At work today, we were discussing racism, the extent of which is rather shocking. One of my colleagues said something along the lines of that people of my age like to have controversial views, and then said "sure when I was 18, I thought Hitler was great". I thought this was a bit odd coming from someone who I've only ever known to despise racism and racists, but there you go. I challenged him quite strongly about how he could ever have thought this, and he said "well obviously I don't think that now, but still..." and then went on to list the great things he did.
I asked him to summarise Hitler in 5 words, saying that (off the top of my head), mine would be "evil", "mass-murderer", "racist", "disaster" and "corrupt". He said that he'd go along with a few of them, but would also add "genius" and "complex". I said that Hitler's good points, if there were any, shouldn't even come into a discussion or summary of him, or at best should be a very distant footnote.
I find it an interesting topic. Do you think that Hitler's good points should even be discussed or brought up when discussing or summarising him? Would you view him as a mix of good and bad, albeit probably more bad?
I'm trying to not turn this into a "Hitler punchbag" thread
