I hate Time Traveling Nazis!
Posted on 02/23/2014 11:06:23 AM PST by nickcarraway
In almost any science-fiction scenario involving time-travel, the default action is to kill Hitler. As terrible a human being as he was, there are many reasons why this probably isn’t a good idea
If you find yourself suddenly gaining access to a time machine, what’s the first thing you’d do? If you said “kill Adolf Hitler”, then congratulations; you’re a science-fiction character. Actually, the whole “access to a time machine” thing suggested that already, but the desire to kill Hitler clinches it. Any time-travelling sci-fi character (at least ones created by Western society) seems to want to kill Hitler, so much so that there’s a trope about how it’s impossible.
That attempting to kill Hitler has become such a common sci-fi plot device speaks volumes. What about Stalin? He was arguably worse, killing 20 million of his own people to fuel his ideology. But no, Stalin went about his business unmolested by time travellers, all of whom are busy targeting Hitler.
It’s understandable. Who wouldn’t want to prevent the holocaust? It’s probably the worst thing in history. And I only say “probably” because I don’t know all of history, and the human capacity to be awful should not be underestimated. But as noble as it seems, killing the Fuhrer via time travel is a terrible idea, for real-world reasons, not just those in fiction. So should you get hold of a time machine and make plans to kill Hitler, here are some reasons why you shouldn’t.
(Excerpt) Read more at theguardian.com ...
I would give his father a vasectomy.
What if a Jewish customer bought some of his paintings while he was still in Vienna?
Wouldn't have fixed anything, because there would have been someone else who would have taken Hegel's dialectic and run with it the same way. You would have to take out Hegel, except that would require taking out perhaps Hume, or going back further and taking out Descartes because without Rene there wouldn't have been the modernists, and without the modernists there wouldn't have been the post-modernists. Or you'd have to go back further and take out Thales of Miletus, because without philosophy there wouldn't have been modernists to set things up for the post-modernists.
Bottom line: the only time travel assassination that would make any sense would be to go back to the garden and take out the snake; otherwise, sin runs its course, one way or another, until it gets removed by Jesus' return.
Good response!
An ill-timed knock on the door would have the same net effect.
René, would you like more tea?
I think not.
*poof!*
More fun doing it my way.
Very true. Hitler made some incredible military blunders and singlehandedly lost the war to the Allies. The decision to invade the Soviet Union in June 1941 was especially horrendous. Up to that moment, Germany had total control of most of Europe and could have worn down Great Britain at leisure with blockades and by continuing the Blitz. Instead, they send four million troops into Russia and become increasingly bogged down as they quickly outran their supply lines.
This gave the Allies enough breathing space on the Western front to build their military on a colossal scale, which led to the mainland invasions of 1943 (Italy) and 1944 (France).
The Germans had world domination within their grasp but they threw it all away due to giving absolute power to a pin-headed corporal whose only strong point was the ability to give fiery speeches and mesmerize an audience.
If Hitler gets Moscow war is probably over. Moscow was the hub of everything in Russia. Stalin was all about central control. It would have knocked out their central communications center. All rail lines etc. ran though Moscow. Really hard for Soviets to over come that.
Actually in Vienna Hitler had a Jew who was his partner selling his paintings. In WWI a Jewish officer put his up for his Iron Cross first class. Irony?
No..time travelers...Go back to the garden of Eden and stand between Eve and the Serpent and persuade Eve not to take the fruit...start bellowing real loudly until Adam and God show up to end the temptation. Be as John Ransom was in CS Lewis’ space trilogy!
Invasion of Poland (the FIRST time in the 1920s)?
Invasion of the Baltics?
Invasion of Finland?
Taking parts of Rumania?
Please do some research...
So he could do to food, what he did to humans? Actually he was interested in art school...get him assigned there and thus history would have never heard from him again.
I agree with you (as hindsight goes). It was Hitler’s pedantic and controlling nature that ultimately doomed the German Army (on more than one occasion).
Good thing the guy in charge here isn’t a pin-headed corporal, eh?
I doubt anyone will invent a time machine.
At least half the students these days don’t even know the fundamentals of language and math.
The one’s who do will be too busy defending themselves from the IRS to invent anything.
I would rather kill the parents of Karl Marx before he is born.
No Marx = no Hitler.
I read a story of how a guy with a time machine decided to go back a few days in time so he could return an overdue library book before the due date and not have to pay the fine. But he miscalculated the time and place and wound up in Sarajevo on June 28, 1914. While looking around for the library, his book just happened to stop the bullet intended for Archduke Ferdinand, who was unharmed. Dejected now that his book was ruined and that he would now have to pay a replacement fee, the library patron trudged back to his time machine and headed back to the present.
When he got home, he found out that his saving the life of Archduke Ferdinand had so radically changed the course of history that Canada now ruled the world.
That changes the instant you get out from under the US Dept of Edumakayshun...
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