Evildoers?

October 12th, 2024| Topic: RaMbLeS | 3

Evildoers?

DailyMail.com, with J. L. Partners, ran a poll recently about Americans’ opinion about Adolf Hitler.

This evildoer (1889–1945), dictator of Nazi Germany, was one of the worst ones ever. He conducted a reign of terror that killed over six million Jews in the Holocaust and millions of other victims considered by the villain as unworthy of living under the Third Reich. Some historians have put the murder toll at a total of 20 million, not to mention the close-to-50 million soldiers and non-combatants who perished in the violence of World War II. Undoubtedly one of the darkest seasons in the history of humankind.

Evildoer, indeed!

But that aforementioned poll discovered that a number Americans believe that this malefactor had “some good ideas.” Yup, almost eight decades after he killed himself in a Berlin bunker, 11% of Americans think so. Including about 20% of Gen Z (those born between 1997 and 2012) Americans.

The survey asked 1,000 likely voters whether they think Hitler had some “good ideas” or if he was “evil and had no redeeming features.” 77% said he was “evil,” 12% were “unsure,” but that 11% …!!!

(When broken down by age group, 20% percent of those under the age of 29 said Hitler had good ideas, compared with 15% of those between the ages of 30 and 49, 7% for those between 50 and 64, and only 5% for those over 65.)

Said the Daily Mail:

The poll results seem part of a startling trend with Gen Z being more sympathetic towards some of history’s most evil individuals. Earlier this month, TikTok was forced to remove AI-generated and translated videos of Hitler’s speeches that had racked up more than one million views. The TikTok clip was also translated in a way to suggest the Fuhrer wanted to protect the lives of women and children.”

Right! About 2 million Jewish, Gypsy, and even German youngsters (particularly those with physical and mental disabilities) were slaughtered by this fiend.

A commenter on one TikTok video that racked up 270,000 views noted:

AH was a good and kind man… this changed my views on him.”

Do deliver, Yahweh, for the devout one has come to an end,
for the faithful have disappeared from among humans.
Falsehood they speak, one to his fellow;
with the lip of smoothness, in a double heart, they speak.
Psalm 12:1–2

Said “AH” in 1934:

At the risk of appearing to talk nonsense I tell you that the National Socialist movement will go on for 1,000 years! … Don’t forget how people laughed at me 15 years ago when I declared that one day I would govern Germany. They laugh now, just as foolishly, when I declare that I shall remain in power!

May Yahweh cut off all lips of smoothness,
the tongue speaking big things—
[those] who have said, “With our tongue we will prevail.
Our lips are in our own [power]—who is lord over us?”
Psalm 12:3–4

Thank God for shortening that evil season.

“Because of the devastation of the afflicted,
because of the groaning of the needy,
now I will arise,” says Yahweh;
“I will set in deliverance, the one who pants for it.”
The sayings of Yahweh are clean sayings,
silver refined in a furnace on the earth, distilled seven times.
Psalm 12:5–6

And the followers of Yahweh, the upright …

You, Yahweh, will keep them;
You will preserve him from this generation forever.
The wicked, they walk all around
as vileness is exalted by humans.
Psalm 12:7–8


SOURCE: Daily Mail

3 Comments

  1. Eric October 13, 2024 at 7:27 pm

    Thanks for the demarcation between potential and choice. You spoke just like a great theologian.

    I still want to think that in his lifetime he had on rare occasions showed a smidget of kindness in his actions. I guess I just can’t imagine anyone to be completely evil. Wishful thinking, perhaps. 😉

    Reply
  2. Eric October 13, 2024 at 6:49 am

    I know little about AH beyond the Holocaust and the World War II. That is very evil indeed. But wasn’t AH created in the image of God? I always thought because of that, we can always find some good in even the vilest person. Is that bad theology?

    As for TikTok, they just want to generate views because that translates to ad revenue. It sounds like they were successful. Sensationalism and controversy are great sources.

    Reply
    • Abe Kuruvilla October 13, 2024 at 8:48 am

      Thanks, Eric.

      Yes, all humans are created in the image of God. But the “finding of good” is not referring to that created potential, but to the choices people (who are made in the image of God) make for themselves. Even Judas, the “son of perdition,” was made in the image of God, but ….

      That created potential in the imago Dei renders humans “saveable,” if they trust in Christ as their only God and Savior from sin. I hope AH made that choice …

      I’m concerned more about the viewers of TikTok (or any other medium) and the choices they make (to trust it and its productions), than the agent itself.

      Reply

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