December 23, 2007
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The Good in Hitler
I was reading about how Will Smith said that Hitler was essentially good.
Will likes to see the best in people. Will just feels that Hitler didn’t realize the pain he was causing other people with his actions. In fact, he said “Even Hitler didn’t wake up going, ‘Let me do the most evil thing I can do today.’”
Hitler’s problem was that he had a “twisted, backwards logic.” Here is the link: Link
Do you think that Hitler was essentially a good person with twisted logic?
Comments (149)
Yeah, pretty much.
I mean, he’s right. Hitler thought what he was doing was for the greater good.
Haha. He’s so cute.
I mean, I can see his way of thinking, but I don’t think its a good enough excuse for Hitler’s behavior/ideas.
I think Hitler was power hungry and rationalized the things he did. I also think he was a sick man, but not born evil.
I agree, I understand what he’s saying. But I wouldn’t say back wards logic. I would say mentally ill. Even the ones that wake up in the morning trying to think of how deliberately evil they can be, they are in need of some psychiatric help as well.
I think if we put the whole world on anti-depressants there’d be a lot less bad people. They call ‘em happy pills for good reason.
I knew there was a reason I loved Will Smith…
You see, the older they get, the more they start saying this “off the wall” stuff…
How old is Will now, anyway?
I think Hitler meant well…his methods are impractical for today’s world, but war was an easy action to take in his time…
…
Hitler was misguided.
Not evil…misguided.
Lots of people are misguided…and then encouraged by people who wish to exploit their platform/influence…
So much could be said about Hitler.
I just like that Will Smith…with all his fame…takes advantage of the opportunity to say the “craziest” thing possible.
LMAO!!!!
good times!
I’m lucky #7! Yay!
I think he was a sick man. Sick mentally.
I don’t think ANYONE is an essentially good person. We are all depraved. Hitlers depravity just seemed to express itself more strongly than some. But I was born just as depraved as Hitler. I wish I hadn’t read this, I really respected Will Smith. Oh well, “One sour apple, doesn’t mean you shouldn’t eat the good apple from the tree.”
Do I think Hitler was basically a good person? No. He did a lot of bad things. I didn’t know Hitler. I cannot say from personal experience that deep down inside he thought that he was doing the right thing. There are people still today who live in a daily nightmare because of what Hitler did.
I understand Will wanting to see the good in people. That is admirable. And yes ALL have fallen short and are just lousy sinners. That doesn’t make Hitler a good person.
was hitler good… no
did hitler think he was good? yes.
does thinking you are a grapefruit make you a grapefruit? no, niether does thinking you are good make you good.
hitler was evil, he may not have realized he was, but he was.
Hitler was fallen and demonstrates to what depths mankind can plunge.
In history, everybody thinks they are the good guy. Hitler believed he was doing the right thing. He did come up with the concept of the ’people’s car’ (Volks Wagen) Even a broken watch is right twice a day.
Josef Stalin thought he was doing the right things too. Modern views differ from that opinion.
By the same token, Winston Churchill thought the landings at Gallipoli in WW1 were a good idea too, and thousands of Australians and New Zealanders died.
Well, the bottom line here is that Will Smith, while a good comic actor, isn’t much of a historian. Hitler had to know the pain he was causing. The difference is he believed in what he was doing for the German People.
Didn’t Anne Frank say something similar in her diary? “Despite everything, I believe that people are really good at heart.” I think she was talking about all people, including Hitler. I think a person who can see the good in everyone is someone who is essentially good themselves.
I personally don’t feel that way, I believe there are evil people out there and Hitler certainly at least did many evil things. Of course there were many people throughout history did evil things but don’t personally get saddled the the label of being evil. Like those who enslaved black Africans. Or those who participated in the wiping out of Native Americans. Or those who conducted the systematic extermination and torture of Cambodians. The Holocaust wasn’t the only extermination of people and it certainly wasn’t the only great evil ever perpetrated. Do I think the people who did those things are evil? Many of them probably were. So I guess Hitler is probably in good company.
Twisted logic wasn’t his only problem.
you know…this is JUST LIKE when the racist geneticist said that Africans “don’t have the same intelligence” as Europeans…
Could be interpereted in a multitude of ways…
I’m not implying that you don’t already know this…
I’m just saying.
by the way…Will Smith is a God.
end scene.
define good person.
He had twisted logic and thought he was good, but I don’t think I can call him “good”
Everyone is capable of good………God afterall made all of us, but with Free Will, and then Evil invades, and I truly believe Hitler became Evil……….
how can it be fair if we say this is evil, oh wait, so is that, and that, and that and that, but not me, i’m wholesome and good–like wheat grains.
if hitler was good–well what is that good? what does that mean? aren’t we all not so good? but we try our hardest to live everyday with some purpose ( clichedddd)– its just sometimes where we cannot see what Hitler sees–just the negative feelings is all that comes floating. how can he be brought forth by the evils of evils if he is just a human.
