[ExI] Worst ever

[Stuart LaForge]

Quoting Bill Wallace:

> It is my earnest hope that Stalin, Hitler, and Mao have set records for
> killing people that will last forever.   Surely among the worst people who
> have ever lived.

Those guys might have been bad by 20th century standards, but none of  
them set any records. In fact the record is still held by Ghenghis  
Khan who killed over 40 million people. That is more than Stalin,  
Hitler, Mao, and Pol Pot combined. Furthermore there were fewer people  
in the world back during the Mongolian conquest so Ghenghis Khan has  
been credited with killing fully 5% of the world population at the time.

According to scientists, Ghenghis Khan killed enough people to stop  
deforestation and allow trees to regrow thus reducing carbon dioxide  
levels and temporarily reversing global warming.

https://www.livescience.com/11739-wars-plagues-carbon-climate.html

Ghenghis Khan also united pretty much all of Asia with part of Europe  
in the largest land empire of all time, making the Silk Road safe for  
merchants to travel and thereby promoting trade between east and west.  
He did lots of other surprisingly good things things too like  
abolishing slavery and torture throughout his empire.

https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/68894/11-cultural-breakthroughs-genghis-khan-achieved-during-his-reign

So perhaps real people are a little more complex than the simple moral  
absolutism of good and evil allows. In fact, whenever someone is  
called "evil" these days, it is almost always politically-motivated  
hyperbole.

Stuart LaForge