MLK was a notorious philanderer.
This. Ford’s antisemitism isn’t that well-known. I think that man was hit by the evil stick around 1928.
Steve Jobs was a great at designing tech devices, and a dick. Edison, brilliant inventor, and a dick. Henry Ford, inventor, designer, captain of industry, and a dick. The list goes on and on. It’s a dog eat dog world, and the biggest successes are often those who are willing to screw the other guy to get what they want. After success, a swelled ego and the inevitable side effects of that will emerge also.
I shouldn’t be too critical either. I have shared a common characteristic with those guys from time to time.
Steve Martin, for all his various talents, is really an asshole. And don’t get me started on Woody Allen.
Sampiro, it is from you that I know Rosa Parks was as friendly as a badger.
Gandhi, after all he is just one letter away from being an asshole. Michael Schumacher, greatest driver, but a bloody cheat. Kubrick and Francis Ford Coppola. When you cause the heart attack of a 37 year old man, you are certainly an asshole.
Though in fairness I only met her when she was old. Perhaps she was once much nicer. Or perhaps somehow I turned her (I never ever should have seated her at the back of the restaurant).
I’ve heard in a few interviews that Steve Martin is actually a really sweet guy, but crushingly shy, hence coming off bad.
I don’t think Julius Caesar was ever an Empreror proper. His protege Augustus Caesar is generally regarded as the first Emperor. Julius did have the tile Imperator conferred on him, but others had held it before him and at that time it was not synonymous with what we now think of as Emperor. Julius was a Dictator.
With an emphasis on “dick” according to many contemporaries (well, they killed him, didn’t they?).
Lyndon Johnson.
Asshole Extreme.
He was more a dick, in that he liked to flaunt it.
It is true, Ford wrote a series of articles published in the Detroit Free Press, lambasting “the Jews”.
But I maintain it was largely based upon ignorance.
The fact is, Ford did make a public apology (also printed in the papers), so at least he did acknowledge the error of his ways.
Clinton was well known to be nasty to his staff-I say him rip into a staffer (it was on TV).
I bet he’s a real prize at home!
I don’t know how many people consider him great*, but people are surprised to learn that Jimmy Carter has a huge temper. I used to work with a guy who is close to the Carters both personally and professionally and he had some amazing stories of him losing his temper at screwups.
*I happen to think that Carter is the greatest ex-president this nation has ever had and has done more with his ex-presidency, than most presidents (including himself) are able to do while in office.
His brilliant what?
Joe
You can add V S Naipaul to the literary assholes list.
Oh, yes. His views on women in literature are … special.
Walt Disney was a huge anti-semite.