Socially damaging person in history.

[DieFichte]

You can keep insisting that but the connections are blatantly clear and the threat of German invasion of Poland after taking Czechoslovakia and Austria was what brought the USSR to the table.

#1 Austria wasn't "taken" they choose to join Germany
#2 Czechoslovakia and Germany always had a small problem with what belongs to whom, if Stalin was suprised that Germany finaly settled the dispute I would be impressed with how stupid the communistic party was.
#3 Nothing brought the USSR to the table, they were already sitting there, since after WW I, right next to Germany. And I don't think the USSR seen an Invasion of Poland as a big risk to the Soviet Union, as Poland is like Czechoslovakia clearly in the "german sphere" to use your wording, and not in the russian.

You sound like you think the "final" border of the USSR existed pre 1945, News: They didn't, the Russian empire stoped right at the Ukraines border.

[semaphore]

It's like Germany broke a pact or something nuts!

Because the idea that the mortal enemy next door, which you supposedly was so worried about, attacking you in spite of a piece of paper is "nuts" right?

It was all slavic peoples, that's what "pan-slavic" means.

What it is means etymologically and what it is in practice is different things. West Slavs were never friendly with Russians.

You can keep insisting that but the connections are blatantly clear and the threat of German invasion of Poland after taking Czechoslovakia and Austria was what brought the USSR to the table.

There are no connections. The Soviet Union was sitting at the table waiting for Germany from the start.

I have supplied a reasonable version of events

All you've actually supplied is the logical fallacy of "after this, therefore because of this" that completely ignores actual history, using made up fantasies like Czechslovakia being in the Russian sphere of influence.

[DieFichte]

All you've actually supplied is the logical fallacy of "after this, therefore because of this" that completely ignores actual history, using made up fantasies like Czechslovakia being in the Russian sphere of influence.

I did want to supply him with maps from the German Empire 1900-1933 but somehow I only found german versions, and he probably dismisses them as Nazi propaganda.

[Seref]

Genghis Khan and Attila the Hun are my favorite historical people, role-models even. I take pride that I may be descended from them.
As for Karl Marx, he had good ideas, I don't think he deserves to be up here...

I voted Adolf Hitler.

[Defengar]

How do you set a culture "back?" Middle Eastern Arabic culture is far more advanced and sophisticated than colonial cultures, they've existed for thousands of years!


Excellently said. Genghis Khan was a brutal monster.

The ME was once more advanced and tolerant than Europe. Then the Mongols came. They destroyed the Caliphate in Baghdad, stole the ME's greatest treasures, killed the greatest minds, brutalized certain areas to the point of near human extinction (they basically tried to kill everyone in Saudi Arabia, and they killed 14 MILLION in Iran alone, the population of Iran didn't recover to pre mongol invasion levels until the 1950's).
And overall raped the whole area for a century. That gave rise to religious extremists and a culture that was very intolerant of outsiders and people who were different. The ME was never able to pull itself out of its rut. Europe was because of the discovery of America, and the Renaissance being fueled by that.

[Quilava]

Why isn't Jesus Christ or the people that made up the bible on this pole?

[Puremallace]

Modern social damage? Ayn Rand easily. Go read her vision of the future, then go look at the Republican platform. You are either a maker or a taker. If you are a taker, then too bad for you. Go die in a corner.

[Bakis]

Edit: Avoid religion please

Ignore the obvious number one culprit

[DungeonMaster]

Why isn't Jesus Christ or the people that made up the bible on this pole?

I agree with you Sir.

Humanity did itself a lot damage with religion (Holy wars, Dark Ages, Inquisition, Colonization). Like it or not, religion (specially Christianism) wasn't a choice back then, you just like it or love it.

XXI century Religion will be Capitalism.

[Wildtree]

Genghis Khan and Attila the Hun are my favorite historical people, role-models even. I take pride that I may be descended from them.
As for Karl Marx, he had good ideas, I don't think he deserves to be up here...

I voted Adolf Hitler.

Thank you for being reasonable, and actually educated beyond a bottle of beer..
Hitler, which I didn't vote for, since I had to go with Stalin, was my second choice. His legacy created an immense impact, and unlike others I know (because I walk the Earth with open eyes) that there's a lot of social damage done that has not healed just yet, and it's unknown if it ever will.