I kind of agree with Will, yet I think everyone’s opinions should be noted upon.
No…saying that is backwards logic
its like “I’m gonna kill everyone i don’t like cause its gonna make the world better”
is not just that i have backwards logic..it’s evil
Yes, twisted logic, but also mental illness, probably, and definitely evil. Twisted logic doesn’t murder 6 million people. There’s nothing good about any of that. It was horrific. Hitler was a monster. He certainly got off-track somewhere along the line.
and people are bad at heart not good, unfortunately
man, i can’t get over how stupid that is…he didn’t realize??? the pain he was causing?? of course he realized, he just didn’t care
Nope.
6 million people don’t just get wiped out by one evil, crazy, rambling lunatic on a street corner…
Hitler had “a coalition of the willing” for lack of a better phrase.
People wanted what he was offering and saw his method as the only solution.
Nobody is essential evil…Everyone is born into this world looking for something to do…
Hitler was a freaking painter for goodness sakes!
i think that if you give a man the means to do evil, he’ll do it.
give
a man an atom bomb and you’ve got Hiroshima and Nagasaki…and who came
up with the formulat that brought us the atom bomb?
umm…Einstein…the most respected name in Physics.
Did he mean for what happened in Japan to happen?
No.
He was just in love with the beauty of math and physics…but all these
people saw an opportunity in his ideas and it SNOWBALLED…
…
…
…
*cough*
WILL SMITH IS A GOD!!!!!
the end.
I think I lost some respect for him.
Will it change me seeing I am Legend? No.
Hitler was evil. That’s all.
Hitler had a wharped sense of logic, but I essentially agree with W.Smith that he probably didn’t wake up each day and go “whats the most evil thing I can do today”.
Doesn’t give him any sympathizers, though.
’nuff said…
I think Hitler may have had some serious inadequacy issues.
Hitler was evil and probably mentally ill as well. However, “there is none good, no, not one.” That is what Scripture teaches. We are all fallen and born in sin. That is not to say that we all would have the inclination to act as Hitler did given the same circumstance. However, most people do not naturally do good to everyone else.
Whether we want to admit it or not, every human being as both good and evil within them. The key to it all is to keep a healthy balance between both good and evil within one’s own heart and soul. Tip the balance too far in either direction makes for an unhealthy soul. Yes there is such a thing is too much good. Everyone needs to let the dark side out every once in a while. That’s why so very many Christians are so very unhappy and always have a whoa is me attitude. It’s because they constantly beat themselves up for every “bad” or “evil” thing they do and ask forgiveness from God. Sometimes it’s good for the soul to let your evilness show. It keeps a spiritual balance within the heart and soul.
I think that Hitler truly believed what he was doing was right and good — However, I also don’t believe that he was of a sane mind — weather it was, twisted logic, simple mental illness (if mental illness is ever simple) or possessed by evil or a combination of the above I can not say. Whatever the reason, there were many around him that he ‘brainwashed’ for lack of a better word that should have stopped him. He and those around him were monsters………
I don’t know. I’ve never bothered to read Meim Keimf. Why should I when there are less gross autobiographies out there?
Indeed, a man of my own tastes. Smith that is. Good and evil are so subjective. For instance, compare our society’s morality with Middle Eastern morality. In some countries they stone a woman for being raped. People in those countries actually literally believe that that is for the greater good and goes towards shaping their country to a better moral state as according to the Koran. Obviously this could not be condoned in the USA.
I’ve been meaning to read Mein Kampf but have never gotten around to it. It would be interesting to read, though I doubt he’d have any real valid points, but I would like to more closely know the mind of someone who we label as the most evil person to ever exist.
-David
I can’t get away from this topic…I dunno why.
I love how all the secret psychologists are coming out to diagnose now.
Not the mention all the closet nuns who know what the face of evil looks like.
Mental
illness…many a crime has been committed in the name of
psychology…we don’t know them all…as well as in the name of “good
and or evil”
I know…I’m being a Debbie Downer…I’m addicted to it.
but I just want to say that…
evil is a construct
mental illness is a construct
The
person that said that everyone would be better of on
anti-depressants…I hope she and all of her babies are the first to do
it.
The person that said we all have evil in us…clearly drowns babies in his spare time.
umm…let’s see…hmm…
OK, I’ll be back.
Hitler was full of hate and greedy for power, nothing else need be said.
I agree with Will Smith on this one.
