There is no way that this is a no-brainer. There have been plenty of people across history who have murdered people for being different based on race, religion or any number of factors really, and 6 million or however many that he killed is not the highest number of dead in a genocide in all of history so there is no reason to assume he is the worst of all-time. He is probably just the one who came closest to realizing his vision.
I'm not advocating Hitler as the most evil of all-time or anything (or even that he isn't), but I'm not sure "body count" is the best stat to use.
Evil is a state of mind, not a summation of your actual evil accomplishments.
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Thank you, Eddie Guerrero. http://www.wwe.com/f/styles/photo_large/public/photo/image/2012/04/33_Moscow_04112012jg_02128.jpg
There is no way that this is a no-brainer. There have been plenty of people across history who have murdered people for being different based on race, religion or any number of factors really, and 6 million or however many that he killed is not the highest number of dead in a mass killing in history so there is no reason to assume he is the worst of all-time. He is probably just the one who came closest to realizing his vision.
From: Jakyl25 | #052 I'm not advocating Hitler as the most evil of all-time or anything (or even that he isn't), but I'm not sure "body count" is the best stat to use.
Evil is a state of mind, not a summation of your actual evil accomplishments.
Which is why it's silly to say that anyone is the "most evil". There have been countless people with the same hateful views and the desire to kill. Many just don't ever find themselves in a position to make their dreams a reality.
Hell, you could argue for people like Lee Harvey Oswald or James Earl Ray. Are millions of no-namers worth more on your scale of evil than one famous, inspirational person?
Hitler is seen as the most evil, not just because he killed lots of people but because he convinced basically the entire country of Germany that he was right in doing so. He didn't get to power by killing the then-current leader of Germany, people voted for him because his plan looked good and it actually worked well, because he helped Germany recover from post WWI. You could argue that Hitler was crazy (although his justifications for Holocaust was of course that Jews had betrayed Germany in WWI) but even if he was, all the people underneath him weren't. And yes, some were intimidated, but a lot were actually convinced that they were right in doing so.
Stalin on the other was much more...forced. Stalin had a VERY strict regime, and a lot of people basically followed him out of fear. There's this one photo where he's walking with a couple of generals around him on a bridge. In the original photo, there was another man walking next to him, but he made a mistake or spoke against him or something, and was killed and taken out of the photo. That was the Stalin regime basically.
It depends on where you were in regards to knowing him. Stalin's immediate cronies were scared to death of him. The people in greater Russia *loved* the guy and had no bloody clue what he was up to (this is why you literally had people dying of heart attacks in the street when Stalin's crimes came to light). The people out in the Russian boondocks knew fully well what a monster he was, but couldn't do anything about it
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We are thought, and reality, and concept, and the unimaginable
I've always wondered what it'd be like to go to Germany and go through their school system from elementary to high school.
What kind of opinion do they teach their German children to have of Hitler? It can't be all that bad. Not as bad as the US teaches their children to have.
about the same. evil is what it is. though if you mean through the decades, some of that depends on what part of Germany that you are talking about.
-- to measure the meaning can make you delay it's time you stopped thinking and wasting the day
From: TheConductorSix | #054 why is the man who murdered millions of Jews the most infamous man of modern times where Jewish people run literally everything...
no clue. it's completely puzzling. well to me, "murdered millions" means everything, "Jewish" doesn't mean much at all, so I'll go with "murdered millions".
-- to measure the meaning can make you delay it's time you stopped thinking and wasting the day
From: Takfloyd_mkII__ | #059 Freeza's probably more evil than Hitler or God since he caused the near extinction of two races on screen.
I think this is the way this topic should be going.
Jack Noir is more evil than Frieza, Hitler and God combined! He destroyed the entire universe! Hell, House (Doctor Who, not the medical doctor) may be even more evil since he <spoilers>killed hundreds of Time Lords and Tardi (or whatever the plural of Tardis is) thus in a way killing parts of time and space </spoilers>
I never said Hitler being 'the most evil' was a no-brainer people, if you've read my first post in this thread (and the post where I said 'no-brainer' in the actual way it was presented and not vlado's out of context quote and assumption) I don't care about such a thing because it is banter that just flows from the contests this board has. This could simply be a 'Rank The Most Evil Person: History Edition*~' topic from the likes of it