].
* Marie Curie's major claims to fame are her study of radioactivity as well as discovering radium. The dangers of radiation exposure weren't understood at the time and she ultimately died of radiation poisoning.
** Then again, if it wasn't for her studies on radium and radioactivity, we might not have fully understood radiation poisoning as well as we do, which makes her a martyr for scientific knowledge.
** Her husband Pierre as well. He didn't die of direct effects of radiation exposure:
* Similar to the above, but rather more sinister, Dr. Sabin Arnold von Sochocky, who was one of the co-founders of the [[wikipedia:United States Radium Corporation|United States Radium Corporation]], famous for its callous treatment of employees adversely effected by the radiation from the radioactive paint they produced, eventually died of aplastic anemia, caused by his own exposure to radium
* [[Maximilien Robespierre]], who was behind much of the [[Reign of Terror]] that followed [[The French Revolution]], was ultimately himself executed by the guillotine which he so adored. Along with quite a few others.
** Another irony is that several people who participated in Thermidor actually were against the guillotine, as it was too slow—they were more in favour of shooting their victims randomly with a cannon from a distance and throwing them into a mass grave to die.
** However, the rumor that Dr. Guillotin was executed on the device he had introduced (referenced in the above ''Discworld'' example) is untrue.
** It's also shown in at least one film that Louis XVI had a hand in designing the guillotine, which he ''was'' later put to death by.
* Lord Shang Yang, author of ''[[The Book of Lord Shang]]'' and notorious in ancient China for his draconian punishments, met his end under a punishment that he himself formulated into Qin law when he was convicted of treason against King Huiwen of Qin. The punishment, which was reserved for law enforcers who broke the law themselves, called for not only the offender's execution, but that of his family as well. Ouch.
** And it gets better: when he tried to hide out in a hotel in an attempt to escape the above fate, he was refused, as the strict laws he had enacted in Qin while in power made it illegal for a hotel owner to admit a guest without proper identification.
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** From the same source: Two animal rights activists were protesting the cruelty of sending pigs to a slaughterhouse in Bonn, Germany, by freeing a captive herd. Suddenly all two thousand of pigs stampeded through the gate they were opening, and trampled the hapless protesters to death.
* The infamous [[The Pope|Pope Alexander VI]] died in suspicious circumstances. While many historians attribute his death to a plague, a popular rumor claims that he accidentally drank poisoned wine intended for one of his political rivals.
* Soviet dictator [[Josef Stalin]] had maintained his grip on power for more than three decades by terrifying everyone around him. One night in 1953, Stalin stayed up drinking with his goons until about 3 or 4 AM, at which time he went to bed. When Stalin didn't come out at his usual hour, people began to get concerned, but they left him alone since they were under strict orders not to disturb him and too terrified of his wrath to risk going in to check on him. By the time one of his cronies finally mustered enough nerve to see what was going on, it was 10 PM of the next day and Stalin was dying of a stroke. Stalin lay for almost a full day, helpless and alone. Had his stooges checked on him, they might have been able to get the doctors in on time, but as it was, Stalin's own brutal tactics kept his thugs from saving his sorry hide. If that isn't [[Laser-Guided Karma|poetic justice]], I don't know what is.▼
** To add insult to injury, interior minister Lavrentiy Beria mocked Stalin after his apparent death. When Stalin showed signs of consciousness, Beria crouched down to kiss his hand, and when Stalin went unconscious again, Beria spat upon his body. Beria would later gloat that [[The Starscream|he killed Stalin with poison]].▼
▲*
▲**** This really applied to the USSR in general, and still does in communist countries (North Korea especially). As was remarked later "Oftentimes, the one who put someone in the gulag yesterday was sentenced to the gulag today."
▲**** To add insult to injury, interior minister Lavrentiy Beria mocked Stalin after his apparent death. When Stalin showed signs of consciousness, Beria crouched down to kiss his hand, and when Stalin went unconscious again, Beria spat upon his body. Beria would later gloat that [[The Starscream|he killed Stalin with poison]].
▲***** Generally, just look at photos or video of who is around the Leader to find out who is "in favor." The best example is on the cover of a book [http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/8a/Soviet_censorship_with_Stalin.jpg Soviet Censorship]. Let's just say those who fell out of 'favor' were never seen again.
*** Stalin's policy of cleansing the "worker's paradise" of intellectuals (i.e. people smarter than him) often backfired, as it meant the Soviet Union would end up with inferior technology thanks to all the smart people being sent to Siberia. Additionally, he would often shut down technological breakthroughs that were ahead of their time and wouldn't be discovered (or implemented) again for at least a decade. For example, his aircraft designers during [[World War Two]] had many innovative ideas for jet fighters and bombers, which Stalin quickly suppressed, making the scientists work on designing cheap, fast-produced planes. Once the tide in the war had turned, he didn't feel the need to improve on what was already working. Now imagine [[What Could Have Been]] if he would've had a little more foresight.
* This was staggeringly common during WWII.
**
* On one occasion
* [[wikipedia:List of inventors killed by their own inventions|That Other Wiki]] has its own article on the subject.
