If you could go back in time and shoot Hitler, would you?

[brodie21]

Basically if you had the chance to kill Hitler, would you? Fame and glory are out of the question, nobody will know that you did it. My question is, is that if Hitler had died would that have prevented world war 2? would it have prevented the holocaust? what would the world look like today? What if the trials of that period were what made the world today as we know it?

my answer is that it wouldn't have done much. depending on the time period, lets assume mid thirties, Hitler would have already started the Nazi party, so thats there. the Japanese were still trying to expand, but Italy wouldn't have without Germany, and they wouldn't have been as effective had they tried. It might have prevented the holocaust though, but I'm not sure.

 

[voetballeeuw]

No. Killing Hitler may create an alternate reality worse than ours. I'd rather keep the world we have now, with all of its flaws.

 

[Monkestful]

No. He brought genocide to the forefront of public conscience, and without him, later dictators with more horrible technology could have done worse.

I would say the same for the nuclear bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Tragic losses of human life, they were. But without a slap in the face with the horror of what we've created, would the USSR and the US have been so tense about starting a nuclear war?

 

[Ldude893]

Nah, it might either cause a temporal paradox or Stalin would take his place as the totalitarian expansionist anyway.

 

[Kpt._Rob]

No. Killing Hitler may create an alternate reality worse than ours. I'd rather keep the world we have now, with all of its flaws.

Exactly, science fiction has demonstrated this time and time again. Unfortunate fact that it is, nothing good can come of killing Hitler.

 

[Epslion.Bear]

No, because the soviets will go into power and it will be red alert 1

 

[That_Swedish_Guy]

Nope. I'm a great fan of the change-anything-and-you've-fucked-the-world theory.

 

[Purple Shrimp]

killing Hitler probably wouldn't have ended World War 2, since there was already huge tension between Germany and other nations mainly due to the Treaty of Versailles. killing the assassin of Franz Ferdinand probably would do the job though

 

[WorldCritic]

No because if I went back in time to kill Hitler than reality would be changed so that Hitler didn't do so much damage making it so that I never went back in time to kill him meaning that he still lived to do as much damage as he did anyway.

To put it simply, it wouldn't do shit.

 

[Rommel_23]

Not at all. Without him, we wouldn't have many technologies and medical advancements
that we have today. We wouldn't have computers, links to smoking and lung cancer, and jets. Can you imagine what else could have been done if he lived longer?

(I'm NOT endorsing Hitler in any way though. He was evil, m'kay)

 

[legion431]

No. Killing Hitler may create an alternate reality worse than ours. I'd rather keep the world we have now, with all of its flaws.

What it would actually do is fork reality into two universes. One with the outcome of what would have happened if Hitler was killed and it would keep yours the same. so you could go back to your time but nothing would have changed and there would also be another universe which hasn't had the Holocaust.

 

[Rommel_23]

Oh and all that parallel universe stuff too, naturally.

 

[Arluza]

on one hand I'd say yes to remove the killings related to him.

onthe other, I think that the medical advances the Nazi Regime made has saved millions MORE.

 

[PrinceArutha]

killing Hitler probably wouldn't have ended World War 2, since there was already huge tension between Germany and other nations mainly due to the Treaty of Versailles. killing the assassin of Franz Ferdinand probably would do the job though

maybe, but both sides were spoiling for a fight. even if Franz Ferdinand had not been assassinated, they would probably have found something else too go to war over

 

[Vicarious Vangaurd]

No, too many good things came from that war for me to kill Hitler.

 

[internetzealot1]

I'm not messing with anything that happened before I was born.

 

[TheTutonicDrone]

killing the assassin of Franz Ferdinand probably would do the job though

Wouldn't be too hard to do. Just switch out his expired cyanide pill with an up to date one and all the rest of the work is done for you.

 

[kuyo]

the thought that killing Hitler would cause a worse alternative is the result of writers' love of irony. Then again, time travel is also the product of storytellers and isn't even theoretically possible anymore. But assuming we did need to see those horrors, which is unlikely seeing how there are ongoing genocides and hate crimes making the argument that we learned hollow, the trick would be to end the war sooner, and just killing Hitler wouldn't be enough. Cripple the war machine: industry.

 

[mr.mystery]

thats such a loaded question