He was only genius that he got people to do his evil work for him, Hitler himself killed nobody. All the SS Officers did.
no, hitler wasn’t good, but no one else is. everyone is the same in spiritual DNA (i.e. bad), but perhaps not in “environmental” circumstances. (what i mean is…you know, a pair of twins may be identical in deoxyribonucleic acid, but circumstances around them might cause them to grow up completely differently.) so everyone is bad, but some end up acting worse than others.
I think Will Smith is right, kind of. Hitler probably didn’t wake up thinking “What is the most EVIL thing I can do today?”. Hitler thought what he was doing was right…probably not because of twisted logic, exactly, but more of a mental illness. Maybe he just breathed in too many paint fumes and lost his mind. I don’t know. But I do believe that at some point in his life, Adolf Hitler was a good person. Something just went wrong somewhere.
A quote from the article was what is
most interesting: Hitler’s totalitarian leadership as Fuhrer during
1934 until his eventual suicide in 1945 resulted in the persecution of
an estimated six million Jews in the Holocaust, and his invasion of
Poland in 1939 led to the start of the Second World War.
Persecution
and Extermination are two different verbs… interesting the writers of that article would use
a word like persecution to soften what Hitler actually did. He exterminated six million people… he exterminated six million Jewish people.
The media here is using Will Smith as an excuse to push their anti-Semitic agenda. It is this same anti-Semitic media who is the propaganda arm for the al-Qadea (you’ve heard what they’ve been saying about the war… someone needs to tell them we are winning despite their treasonous efforts).
Will Smith seems such a likable guy……but he is dead wrong on this one. I think Hitler DID wake up everyday & was thinking how to hurt others.
No.
people who think a person is capable of waking up everyday with the
express intention of hurting others…know what it feels like to feel
the need to want to hurt others
…and i feel sorry for those people.
I want to be the mother of Will Smith’s illegitimate babies!!! *lifts top and flashes boobies*
LMAO!!!
WOW… Never really thought about it, but I’m sure that Hitler didn’t think he was bad…
Did you hear about the resently found photo album from Auschwitz?
http://www.ushmm.org/research/collections/highlights/auschwitz/?gclid=CMHcnd_rv5ACFSKHQAodEkOSOg
It shows secretaries and officers enjoying the holidays and vacations on the same day that people were being sent to the incenerators… I mean they new what was going on and yet there they are out enjoying life and laughing… I bet none of them felt like they were being evil either…
correcting my statement: “people who think others are capable of
waking up every day with the express purpose of hurting as
many people as possible…
What kind of pain did Hitler feel?
What Jew, gypsie, Black (and all the other races he killed) pissed in his coffee?
What cripple rolled over his toe?
What “mentally ill” person cursed out his mother?
Why was Hitler so angry?
You
know what…I think I will read Mein kemf…if only
for the sole purpose of being able to come back here and say
definitively that yes, Hitler was loonier than water-resistant tampon.
I read that Hitler loved his dogs. Therefore that makes him a good person!!
He treated his dogs better than humanity!!
He was evil…PERIOD!!!
Yes. I believe Hitler was a very intelligent man with twisted, backward logic.
He thought he was helping for the greater good.
He wasn’t right, in any way. But he was essentially “good.”
I think he was evil. Just like everyone else. We are all, to varying degrees, screwed up. Might there have been a tiny bit of goodness in Hitler? Maybe. Depends on how you define goodness. If he did something good for selfish reasons, did he still do something good? What if he had an essential goodness that he never acted on? How would that variety of goodness be different from evil?
No, I’m afraid Will has a backward, twisted logic on this one. And it pains me to say so, because I adore him [seriously, and Papa Bear is o.k. with that
]. Hitler shows us the potential for evil that resides in the human heart. So it’s the opposite of everyone being essentially good. Everyone is fundamentally flawed. But, of course, there’s hope, in Christ. Oswald Chambers said, “Having realized my own potential for sin, I have never met a man in whom I could despair.” In other words, no one is too sinful for His grace.
He believed that his intentions were good. Hitler definately was a strange man (reading Mein Kampf gave me a headache, it’s like a long book of rambles on nothing) but he thought he was changing the world for the better. He wanted good, just had “twisted logic” like Will Smith says.
I think so. I mean, he essentially thought that he was doing everything for good.
Heh, all people are born evil. Hitler was basically evil, you are basically evil, I am basically evil. Not the other way around, since we inherited our sin nature from Adam. The only way we can be cleansed from it is by accepting Jesus’ blood sacrifice.
nooooooooo
Genocide can never be good. However, social darwinism at that time was all the hype and Hitler is not the only person in all of history to use Jewish people as scapegoats. He was raised and molded into holding the beliefs (no matter how disturbing) that he had so he probably thought he was helping out or something. I think Hitler was convinced that what he was doing was “good” even though his perception of it strayed far from the standard social code of ethics and conduct.
