Was Alexander the Great worse then Hitler

[AntiochusIII]

Does ideology really matter? The body count still piled up.

It can be said that Hitler's ideology was that Germans were superior to the other peoples of the world and they and their culture should naturally dominate. The same can be said of Alexander, only about the greeks.

Hitler's ideology (a confusing illogical one at that) essentially states that the Jews must die. Jews and other undesirables.

Try read Mein Kampf and the hatred inside. He mixes and matches popular pseudosciences of the day -- Eugenics being an example -- and make unjustifiable statements like "the iron law of nature" and somehow came to the conclusion that the Jews must be exterminated.

And lets not kid ourselves, history is full of leaders and nations who slaughtered simply on the basis of ethnicity. Take the Jews, for example.

Alexander was not one of them. In fact as far as leaders of antiquity go he was among the most cosmopolitan; if records are to be believed he was not as benevolent as, say, Cyrus the Great, but not exactly a racist like the rest of them ancient Macedonian folk.

Its obvious that you wouldnt bring the relative morality of each period into the discussion because, compared to his contemporaries, Hitler was rather common(Stalin and Mao ranking much higher on the evil scale by bodycount and some of the Western leaders coming in opposite).

Okay, so you want me to bring relative morality in? Very well.

Alexander: for much of history the idea of compassion, forgiveness, and tolerance relies mostly on the individual and not the social fabric of a society. While some are more tolerant than others due to various factors -- the size of the empire, the location being the "crossroads" of the world, various ethnicities and cultures mingling -- most aren't. From such a viewpoint Alexander's willingness to accept various cultures into his empire is admirable.

When his successors like Antiochus IV Epiphanes tries to overly "Hellenize" other peoples -- the process you attribute to Alexander -- they suffered rebellions as a result.

Is he a megalomaniac? Probably. One has to be at least slightly mad just to dare take the reins of power and ride on it like Alexander did. If anything the Persian national epic (whatsitsname?) regards "Iskander" as a great villain.

Hitler? Extremist scumbag. You yourself acknowledges the extent in which he sacrificed German military assets in pursuit of the genocide didn't you?

The only thing somewhat special about Hitler is that his killings were done mostly based on ethnicity (not that Stalin and the others didnt do the same on occasion).

But what is really worse: a) Killing huge numbers of your own acknowledged countrymen, both in purges and through massive starvation campaigns and worse simply for your own power and greed or b) killing huge numbers of people you've diluted yourself into believing are traitors and subverters to the greater society?

I dont know if Hitler truly believed the Jews were traitorous and destructive to society (the great amount of critical resources he used to have them killed favors this), but if he did, wouldn't that make him less evil than the likes of Stalin and Mao, who killed many millions simply for their own lust for power? (Not that Hitler was above political killings.)

Who's here justifying Stalin and Mao?

I know the tag and the Tiger can lead to certain conclusions, but I certainly do not admire Hitler. In fact, quite the opposite. Hitler ruined the last chance for a German superpower and took millions of fine and very admirable German soldiers with him.

I'm not sure why Germany deserves an empire more than other nations, but point taken.

You'd be surprised how many people, especially russians, have a positive view of Joey...

Same case of revisionism you're suffering from.

Watchman also pointed out the astonishing speed in which Khrushchev disengages himself from Uncle Joe's legacy even in the Soviet Union itself.

[Watchman]

The Russians (well, some) dig Stalin because he was a Big Man who Made/Kept Russia Strong (or something - nevermind now that the man was Georgian... we're dealing with Stupid Nationalist Sentiment here; coherence is not required). For the exact same reasons they dig other murdering bastards like Ivan the Terrible and Peter the Great, although if you ask me those two actually have more merit for it than Uncle Joe (not that they were any nicer, just that they were more personally competent).

What I really don't get is why Nicholas II is also "pop" (or was some years ago anyway), as that milquetoast idiot's sole claim to being more than a footnote is losing his life and empire to the Revolution...

Damn serf mentality. The place's still paying the price for not canning that antediluvian system before mid-1800s if you ask me.