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“Created His Own Church”: 30 Of The Biggest “Go To Hell” Moves From History
HistoryJAN 9, 2025

“Created His Own Church”: 30 Of The Biggest “Go To Hell” Moves From History

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Humans just love a good tale of revenge. There is so much inherent drama, wrongs being righted, betrayal and catharsis. So it stands to reason that throughout human history, there have been many cases of people taking matters into their own hands to resolve their differences.
Someone asked “What was the biggest "[s***w] you" in history?” and netizens shared their best examples. So get comfortable as you read through, if you happen to have a nemesis, perhaps take some notes, upvote the best ones and be sure to add your own thoughts and favorites in the comments below.

#1

“Created His Own Church”: 30 Of The Biggest “Go To Hell” Moves From History
Mother Nature's big FU to the Chinese in response to the Great Sparrow Campaign. The campaign encouraged the Chinese to k**l sparrows by the truckload because supposedly they were eating seeds from planted crops. Well, the campaign was such a success that plant eating insects that the sparrows also ate were able to thrive and totally ruin crops which lead to famine.
108points

#2

“Created His Own Church”: 30 Of The Biggest “Go To Hell” Moves From History
Olga of Kiev. Some jerks called the Drevlians killed her husband and tried to have her marry their Prince. She fooled them into sending their most important men to prepare for the wedding and trapped them in a building and burned them alive. When they tried to apologize she requested pigeons from the citizens and *rigged the birds with sulfur bags*. The birds flew back to their original homes and when they roosted it burned down all of their houses. The official bad b***h of the year 890. She's also a saint.
96points

#3

“Created His Own Church”: 30 Of The Biggest “Go To Hell” Moves From History
Ferruccio Lamborghini was a rich man owning his company that built tractors, he talked to Ferrari about the imperfections of his car and how to improve them and they basically laughed at a young tractor mechanic trying to tell them about sport cars, so he decided to start making luxury sport cars to compete with Ferrari and thus, the rivalry was born. So i'd say the middle finger of this guy to Ferrari was pretty noticeable.
81points

#4

“Created His Own Church”: 30 Of The Biggest “Go To Hell” Moves From History
The Rats of Tobruk.

An Australian garrison in Tobruk during WWII that became infamous during an 8 month siege against an armored German/Italian Afrika corps.

The tactics of the soldiers surprised the Germans in that usually when the lines are pieced by armored forces the enemy retreats. Not so the Tobruk Garrison, who instead advanced and attacked the infantry running behind the tanks while letting the armored division over-extend itself without support.

>" I cannot understand you Australians. In Poland , France and Belgium once the tanks got through the soldiers took it for granted they were beaten. But you are like demons. The tanks break through and your infantry keeps fighting."

Eventually they got a N**i war propaganda specialist to broadcast radio messages in Radio Berlin in an attempt to lower morale and deride the defenders, calling the soldiers in Tobruk 'cornered rats' because of their tactics in using tunnel networks to flank and steal supplies, and their supply ships 'floating scrap iron'.

But rather than be demoralized the Australian's started calling themselves Rats and their supply ships 'the scrap iron flotilla'. Because in typical Australian dry humor they figured it is more insulting to the Germans to be beaten back by a bunch of rats. They gave themselves unofficial rat medals with metal from a scrapped German bomber shot down with stolen German guns.

I like to think it was a long 8 months of Australians and their allies holding a giant middle finger to the Axis.
79points

#5

“Created His Own Church”: 30 Of The Biggest “Go To Hell” Moves From History
George Bernard Shaw: I am enclosing two tickets to the first night of my new play; bring a friend—if you have one.

Winston Churchill: Cannot possibly attend first night; will attend second—if there is one.
75points

#6

“Created His Own Church”: 30 Of The Biggest “Go To Hell” Moves From History
Queen Gorgo of Sparta when asked why only Spartan women were equal to their men:

"Because only Spartan women give birth to Spartan men.".
65points

#7

“Created His Own Church”: 30 Of The Biggest “Go To Hell” Moves From History
The invasion of Belgium during WW1 comes to mind.


Basically, the Germans were on a strict timeline and needed to move their massive army through Belgium in order to flank the French defenses along their own border. In order for this to be successful, they were counting on the Belgians kind of just stepping aside and letting them use their roads and rails and bridges and such. After all, the Germans could destroy Belgium in a war with relative ease, but they didn't have time for that. The Germans asked the Belgians not to sabotage any of the infrastructure so they could pass through and leave them alone.
In response, the Belgians gave a resounding "f**k you". They blew up the bridges and the tunnels and the rails, and they gave a fantastic resistance against the Germans at a series of forts along their border with Germany. They really f****d s**t up.
51points

#8

“Created His Own Church”: 30 Of The Biggest “Go To Hell” Moves From History
Not the biggest, but:
Molotov said he wasn't bombing Finland, he was bringing them food. In actuality, he was bombing them. Finns got cheeky and called the bombs "Molotov Bread Baskets." Finns made the Molotov Cocktail as "a drink to go with the bread."

A Molotov Cocktail is p much flammable "poor man's grenade" meant to set someone on fire rather than just flat out k**l them.

It might not be a huge f**k you, but it's one of my favorite historical facts.
49points

#9

“Created His Own Church”: 30 Of The Biggest “Go To Hell” Moves From History
Singapore getting kicked out of Malaysia in 1965, making it the only state in the world ever to gain its independence involuntarily.
There is a video of Singaporean prime minister Lee Kuan Yew crying on TV right afterwards: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jj6iKXMIiOg

The reason Singapore got kicked out, was that then governor, and ethnic Chinese, Lee Kuan Yew did not agree with the racially discriminating policies put in place by the mostly Malay government. These policies grant Malays significantly more rights than any other of the many ethnicities that live in Malaysia, in an apartheid like manner.

