21 of the Most Horrifying Actions Ordered By Actual Governments

In the U.S., at least, a healthy distrust of the government might as well be written into the citizenship test. Whether it’s prepper weirdos in the woods scrawling paranoid screeds about taking their guns directly into the trees or protesters donning masks for fear of ending up on some kind of list, we're all a little wary of the institution we've entrusted with our most basic needs, not to mention our taxes.

And to be fair, we have pretty good reasons. Throughout history, various governments and their leaders have ordered actions of such cartoonish cruelty that they’ve become the yardstick by which we measure tragedy — e.g., “a thousand 9/11s” or “almost as bad as the Holocaust, because seriously, nothing’s as bad as the Holocaust.”

That’s why user imadepyramids asked r/AskReddit, “What are some of the most evil political decisions in history?”