> "Pessimists don’t build gas chambers." What does optimism or pessimism have to do with genocide? The truth is you can view it both ways. On one hand you can

> "Pessimists don’t build gas chambers." What does optimism or pessimism have to do with genocide? The truth is you can view it both ways. On one hand you can see the perpetrators as optimists working towards their idealised society. On the other hand you can look at the desire to kill stemming from a pessimistic attitude towards those they are killing, viewing them as subhuman or beyond redemption. Jews weren't targeted in the Third Reich because of a drive towards ethnic purity, they were targeted by painting them as subversive. From an outside perspective, it was only by embracing pessimism about Jews that allowed that society to go along with the genocide.