As for Marx. it puzzles me. really...
I wasn't even aware how there could be such thing like Marx hate. He was a philosopher, a political theorist.
Funny how people keep bringing him up alone anyway. Marx, and Marxism is intensively connected to 2 other names.
Friedrich Engels, and Vladimir Lenin.
Engels who worked with Marx, and continued to do so after Marx died. And then there's Lenin who progressed his theories based on Marx's theories.
NOTHING those three men did with their theories has ever come to live. Nothing they said has been put into place.
They are rightfully honored as philosophers.
True communism, which could be seen as the summary of those 3 men legacy, has never existed in any shape or form, in any country on earth.
One has to be brainwashed if they don't know that.
True communism is the best form for society. There is no discussion possible. It has only one weakness, and that's human nature itself.
We are not capable to act socially enough to make true communism work. We are naturally tainted to greed and ignorance.
After all, we are just another animal on the Planet. And we aren't too far developed just yet, to eliminate behavior structures that set us apart enough from the other animals. Some of them even have a much better social interaction with one another.

[Todgruppe]

I agree with you Sir.

Humanity did itself a lot damage with religion (Holy wars, Dark Ages, Inquisition, Colonization). Like it or not, religion (specially Christianism) wasn't a choice back then, you just like it or love it.

XXI century Religion is science/money.(Fixed )

If you want to go that route, it was Constantine who made Catholicism, not Jesus, until that dbag came along there where HUNDREDs if not thousand of sects of Christianity. Council of Nicaea happens, and hello RCC. I wouldn't blame the founders themselves (Moses/Jesus/Prophet Muhammad), but the people who corrupted them, Constantine, Muhammad ibn ʿAbd al-Wahhab, etc.

[Gemini Sunrise]

Why isn't Jesus Christ or the people that made up the bible on this pole?

Because Jesus Christ was the king of not giving fucks. It's the morons that decided to give fucks in his name that give us a bad name.

Anyways, why am I talking about this, seeing as it's against the rules to mention religion here anyways?

[Deleted]

It explicitly states in the OP that religious figures and religion generally should not be discussed in this thread. Please, keep conversation away from that tangent.

[Zhangfei]

Because the idea that the mortal enemy next door, which you supposedly was so worried about, attacking you in spite of a piece of paper is "nuts" right?

Those pieces of paper tend to be quite reliable. You know, all international conduct is done with it.

What it is means etymologically and what it is in practice is different things. West Slavs were never friendly with Russians.

And in practice, the Russians believed they were the pan-slavic protectors. All slavs. Who cares if they were bessie mates, Russia still considered them her kin.

There are no connections. The Soviet Union was sitting at the table waiting for Germany from the start.

Start of what? They can't come to a bloody table that doesn't exist and they weren't the ones who proposed the pact.

All you've actually supplied is the logical fallacy of "after this, therefore because of this" that completely ignores actual history, using made up fantasies like Czechslovakia being in the Russian sphere of influence.

So at this point you keep repeating that you do not understand history because you think the USSR had no reactions to Germany's expansion towards them, Germany's anti-Soviet rhetoric and Germany's aggressive stance. You think these don't "count" to the USSR's international policy. Hell, you don't even think the USSR's worry about Germany meant they came to the table to eke out a peace because of the threat of war.

You think the USSR randomly decided in 1940 to annex the Baltic states for a laugh.

Brilliant.

[Willowhorn]

Why has nobody mentioned Nicolae Ceaușescu yet?

Accomplishments:

1. Banned contraception and abortions in 1966 (except to mothers who already had 4 children), made it nearly impossible to divorce your partner, and gave all working women mandatory inspections every 2 months to verify if they were pregnant or not to prevent women from having illegal abortions. Why? So he had a large population to work in his factories in his glorious industrial paradise.

2. Everyone who worked had to take time out to practice a huge yearly parade in which every Romanian danced and paraded around and thanked Ceaușescu for their Communist Paradise, and they had to still find time after all this to stand in line all day to hopefully get some bread or meat to feed their families. Of course, the reason nobody had any food to eat was because Ceaușescu was exporting all of Romania's food to pay off his huge debts to foreign countries, all while building THE LARGEST PALACE IN THE ENTIRE WORLD for himself to live in.

3. I believe he also moved many impoverished peasants from their homes into mass constructed apartments that had no heat or running water so he could make room for his palace or his factories. During the day there was at least a little electricity to help keep everyone warm during the winter but at night the electricity was cut off, and as things got worse in the 80s, the electricity was on fewer and fewer hours of the day.

4. Built a cult of personality around not only himself but his wife, making everyone think that she was this brilliant chemist when she'd flunked every subject in school when she was young. This cult of personality was also forced upon their children to the extent that the second son, Nicu Ceaușescu, was forced to marry a girl he didn't like just to bolster his appearances, and the daughter Zoia had secret police watching her go on dates with boys.

There's more but I'm leaving off the best part.

The very best part of all of this is THE MAN GOT WHAT HE DESERVED IN THE END. In 1989 the Romanian people had enough of his shit and revolted against him. He and his wife attempted to flee the country by helicopter until they were captured by the army, put on a show trial and then executed by firing squad (all of this was caught on television too minus the execution part).

[Deleted]

Purely socially damaging? Ronald Reagan.