• Pons_Aelius@kbin.social
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    0
    ·
    1 year ago

    I always hate the “time traveller kills Hitler” stchick.

    Killing Reagan does not change the political climate that allowed him to rise to power. In fact killing him could have made things worse for the USA. See 9/11 for a recent example.

    • CarbonIceDragon@pawb.social
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      0
      ·
      1 year ago

      That assumes you’re only pulling off one time-travel assassination. What if you just keep doing them until the lack of the relevant people shifts the political climate by itself? Like in the "go back and kill Hitler (or just push him onto a different life path at a young age, if you have time travel, you can probably remove someone as a leader without just killing them), sure, maybe a different fascist rises in Germany instead, but if you take out that one too, and the next one, and the next, eventually someone who isn’t a fascist will manage to get into office, or if you keep it up long enough, the german fascist movement will run out of viable leaders, and cease to be a major factor in the political climate of the time.

        • CarbonIceDragon@pawb.social
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          0
          ·
          1 year ago

          To be honest, going back and just taking Hitler or any similarly historically important person out of the equation is likely enough to do that, for most people, given the impact he had on the world, or at the least removes the reason for you to go back in time, so presumably if you’re seriously contemplating doing this, whatever time travel mechanism you have going on probably has to be one where you are shielded from the consequences of whatever changes you make anyway.

    • w2tpmf@kbin.social
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      1
      ·
      1 year ago

      As a senator of California: enacted the beginning of gun control to stop black men from arming themselves against racist corrupt cops

      As a president: crippling the American middle class to enrich the upper class wealthy elites and solidifying their control