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A biography of Adolf Hitler published two years before his autobiography Mein Kampf may also have been written by Hitler:
In the early fall of 1923, when Adolf Hitler was still mostly known for his frenzied speeches at Munich beer halls, a slim biography was published that lauded him as the savior of the German nation and even compared him to Jesus. The book, "Adolf Hitler: His Life and His Speeches," was credited to Baron Adolf Victor von Koerber, a German aristocrat and war hero. Scholars have said that Hitler sought Mr. von Koerber out for the biography because he needed a conservative figure without links to the Nazi Party to help legitimize him as a leader.
However, new research says Hitler penned the work himself. This suggests that Hitler had designs on taking power earlier than many historians have previously thought and manipulated public opinion to get there.
"Adolf Hitler: His Life and His Speeches" was published two years before "Mein Kampf," the autobiography and manifesto that historians consider the moment Hitler went from political propagandist to leader in waiting. The von Koerber biography was published shortly before Hitler helped lead a bungled coup in Munich known as the Beer Hall Putsch.
"It's 1923, and Hitler suddenly decides he needs to boost his national profile," said Thomas Weber, a professor of history and international affairs at the University of Aberdeen, in Scotland, who uncovered documents in Mr. von Koerber's archival papers that he argues reveals Hitler as the biography's true author. The documents included a sworn statement by the publisher's widow.
Dusty old Godwin meme.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Zz9zZ on Monday October 10 2016, @09:50PM
There is actually something VERY wrong with dictators. They literally control the lives of their citizens and all freedoms are based on the dictators goodwill. I'm pretty sure you live in the US, so the ideas you just endorsed are very disturbing. However they are not surprising, fascism has been a staple of the US for a long time; though recently there has been a major uptick in support because the general populace has become much more educated and people are tossing out the cultural brainwashing they see as stupid. All the religious zealots are super angry, all the conservatives are super angry, and they all want to lock up / kill / deport the various human beings that dare to choose different lifestyles. I'll take a new age hippy spouting crystal nonsense over a boot licking authoritarian who wants to destroy the lives of others. The liberals are also super angry, but thankfully they are less likely to promote murder and oppression. Well, except taxes and regulations, the WORST oppression EVER /s.
To take a small step back, I understand your point in that a dictator can be beneficial to the people, but such enlightened despots are the exception, not the norm. So even the somewhat decent ones are doing some shady shit, its just that the general public doesn't care as much. To use your example of Duterte, it seems a lot of citizens are having second thoughts after seeing their friends and family locked up. Yes, lets encourage the murder of citizens, that isn't a slippery slope.... mind BLOWN by that level of self serving justification.
All that said, I think most of DC should be locked up for the insane amount of criminal activity and I wish we had a time machine so we could lock up the people who started this whole US empire thing. The chickens are roosting, and I am not looking forward to hatching day.
~Tilting at windmills~
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday October 11 2016, @04:07AM
> There is actually something VERY wrong with dictators.
VLM is just parroting the alt-right party line [wikipedia.org] that democracy is a failure and that we'd be better off with a dictator.
I am not making it up. That's what passes as intellectualism among that crowd of dim bulbs.
(Score: 2) by VLM on Tuesday October 11 2016, @01:40PM
We're indoctrinated to say dictators are bad, and we're indoctrinated to carefully avoid noticing who fills the cemeteries faster.
I'm well aware of giant piles of indoctrination and elaborate logic puzzles and sophistry, but pragmatically for example "bringing democracy to Iraq" has filled the cemeteries a lot faster than leaving them alone would have.
Every time an American politician says they gonna bring democracy to some poor bastards, Satan, if there is one, laughs, because here comes unimaginable higher levels of pain, suffering, death. If you thought (correctly) that living under a dictatorship sometimes kinda suxs, for something even worse try regime change or enforced democracy.
(Score: 1) by charon on Tuesday October 11 2016, @11:08PM
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday October 12 2016, @04:00AM
You can't possibly be that stupid.
Just because someone calls it democracy does not make it so.
You might as well be arguing that the DPRK is a democracy because of the D.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Wednesday October 12 2016, @04:01AM
I'm well aware of giant piles of indoctrination and elaborate logic puzzles and sophistry, but pragmatically for example "bringing democracy to Iraq" has filled the cemeteries a lot faster than leaving them alone would have.
Let us note that Syria handled the Arab Spring a whole lot poorer than Iraq did.
(Score: 2) by Zz9zZ on Wednesday October 12 2016, @06:11AM
Well you're not wrong about reality being different than we'd hoped, however you're comparing the worst of one system with the best of another. Also, the wars waged by the US in the name of empire have been unwanted and looked down upon by quite a large fraction of the citizens. Even Iraq quickly lost support as the nationwide shock wore off.
My point is that the US is not the shining example of democracy we like to imagine, and the deaths caused were hardly the will of the people. So using that as your measuring stick for democracy vs. dictatorship is pretty disingenuous. Not the worst comparison though, you could have chosen one a bit lower on the list: http://www.worldaudit.org/democracy.htm [worldaudit.org]
Also, I was not recommending enforced regime change, the choice of government is highly dependent on the situation. Destabilizing the entire power structure of a country is a dangerous business best left to the people themselves, otherwise there is nothing in place to fill the vacuum. None of that changes the fact that dictatorships are worse overall. The idea that a dictatorship is a good idea shows just how far gone you are with the us vs. them mentality. If only you could get that one person into the seat of power who tells you what you want to hear and who will get rid of those you don't like... Gee, if only history had some good examples of just that, and if only we could recall how those turned out...
~Tilting at windmills~