The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #70032 Message #1196105
Posted By: Little Hawk
28-May-04 - 02:52 PM
Thread Name: BS: Lies, Lies, Lies
Subject: RE: BS: Lies, Lies, Lies
There were a lot of people who felt that way about George Washington. If the revolutionaries had lost, those people would not have been seen in such a positive light in the history books that followed.
I, by the way, think those people were entirely justified in their positive view of George Washington. He was a very good leader, in my opinion. But British loyalists might well have hated and detested him...for reasons which made perfect sense to them.
A bad leader by definition is one who either (1) is not very good at leading (2) or who leads the people far astray, despite being good at leading. Hitler qualifies bigtime for number 2. George Washington doesn't qualify for either.
To recognize that perfectly normal and decent people can mistakenly back a leader who is leading them astray, Clint, is to learn compassion. Millions and millions of perfectly normal Germans mistakenly backed Hitler, and if he had won the war their descendants would still be singing his praises, there would be statues of him everywhere, and virtually no one would even believe there had been any genocide against anyone by the Germans. It would be forgotten. Swept under the carpet. Classified information. Depend on it. That's the power of propaganda and media over people's view of reality.
The reason you hate the Nazis is because they lost, and you now have the benefit of hindsight over the matter. If they had won, you would not have the benefit of hindsight. You...or whoever was living in your place now would probably be under the totally false impression that they had "saved the World for democracy" or some such sort of nonsense.