Greatest American elimination game (game thread)

[Qin_Shi_Huangdi]

@septimus

Let me recommend again that the Game use Hart’s criteria with little or no change. It might seem good to replace “influence” with “positive influence” to get rid of Hitler, but where would one draw the line? The voting on Muhammed would no longer reflect his influence, but rather a comparison of Islamic Golden Age “goodness” versus modern jihadist “badness.” The question of Constantine’s influence is interesting, but disappears if the debate focusses on whether Christianization was good or bad. The vote on James Watt would be affected by quasi-Ludditism. These all might be interesting debates, but if one were to let them dominate the Hart’s List Elimination Game one wonders why bother to start with Hart’s List in the first place?

Because for the most part I agree with his listing and ranking.