5 ms·

"Superhuman" is just "Superman" but without getting sued by DC comics.

by antiloper 11mo ago

embedding-shape 11mo ago
And with the additional small hint of Nazism for Europeans. But otherwise exactly the same more or less :)
- antiloper 11mo ago
  Nope. You must be thinking of the terms "Untermensch" (used a lot by Nazis) and "Übermensch" (introduced by Nietzsche, and rarely used by Nazis). "Supermensch" was never used at all.
  - embedding-shape 11mo ago
    Growing up in the 90s in Sweden, we definitively were taught that "Übermensch" ("Övermänniska" in Swedish, literally "Above Human") was something the Nazis promoted during their time, together with demoting "Untermensch". Maybe that's wrong, and if so I thank you for the correction, but "Superhuman" does give me similar vibes regardless, not because of the exact wording, but because of the ideas/concepts.
    - leobg 11mo ago
      Nietzsche’s sister tried to garner favor with the Nazi regime. After Nietzsche’s death, she took his notes, published them under the title “Will to Power” and made it all sound as though Hitler was the fulfillment of Nietzschean ideas. Even scholars who built their careers on Nietzschean philosophy fell for this. For example Ayn Rand. So your teachers were in good company. In truth, everything about the Nazis would have made Nietzsche sick to his stomach: group-think, racism, big government, socialism, robbery, personality cult, lack of intellect, mass appeal, Gleichschaltung, militarism.
      - cess11 11mo ago
        Elisabeth and Bernhard were rabid nationalists and antisemites long before the NSDAP. They established their vegetarian-antisemitic-'Aryan' colony in Paraguay in 1887, two years before Adolf Hitler was born. It failed for financial reasons and the rather harsh environment. They ditched the vegetarianism and started selling meat to get some money, spiraling into alcohol and morphine abuse. In 1889 Bernhard killed himself with strychnine, after which Elisabeth started her career as a fake chronicler by writing a book aimed at creating a much nicer and 'Aryan' image of Bernhard and the colony than the truth would have allowed. As you allude to, Friedrich Nietzsche poured buckets and buckets of abuse over people like his sister and other german nationalists, refusing for the entirety of his life to identify as german, and towards the end of his life he even claimed to be a polish nobleman, free of the tainted blood of the germans.
  - nilamo 11mo ago
    [flagged]
    - mytailorisrich 11mo ago
      Because Ubermensch comes from Nietzche a century before the Nazis, as said, and had also a big influence on anarchists. No-one suggested that "Superhuman" shouldn't be used, either. A some point people need to put things in context and not "get the creeps" over any little things. I am sure that Germans don't even notice all those "Volkswagen" around them...
      - cess11 11mo ago
        Nietzsche introduced the concept in Also Sprach Zarathustra, published in 1883.
    - not-embedding 11mo ago
      maybe given their history of literally accepting Hitler, Germans shouldn't be the ones policing what words can be used?
      - embedding-shape 11mo ago
        Given everyone's history, someone somewhere has accepted evil in every country, so no one should police what words mean?
        not-embedding 11mo ago
        I'd say stay away from policing at least one's own evils. People that are idiotic enough to connect the superhuman in this context to Naziism should stay away from policing any meanings (but now I'm guilty of policing what people should police)
    - School-Cotton 11mo ago
      Why would Germans be an authority on what words should or shouldn't be used in English? This is sort of a reverse version of the very common trend of American political correctness / sensitivity language being exported around the world. Our ancestors committed heinous crimes, therefore we get to tell you how to speak, even though you had nothing to do with it.
  - schrijver 11mo ago
    What do you think ‘super’ means ? It is latin for ‘over’, wich in German is über. In English it has come to take on a broader meaning, but Nietzsche’s übermensch is called ‘superman’ in most English translations, even if ‘superhuman’ would be more accurate. GP doesn’t imply Nazis used ‘Supermensch’, just that the ‘superhuman’ translates to übermensch and that the branding might evoke this concept for European ears.