* NFL player Plaxico Burress served time for unlawfully carrying a gun at a nightclub. This case is special because:
** It was only made public knowledge that he was carrying a gun because he accidentally shot himself.
** He accidentally shot himself because his gun was in a style of clothing that only an idiot would wear to a nightclub.
** The NYPD only found out about this because it was on the news, which was because he was so popular, and ''not'' because he'd gone to a hospital.
* King James II of Scotland was a big supporter of the use of then-modern artillery in warfare. He was killed when one of his own cannons exploded.
* The Peacemaker Accident. The USS Princeton was the first screw propelled ship in the US navy hosted a large number of dignitaries and most of the cabinet. The opportunity was used to show off different cannons to the higher ups. One of these was named the Peacemaker. Its explosion killed 7 including the Secretary of the Navy, Secretary of State, the Captain, and the head of the construction, equipment and repairs.
* Enron's accounting fraud. A lot of the transactions used in the fraud created large amounts of extra debt, and a lot of the other transactions and investments lost value very quickly when the company was being investigated, significantly speeding up the bankruptcy.
* A Greek brass worker named Perilaus invented the brazen bull, a particularly gruesome brand of execution. The victim would be placed inside a hollow brass statue of a bull, and a fire would be lit underneath. The screams of the victim were turned, by the bull's inner workings into the roars of an angry bull. Perilaus presented it as a gift to Phalaris, a ruler of a local city-state. So disgusted was Phalaris with this invention that he ordered its creator to be its first victim
{{quote|His words revolted me. I loathed the thought of such ingenious cruelty, and resolved to punish the artificer in kind. "If this is anything more than an empty boast, Perilaus," I said to him, "if your art can really produce this effect, get inside yourself, and pretend to roar; and we will see whether the pipes will make such music as you describe." He consented; and when he was inside I closed the aperture, and ordered a fire to be kindled. "Receive," I cried, "the due reward of your wondrous art: let the music-master be the first to play."|Phalaris I}}
* On Christmas Eve of 2008, [[wikipedia:Covina massacre|Bruce Jeffrey Pardo]] went to a party held by his relatives dressed in a Santa suit, opened fire on them and killed eight, and then set fire to the house with a homemade flamethrower. His original plan was to establish an alibi and flee the country; however, the homemade flamethrower burned part of the Santa suit into his flesh, sabotaging his plans and driving him to commit suicide.
* On February 16, 2010, a man responsible for a string of terrifying holdups in Adelaide, South Australia was arrested due to the fact that not only were [[What an Idiot!|two of the stolen cars used for the robberies parked on his property]], he had in his possession a [[Rare Guns|SPAS-12 shotgun]], which was clearly identifiable on the released CCTV footage of some of the robberies, and is very rare, not to mention illegal to own in Australia.
* Thomas Midgley, Jr. is a double example: he invented leaded gasoline and CFCs, contributing to some of humankind's greatest screwups, then died when a machine he built to hoist him out of bed malfunctioned and strangled him.
* The 2009 Cincinnati Bengals played their final game of the regular season against the New York Jets. The Jets would only enter the playoffs if they won, but the Bengals already had their best position locked up and so rested their players and visibly did not play hard to win the game. The Jets won handily. The following week the Jets played Cincinnati again, and eliminated them from the playoffs.
* The urban legend of the guy who was killed by his own fart gas. The ''[[MythBusters]]'' busted this one.
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* The [[wikipedia:Lapua Movement|Lapua Movement]] was a radical right, anti-communist political movement in Finland in the early 1930s. By pressuring the Finnish government through kidnappings and assaults, the Movement managed to pass several anti-communist laws, including the Protection of the Republic Act, nominally meant to ban "anti-government entities". After the Movement [[wikipedia:Mäntsälä rebellion|attempted to overthrow the government,]] the Lapua Movement was banned under the Protection of the Republic Act, the very legislation the Movement helped to legalise.
* The Khmer Rouge turned Cambodia into a huge death camp from 1975 to 1979. When Vietnam got fed up with them, the Khmer Rogue had so devastated their own country that they were in no shape to resist. [[Curb Stomp Battle|The war was over in two weeks]]. Oh, and what was one of the big things that caused Vietnam to say "enough is enough"? Cambodians fleeing into Vietnam to escape the Khmer Rouge. It should say something about how badly communism failed in Cambodia that the monarchy was restored.
* A motorcyclist died in an accident [https://web.archive.org/web/20110902093749/http://ca.news.yahoo.com/upstate-ny-motorcyclist-dies-hitting-head-pavement-during-150809744.html while protesting helmet laws].
* In the 2011 Women's World Cup Quarterfinal between Brazil and the USA, Brazil held a 2-1 in extra time. In the final minutes of extra time, one of the Brazilian women [[Theatrics of Pain|faked an injury]] to draw out the medical team and went off on a stretcher. Seconds after being carted off, she hopped off the stretcher and rejoined the game with no difficulty - drawing a yellow card for her flagrant diving. However, her stunt led the ref to award 3 minutes of injury stoppage time, and the USA scored the equalizing goal in the 2nd. The USA would then advance on penalty kicks.
* Pablo Escobar, the kingpin of the notorious Medellin Cartel, kept attempting to kill those who opposed him politically. Ultimately, many of these hits lead to his defeat because they angered the wrong people and lead to a massive manhunt against him that ultimately lead to his downfall.
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