<div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif"><span style="font-family:Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif">On Tue, Aug 11, 2020 at 5:08 PM Dan TheBookMan via extropy-chat <<a href="mailto:extropy-chat@lists.extropy.org">extropy-chat@lists.extropy.org</a>> wrote:</span><br></div></div><div class="gmail_quote"><br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0px 0px 0px 0.8ex;border-left:1px solid rgb(204,204,204);padding-left:1ex"><div dir="auto"><div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0px 0px 0px 0.8ex;border-left:1px solid rgb(204,204,204);padding-left:1ex"><span style="font-size:large"><span class="gmail_default" style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif">>> </span>I think</span><span class="gmail_default" style="font-size:large;font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif"> </span><span style="font-size:large">Paul von Hindenburg </span><span class="gmail_default" style="font-size:large;font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif"></span><span style="font-size:large">was a pretty terrible human being, but if I was a German in 1932 I would've voted for him, and if I survived the upcoming war in 1952 I would </span><span class="gmail_default" style="font-size:large;font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif">have </span><span style="font-size:large">look back a</span><span class="gmail_default" style="font-size:large;font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif">t that</span><span style="font-size:large"> vote with pride.</span><span class="gmail_default" style="font-size:large;font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif"> If I had voted for his opponent or just not voted at all I would be filled with shame, because there is no bottom to bad.</span></blockquote><br></div><div><span style="color:rgb(0,0,0)"><i><span class="gmail_default" style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif">> </span>Recall who Hindenburg helped a certain other person to seize control about a year later. </i></span></div></div></blockquote><div><br></div><div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif"><font size="4">Yes, but there was no way to have known that in 1932.</font></div></div><div><br></div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0px 0px 0px 0.8ex;border-left:1px solid rgb(204,204,204);padding-left:1ex"><div dir="auto"><div><span style="color:rgb(0,0,0)"><i><span class="gmail_default" style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif">> </span>I’d say he was one of history’s great enablers.</i></span></div></div></blockquote><div><br></div><div><font size="4">Being an enabler is bad, but not as bad as the monster that is being enabled<span class="gmail_default" style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif">.</span></font></div><div><br></div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0px 0px 0px 0.8ex;border-left:1px solid rgb(204,204,204);padding-left:1ex"><div dir="auto"><div><span style="color:rgb(0,0,0)"><i><span class="gmail_default" style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif">> </span>And let’s not forget his role in popularizing the stab in the back myth. </i></span></div></div></blockquote><div><br></div><div><font size="4"><span class="gmail_default" style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif">No. </span>As I said before, Hindenburg was a <span class="gmail_default" style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif">p</span>retty<span class="gmail_default" style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif"> </span>terrible human being<span class="gmail_default" style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif">, but for the purposes of this discussion we CAN forget it.</span></font></div><div><br></div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0px 0px 0px 0.8ex;border-left:1px solid rgb(204,204,204);padding-left:1ex"><div dir="auto"><div><div style="color:rgb(0,0,0)"><span class="gmail_default" style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif">> </span>The best thing about Hindenburg in 1932 was that he wasn’t going to live that long.</div></div></div></blockquote><div><br></div><div><font size="4">No<span class="gmail_default" style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif">,</span> that was the <span class="gmail_default" style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif">very </span>worst thing about <span class="gmail_default" style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif">him! </span>Hindenburg <span class="gmail_default" style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif">never lost his popularity with the people,</span> if he<span class="gmail_default" style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif"> </span>had remained healthy and vigorous history might<span class="gmail_default" style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif"> have</span> turned out very differently<span class="gmail_default" style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif">.</span> </font></div><div><font size="4"><br></font></div><div><font size="4">J<span class="gmail_default" style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif">ohn K Clark</span></font></div></div></div>