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Why are they compared to each other? Completely different people operating completely different systems with completely different goals.

• gaius 9y ago
  They were all dictators operating totalitarian regimes with the goal of absolute power. So they wore slightly different symbols on their arms, the difference between them was only a scrap of cloth.
  • masklinn 9y ago
    American society seems to see plenty of difference between purposefully inflicting direct harm and harm as a side-effect of policies not specifically intended to inflict it (enough that politicians will invoke the latter as defense even in instances of the former). Hell, even in solely the former case it makes a large difference depending on the specifics of the intended target of direct purposeful harm. More generally, intent is a huge factors in evaluating responsibility & level of harm, and to a lower level so is specificity.
    • gaius 9y ago
      American society Western society in general has plenty who want to try these policies again because they say this time it will be different.
  • ggm 9y ago
    The only difference you care about. Other people see other differences. You need to talk to more Russians and Chinese if you think a one dimensional comparison has merit. The unofficial party line on Mao (as the article says) is 70% right and 30% wrong. That's a more nuanced position than you think.
    • deleted 9y ago
      [deleted]
• TulliusCicero 9y ago
  They were all twentieth century dictators responsible for millions of deaths.
• tpm 9y ago
  They were all products of their time, at the start of their mass killing careers firmly believing in making the world better through massive and rapid social change (Mao and Stalin believed in progressive change, Hitler was more 'regressive' although it's more complicated than that). They were inspired by Marx (yes, even Hitler) and his followers. Hitler and Stalin resided in the same town for a while http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-21859771 http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-21859771