33 ms·

> people in history, in general, weren't complete gibbering idiots. I disagree: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salem_witch_trials https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki

> people in history, in general, weren't complete gibbering idiots. I disagree: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salem_witch_trials https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salem_witch_trials https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siege_of_Baghdad_(1258) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siege_of_Baghdad_(1258) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Holocaust https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Holocaust https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genghis_Khan https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genghis_Khan

LyndsySimon 7y ago
Khan wasn’t an idiot, he was ruthless. That’s a very different thing. Likewise, the Holocaust is an interesting topic to study - how exactly did the Nazis murder millions while maintaining at least formal deniability? Would the same even be possible today, with our communications technology? My immediate reaction is “no”, but then I remember that there were people escaping from occupied territory with first-hand accounts of the atrocities being committed, and it was still far from common knowledge. I don’t believe for a moment that every German who claimed ignorance of the extermination camps was doing so earnestly, but every American I’ve spoken with that lived through WW2 said that there wasn’t really any mention of the camps until Western Allies started liberating them. Even when the Soviets started encountering them, the media treated them as rumor. I strongly suspect that today, the same thing could happen and that people who reported on it and tried to investigate/document it would be seen as part of the “conspiracy fringe” in one form or another. Indeed, it may be happening, in China, with the Uighurs and other groups. The fact that I don’t really know how much weight to give reports from there gives me pause, and I consider myself fairly well-informed. Certainly better informed than the average “man on the street”, if only because politics is an interest of mine.
simonh 7y ago
In general. And three of those four were done by people who knew perfectly well what they were doing and why, and their actions while despicable, were entirely rational in service of their goals.

LyndsySimon 7y ago

Khan wasn’t an idiot, he was ruthless. That’s a very different thing. Likewise, the Holocaust is an interesting topic to study - how exactly did the Nazis murder millions while maintaining at least formal deniability? Would the same even be possible today, with our communications technology? My immediate reaction is “no”, but then I remember that there were people escaping from occupied territory with first-hand accounts of the atrocities being committed, and it was still far from common knowledge. I don’t believe for a moment that every German who claimed ignorance of the extermination camps was doing so earnestly, but every American I’ve spoken with that lived through WW2 said that there wasn’t really any mention of the camps until Western Allies started liberating them. Even when the Soviets started encountering them, the media treated them as rumor. I strongly suspect that today, the same thing could happen and that people who reported on it and tried to investigate/document it would be seen as part of the “conspiracy fringe” in one form or another. Indeed, it may be happening, in China, with the Uighurs and other groups. The fact that I don’t really know how much weight to give reports from there gives me pause, and I consider myself fairly well-informed. Certainly better informed than the average “man on the street”, if only because politics is an interest of mine.

simonh 7y ago

In general. And three of those four were done by people who knew perfectly well what they were doing and why, and their actions while despicable, were entirely rational in service of their goals.