I'm looking for options to describe some course of action the overall result of which is very much at odds with, and even precisely the opposite from, what was intended. The word, "counterproductive" is somewhat synonymous with what I'm looking for, but it doesn't capture the sense of shooting oneself in the foot that I want. Here are some examples (but bear in mind that although they are all socio-political, and in areas of some controversy, that is because they best highlight the nuance I'm after; in the end, my question is only about English word usage, not politics!)
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Netflix recently released a Dave Chapelle comedy special in which there were some jokes that some people believe were detrimental to the interests of so-called "trans" people. In response, some people have staged protests to increase support of those interests. However, suppose those protests were to backfire and the overall result be a diminishing of trans support. Were such a backfiring to occur, we might say that the Netflix protests were counterproductive, but that doesn't seem strong enough.
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Suppose that the result of Edward Snowden leaking intelligence had actually been to make worse whatever it was he was trying to improve. Again, it may be true to say that his actions were counterproductive, but were the actual result to make things very much worse than they were before, I'd like something more emphatic.
I hope those give a sense of what I'm looking for. I want to convey a Homer Simpson-esque "D'oh!" when the unintended consequence becomes clear. "Counterproductive" lacks the sense of negative value judgment I'm looking for. I want something that connotes "you should have known better" in terms of culpability, and even the sense of "I wasn't expecting the Spanish Inquisition!" in terms of the tragic magnitude of the own-foot-shooting that has taken place.
Best Answer
The word "counter-productive" accurate describes the idea that you seem to be looking for. Your concern seems to be that it is not strong enough. I can't think of a word that means the same as "counter-productive" but stronger. The straightforward solution is just to add an adjective to intensity it. Like "extremely counter-productive" or "disastrously counter-productive".
You could recast the sentence to use the verb "backfire". Like, "This plan backfired and caused them major embarrassment" (or whatever). That's stronger than "This plan proved to be counter-productive."
I briefly thought of the term "unintended consequences", as in, "This plan had unintended consequences." But that's not really the same thing. "Counter-productive" (and "backfired") are normally understood to mean that the results were the opposite of your intended goal. Like, you wanted to make yourself look intelligent but instead you made yourself look foolish. But "unintended consequences" means that maybe you accomplished your goal but you also caused something else to happen that was bad. Like, you passed a law intended to reduce pollution, and it did reduce pollution, but it also caused thousands of people to lose their jobs.
(And please note that I exercised great restraint and have not commented on the social or political issues in any of your examples!)