The Greatest Person of the Twentieth Century

[TestMatch]

Martin Luther King traveled to India and was inspired by Gandhi, whose tactics would influence the American Civil Rights movement.

Gandhi started waves which challenged the moral authority of the British Empire, eventually leading to the Empire's collapse and triggering independence movements which liberated huge chunks of Africa, the West Indies and Americas.

Hitler weakened the British Empire, weakened their stranglehold on their colonies, gave imperialism and colonialism a bad name and so delegtimized the other European Empires, distracted the Brits from India, and laid the foundations for Gandhi to do his thing.

Therefore Hitler ended segregation in the US and liberated the Third World.

Hitler is the greatest progressive of the 20th century.

 

[Burgey]

^this is also not a great take tbh.

 

[weldone]

^neither is this

 

[Burgey]

You think Hitler is the greatest progressive of the 20th century? Do you get your news from Breitbart as well?

 

[weldone]

Lol, if you are familiar with his posting you'd know he said that in jest. Calm down haha.

 

[Flem274*]

'Great man' history takes are on serious decline in historical circles tbh. They'll always dominate pop culture because narrative.

 

[RossTaylorsBox]

The actual answer is Dolly Parton.

 

[Gnske]

Martin Luther King traveled to India and was inspired by Gandhi, whose tactics would influence the American Civil Rights movement.

Gandhi started waves which challenged the moral authority of the British Empire, eventually leading to the Empire's collapse and triggering independence movements which liberated huge chunks of Africa, the West Indies and Americas.

Hitler weakened the British Empire, weakened their stranglehold on their colonies, gave imperialism and colonialism a bad name and so delegtimized the other European Empires, distracted the Brits from India, and laid the foundations for Gandhi to do his thing.

Therefore Hitler ended segregation in the US and liberated the Third World.

Hitler is the greatest progressive of the 20th century.

I think you're mostly on point. I think he is the spark that lighted the flame that started the fire that started the devastation that started the movement that brought us all the progressive values from the Civil Rights Movement, to the 3rd Wave Feminists and Gender Identity Politics that we so cherish today.

Thank you Hitler.

 

[ataraxia]

I think you're mostly on point. I think he is the spark that lighted the flame that started the fire that started the devastation that started the movement that brought us all the progressive values from the Civil Rights Movement, to the 3rd Wave Feminists and Gender Identity Politics that we so cherish today.

Thank you Hitler.

Yeah; he also saved hundreds of thousands of lives (and test matches) by killing himself. One of the forgotten legends.

 

[Teja.]

princep represent

 

[Burgey]

princep represent

Certainly the most influential imo

 

[Shady Slim]

these questions are fraught with danger bc of different peoples interpretations tbf

whether or not you consider it to be “guy who had the biggest impact on the events” vs “guy who did the most good”

eg

person of the year for TIME, bit of a joke bc i take it way too seriously... they gave it to me too speakers a couple years ago on the basis they did a lot of good, but imo it was a bad call bc it was super west centric and it should’ve been kim jong un, who shaped the world’s events that year much more for better or for worse, which is the intended ethos of the award

tldr it is jeffrey epstein

 

[Gnske]

He's ALLEGEDLY the greatest person of the 20th century. That's never been proven.

 

[Shady Slim]

He's ALLEGEDLY the greatest person of the 20th century. That's never been proven.

real cool how prince harry decided to tactically split from the royal family now to take the heat off of his superpedo uncle

 

[D/L]

Serious historian here, can confirm that’s not in any way true.

Well, I suppose there's always the chance of the odd exception.

 

[andruid]

me

 

[Fuller Pilch]

Looking at how the Dardanelles campaign (Gallipoli) was Churchill's foolish idea it can't possibly be him no matter what he did in WW2.

I'd say Alexander Fleming.

 

[Spark]

I think he gets a slightly unfair rap for Galipolli tbh. The overall campaign was his idea and maybe not a great one but it's pretty clear that the admirals in charge fundamentally misunderstood what he was trying to achieve and how, and certainly misunderstood that a massive ground invasion was never, ever part of his original concept.

But all that is rendered completely moot by what happened in Bengal obvs. And I think I've commented before on some of his more ridiculous ideas in WW2 especially involving dicking around in Greece and Yugoslavia of all places and having to be dragged kicking and screaming to the idea of a cross-channel invasion.

 

[Spark]

The historical imprint of even the mightiest of individual actors in the greatest of wars recedes over time. However, in contrast, the historical imprint of foundational scientific breakthroughs compounds over time.

The farther we walk from the nineteenth century, the more Napolean becomes a participant in history as opposed to a significant influence over people's life. Yet the incandescence of the light bulb only grows brighter with time.

I don't see how the 20th century should be any different.

Haha I disagree fundamentally with the basic premise of this. "Participant in history" and "significant influence over people's lives" are in no sense contradictory, in fact I would suggest the opposite is true.

 

[Uppercut]

I think Spark's original reply to the thread is a good answer as to why the 20th century might be different:

Lt Col Stanislav Petrov

Politics is more high-stakes than it ever has been before.