Examples of dictators that were/are comparable or worse than the Nazis

**Armenian Bishop** · 01-19-2020, 03:56 AM

Originally Posted by Tooting Carmen

One of the unquestioned received opinions of our age is that the Nazis were a uniquely evil regime, either because of the number of people they killed or because of their beliefs/ideology. Yet is this true? Here is a list of dictators and regimes that, imo, were at least in relative if not in real terms as bad if not worse than the Nazis. N.B. They appear in no particular order.

(1) Soviet Union (especially but by no means exclusively under Josef Stalin)

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(2) Maoist China

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(3) Khmer Rouge

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(4) North Korea

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(5) Suharto's Indonesia

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(6) Mengistu's Ethiopia

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(7) Idi Amin's Uganda

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(8) Macias Nguema's Equatorial Guinea

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(9) Guatemala under its military regimes

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(10) Pinochet's Chile

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(11) Taliban
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(12) Saddam's Iraq

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(13) Saudi Arabia

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After all of that strenuously diligent research, the OP didn't even mention Talaat Pasha, and the century old Armenian Genocide. But, when Raphael Lemkin coined and created the word genocide, in 1944, both the Armenian Genocide and the Jewish Holocaust were first and foremost on his mind. So, why was that left out?

With the exception of my grandparents, and 2 great uncles, all of my maternal Armenian relatives perished in the century old genocide. So, it's no small measure for me honor their martyrdom. It's weird that the OP went through that long list, but didn't even mention it; on the other hand, some fake examples were mentioned.

**PaleoEuropean** · 01-19-2020, 04:00 AM

Originally Posted by Longbowman

How are you not mentioning the Empire of Japan?

Anyhow, one or two of these were comparably awful (USSR, Khmer Rouge, Mao) but I don't think the Taliban even qualify as close to as bad. The Taliban were ultimately Afghan Islamist Nationalists who, yes, installed a regime I'd never want to live in, and, yes, deposed braver men like Ahmad Shah Massoud, but ultimately their repression isn't the same as the gulag system.

The Taliban were pretty mild and fairly well liked by everyone except the ethnic minorities, I agree on that. Women are still treated like shit in Afghan society that's just how they are. They were actually created to save some women from a warlord who kidnapped them and had a Robin Hood image to many Pashtuns. Mullah Omar led some rag tag students (Talib) with shitty guns against an overwhelming force to save those girls, it was a pretty interesting story; read it in the book Ghost Wars.

**Armenian Bishop** · 01-19-2020, 04:09 AM

Whoops -- OP forgot this one!

**Tooting Carmen** · 08-31-2021, 12:49 AM

bump

**Albertón** · 08-31-2021, 01:28 AM

Stalin, Mao, Pol Pot, etc... Mostly commies.

**Tooting Carmen** · 09-05-2021, 10:24 PM

Btw: it is intriguing that it is within the realms of permissible debate to say that Indians in 1960's/70's Kenya and Uganda in part brought upon their own persecution because of their attitudes towards Africans, whereas nobody even remotely respectable would say that Jews in 1930's/40's in part brought upon their own persecution because of their attitudes towards Gentiles.

**Faklon** · 09-05-2021, 10:49 PM

You try to oversimplify things under the umbrella of "evil", cancel culture ftw. Evil for who? For what purpose? Internal or external politics?

Anyways, you should probably include Ferdinand Marcos as he was a dictator who not only killed but he did it pretty much only for money.

**Tooting Carmen** · 09-05-2021, 11:14 PM

Originally Posted by Faklon

You try to oversimplify things under the umbrella of "evil", cancel culture ftw. Evil for who? For what purpose? Internal or external politics?

Usually a mix of both.

Anyways, you should probably include Ferdinand Marcos as he was a dictator who not only killed but he did it pretty much only for money.

Marcos was exceptionally corrupt, but he wasn't that murderous - especially compared to neighbouring Suharto.

**Faklon** · 09-05-2021, 11:24 PM

Originally Posted by Tooting Carmen

Usually a mix of both.

Marcos was exceptionally corrupt, but he wasn't that murderous - especially compared to neighbouring Suharto.

So, is it only about the body count?

There is a difference between killing the people who want to kill you and just cleansing them for "why not?".

**Tooting Carmen** · 09-05-2021, 11:38 PM

Originally Posted by Faklon

So, is it only about the body count?

There is a difference between killing the people who want to kill you and just cleansing them for "why not?".

Like I said, the main considerations are body count, torture methods (which is why I included Pinochet, despite the fact he didn't kill that many people) and ideology (Marcos' was a relatively nondescript centre-right one).