Wow. Now I won’t be able to sleep in a mere attempt to rationalize this. Thanks Will Smith.
No one is born evil.
What happens to them later in life is a totally different story.
everyone thinks what they do is right.
there is always a reason, no matter how obscure.
where would the sanity be?
even when you’re at the brink of insanity, you know it.
anything that doesn’t fall into that category is actual insanity; as in, disease.
so basically, if you don’t realize that what you’re doing is evil, it’s all fine and dandy? no. not realizing it does not equal being good. there is a difference.
if will smith knew people who had survived the concentration camps, i’m not sure he’d still be saying that.
He may have been evil in some ways. But I think most people who cause misfortunes (e.g. murders, rapes) are somewhat sick in the brain.
hitler: evil
smith: stupid
No one is essentially good. Maybe HE thought what he was doing was for the good but NO he wasn’t good…..
i dont think anyone is evil
people do evil things but that does not make them evil
and hitler im sure had a dark past and was picked on or something so i can see why he would go almost insane i feel so sorry for him cause i think people just didnt understand
I’m not much into that Socialistic perspective that people are generally good. I think that people are generally bad. We corrupt society and ourselves, and the progression of our wrongs and faults grow more awful and more series with time, culture, and experience.
I don’t think that Hitler was essentially good. I don’t think that I am essentially good, let alone someone who killed million of other human beings because they didn’t have blonde hair and blue eyes.
I also think that there are some universal truths that we all know, even sub consciously. Stealing, killing, etc is wrong. We know these things are wrong from the time we are little. So, not only was Hitler essentially not good, he was also daily, continually and brutually going against universal truths that even a 2 year old is aware of.
He was awful. Just plain awful. Props to Will for his optimism, but I definitely don’t agree.
I think that virtually all people like to think of themselves as being good and morally sound individuals and this notion is reflected in their behaviors to a fair extent. In Hitler’s case, his rationalization process was methodical, astronomically selfish and inhumane hence his ability to justify the things he did. He probably thought of himself as being a good person based upon his conduct but then I’m sure there have been serial killers who have felt likewise. Fundamentally, his actions were nothing less than a dramatic and backward slide into sheer barbarism from the position of progress that one would like to think Western Civilization has achieved. As for the notion that “he didn’t realize the pain he was causing other people with his actions”, nonsense. The man was a monster; he knew it and he embraced it. If there was one truly “good” thing about Hitler it was the fact that he came equipped with a built in self-destruct mechanism viz. his incompetent and incessant meddling in military affairs led to the defeat of his empire and his well deserved position in a shallow grave.
Will Smith might be insane. Hitler was insane for power and if it wasn’t going to be “his” way…then you would die. NO, Hitler was pure evil.
Umm – NO!
His logic wasn’t twisted, it was flawless for his time. Still, his way of thinking isn’t happiness for just about anyone due to how cold it came off as.
But the idea that we all think of ourselves as good really naive to say; it’s a given.
I’m surprised how many people on here believe in clear cut good and
evil. I was hoping for more who obsessively believe it’s subjective as
I do.
-David
Yeah, just like Lucifer was. Wow. That really makes me wonder about Will Smith.
I wonder if Will would feel that way if somebody murdered his wife or kids.
If Hitler is not an example of an evil person, are there any evil persons in the world? If so, please provide an example. If not, please explain.
“I think Hitler was power hungry and rationalized the things he did. I also think he was a sick man, but not born evil.”
-momofjenmatt
I agree.
Pretty much yes. Most people don’t realize that they are doing bad things, they think they are just doing what they have to do.
I can’t believe what I am reading. Have you people ANY idea what the heck he did?
He was more than just misguided. His soul was dark.
Thinking of him just a nice guy who did a few things wrong makes me want to throw up!
Furthermore, I work with people everyday who have screwed up crappy lives because bad things happen to them so I totally get this mindset:
“and hitler im sure had a dark past and was picked on or something so i
can see why he would go almost insane i feel so sorry for him cause i
think people just didnt understand”
but ultimately YOU alone are responsible for who YOU become and what YOU do. There are plenty of people who work through their problems and realize that they don’t have to victimize others. We keep telling our kids that they aren’t responsible for their reaction if they are reacting to something bad or acting “because of their past” and that’s creating a society of people who can be excused for bad behavior.
I think, Hitler thought that what he was doing was for the greater good. I think he was a terrible person, for what he did. But I also think he was probably sick (in the head)…I dont think anyone who is “normal” wakes up and descides to take out a whole race of people. But I dont know…
This is definetly food for thought.
