This. it was a quite popular opinion in europe, since the middle ages.

re WW 1: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dolchsto%C3%9Flegende

OP, this is what you might be missing: Social Darwinism was one of the cornerstones of Nazi ideology. They considered their own "Aryan race" the master race, superior to every other race, especially Jews, Slavs and Gypsies. Fearing the dilution of the german race Racial Hygiene (and ultimately the Holocaust) was the next logical step to cleanse the Volkskörper (literally the body of the people) of the germs that are the inferior races.

It has nothing to do with either.

People are mistrustful of outsiders to a fault.

Political considerations (in this case) are just an expression of how people are.

You can find this truth everywhere in life, from where you sat long ago in childhood lunch-time (the geeks sit together, and everyone else is a big fat meanie.) through where you will spend your elder years complaining about the youngins and their new sky cars (get off my lawn).

People hate outsiders.

That's what I said, except i said it much shorter.

And much more easily misunderstood.

Kind of Durka-ish of you.

Long term thinking on what is desirable for the human race, plus desire for power, plus the belief in a moral right (most felt that Germany had been badly treated post WWI) tipped over the edge by a mixture of justified and irrational beliefs is sufficient to explain why he would do that.

You take what he did as crazy, but it not obvious or even highly defensible that these things are wrong, although I would die to fight against it.

The truth is that the main reason you believe that genocide, slavery, colonies etc are unacceptable today is because a generation experienced Hitler and his results and taught young people a moral code that abhorred these things.

Ironically, Hitler likely did more for the humanitarian cause and the fraternity of nations than all other well meaning peace activists combined. He probably deserved the peace prize more than anyone in history if you base it on results instead of intention.

Because it's the only thing capable of keeping the peace. Nuclear weapons scientists deserve the peace prize more than anyone.

They're not working.

This.

do you think that if you post pretentiously that it will make your post meaningful?


fwiw i agree with stu

Hitler did not invent anti-semitism, slaughter of jews, nor genocide. He applied modern technologies to their execution. Also, when you have imperial ambitions but are not yet able to attack and consume your neighbors you can produce a similiar effect by cannibalizing an unpopular segment of your own country - especially if it has significant assets to confiscate.


PairTheBoard

The nukes are simply the backbone of the defence systems of the countries that have them. Their destructive power is so great, that everything else appear as toy arms.

wow why did so many people troll this thread? these are some really fair issues to be discussed

Mister, you are trolling itt.

Nice one, wish I'd said that

neither side can disarm so they must both keep them

Does "trolling" mean changing the subject? lol

Your questions are very general and broad based and could be posted in the Politics forum for reasons that you should be able to figure out. Also, Hitler through his 'Final Solution', was targeting specific segments of the population under his control (Jews mainly but also gypsies and others).

The nuclear weapons question is completely separate from the first question. It would be best to separate questions, especially broad base question, into separate post and not lump disparate themes together. And since much of the first and even the second question overlaps or is under the umbrella of politics (Nazism was/is a political movement and ideology for example), it may have been more appropriate to post this in the politics forum. If the thread veers substantially in that direction it will be moved.

-Zeno

You need a history forum. /sorry

This might not be a bad idea. Lobby for one in ATF (About the Forums) forum. Here it is:

http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/55/about-forums/


-Zeno

Done.

+1ed.

Doesn't quite count as us making a point, so much...

When the idea is that great, there will be others...

Hitler was a psychopath with absolutley no empathy for those he considered "inferior".

/thread

yea. psychologies can turn out to be pretty twisted. thank god most of us have emotions that tell us to care for other ppl. too bad most of us have emotions that tell us to do stupid things tho.

I don't think that is a sufficient explanation. In fact, I think it is dead wrong.

Have you ever read Bitter Winds, the story of a man in China's communist labor camps? Or Wild Swans? If you read these books you'll realize that a substantial portion of the population - most of them not psychopaths in any meaning of the word - participated in the shunning, torture and killing of those who did not do what was socially accepted.

How do you explain the torture, beating and forced breeding of slaves in the US? Were most of your ancestors also "psychopaths with no empathy for those they considered inferior"? I do not think that's true either.

What about people who eat meat, specifically mammals? Are they "psychopaths with no empathy for those they considered inferior"? Again, the answer is generally no.

What about religious people who supported the tortures and killings of the Inquisition? Were they "psychopaths with no empathy for those they considered inferior"? Again, no.

In short, I think you put no thought whatsoever into your views on this matter.