# To Shoot or Not To Shoot \[Hypothetical alt reality "kill Hitler" question\] **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [February 12, 2011, 12:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-shoot-or-not-to-shoot-hypothetical-alt-reality-kill-hitler-question/571085 "2011-02-12T00:38:05Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![42fish](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/4/b487fb/32.png) [@42fish](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/42fish)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2011, 1:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-shoot-or-not-to-shoot-hypothetical-alt-reality-kill-hitler-question/571085/81 "2011-02-24T13:47:15Z")
> [@Qin\_Shi\_Huangdi](#): > > That again implies that someone who is far more practical and realistic than Hitler in other areas would also be as fanatically anti-Semitic. Because there’s no way a person could keep it together long enough to win a world war and also be a rabid anti-semite. > **[Doctors' plot](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doctors%27_plot)** > > The "doctors' plot" (Russian: дело врачей, romanized: delo vrachey, lit. 'doctors' case') was a Soviet state-sponsored anti-intellectual and antisemitic (under the guise of being anti-cosmopolitan) campaign based on a conspiracy theory that alleged an anti-Soviet cabal of prominent medical specialists, many of whom were ethnically Jewish, intended to murder leading government and Communist Party officials. It was also known as the case of saboteur doctors, doctor-poisoners or killer doctors In ... > **[Night of the Murdered Poets](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Night_of_the_Murdered_Poets)** > > The Night of the Murdered Poets (Russian: Дело Еврейского антифашистского комитета, romanized: Dela Yevreyskovo antifashistskovo komiteta, lit. 'Jewish Anti-Fascist Committee affair'; Yiddish: הרוגי מלכות פֿונעם ראַטנפאַרבאַנד, romanized: Harugey malkhes funem Ratnfarband, lit. 'Soviet Union Martyrs') occurred on 12 August 1952, and it involved the execution of 13 Soviet Jews in the Lubyanka Prison in Moscow. Arrests were made in September 1948 and June 1949, with all defendants having been fa Th... ---
**Author:** ![LonesomePolecat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/a88e57/32.png) [@LonesomePolecat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LonesomePolecat)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2011, 2:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-shoot-or-not-to-shoot-hypothetical-alt-reality-kill-hitler-question/571085/82 "2011-02-24T14:29:55Z")
> [@Guinastasia](#): > > How so? :dubious: There would have been no _Stalin_, sure. But no Hitler? Surely you jest. Study up on the Weimar Republic and the Treaty of Versailles. Without Lenin’s leadership, the communists would not have managed to seize power from Kerensky’s republican government, and there would have been no communist regime in Russia. In the period between the wars, the communists were still shouting very loudly about world revolution, communist parties thoughout Europe held demonstrations and marches loudly proclaming their inevitable future victory, and fought street battles with competing parties (among them the Nazis). The Soviet government supported all this both directly and indirectly, and the various communist parties hardly even bothered to conceal the fact that they were in cahoots with Moscow. The atrocities being committed in the Soviet Union were already well known. Without Lenin, the communists simply would not have been such a threatening presence in Europe, and fear of communism was an important source of early support for the Nazis. At the height of their electoral success, the Nazis never got more than about a third of the popular vote, and it was mainly back room politics that got Hitler the chancellorship that made it possible to seize power and overthrow the Weimar republic. Without the fear of communism, Hitler would not have had the political clout he needed to make those back room deals. I’m not saying that fear of communism is the only reason Hitler came to power, but it seems clear to me that it was critical. In any case, the popular notion that an overwhelming majority of the German people eagerly swept Hitler into power is simply wrong. ---
**Author:** ![LonesomePolecat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/a88e57/32.png) [@LonesomePolecat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LonesomePolecat)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2011, 2:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-shoot-or-not-to-shoot-hypothetical-alt-reality-kill-hitler-question/571085/83 "2011-02-24T14:50:23Z")
> [@Guinastasia](#): > > Surely you jest. And don’t call me Shirley. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Lumpy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lumpy/32/446_2.png) [@Lumpy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lumpy)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2011, 8:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-shoot-or-not-to-shoot-hypothetical-alt-reality-kill-hitler-question/571085/84 "2011-02-24T20:18:44Z")
lots of google image hits for kill Hitler. Here’s one of the better ones: [![](https://media.photobucket.com/image/kill%20Hitler/drmabuse06/TimeTravelHitler.jpg) ](https://media.photobucket.com/image/kill%20Hitler/drmabuse06/TimeTravelHitler.jpg) ---
**Author:** ![scamartistry](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/919ad9/32.png) [@scamartistry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scamartistry)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2011, 11:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-shoot-or-not-to-shoot-hypothetical-alt-reality-kill-hitler-question/571085/85 "2011-02-24T23:56:20Z")
> [@Der\_Trihs](#): > > Yes, not enough trust for the Voice (none at all in fact), not enough knowledge of the results of killing Hitler. There’s also the likelihood of erasing myself and everyone else now alive, depending on how time travel works (I have no reason to trust any claims the Voice make son the matter). > > A Voice that tells me to kill people is more likely to be something that needs medication than something real. And even if it was real, what are its motives? Why me, what am I being set up for? Why not transport Hitler to the center of the Earth by itself instead of trying to use me as an assassin? It’s all very suspicious. Are you willingly misunderstanding this HYPOTHETICAL question? please say you it was just a very bad joke - ---
**Author:** ![scamartistry](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/919ad9/32.png) [@scamartistry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scamartistry)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2011, 3:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-shoot-or-not-to-shoot-hypothetical-alt-reality-kill-hitler-question/571085/86 "2011-02-25T03:15:29Z")
There is one big problem with this. If you are shooting Hitler, you are essentially shooting an innocent man. At the time the only crime he had committed can be considered “thought crime”. If this is a policy to follow, we must be ready to get arrested/executed before we even had the thought of committing a crime. At any point during the day some renegade idiot from the future can pop up and kill you for something you would do 10 years from now. This would be a very scary society to live in. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2011, 8:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-shoot-or-not-to-shoot-hypothetical-alt-reality-kill-hitler-question/571085/87 "2011-02-26T08:13:38Z")
> [@scamartistry](#): > > There is one big problem with this. If you are shooting Hitler, you are essentially shooting an innocent man. At the time the only crime he had committed can be considered “thought crime”. > > If this is a policy to follow, we must be ready to get arrested/executed before we even had the thought of committing a crime. > > At any point during the day some renegade idiot from the future can pop up and kill you for something you would do 10 years from now. This would be a very scary society to live in. By that logic if you see somebody dragging a screaming woman into an alley, shouldn’t you hold back and wait? At the moment, he’s just planning on committing a crime. He isn’t guilty of the crime until after he’s raped her. Most people (including me) would argue otherwise. When you have the knowledge that a crime is going to be committed, you have the moral right to intervene and prevent it from happening. ---
**Author:** ![LouisB](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/dfb087/32.png) [@LouisB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LouisB)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2011, 8:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-shoot-or-not-to-shoot-hypothetical-alt-reality-kill-hitler-question/571085/88 "2011-02-26T20:56:08Z")
Why is the word ‘voice’ capitalized in the OP? Are we to assume the ‘voice’ is of divine origin? If so, how would we know the origin of the ‘voice’? If not, never mind. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-shoot-or-not-to-shoot-hypothetical-alt-reality-kill-hitler-question/571085.md?page=4)