There is good in everyone and very very few people go about their lives with the intent of causing harm.
I believe that Hitler thought what he was doing was for the good of himself and the German people as a whole. However, history does not grade us on our intentions, it grades us on our actions and the results of our actions.
I believe that Hitler was a genius, he just was also overly confident and thus didn’t much like taking advice. He really did come very close to winning the war and quite possibly could have were it not for a few mistakes (at least thats my read).
Will’s perspective has its roots back in the works of Plato (and probably earlier too). The idea that everyone acts in a manner that they believe to be the Good is at the root of Plato’s philosophy. Hitler too did what he believed was the Good. He just happened to lack the wisdom to know what was the Good and therefore should never have been put in charge of anything. According to Plato anyway.
Saying that is *not* declaring that Hitler was essentially a Good person. That’s where this article is flat out wrong. It is strictly mis-characterizing.what Will said in order to create a controversey where none exists. The only way you could read the statement that way is if you believe that believing that you are doing good automatically makes you good no matter how successful you are in the endeavor. But that’s just an absurd proposition.
Do I believe the same as Will and Plato? I’m not sure. But I certainly think it is a viable philosophical perspective and nobody should be condemned for saying it.
it’s funny because i said something very similar to my sister once and they thought i was just trying to start an argument or something. they thought what i said was completely ridiculous.
Maybe when he was younger. Then as he got older, he just didn’t care anymore and ultimately became evil. Well, at least someones being an optimist. =)
The article is very irresponsible journalism by the way. It makes two statements about what Will Smith thinks and then uses two quotes from Will Smith that do not in any way support the earlier statements made.
So unless they provide more evidence such as additional quotes I do not believe that Will Smith actually thinks either
1) that Hitler was essentially a “good” person or
2) that Hitler did not fully understand the extent of the pain and suffering his actions would cause
There’s simply no way I can read
A) “Even Hitler didn’t wake up going, ‘Let me do the most evil thing I can do today’.” and
B)”I
think he woke up in the morning and using a twisted, backwards logic,
he set out to do what he thought was ‘good’. Stuff like that just needs
reprogramming.”
and conclude 1) and/or 2)
torturing and killing innocent people…including children…is not a good thing…it is evil, and cruel and inhumane…so umm no i dont agree with will smith at all….and have lost respect for him for saying something so stupid and insensitive…try telling that to the millions of families that lost their loved ones..at the hand of that evil man…
Will’s logic is messed up.
The Bible says, he that doeth good is of God, and he that doeth evil is of the devil. Of course, the Bible also says that ALL of us have gone astray, so ALL of us need a savior. When does go from being a sinner who needs salvation to a wicked person is not always clear, but the Bible does suggest that there comes a time when people are set in their ways so greatly that God says, “let he who is holy be holy still, and let he who is righteous be righteous still, and let he who is wicked be wicked still, and he who is unjust be unjust still.” (I am paraphrasing Jesus’ words from the last chapter in the Bible, Revelation 21 or 22).
Look it up!
I think maybe he thought what he was going was good.
That still doesn’t make him a good person, though.
Perhaps he had good intentions.
I dunno…most people who do evil things are sick mentally.
Most people are born good, but maybe some are born to be evil…that’s what I think
yeah
>….and a whole bunch of influencial syncophants riding his charismatic coattails to glory and power, or so they thought, PRICKS!!!
Peace
maybe
yeah…NO!
Hitler’s doc had him high most of the time – I’m not sure if Hitler was good or bad but he was definately nuts.
I’ll take a side order of “and the Holocust never happened” with that, please.
No, he wasn’t essentially good. He made a conscious and deliberate choice to kill people by the masses. He propogated hate. I don’t think anyone who promotes genocide is essentially good.
I understand his train of thought. But I definitely wouldn’t use it as an excuse for Hitler’s behavior. Hitler truly was a remarkably cunning man; it takes a great mind to be able to turn a whole nation like that. However he used his skill in persuasion for horrible things.
That man will always be evil in my book.
I think a lot of history’s worst people did things b/c they honestly believed it was for the best.
Wow, I have always liked Wil Smith. This comment surprises me. Hitler must have been mentally ill. There wasn’t the medication that exists today. People believed him. He was NOT essentially good. He was evil. So many people DIED because of him.
I know this sounds weird. But essentially, yes. This is not to mitigate the evil he did, or became. But the point is simply that every person desires happiness. And each is originally created by God. I guess with some, the evil is like an overwhelming infection. The goodness loses control.
