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> if people like Hitler, Pol Pot, Stalin were removed from power earlier It's a bit ironic that you criticize the predictive power of my examples, then go full
by bumholio 8y ago
> if people like Hitler, Pol Pot, Stalin were removed from power earlier
It's a bit ironic that you criticize the predictive power of my examples, then go full time machine to kill known mass murderers before they had the chance to do their deeds.
There is little doubt that killing Hitler would have changed the course of history for the better - as much as alternate historical timelines make any sense in a discussion. The problem we are trying to solve, however, is not "how to use a time machine"; it is preventing future dictatorship without full hindsight of who will turn out to be the dictator. The year is 1933 and a new, 44 year old Chancellor is using political violence as a pretext to suspend democracy. As it would later turn out in this story, democracy matters quite a lot.
- grizzles 8y agoWikipedia puts the dates of the holocaust at: 1941–1945; according to a broader definition, 1933–1945 You don't need a time machine. It's a documented fact that people around the world knew by 1942, and some well before then. It's hard to slaughter millions of people without other people finding out about it. > The problem we are trying to solve, however, is not "how > to use a time machine"; it is preventing future > dictatorship without full hindsight of who will turn out > to be the dictator. Nope, I'm just saying that Maduro's gotta go. If you can't figure out that he's a dictator that's on you.
- bumholio 8y agoSo were Saddam and Gaddafi. Their elimination directly led to tens of thousands of preventable civilian deaths and ongoing civil wars. Again, a simplistic world view can lead to trying to solve the wrong problem. Venezuela is still at the 'restoring democracy by any peaceful means' stage.
- grizzles 8y agoYou don't need to start a war to drone one guy.