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Interesting question. I think that depends on how you define "their people". In some sense, all dictators improved the lives of "their people". Nelson Mandela
by chillacy 10y ago
Interesting question. I think that depends on how you define "their people". In some sense, all dictators improved the lives of "their people".
Nelson Mandela for instance made life better for black South Africans, but he's implicated in violence against white south africans.
Hitler made life better for many Germans, especially given the conditions of the Treaty of Versailles.
Turning back to the US, you could argue that those descended from native americans have not had their lives improved by an ugly history of genocide. The US also enslaved people who our citizens today descended from. There was also internment of Japanese-American citizens. And to this day, high incarceration rates for the poor/minorities.
- kgwgk 10y agoMandela or Hitler are don't seem particularly anti-American. "The forms of government have always been different. But this cannot be a reason for hostility between different nations, as long as one form of government does not try to interfere with another, outside of its naturally ordained sphere." http://www.ihr.org/jhr/v08/v08p389_Hitler.html http://www.ihr.org/jhr/v08/v08p389_Hitler.html
- chillacy 10y agoI suppose I didn't pick the best examples. Though Mandela was a critic of the US in later years regarding Iraq / Israel, and Hitler's sentiment on America seems to be complex: a combination of not taking america too seriously and not desiring conflict too early. But I don't think that changes my original point, which is that all dictators can be seen as serving their people, depending on how you define "their people".
- kgwgk 10y agoI don't disagree, but the comment you replied to was about the direct correlation between "the amount of anti-American rhetoric" and "how much they screw their country over" so the fact that you choose as example dictators which were not very high in the anti-American rhetoric axis kind of supports his case.
- chillacy 10y agoTrue. I suppose better picks would have been leaders of Russia, Egypt, Pakistan, Iran, etc. going off of http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2014/07/15/which-countries-dont-like-america-and-which-do/ http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2014/07/15/which-countr... In all those cases they're helping some group in their country, even if its the political elite.