# Evilest People In History **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [November 29, 2010, 1:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/evilest-people-in-history/562238 "2010-11-29T01:40:49Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Sitnam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Sitnam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sitnam)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2010, 4:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/evilest-people-in-history/562238/21 "2010-11-29T04:06:28Z")
Vlad was simply ruthless in a ruthless place during a ruthless time. King Leopold and Stalin were bad, but I feel I at least understand what made them tick, even if they never listen to that spark of humanity. LeMay…please. I’ve never understood Saloth Sar, and I believe that is what true evil would look like. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2010, 4:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/evilest-people-in-history/562238/22 "2010-11-29T04:14:46Z")
John Nevil Maskelyne-the inventor of the pay toilet. ---
**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2010, 4:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/evilest-people-in-history/562238/23 "2010-11-29T04:33:38Z")
Emperor Palpatine HOW many threads do you have open now? :dubious: ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2010, 4:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/evilest-people-in-history/562238/24 "2010-11-29T04:41:44Z")
> [@](#): > > Maybe we could combine threads and see who is stronger, Frankenstein or Jews? Wait, wasn’t Frankenstein himself Jewish? The whole golem thing, and all. ---
**Author:** ![Declan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ecae2f/32.png) [@Declan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Declan)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2010, 5:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/evilest-people-in-history/562238/25 "2010-11-29T05:31:06Z")
> [@Argent\_Towers](#): > > Curtis LeMay. The Straightdope poster or the general ? Declan ---
**Author:** ![Sleeps\_With\_Butterflies](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bb73d2/32.png) [@Sleeps\_With\_Butterflies](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sleeps_With_Butterflies)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2010, 5:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/evilest-people-in-history/562238/26 "2010-11-29T05:33:41Z")
> [@Simplicio](#): > > Yea, is there some subtext I’m not seeing here? People seem weirdly defensive of an obscure 17th century Chinese Warlord. > > I’ll go with Himmler. I was listening to a podcast on WWII history, and the author was discussing how Himmler proposed the “FInal Solution” not because of his hatred of the Jews, but because he needed a large project for his SS to undertake so that they wouldn’t be marginalized in the post-war Reich. > > Assuming that Hitler believed all the stuff he said about the Jews and other Untermensch, I think it can at least be argued that he was more sick then evil. Himmler, on the other hand, seemed to not have had any higher purpose to slaughtering 6 million people then to give himself a leg-up in the next round of Nazi bureaucratic infighting. That is simply chilling. ---
**Author:** ![Fried\_Dough\_Ho](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/a88e57/32.png) [@Fried\_Dough\_Ho](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fried_Dough_Ho)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2010, 5:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/evilest-people-in-history/562238/27 "2010-11-29T05:39:11Z")
Surprised that no one has mentioned [Gilles de Rais](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gilles_de_Rais) or the [Countess Bathory](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elizabeth_B%C3%A1thory). ---
**Author:** ![godix](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/278dde/32.png) [@godix](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/godix)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2010, 5:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/evilest-people-in-history/562238/28 "2010-11-29T05:42:16Z")
Obama. That damned Kenyan is involved in a plot to overthrow America from the inside and turn us into a socialistic nightmare. Which makes him the most evil person ever for daring to attack the greatest country that ever existed! Glenn Beck told me so. To answer somewhat honestly. Stalin. Never before or since have so many been killed for no other reason than a raw naked consolidation of power. With Hitler, Pol Pot, etc. there were other reasons. I’m not saying they were good reasons, but it was at least somewhat more than just “I want to be leader, go kill millions of people to keep me leader”. ---
**Author:** ![Argent\_Towers](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e8c25b/32.png) [@Argent\_Towers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Argent_Towers)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2010, 6:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/evilest-people-in-history/562238/29 "2010-11-29T06:15:02Z")
I would say that someone needs to actually take pleasure in other peoples’ pain to be evil. How many of the people in this thread really fit that? Even most of the Nazis thought they were just bureaucratic tenders of Germany’s racial purity and tried to kill Jews as efficiently and quickly as possible; not all of them were true sadists. Did Stalin love seeing tortured men scream and writhe in pain? Would he even have been able to personally kill someone with his own hands? Stalin sat behind a desk and killed millions with the stroke of a pen. But only the people who actually delighted in personally torturing and murdering people can really claim the prize of “most evil.” ---
**Author:** ![Fried\_Dough\_Ho](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/a88e57/32.png) [@Fried\_Dough\_Ho](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fried_Dough_Ho)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2010, 6:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/evilest-people-in-history/562238/30 "2010-11-29T06:22:26Z")
> [@Argent\_Towers](#): > > How many of the people in this thread really fit that? My two examples certainly qualify… Both not only killed hundreds of children, but reveled in their deeds. ---
