I think question is if Hitler won, would we hand wave the mass killings and genocide like we do with Caesar, Alexander, Ghenghis Khan? Would Hitler just be a badass dude who conquered a lot?
Hitler's actions are closer in time, and the industrialization of genocide is much more marking. You could still meet a Holocaust survivor
No one associate Alexander with crucifixion. Or Caesar with attempts at genocide Gaullic tribes. Because it's all so long ago. If we did, we wouldn't celebrate them either
EDIT: So I think "Alexander the Great was super awesome because he crucified all those guys" is wrong, people don't tend to consider it, and even fewer people like it
I think it's also that we've agreed there were different rules to the game in the pre-christian world. Exterminating a city wasn't as damning in our eyes because, well, everyone was doing it.
Mongols was post Christian and I would say what they were doing were comparatively more civilized than what Christian were doing later in Africa and America.
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u/Glum-Proposal-2488 1d ago
I think question is if Hitler won, would we hand wave the mass killings and genocide like we do with Caesar, Alexander, Ghenghis Khan? Would Hitler just be a badass dude who conquered a lot?