A perspective on Hitler's motivations

[heydaralon]

Scale matters. Statistics and Stalin's statement isn't law. The Mongols were more efficient and "industrial" in their killing than any army before and until the 1st World War. Does that make them more evil than other Medieval armies...maybe/maybe not but certainly the scale is significant and its not a good thing. "Quantity has a quality all of its own" and Hitler did his killing in a handful of years. Quite extraordinary indeed.

The Incas were the most brutal. They used to make the captives tie rope knots until they got carpal tunnel.

[Smitty-48]

Scale matters. Statistics and Stalin's statement isn't law. The Mongols were more efficient and "industrial" in their killing than any army before and until the 1st World War. Does that make them more evil than other Medieval armies...maybe/maybe not but certainly the scale is significant and its not a good thing. "Quantity has a quality all of its own" and Hitler did his killing in a handful of years. Quite extraordinary indeed.

Well, by that standard of "most murdered in shortest time", then Mao Zedong should be the embodiment of ultimate evil.

But again, didn't kill white people, and he was a lefty.

[StCapps]

Well, by that standard of "most murdered in shortest time", then Mao Zedong should be the embodiment ultimate evil.

Yet most would rank him behind Hitler, because Hitler wasn't smart enough to murder millions of Chinese and instead went after the Jews, which of course is a big no-no.

[heydaralon]

Scale matters. Statistics and Stalin's statement isn't law. The Mongols were more efficient and "industrial" in their killing than any army before and until the 1st World War. Does that make them more evil than other Medieval armies...maybe/maybe not but certainly the scale is significant and its not a good thing. "Quantity has a quality all of its own" and Hitler did his killing in a handful of years. Quite extraordinary indeed.

Well, by that standard of "most murdered in shortest time", then Mao Zedong should be the embodiment of ultimate evil.

But again, didn't kill white people, and he was a lefty.

I do consider Mao the worst.

[Speaker to Animals]

Well, by that standard of "most murdered in shortest time", then Mao Zedong should be the embodiment ultimate evil.

Yet most would rank him behind Hitler, because Hitler wasn't smart enough to murder millions of Chinese and instead went after the Jews, which of course is a big no-no.

Not so sure. In that time, it wasn't a no-no. The Germans were initially loading them all on ocean liners and trying to dump them off in other countries, but nobody wanted them. The US government sent a lot of Jews back to Germany to eventually get sent to death camps because Americans didn't like Jews either in those days.

These days, anti-semitism is mostly a joke, but back then, it was the real deal. European people in general didn't much like Jews for a very long time.

It was only after the war that it suddenly became verboten to treat Jews like garbage.

That's why I freely admit that, if I were born a Jew, I'd be the biggest zionist on the planet right about now.

[GloryofGreece]

Scale matters. Statistics and Stalin's statement isn't law. The Mongols were more efficient and "industrial" in their killing than any army before and until the 1st World War. Does that make them more evil than other Medieval armies...maybe/maybe not but certainly the scale is significant and its not a good thing. "Quantity has a quality all of its own" and Hitler did his killing in a handful of years. Quite extraordinary indeed.

Well, by that standard of "most murdered in shortest time", then Mao Zedong should be the embodiment of ultimate evil.

But again, didn't kill white people, and he was a lefty.

Its that kind of moral relativism that is part of the issue. The mass killings done by Stalin, Mao, and Hitler are so enormous in such a short time period it would give anyone pause I'd think.

[StCapps]

Well, by that standard of "most murdered in shortest time", then Mao Zedong should be the embodiment ultimate evil.

Yet most would rank him behind Hitler, because Hitler wasn't smart enough to murder millions of Chinese and instead went after the Jews, which of course is a big no-no.

Not so sure. In that time, it wasn't a no-no. The Germans were initially loading them all on ocean liners and trying to dump them off in other countries, but nobody wanted them. The US government sent a lot of Jews back to Germany to eventually get sent to death camps because Americans didn't like Jews either in those days.

These days, anti-semitism is mostly a joke, but back then, it was the real deal. European people in general didn't much like Jews for a very long time.

It was only after the war that it suddenly became verboten to treat Jews like garbage.

That's why I freely admit that, if I were born a Jew, I'd be the biggest zionist on the planet right about now.

Yet, killing Chinese 40+ million Chinese people in 4 years, that somehow flies under the radar, at least by comparison. Apparently people hate the Chinese more than they hate the Jews.

[GloryofGreece]

Yet most would rank him behind Hitler, because Hitler wasn't smart enough to murder millions of Chinese and instead went after the Jews, which of course is a big no-no.

Not so sure. In that time, it wasn't a no-no. The Germans were initially loading them all on ocean liners and trying to dump them off in other countries, but nobody wanted them. The US government sent a lot of Jews back to Germany to eventually get sent to death camps because Americans didn't like Jews either in those days.

These days, anti-semitism is mostly a joke, but back then, it was the real deal. European people in general didn't much like Jews for a very long time.

It was only after the war that it suddenly became verboten to treat Jews like garbage.

That's why I freely admit that, if I were born a Jew, I'd be the biggest zionist on the planet right about now.

Yet, killing Chinese 40+ million Chinese people in 4 years, that somehow flies under the radar, at least by comparison. Apparently people hate the Chinese more than they hate the Jews.

To be fair how acquainted are most Americans or even broadly speaking Europeans with Asian history? Asia has always been the "other" to Europe and vice versa. A lack of knowledge and understanding of a topic doesn't = don't care necessarily or not bad etc.

[StCapps]

To be fair how acquainted are most Americans or even broadly speaking Europeans with Asian history? Asia has always been the "other" to Europe and vice versa.

As long as it happened "over there" hardly anyone even knows it happened. If it happens in Europe, you're the most evil man in history, see how that works? If Hitler had killed Chinese people. instead of Jews, then he would catch nowhere near the flack that he does today, but he didn't, so that makes him the worstest of all time.

[Smitty-48]

Well, by that standard of "most murdered in shortest time", then Mao Zedong should be the embodiment ultimate evil.

Yet most would rank him behind Hitler, because Hitler wasn't smart enough to murder millions of Chinese and instead went after the Jews, which of course is a big no-no.

Well, bear in mind, I do think Hitler was evil, but not based on the ethnic groups he targeted, and not based on the scale, and I do think the Third Reich was a suicide pact, but not based on the metrics Jordan Peterson uses, and futhermore, I don't rank evil, like a Dave Letterman top ten list.

I'm not a populist, so what most think and what I think; may be some variance there from time to time.