Put another way, could Hitler be redeemed? yes. What would it take to do restitution for his deeds? Way beyond ME!! but theoretically, with God’s help….(which he would have to come to repreentence and then ask for) could be done.
He was just doing what he believed. It’s the exact same thing as Christians shoving their beliefs on everyone – they’re doing what their belief system tells them to do. It’s the same thing as Atheists trying, at every single time they get the chance, to battle Christianity and destroy its points so people think of it negatively.
I think he was good, and something happened in his life that made him not-so-good. You have to admit, though, he was good at what he was doing, right?
Well, in a way, perhaps he did have a plan for a better world, for an exclusive crowd, unfortunately that better world did not include most of us in it, so yeah, our suffering was not significant to him, in his twisted logic.
I’m not saying hitler was good, but i think I get what Will is saying. Hitler was still evil as a result of his actions though, despite what he thought of his own intentions. But as far as his crazy ass was concerned, he was bettering the world. HE would not be the only one to have very twisted logic governing his actions as a world leader.
Yeah.
If you read about the man, you can see that he actually did a lot of good before everything went wrong.
He was obviously mentally ill – and that combined with the corruption of power created a disaster.
Yes.
Oh. Come, Come. We all think we are being logical–even at our most angry and belligerent. Of course, Hitler thought he was being logical.
Bless Will’s heart…bless his heart…
I do agree with that. I think it’s the same with Bush too. I think Bush is probably a great father, and a good Christian, but he sucks at being a leader.
Hitler was a cold blooded killer.
hum_hallelujah had it right on btw.
No Hitler was an inherantly evil person.
1. He had a lust for power and conquest based on hatred and bitterness. He was a sociopath who sought to exterminate an entire race from the planet.
2. He was a drug addict with a nasty morphine addiction.
3. He was an immoral man with sexual tastes that extended to kids.
Misguided? No way, evil beyond words.
Will Smith needs to apologize to every jew on earth. In fact like Don Imus with Jesse Jackson, he needs to meet publicly with a Rabbi and repent for his actions…….just like I would if I had said “the south was a good concept, they were just misguided when they bought and sold a few million slaves.”
Get the picture?
I’m afraid I’m going have to disagree with Beka28, and fully agree with Will. In Hitler’s eyes he was doing good. I believe Hitler was a very intelligent man who had amazing leadership skills. What if the Axis forces had one? Would we all talk about how evil the Russians were? They shot their own troops didn’t they? Isn’t that evil? Isn’t Bush evil? Wait most of us are American, of course he’s not. How often do we go about talking about how evil our own leaders are?
Back to the question, I wouldn’t say twisted logic. He was wanting to create a ‘pure’ race. What do you think the world would be like today if we were all the same ethnicity?
I’m going have to disagree with maxximumforce aswell for a second. Mainly the comment for Will Smith having to apologize. I see nothing wrong with the statements he made. Those were his opinions, as how the things you said are your opinions. The only thing I see factual would be Hitler’s addiction to morphine. But hell, I’m addicted to morphine, it’s good stuff. I’d probly abuse it if it was avaliable to me on a regular basis.
Just because you think you are right does not make you good.
The hijackers on 9/11 thought they were right, slave traders thought they had the right.
More than misguided ,responsible for making wrong choices.
“Will’s perspective has its roots back in the works of Plato”
LMAO!!!!
Will’s perspective has it’s roots in the fact that he’s a happy-go-lucky ACTOR…who doesn’t give a damn!
So, what if he thinks Hitler was essentially good.
So what if Tom Cruise is a scientologist.
It’s not that serious.
And furthermore, I’d like to play a little game of “devil’s advocate”…
I’ll start with the assumption that none of us secretly has the power to know the exact thoughts and intentions of Adolf Hitler..
Now, let’s assume his intention was not to rid the world of all other races except those who are blonde haired and blue eyes…
Let us remember that he himself was NOT blonde haired and blue eyes…
and there was no plastic surgery at that time…so he could never change that fact.
…so either he was blind (which…i don’t think he was), demented into thinking that he was fooling people into thinking that he is, or trying to prove a point…
(there are other possibilities, but these are the ones I can come up with at this time)
OK…consider the possibility that Hitler’s original intention was NOT genocide, but, in fact, inspiring these other freeloaders (gypsies, africans, jews, etc.) to rise up and assert their own independence…
Like tough love sort of thing.
But some others who saw an opportunity…inspired by their own hatred or whatever…
Took advantage of the situation…
Feeling like they could just blame Hitler…becaue after all, he’s crazy! Look at him…he doesn’t even know his hair is not blonde and his eyes are not blue! If this falls apart…it’s all his fault…
Anyway…whatever…
Lots of things I could say on this, but my words will ever do any justice to anything.