Of course, we know that it went very well for Singapore from then onwards, but back in the day virtually everyone thought that this decision would be the country's death penalty. I mean, it really wasn't much more than a Malaria infested swamp in 1965...

The even bigger "f**k you" is that history in Malaysian school books has been rewritten to say that a mutual understanding had been reached and that Singapore left voluntarily. What's more, historical facts have been "amended" gradually, in order to justify the special rights that ethnic Malays get.

While I am not a Malaysian myself, I have lived in the area for several years now and it griefs me to still see ethnic Chinese and Indians in Malaysia who are forced to keep quiet over political and personal issues, in order to avoid serious consequences.
46points

#10

“Created His Own Church”: 30 Of The Biggest “Go To Hell” Moves From History
When Julius Cesar was kidnapped by pirates and his men paid 50 talents as a ransom.
He went back home , took his time to raise a fleet and go after his kidnappers. He crucified them and got his 50 talents back.
45points

#11

“Created His Own Church”: 30 Of The Biggest “Go To Hell” Moves From History
Republicans refusing to hold a hearing for President Obama's supreme court nominee with nearly a year left in his term.
45points

#12

“Created His Own Church”: 30 Of The Biggest “Go To Hell” Moves From History
Henry VIII created his own church when the Catholics told him no for divorce.
41points

#13

“Created His Own Church”: 30 Of The Biggest “Go To Hell” Moves From History
The Greeks saying a huge resounding "No" to Mussolini's ultimatum to allow the axis forces to enter the Greek territory in 1940.It forces admiration,it takes a special kind of badass to say the equivalent of "f**k you " to Hitler's minions at that time of history.
40points

#14

“Created His Own Church”: 30 Of The Biggest “Go To Hell” Moves From History
Not the biggest but still a great "F**k you" was delivered by Eli Whitney, the inventor of the cotton gin. His invention was copied all over the South and 20 years of lawsuits all failed in the Southern courts. He wound up broke. The new south became incredibly wealthy from his invention. That new "empire" felt itself put-upon by the North and decided to become an independent "empire". Eli Whitney then went and invented inter-changable parts for weapons with assembly lines and allowed the North to quickly arm hundreds of thousands of men with which to crush that would-be empire. He created and crushed an empire.
38points

#15

“Created His Own Church”: 30 Of The Biggest “Go To Hell” Moves From History
Paul von Lettow-Vorbeck. Famous German general from World War I.

From his Wikipedia article:
Later, when Hitler offered him the ambassadorship to the Court of St James's in 1935, he "declined with frigid hauteur."; the suggestion for the nomination as ambassador to the Court of St James had come from retired Colonel Richard Meinertzhagen during a visit to Berlin. During the 1960s, Charles Miller asked the nephew of a Schutztruppe officer, "I understand that von Lettow told Hitler to go f**k himself." The nephew responded, "That's right, except that I don't think he put it that politely."

Very few people lived through telling Hitler that. But he was a decorated, historic officer. He survived, taking no part in the 2nd World War.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_von_Lettow-Vorbeck.
35points

#16

“Created His Own Church”: 30 Of The Biggest “Go To Hell” Moves From History
Arlington National Cemetery sits on what used to be Robert E Lee's estate.
34points

#17

“Created His Own Church”: 30 Of The Biggest “Go To Hell” Moves From History
Winston Churchill, in the face of what appeared to be utter and inescapable defeat only briefly delayed through the largest evacuation in military history.

*Even though large tracts of Europe and many old and famous States have fallen or may fall into the grip of the Gestapo and all the odious apparatus of Nazi rule, we shall not flag or fail. We shall go on to the end. We shall fight in France, we shall fight on the seas and oceans, we shall fight with growing confidence and growing strength in the air, we shall defend our island, whatever the cost may be.*

*We shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender, and if, which I do not for a moment believe, this island or a large part of it were subjugated and starving, then our Empire beyond the seas, armed and guarded by the British Fleet, would carry on the struggle, until, in God's good time, the New World, with all its power and might, steps forth to the rescue and the liberation of the old.*

edit: [Here is the audio of his parliamentary address](http://audio.theguardian.tv/sys-audio/Guardian/audio/2007/04/20/Churchill.mp3) Above quote starts at 10:30.

EDIT: TLDR; "F**k you Nazis, we'll sacrifice EVERYTHING to beat you -- our lives, our country, our empire, and even if we fail our valour will inspire future civilizations to rise up and defeat your descendants.".
34points

#18

“Created His Own Church”: 30 Of The Biggest “Go To Hell” Moves From History
Anthony McAuliffe was the United States Army general who was the acting division commander of the 101st Airborne Division troops defending Bastogne, Belgium, during World War II's Battle of the Bulge, famous for his single-word reply of "Nuts!" in response to a German surrender ultimatum.
31points

#19

“Created His Own Church”: 30 Of The Biggest “Go To Hell” Moves From History
Hannibal crossing the Alps. Rome was not expecting a Carthaginian army to come from that direction especially with elephants. So I guess it's also the biggest "SURPRISE M**********R" of history as well. Bringing elephants didn't help much in terms of military might, but it did show Rome that Carthage could deploy it's most intimidating weapons wherever they damn well pleased.
31points

#20

“Created His Own Church”: 30 Of The Biggest “Go To Hell” Moves From History
America taking over a huge chunk of Mexico and then naming one of that states New Mexico.
31points
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