If you could go back in time and kill hitler, would you?

[Mescalhead]

I'd rather kill Stalin.

 

[Pirate]

Has no one seen the movie "The Last Supper?" There's a monologue at the end that I tend to agree with. (If you feel like watching the movie, don't read further. I'm not going to bother with those cutesy spoiler tags) Anyway, the movie is about a bunch of grad student intellectuals that ask this question and decide to start killing people they think society would be better off without. They finally get the chance to kill a Rush-Limbaugh-like talk show host and before they do they ask him if he would go back and kill Hitler. They expect him to say 'yes' but he shocks them by launching into this monologue about how he wouldn't kill him, but would talk to him instead. Try to debate him, reason with him, get him to change his mind through intelligent discourse before he ever gets into power.

Makes you wonder why "killing" is the first solution people always seem to think of...

 

[Darth_Pugwash]

You guys never played Red Alert, eh?

 

[thestonesfan]

Obviously not. I'd make a few investments and high-tail it back to '04.

And yes, I would kill the ten character limit.

 

[deo]

Those who died in th war, lost their home, family etc yes. Those who live now no

Voted NO

 

[HamaticBabylon]

What good would it do? They'd only find someone else.

"Sir, Hitler is dead”
“Then get Heinz croft!"

 

[Marla_Singer]

In the End I think I would kill him.

Whatever would have happened, it would have still been better than what actually happened.

Though it's sure that European problems wouldn't have been solved only by this, I'm strongly convinced consequences can't be worst than the reality. By the way, Stalin was in no way ready to invade Europe in 1939. His army was outdated.

 

[toh6wy]

Assuming I knew how to do and was able, I would prevent Hitler from being born, or do something else that would prevent his rise to power, but I wouldn't kill him. I would probably even do it with my own existence on the line; it'd be worth it (hopefully there wouldn't be any consequences that are even worse!)

Actually, now that I think about it, I probably wouldn't try to mess with time. Too much weird stuff could happen. Although if I had the means to do it, and I actually lived back then, then I'd do it without a second thought.

 

[punkbass2000]

"Whatever would have happened, it would have still been better than what actually happened."

I disagree. Obviously there's no way to know, but things certainly could have been worse.

 

[The Omega]

Well, if I killed him, I wouldn't have been born, since my grandparents on my fahters side met during the American accupation of Germany.

 

[A'AbarachAmadan]

I'm generally against altering the timeline, even if possible, as the outcome is another big unknown and could make it worse. Imagine if a militarily competent Hitler had taken over instead. As another example, the black plague propelled Europe into some increadible changes for the better.

 

[LLXerxes]

i'm done killing people for now.

 

[Global Nexus]

Sure, why not? I'd do it. Then I'd see what happened next, and if it turned out really badly, I'd go back and stop myself from doing it. Thus making three alternate timelines. What fun...

 

[MSTK]

You haven't mentioned the Grandfather Paradox, which goes like this:

If you kill your grandfather before he had your father, then that means you wouldn't exist. So that means that you couldn't have gone back in tiem to kill your grandfather. And because you didn't kill him, then you would exist and be able to go back and kill him. And when he dies, you wouldn't exist and you wouldn't be able to kill him in the first place. And so on and so on.

You kill Hitler, so he is already dead and your future self would not have gone back in time to kill him in the first place. So that means that he is alive, and your future self does go back to kill him. But when you do, your future self will not go back in time to kill him because he's already dead, etc...

Both of which result in a paradox which will blow up the universe.

 

[Marla_Singer]

If you kill your grandfather before he had your father, then that means you wouldn't exist. So that means that you couldn't have gone back in tiem to kill your grandfather. And because you didn't kill him, then you would exist and be able to go back and kill him. And when he dies, you wouldn't exist and you wouldn't be able to kill him in the first place. And so on and so on.

I don't believe in that. If you go back to 1900 then your body would exist in the 1900's reality. Who cares from where you come from then ?

What is obvious however is that a return would be impossible.

 

[Speedo]

Sure, I'd do it just to see what happened with the whole temporal paradox stuff.

 

[Yuri2356]

You guys never played Red Alert, eh?

4 other people have already mentioned that (I was the first) and no one else seems to get it.

Now, to the rest of you, a better variant of this question would be:
"Would you go back in time and kill Hitler if you knew it would not prevent your existance?"

The point being, ignoring all parodoxes, immposibilities, and temporal loopholes, assuming that fate would still guide your ancestors to each other and result in your eventual birth, would you do it?

 

[shadowdude]

In red alert the same thing happened and Stalin invaded Europe.

EDIT: Other Red Alert fans beat me to the punch.

 

[The Omega]

Now, to the rest of you, a better variant of this question would be:
"Would you go back in time and kill Hitler if you knew it would not prevent your existance?"

The point being, ignoring all parodoxes, immposibilities, and temporal loopholes, assuming that fate would still guide your ancestors to each other and result in your eventual birth, would you do it?

Hmmmm......If I knew that I wouldn't suddenly disappear.....Probably not, WWII did bring about many technological advances, and it is my favorite period of history to study (If only I could find information that wasn't extremely biased towards the U.S....)

 

[bigmeat]

if hitler hadn't come along stalin's ambitions would have led to a europe take over, and then you probably would have had more people killed america would have entered into the long bloody war and would have nade the a bomb