So, I’ll stop right here for now.
Will never said he was essentially a good person, that was “the theologian’s cafe”s doing. Will is right; he (just so many others who have done unimaginably horrible things) didn’t think that what he was doing was ultimately evil. In Hitler’s way of thinking, what he was doing was ultimately good. That’s because of his messed up logic about the Arian people, the Jews and other minorities, etc.
I am so surprised at how many people take the easy way out – calling the person evil instead of the things that he did. But I know it’s normal for people to do that – labeling other people into categories and such that make it easier to live and seperating yourself with others, without having to think very hard. It’s fast and comfortable – the American way. In reality, the influences and ways of thinking that lead him to do what he did are the same as the kinds of things that influence us to do things slavery, war on “terrorism”, and even things such as picking our friends. They’re all a result of the ways our thoughts and knowledge have formed and been influenced.
And I don’t think Will Smith was making an “excuse” for Hitler – Will feels the same way we do about the things he did. He was just confronting the deception that people tend to fall under that says most people are “good” and then other people, such as Hitler, are “evil”. No one is good or evil, we simply do good or evil things.
And, btw, Hitler wasn’t mentally ill. He had full control over his thoughts and actions, and there was nothing to suggest that he had any clinical illness.
Twisted logic? Maybe, but more than anything he was flat out crazy. There’s no way he could’ve been in his right mind. And he may have started out to be just an innocent little artist that no one paid attention to but at some point he became evil. He personified it. And what he became then and what he did at that point is what matters. Sometimes I really think celebrities just sit around and try to think of the most absurd thing they can say just to see how people will react.
“if will smith knew people who had survived the concentration camps, i’m not sure he’d still be saying that.”
that’s right…you’re not sure.
“If Hitler is not an example of an evil person, are there any evil persons in the world? If so, please provide an example. If not, please explain.”
My response: nobody is evil. Evil is a word like “please” and “thank you”…the concept of evil is a construct and people’s actions, motives and intentions are subject to interpretation. YOU just want an answer that will help you to sleep at night. Go buy a dog, watch a movie, read a book, or get a girlfriend.
“Pretty much yes. Most people don’t realize that they are doing bad things, they think they are just doing what they have to do.”
Define “bad”.
“torturing and killing innocent people…including children…is not a good thing…it is evil, and cruel and inhumane…so umm no i dont agree with will smith at all….and have lost respect for him for saying something so stupid and insensitive…try telling that to the millions of families that lost their loved ones..at the hand of that evil man…”
Will Smith doesn’t need your respect.
Using this line of reasoning, then Saddam Hussein was just misunderstood?
Hitler was, and still is nuts, older than 100, now, in my communty, a true friend of mine, however. He was sided by a man disguised as a woman, Shirley Jean Anderson from Chicago, Illinois. (He/she, is now living with another last name). She was responsible for the murder of over six million Jews, Russians, and our captured American soldiers, in that she tried to starve them all to death, plus other ways to rid herself of the problem she was put in charge of, killing them, using them for medical experiments, trying to further her vain, selfish desires and ambitions, and playing tricks and games, training psychiatrists and social workers, giving them ideas that could destroy a person from within. Now we do find this happening in the psychiatric hospitals and mental health clinics of Northwestern USA. …Love, Sande
Hitler was fueled by hate and revenge. He plunged everyone into a world war which essentially was a war of good vs evil. He had knowledge of the six or seven million jews gassed in the showers burned in the ovens. He was a megalomaniac and a murdering bastard. Hearing some of the responses here surprises me and shows me a gulf between people my age and the young who don’t know shit.
Ehh, I suppose.
Everyone is essentially good.
But what he did was wrong.
But I could see where He could say that.
Oh my god I had this argument like a week ago! I don’t think that anybody makes a conscious decision to do something evil. I think that their motives are always good or at least neutral. Not that I’m saying anything he did was good, but I don’t think he intended it to be evil.
Good isn’t exactly a word that I’d associate with Hitler. Do I think he was good? NO! Do I think he thought he was good? Probably yes. This is an interesting way of looking at it because he probably thought he was doing the right thing even though he so very wasn’t.
Hitler was a evil person.
Damn Scientology.
WHAT IS IT WITH PEOPLE!!???
How can anyone say that he thought that what he was doing was right? no, he didn’t. He knew it was wrong, but he also knew that blaming others for his country’s problems would get him to and keep him in power. He sacrificed one thing for the other, and obviously power was worth more to him than 6 million lives.
The holocaust was a cold, calculated event. These were families, people. Even “Aryan” Germans that tried to help Jews were killed, as were gypsies, homosexuals, and others that tried to give aid. They were tortured, seperated, experimented on, starved, worked to death, their bodies burned without dignity.
