Who is the most overrated historical figure?

[Ancestral Republican]

At least for the 20th Century, I'd say Churchill, Reagan, and possibly Mother Teresa. Also Pope John Paul II for not responding adequately to the sex abuse crisis, although that was definitely not limited to him or to his time in office.

[🦀🎂🦀🎂]

Weird example but Hitler. People often state how his economic policy saved Germany or that he was some kind of military savant, but neither of those things are true.

Other examples: Kemal Atatürk, Richard the Lionheart, Napoleon and Justinian the Great.

[LBJer]

Also Pope John Paul II for not responding adequately to the sex abuse crisis, although that was definitely not limited to him or to his time in office.

I'm not sure if "overrated" is the best way to describe John Paul II.  I think it's more a matter of having a complex, multifaceted legacy, similar to LBJ.  Both men were very flawed in some areas but outstanding in others.  

[GeneralMacArthur]

Probably Columbus, dude just got lucky and was a horrible piece of s--t with his luck once it fell in his lap.

[Alben Barkley]

Nowadays it might well be Alexander Hamilton. He might have been underrated before the musical, but he became overrated as hell after it.

[President Johnson]

Jack Kennedy is also pretty overrated. Mostly agree on Reagan and Churchill as well.

As for Germany, I feel like Willy Brandt is overrated, especially among center-leftists or leftists in general. Helmut Schmidt was a much better chancellor.

[Big Abraham]

Ben-Gurion, Princess Diana, or any of the Kennedys, outside of the ones that have already been mentioned.

[VBM]

Ronald Reagan is easily the most overrated person in the 20th century

Probably Columbus, dude just got lucky and was a horrible piece of s--t with his luck once it fell in his lap.

Dont most people nowadays acknowledge that Columbus sucked?

[Statilius the Epicurean]

More than 2 billion people worship an obscure Galilean preacher as literally God, which in terms of overrated is rather difficult to top...

Non religious (otherwise it's too easy) Columbus is a good shout. Of people who haven't been mentioned yet I would say Da Vinci, who is held to be the prototypical polymath when in my opinion he isn't a very outstanding artist in comparison to others of the Italian Renaissance, and his scientific writings were largely ephemera.

[President Johnson]

Shoud also add Che Guevera. I never understood the cult about this guy. He was a loser anyway.

[America Needs a 13-6 Progressive SCOTUS]

Jesus Christ.

[This user has not been convicted of 34 felonies]

Reagan, Churchill, and Thatcher come to mind.

[Theodore]

Besides the obvious, Columbus, a case for one of the more overrated figures being George Washington.

[Southern Senator North Carolina Yankee]

Nowadays it might well be Alexander Hamilton. He might have been underrated before the musical, but he became overrated as hell after it.

I agree with this, he has been transformed into a hero of a culture of tolerance, acceptance and inclusion that his policies and his party were against at the time favoring a system where only a WASP elite held real power and viewing other groups as incapable of governing and unruly barbarians.

[Southern Senator North Carolina Yankee]

Shoud also add Che Guevera. I never understood the cult about this guy. He was a loser anyway.

This also annoys me as well. He was also rather racist IIRC.

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

Rasputin.

For all the attention he gets, he had like zero impact on history. If you remove him from it history plays out exactly the same as it did in reality.

[TheReckoning]

FDR. His economic policies extended the Great Depression and he locked up over 100,000 people because of their ethnicity, but he’s still worshipped for some reason.

[buritobr]

What do you think about Konrad Adenauer? I am not saying he was not good, but maybe he was overrated.

There was the reconstruction of Germany after the war. But all the countries that suffered the consequences of the war were rebuilt.
There was the economic miracle. But almost all the countries had very high GDP growth between 1949 and 1963.

[Statilius the Epicurean]

Rasputin.

For all the attention he gets, he had like zero impact on history. If you remove him from it history plays out exactly the same as it did in reality.

Cleopatra is similar. Her only effect on history is dragging that himbo Antony down with her.

[John Dule]

Jesus Christ.

Based.

[Southern Senator North Carolina Yankee]

Rasputin.

For all the attention he gets, he had like zero impact on history. If you remove him from it history plays out exactly the same as it did in reality.

Ironically, I recall reading somewhere that Rasputin had two instances of broken clock being right twice a day.

1. He urged the Tsar not to start the war
2. He urged the gov't to hault transport of military supplies one day each week to allow supplies to get through to the cities.

These two things indirectly and directly caused the February Revolution.

[Fight for Trump]

Jesus Christ.

Based.

I was tempted to say this, but I always feel bad when I say stuff like that.

[Amenhotep Bakari-Sellers]

Until there is a Rapture, we don't know if there is life after death, unfortunately Christ, but we can believe that extraterrestrial life gave humans their life forms, whether it's God or not

But, obvious Jefferson is WC meant states rights not Secular back then and along with Madison whipped and branded slaves

Branding meant what it is like branding a horse, and that WC judges sent Afro Americans to Chain gangs without Miranda or Public Defenders, until 1965 when Great migration sent Afro Americans to North in 1948

[LAKISYLVANIA]

Probably Columbus, dude just got lucky and was a horrible piece of s--t with his luck once it fell in his lap.

Yeah, but Hernan Cortes is even more overrated IMO.

[H. Ross Peron]

Weird example but Hitler. People often state how his economic policy saved Germany or that he was some kind of military savant, but neither of those things are true.

Other examples: Kemal Atatürk, Richard the Lionheart, Napoleon and Justinian the Great.

Hitler obviously wasn't a military genius of any sort, but at the same time, many Wehrmacht generals in the postwar period sought to place the bulk of the blame for Germany's military defeat on Hitler alone and insisted that they would have been able to win the war if not for his meddling in self-justifying memoirs (which of course also minimized their own roles in wartime atrocities including the Holocaust).

As for the question itself, Leonardo da Vinci is rather overrated as is Gandhi.