**Author:** ![Measure\_for\_Measure](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/measure_for_measure/32/557_2.png) [@Measure\_for\_Measure](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Measure_for_Measure)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2010, 6:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/evilest-people-in-history/562238/31 "2010-11-29T06:27:33Z")
I’m a consequentialist, so I would emphasize body count. Those who promote the most suffering are the most evil. Sadists take pleasure in other’s pain, but that isn’t evil if it is consensual. Just thought I’d mention that. Nonconsensual sadism is of course evil. ---
**Author:** ![Der\_Trihs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/der_trihs/32/233_2.png) [@Der\_Trihs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Der_Trihs)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2010, 6:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/evilest-people-in-history/562238/32 "2010-11-29T06:33:05Z")
> [@Argent\_Towers](#): > > Did Stalin love seeing tortured men scream and writhe in pain? Would he even have been able to personally kill someone with his own hands? IIRC he supposedly once just for fun wrapped a woman’s fingers in paper and set them on fire. While giggling. She was too terrified to try to put them out. But then Stalin was the sort of fellow who attracts accusations of things like that. ---
**Author:** ![Horatio\_Hellpop](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e5b9ba/32.png) [@Horatio\_Hellpop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Horatio_Hellpop)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2010, 9:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/evilest-people-in-history/562238/33 "2010-11-29T09:48:35Z")
It’s a mistake to interpret “most evil” as “highest body count.” I know plenty of war veterans who have personally killed more people than Charles Manson and Jack the Ripper combined, and strike me as far less evil than either. ---
**Author:** ![jjimm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba8739/32.png) [@jjimm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jjimm)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2010, 10:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/evilest-people-in-history/562238/34 "2010-11-29T10:09:27Z")
I’d say Mao was a bit of a cunt. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2010, 3:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/evilest-people-in-history/562238/35 "2010-11-29T15:50:08Z")
> [@Krokodil](#): > > It’s a mistake to interpret “most evil” as “highest body count.” I know plenty of war veterans who have personally killed more people than Charles Manson and Jack the Ripper combined, and strike me as far less evil than either. > [@](#): > > As I write, highly civilized human beings are flying overhead, trying to kill me. > > They do not feel any enmity against me as an individual, nor I against them. They are ‘only doing their duty’, as the saying goes. Most of them, I have no doubt, are kind-hearted law-abiding men who would never dream of committing murder in private life. On the other hand, if one of them succeeds in blowing me to pieces with a well-placed bomb, he will never sleep any the worse for it. He is serving his country, which has the power to absolve him from evil. – George Orwell, [_The Lion and the Unicorn_](http://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks03/0300011h.html#part14) (1941) ---
**Author:** ![Lobohan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lobohan/32/79_2.png) [@Lobohan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lobohan)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2010, 4:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/evilest-people-in-history/562238/36 "2010-11-29T16:35:32Z")
> [@Der\_Trihs](#): > > IIRC he supposedly once just for fun wrapped a woman’s fingers in paper and set them on fire. While giggling. She was too terrified to try to put them out. But then Stalin was the sort of fellow who attracts accusations of things like that. Oh yeah? Once George Washington [held an opponent’s wife’s hand in acid](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sbRom1Rz8OA). (some NSFW language) ---
**Author:** ![42fish](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/4/b487fb/32.png) [@42fish](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/42fish)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2010, 4:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/evilest-people-in-history/562238/37 "2010-11-29T16:44:29Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > Wait, wasn’t Frankenstein himself Jewish? The whole golem thing, and all. I first read this as “the whole goyem thing” and thought, ‘But if Frankenstein’s one of the goyem, he’s non-Jewish.’ As for my nomination for most evil: Jesus Christ… just because the OP ain’t the boss of me. ---
**Author:** ![septimus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/septimus/32/410_2.png) [@septimus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/septimus)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2010, 4:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/evilest-people-in-history/562238/38 "2010-11-29T16:53:33Z")
I’d find this a very difficult question to answer, especially without a clear definition of “evil.” Ruthlessness, bloodlust, and mental illness are different things and none of them exactly meets my definition of “evil.” Body count seems like a very poor indicator, unless you want to classify Winston Churchill (“We will never surrender”) and Abe Lincoln as evil. And opportunity matters. Josef Stalin had the opportunity to kill 20 million, did so, and would certainly seem to qualify as “evil,” but might there not be many others who would do the same with the same opportunity and motive? ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2010, 4:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/evilest-people-in-history/562238/39 "2010-11-29T16:55:29Z")
Jesus Christ. Yeah, guy, we get it, you suffered. There’s no reason we should have to hear about it every fuckin’ Sunday. ---
**Author:** ![E-Sabbath](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/e19adc/32.png) [@E-Sabbath](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/E-Sabbath)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2010, 5:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/evilest-people-in-history/562238/40 "2010-11-29T17:11:24Z")
Emperor Trajan destroyed an entire culture, scattered the people, killed most of the men, to the point where we know nothing about a philosophical figure once considered equal to Jesus or Buddha. To the Dacians… who we only know by the name the Romans gave them. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/evilest-people-in-history/562238.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/evilest-people-in-history/562238.md?page=3)