The US once tired to import hippos as domesticated livestock for meat as an alternative to cows.

Cleveland OH released 1.5M latex balloons in 1986 which resulted in massive environmental pollution, traffic accidents, and prevented the coast guard from possibly saving two fisherman (who later died in Lake Eerie).

Rural towns in New England in the 1800s thought they were being attacked by vampires (it was tuberculosis) so they would dig up corpses and stake them. Some places burned and ate the hearts of the dead.

US scientists stationed in the US Virgin Islands (actually not far from little st james, coincidentally) gave a dolphin LSD in the hopes they could develop spontaneous communication with it. They kept the animal in a small tank and eventually forced cohabitation with a human woman. The woman developed a sexual relationship with the animal. The scientist at the head of all this was heavy into ketamine and LSD use himself. He was never punished for any of this. No telling what other unethical experiments he oversaw.

Andrew Jackson once kept a 200lb wheel of cheese in the White House for years. It could be smelled for miles and he hosted cheese parties in order to get rid of it.

Cornflakes were invented by a religious zealot who thought that spiced and flavorful foods led to sin and masturbation. He was allowed to operate a health retreat where would give people yogurt enemas and put them in a mechanical shaking chair that shook them until they shit. Politicians and celebrities would go to this retreat often.

A higher ranking member of the US navy discovered gay prostitution near a Virginia naval base. He set up a sting operation that sent in straight sailors to solicit sex from the prostitutes. He would have the undercover sailors make detailed reports of the sexual activity. This went on for some time, never being reported by the guy running it. When the President found out he shut it down immediately.

In the 1900s there was massive panic about a comet passing by. People were sold concrete vaults in which they were permanently entombed. I think most people were dug out once the comet passed.

A massive coal vein in PA caught fire. This created an underground fire that consumed an entire town and is still burning to this day. The Mayor of the town was caught trying to do a real estate scheme while tasked with getting people to voluntarily move out for their safety.

In Washington state there is a nuclear waste dump site that are just big holes in the ground filled with waste. They dumped nuclear material into the holes, thinking it would be okay. Then they covered the top. Radiation contamination spread into the soil and made a lot of people sick. It was/is slowly approaching a major river and water source. I haven’t checked on it but a few years ago the problem was schedule to be fixed.

Public swimming pools in the US were basically public baths for most of our history. Also kids and men swam nude. Lots of terrible public health issues and, of course, moral issues until it was modernized after WWII.

Radium was once a popular additive to decorative materials and a health supplement. Lots of people died of cancer.

Jade Helm

George Washington was bled to death in an attempt to treat his flu.

NYC used to be absolute filth. Streets would regularly flood with sewage. They duped sewage and garbage into the East River. They dumped garbage under the docks. The streets had dead animals, especially horses. There was horse and human shit everywhere. One of the surrounding islands was used to process animal remains into products. So if the wind blew right, you would be hit with the smell of slowly boiling death. It’s not that nobody knew better, it was just the way the city was organized. There was so much corruption and lack of common good that there was nobody in place to clean it all up. The sanitation department skimmed money and did nothing.

Enron, an energy company that started out trading natural gas but morphed into tulipmania over fictional national gas derivatives and everyone involved making bank right up until the end.

Meat pies being a way to preserve food but then being banned because they also contained alcohol and caused nightmares and sinful behavior.

This isn’t including all the cults, colorful personalities, or the really dark stuff. America has always been a completely ridiculous and absurd place. It’s part of the foundation. The Dollop is a good podcast for this question, if you can get past the morning zoo bits and banter.