I think if actual living people were affected by Genghis Khan or Alexander the Great people wouldn’t be “praising” them, tho I can’t say I hear that much praise of Genghis Khan outside of “violence cool and he did violence good”. There also aren’t Khanists or Alexander the Great fans today actively pursuing harmful political action against minorities under their name, any praise of them is just generic “war strategy cool” history nerd stuff.
People who like Hitler generally like him for a very specific reason, and it isn’t his war acumen or some unemotional historical appreciation. People like him, Mussolini, and Franco established a 20th century precedent for repressive regimes that scapegoat groups of people in favor of racial elites, and it’s still here.
Adolf Hitler
Let’s start with the man we all know and despise. He was a man whose taste for power could not be quenched. In the first four years of the second world war, Hitler and his fanatical Nazi Party seized control of most of the European continent as well as North Africa.
He also ordered the mass murder of millions of innocent Jews and other groups.
At first, it seemed like he was unstoppable until after 1941. Hitler’s forces were stretched too thin and in 1945 the Allied armies defeated them. On 29 April 1945, the Soviet Red Army invaded the bunkers where the bodies of Adolf Hitler and His wife were. They had committed suicide.
Is Hitler any different from previous world conquerors? Why do we hate him so much but praise the conquest of men like Genghis Khan & Alexander the Great?
This is in no way a support of Hitler or what he did in his time. But to me he is no different from men like Atila the Hun, Alexander the great, Genghis Khan, etc…
I would even argue that those men were more brutal than Hitler was. For example Genghis has abt 40 millions kills and Mao Zedong killed btw 40-80 million of his own people.
As a result I genuinely feel indifferent to Hitler just as I feel toward those ancient conquerors. They all individually killed millions in their campaign.
So my question is: why do we have such a unique and particular ire towards Hitler?
In the future, do you forsee popular opinion about him changing and becoming similar to that of past conquerors?
The main diff I see is that those conquerors succeeded but hitler failed. Perhaps if he successfully assimilated thos EU countries, public opinion abt him would be very different.