If everyone that is saying that he just tought that he was doing right really believes that, then please, by all means, defend the genocide in Darfur, the killlings in the middle East, and please, dont forget any wars.
No, this is not a matter of thinking that he was doing right. If I murder, I am not doing it under a pretencse of thinking that I am doing right- this is called insanity.
And that is the most innocence that Hitler can be assigned- insanity. Sick, perverted, insanity, regardless of how purely his life began.
Six Million People. Let us NEVER forget.
I think we are all born with the potential of being good. When we grow older though, some of us are turned into monsters by the things we experience. Hitler had some mental health issues that were untreatable in his time, and alot of his”friends” played on his illnesses. Not everything done in Hitler’s name, he was aware of, I’m sure. In his twisted logic, he thought what he did for the German people was”right”.
No, Hitler was pure evil. He woke up every morning and pissed malice. And he started a trend of writing anti-semitic rants on public bathroom stall walls.
Nope. Good people don’t slaughter innocents. According to this way of thinking, everyone can be described as genuinely good with twisted thinking.
*Grabs a stick to poke at the remains of Smith’s career*
“Using this line of reasoning, then Saddam Hussein was just misunderstood?”
I agree.
…and aren’t you happy that YOU live in a free country.
“Not everything done in Hitler’s name, he was aware of, I’m sure.”
The purest and truest comment I can think of at this moment that I have read here today.
“Nope. Good people don’t slaughter innocents. According to this way of
thinking, everyone can be described as genuinely good with twisted
thinking.”
Ah! But “good” people can very easily feel comfortable while “innocent” people die.
I want to frame this conversation and put it on my wall.
I agree with what Smith said, no more no less
Hitler was a monster. Will Smith is just being a clueless moron again.
(admittedly, I figured he’d shaped up some since that wreck of a show, Fresh Prince…)
Hitler loved just like anyone else. One of his final acts was marrying his longtime mistress Eva Braun. We’re all capable of being like Hitler, just look at the Stanford Prison Experiment. Will is right. He chose the most difficult and extreme example, but he is right.
It’s not “a good person with twisted logic” when 6 million people die because of his actions.
Sorry, the two ideas don’t quite connect in my head.
Good and Evil are relative.
What you may think is good, another might think is evil, and vice versa.
Is there anyone that’s gonna make an opinion without using those words?
Twisted mentally and off the chart evil is how I look at Hitler. He might of wished to hide behind ‘doing good’ for the people in ‘his’ way of thinking…although he could have also tried to reason with himself in a twisted logic that everything he did was for a ‘just cause’.
Does not matter in my opinion. He destroyed peoples lives, families, spirit, hopes, dreams, futures and a list of other things which cannot be given back to those who were in that situation.
There is no excuse for what he caused.
I took Nazi Germany and I think Hitler had 1) a tragic childhood 2) a hard time surviving in his early years and 3) a surplus of hatred and prejudice that he genuinely thought was best for everyone. I don’t think that people are inherently “good” or “bad” but their actions define how others judge them.
I cannot see how someone can possibly think that Hitler had any good intentions whatsoever behind his actions.
I think Hitler was an evil man, but a genius. & Sadly, he didn’t use his genius to better mankind.
Not a chance.
I know what he’s trying to say. People do really terrible things sometimes because they somehow conclude that that’s the best course of action through bad logic. I don’t think I’d go so far as to say Hitler was really a ‘good person’ on the inside, but I would say that in his warped mind he probably thought that what he was doing was “necessary.”
I would consider a person who has a logic that is that twisted and backwards to have been evil in the first place in order to get that way.
“Essentially good people” do not go around killing more than 6 million innocent people.
to describe someone as ‘good’ or ‘bad’ has to define good – which is going to cause people a bit of a headache.
‘good’ may vary from religion to religion, and that also becomes difficult when religious ‘good’ varies from secular ‘good’.
do i think Hitler was a good man with twisted logic? no. i believe he knew what he was doing and used a collective scapegoat to empower and endear himself to a group of hurting, embarrassed, angry people.
i’m pretty sure he was a bad man with twisted logic.
and he helped ensure that Volkswagen was formed. another mark against him!
Yeah. He had a strong case of schizophrenic paranoia and I’m pretty sure a meth addiction or something like that.
He may have killed six million Jews, homosexuals, and people of different races, but in a seafood restaurant, he fretted over the most humane way to kill a lobster.
Not meth. Coke?
I don’t know.
Plus he had a rough childhood and severe insecurities since he was born with one testicle.
Sorry Dan, dumb question.
Hitler was Germany’s scape goat…
the poor bastard. *smh*