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Hoist by His Own Petard/Real Life: Difference between revisions
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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
** 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]].
*** Stalin had also recently initiated (or was about to initiate) a purge of doctors.
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{{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}}
** Some versions of the story have Phalaris letting him out after a spell, [[Shoot the Shaggy Dog|only to have him thrown off a cliff]].
** Most accounts of Phalaris depict him as a [[The Caligula|very cruel tyrant]] (except for an [[Villain With Good Publicity|image makeover]] mostly confined to the 2nd century that upgraded him to [[Knight Templar]]), and some say he was the [[Laser
* On Christmas Eve of 2008, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/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.
** Talk about irony. Literally hoisted by one's own invention.
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** Also killed alongside Dahmer by the same man was inmate Jesse Anderson. His crime? Murdering his wife, then trying to pin the crime on two black men.
** Similarly, rumor has it that is was a woman executioner who flipped the switch on serial killer Ted Bundy, who killed 36 women.
* [http://www.darwinawards.com/darwin/darwin2000-37.html An unlicensed pyrotechnician was decapitated by a firework] [[What an Idiot!|when he looked down the tube after it failed to launch.]]
* Happened in the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burmese_general_election,_1990 Burmese general election of 1990]; the regime officially said the election was multi-party(and it was), [[Tempting Fate|but they thought they were so popular their candidates would win easily.]] Results? [[Crowning Moment of Awesome|National League for Democracy wins]] ''[[Crowning Moment of Awesome|392]]'' [[Crowning Moment of Awesome|seats (out of 492), making for a rather convincing win.]] However, the junta refused to recognize the results, and put NLD leader Aung San Suu Kyi under house arrest, making this more of a [[Subverted Trope]].
** Straight case happened in Poland, though, [[The Great Politics Mess Up|around the same time]].
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* During the [[American Civil War]], the South's attitudes about race being what they were, the Confederacy decided against freeing their slaves and raising troops of black soldiers. This refusal exacerbated the already considerable logistical advantages the North had, including the fact that the Union did raise black troops, and helped ensure their already likely defeat.
* The French puppet emperor of Mexico Maximillian II attempted to dissuade the Mexicans from rebelling against him by enacting a law that sentenced every rebel captured in battle to death by firing squad. When he himself was captured by the rebels in 1867, the same law was applied to him and he was executed by firing squad.
* In 2011, a group called Million Mom March protested against an issue of [[Archie Comics]]' ''[[Life With Archie]]'' in which one of the characters, a gay man, married his partner. End result? The issue selling out in record time and copies being sold higher on eBay. When they caught wind of what [[Marvel Comics]] was doing in an issue of ''Astonishing [[X Men]]'', they did the same. Marvel's response? [[What an Idiot!|"Please, ''keep protesting''."]]
{{reflist}}
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