Rob's Soapbox - No, For The Last Time, You Don't Kill Baby Hitler

<p>Over the holiday break, while lying around and trying to recover from 2021, I found myself getting caught up on a lot of different shows…some decent, some awful, and, as it turns out, too many obsessed with Baby Hitler for some coincidental (I hope) reason.</p><p><br></p><p>In a surprise to no one, most of the Hitler-related references were Covid based because, apparently, we’ve all finally realized that we’re literally living in the worst time in history since Hitler, an uplifting thought to say the least. Shows such as “The Problem with Jon Stewart,” (mediocre at best) and the “South Park Post Covid, the Return of Covid,” special (not as good as the first one), both had lengthy time-travel related dialogues about the pros and cons of going back in time and having the opportunity to kill Hitler as a baby.</p><p><br></p><p>Since we live in a time when most grown adults have both the intelligence and attention span of a third-grader, such seemingly obvious assertions almost always come with a reaction of “well duh, of course, I would kill Hitler as a baby.” Because, you know, that would stop the holocaust, World War II, and all of that other horribleness.</p><p><br></p><p>This is all incorrect. </p><p><br></p><p>Allow me to rephrase; this is all so infantile, no pun intended. The unknowable truth is that killing Hitler as a baby may, in fact, prevent the holocaust and World War II, but that doesn’t mean it would have led to a better ultimate outcome. Needless suffering, genocide, and life-altering maniacal devastation are, of course, beyond atrocious. The argument against killing Baby Hitler isn’t a pro-Hitler stance; it’s an acknowledgment and understanding of the endless presence of evil and the emergence of a stronger world as a result of confronting it. America never would have become what it did in the second half of the 20th century were it not for Hitler.</p><p><br></p><p>Additionally, Hitler was far from the only bad actor in the late 1930’s and early 40’s. He’s the figurehead now credited most