"Superhuman" is just "Superman" but without getting sued by DC comics.

embedding-shape 11mo ago

And with the additional small hint of Nazism for Europeans. But otherwise exactly the same more or less :)

antiloper 11mo ago
Nope. You must be thinking of the terms "Untermensch" (used a lot by Nazis) and "Übermensch" (introduced by Nietzsche, and rarely used by Nazis). "Supermensch" was never used at all.
- embedding-shape 11mo ago
  Growing up in the 90s in Sweden, we definitively were taught that "Übermensch" ("Övermänniska" in Swedish, literally "Above Human") was something the Nazis promoted during their time, together with demoting "Untermensch". Maybe that's wrong, and if so I thank you for the correction, but "Superhuman" does give me similar vibes regardless, not because of the exact wording, but because of the ideas/concepts.
  - leobg 11mo ago
    Nietzsche’s sister tried to garner favor with the Nazi regime. After Nietzsche’s death, she took his notes, published them under the title “Will to Power” and made it all sound as though Hitler was the fulfillment of Nietzschean ideas. Even scholars who built their careers on Nietzschean philosophy fell for this. For example Ayn Rand. So your teachers were in good company. In truth, everything about the Nazis would have made Nietzsche sick to his stomach: group-think, racism, big government, socialism, robbery, personality cult, lack of intellect, mass appeal, Gleichschaltung, militarism.
    - cess11 11mo ago
      Elisabeth and Bernhard were rabid nationalists and antisemites long before the NSDAP. They established their vegetarian-antisemitic-'Aryan' colony in Paraguay in 1887, two years before Adolf Hitler was born. It failed for financial reasons and the rather harsh environment. They ditched the vegetarianism and started selling meat to get some money, spiraling into alcohol and morphine abuse. In 1889 Bernhard killed himself with strychnine, after which Elisabeth started her career as a fake chronicler by writing a book aimed at creating a much nicer and 'Aryan' image of Bernhard and the colony than the truth would have allowed. As you allude to, Friedrich Nietzsche poured buckets and buckets of abuse over people like his sister and other german nationalists, refusing for the entirety of his life to identify as german, and towards the end of his life he even claimed to be a polish nobleman, free of the tainted blood of the germans.
- nilamo 11mo ago
  [flagged]
  - mytailorisrich 11mo ago
    Because Ubermensch comes from Nietzche a century before the Nazis, as said, and had also a big influence on anarchists. No-one suggested that "Superhuman" shouldn't be used, either. A some point people need to put things in context and not "get the creeps" over any little things. I am sure that Germans don't even notice all those "Volkswagen" around them...
    - cess11 11mo ago
      Nietzsche introduced the concept in Also Sprach Zarathustra, published in 1883.
  - not-embedding 11mo ago
    maybe given their history of literally accepting Hitler, Germans shouldn't be the ones policing what words can be used?
    - embedding-shape 11mo ago
      Given everyone's history, someone somewhere has accepted evil in every country, so no one should police what words mean?
      - not-embedding 11mo ago
        I'd say stay away from policing at least one's own evils. People that are idiotic enough to connect the superhuman in this context to Naziism should stay away from policing any meanings (but now I'm guilty of policing what people should police)
  - School-Cotton 11mo ago
    Why would Germans be an authority on what words should or shouldn't be used in English? This is sort of a reverse version of the very common trend of American political correctness / sensitivity language being exported around the world. Our ancestors committed heinous crimes, therefore we get to tell you how to speak, even though you had nothing to do with it.
- schrijver 11mo ago
  What do you think ‘super’ means ? It is latin for ‘over’, wich in German is über. In English it has come to take on a broader meaning, but Nietzsche’s übermensch is called ‘superman’ in most English translations, even if ‘superhuman’ would be more accurate. GP doesn’t imply Nazis used ‘Supermensch’, just that the ‘superhuman’ translates to übermensch and that the branding might evoke this concept for European ears.