# Who is bad? Hitler? George Bush? Is anyone? **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [November 24, 2007, 1:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-bad-hitler-george-bush-is-anyone/427565 "2007-11-24T01:43:18Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Liberal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/848f3c/32.png) [@Liberal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Liberal)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2007, 10:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-bad-hitler-george-bush-is-anyone/427565/21 "2007-11-27T10:47:43Z")
[QUOTE=Windwalker] My definition of evil is quite simple: **An evil person is someone who, for selfish reasons, commits evil acts, knowing that they’re wrong.** [/QUOTE] That definition doesn’t really help much. A wide river is a river that is wide. ---
**Author:** ![Aspidistra](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aspidistra/32/3894_2.png) [@Aspidistra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aspidistra)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2007, 10:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-bad-hitler-george-bush-is-anyone/427565/22 "2007-11-27T10:59:16Z")
> [@Alexandr Solzhenitsyn](#): > > If only it were all so simple! If only there were evil people somewhere committing evil deeds, and it were necessary only to separate them from the rest of us and destroy them. But the line dividing good and evil cuts through the heart of every human being. And who is willing to destroy a piece of his own heart? .. ---
**Author:** ![Jolly\_Roger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/91b2a8/32.png) [@Jolly\_Roger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jolly_Roger)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2007, 10:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-bad-hitler-george-bush-is-anyone/427565/23 "2007-11-27T10:59:25Z")
[QUOTE=Windwalker] My definition of evil is quite simple: **An evil person is someone who, for selfish reasons, commits evil acts, knowing that they’re wrong.** Applying this to Hitler, I would only really consider him evil if he knew that what he was saying was bullshit. If he really believed that the Jews were the spawn of evil, etc., then I would consider him only grossly misguided, not evil. He still did immeasurable evil acts, but if it truly was for a cause that he believed in, then he doesn’t pass the Evil Test. [/QUOTE] So by _your_ definition of evil the Final Solution wasn’t evil because it was a misguided attempt to make the world better? ---
**Author:** ![Captain\_Amazing](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6de8d8/32.png) [@Captain\_Amazing](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_Amazing)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2007, 3:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-bad-hitler-george-bush-is-anyone/427565/24 "2007-11-27T15:33:02Z")
A better book than Goldhagen’s, I think, is Christopher Browning’s “Ordinary Men”, which is a look at Reserve Police Batallion 101, one of the units that rounded up and shot Jews. It looks at how the members of the unit, mostly policemen from Hamburg, came to (and sometimes failed to) reconcile their actions with their notions of right and wrong. ---
**Author:** ![BlinkingDuck](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/eada6e/32.png) [@BlinkingDuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BlinkingDuck)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2007, 9:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-bad-hitler-george-bush-is-anyone/427565/25 "2007-12-03T21:05:00Z")
Definition of evil? That’s a toughie… Attempt 1: An evil person believes that attaining power over others is all that matters. Someone beneath them in power (underlings/powerless/weak/helpless) are beneath consideration and should be able to be dealt with as the person desires. Ok…maybe not the best but an attempt. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-bad-hitler-george-bush-is-anyone/427565.md?page=1)