Besides the electronic voting machine, what's the most evil device in history?

[jmowreader]

Okay, maybe we should also leave out the guillotine.

But I'm serious: What, of all the millions of devices that have ever been invented, is the most evil?

My vote: the Automatic Cigarette Making Machine. Here's why:

This machine made it easy to be a heavy smoker. Before the automatic cigarette maker, smokers had to roll cigarettes by hand. You probably weren't going to roll forty cigarettes a day. Premade cigarettes turned cigarette smoking from a contemplative activity to a reflexive one.

This machine made cigarette smoking more attractive to the young. Kids aren't going to roll a lot of cigarettes, but they'll smoke premade ones. (They'll roll joints, but you've got to--last I checked, Acapulco Gold Filters are in short supply.)

It also contributed greatly to the Litter Problem. The vast majority of machine-made cigarettes are filter-tipped ones. Those filters are made from polyester tow. An unfiltered cigarette butt will eventually disintegrate--wet rice paper eventually dissolves. A filter-tipped butt will survive a nuclear war.

For turning generation after generation into dedicated Cigarette Fiends, I award the automatic cigarette maker the title of "most evil device ever made."

[blogslut]

1. Shoes

They were the beginning of the easy way out for humanity.

[Taverner]

2. The Atom Bomb

No denying Atomic research is a good thing.

The atom bomb, however, and all of it's variants, is something I wished didn't exist.

[terrya]

29. I agree with you.

I would add the Hydrogen Bomb, as well. I know J. Robert Oppenheimer, the "father" of the H-bomb, had very serious misgivings about the H-bomb.

[HCE SuiGeneris]

3. Cock ring eom

[flvegan]

4. The veal crate.

In it's intent, this device goes beyond evil.

[BreweryYardRat]

6. Ugh, seconded.

That or the seal club.

[Taverner]

15. What is the veal crate?

[flvegan]

21. Link

If you read, then scroll down to the pix...unkind.

Fair warning, bro...

http://www.freefarmanimals.org/vc_intro.htm

[LeftyMom]

5. The VW Jetta

They have some secret power that turns drivers into assholes with no fear of death. Also, I've seen no evidence that they are equipped with turn signals.

Or brakes.

[Oeditpus Rex]

7. Yoooo-hoooo! Mutleyyyyy!

Wherefore art thou?

:evilgrin:

[undeterred]

8. pantyhose

[Deja Q]

9. The vibrator

The 60s generation said computerized machines were to be the end of us... seems they're right... who needs a human when a little chrome-plated buzzing gadget with automatic settings will do? (though it's not as easy or as fun to introduce it to one's mother...)

[mike_c]

10. the employee time clock....

The central notion behind wage slavery is the idea that employees sell their time as a commodity. Chunks of their lives. Irretrievable. Once a daily portion of peoples' lives is reduced to the only thing of value they have to offer at the market, buyers can treat them like any other commodity, increasing their own profits by buying as cheaply as possible.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

11. The snow-blower.

Especially the really big ones. The ones that turn your neighbor's snow into your snow. And a similar pox upon leaf-blowers.

[flvegan]

13. Not if you're a dude named "Snow"

or subsequently, per your post, "Leaf"

[Richard Steele]

12. The cell phone.

[jus_the_facts]

14. Paper Mills and the combustion engine are much more evil than cigarette rollers....

:eyes:

[jobycom]

20. Both of those have positive virtues, unlike cigarettes. nt

[Skittles]

16. that thing that keeps Cheney's ticker going

yes INDEED

[Connonym]

28. you were reading my mind

[graywarrior]

17. The Bra.

HATE them.

[derby378]

18. The Boger swing (torture device used in Auschwitz, Block 11)

There are lots of torture methods, but then there's the Boger swing. Invented by a Gestapo chief for the sole purpose of torturing rebellious prisoners in Auschwitz, especially Jews who tried to escape or start uprisings. "My talking machine will make you talk."

Surprisingly simple in design, but the effects on its victims were unspeakable.

[jobycom]

19. The NFL Replay booth!!!!!!!!!!!!

:grr:

[Redstone]

22. The cell phone.

Redstone

[Generic Brad]

23. Self Service Gas Pumps

I want to be served like my parents were, damn it!

[jmowreader]

31. I thought you said "serviced like your parents were"

To which I thought in reply, "with gas prices the way they are, you get 'serviced' every time you fill up."

[noamnety]

24. epilator (nt)

[Capn Amerika]

25. Rectal, Oral or Vaginal Pear

Sick Bastards.

Its name comes from its shape. This instrument had a screw mechanism by which it was progressively expanded to the maximum aperture of the two or three elements it was made of.

This instrument was forced into the mouth or rectum of male victims and into the vagina of female victims. The oral, rectal, or vaginal pear was inflicted on people guilty of sodomy, on women guilty of adultery, people guilty of incest or sexual union with Satan, and it was also inflicted on heretical preachers and blasphemers.

This torture has in itself the implicit idea of inflicting punishment that was opposite to the kind of crime one had been charged with.

http://www.corkscrew-balloon.com/misc/torture/29.html

[BlueIris]

26. Ladies and gentlemen, the thread is won.

Thank you very much, and goodnight.

I will be spending the rest of said night scrubbing my eyeballs.

[S n o w b a l l]

32. It's still used today....

...only it's called a speculum.

:scared:

[ellisonz]

27. The machine gun.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Omdurman
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maxim_gun

And of course WWI...

The atomic bomb comes in 2nd.

[REDKING]

30. Toasters.....

I hate toasters,crap invention.Also anything that has a ism on the end of it except alcohol.:beer: