Cruelest people in history?

[byrne]

Body count =/= cruelty

murder and cruelty go hand in hand. i don't know why so many of you duds are segregating the two.

there has never ever been a time in history when mass slaughter hasn't been considered cruel, therefore, considering people who killed millions of victims as being 'cruel' is entirely valid

 

[V.V.V.V.V.]

He's arguing that the number of people you kill doesn't increase your cruelness level, but that the intent and way you commit these murders would increase it (moreso).

 

[metal_wrath]

Noone has mentioned

Ivan the Terrible

Torquemada

 

[Valerie]

Necruelatul.



Just kidding.

.


Laugh, damnit.

 

[metal_wrath]

.


Laugh, damnit.

LadyCruelerie

 

[The Butt]

Whoever created Big Brother and Survivor.

 

[Einherjar86]

True, but I don't think race played a huge part in Stalin's killings. He was suspicious of EVERYBODY. His doctor diagnosed him paranoid, then the doc "mysteriously" dissapiered. He killed off anybody he feared was a threat to him.

Definitely true; but still, some suspicion was founded purely on race. For instance, Koreans were arrested and killed simply because they looked like they were Japanese, who were enemies of the Soviet Union. It's quite clear from historical records that Stalin made no differentiation between members of the Oriental community; he simply considered them to be enemies if they looked East Asian. It's true that the source of this discrimination is founded on fear/suspicion of infiltration and espionage; but the fact that he failed to distinguish between members of the East Asian cultures makes him a racist in my book.

 

[MasterOLightning]

I think Stalin has Hitler beat. When you're slaughtering millions during peacetime, something's wrong. Stalin ordered way more deaths. You can't strictly attribute WWII deaths to Hitler, even though he instigated the war. Stalin is responsible for way more deaths than Hitler via the holocaust. Also, people act like anti-Semitism was particular to Hitler, when it's been common in every nation in Europe since there were Jews. Hitler grew up in Vienna which was the most anti-Jew city on the continent. He was really more a product of his culture than an actually cruel man.

This is a hard question when you consider individuals who inflicted extreme harm on a handful of individuals against those who did huge damage on a large scale simple because they could.

 

[Zephyrus]

Deep down it's psychological, as in what the does the person seek to gain from engaging in such heinous acts. If it's for pure pleasure, that's pure cruelty. If they are under orders, and are reluctant, that is not cruelty at all. Then there's the grey areas like insanity, blind nationalism/racism and the sake of religion.

 

[Vegard Pompey]

The cruelest person in history would have to be a murderer who killed people on his own and not by making a desicion like Hitler or Stalin.

I think it was Stalin who was quoted saying that "One death is a tragedy, one million deaths is just a statistic" or something like that. And I guess it's true in a way. Stalin killed millions of people indirectly, but he wasn't there to see them die. Those millions were just a number to him.

 

[Life Sucks]

The WWII Japanese were pretty cruel, too. They tortured and killed POWs in a very creative way. As you know, bamboo is a very very fast growing plant, and it can grow more than an inch in a day. So they tied POWs up naked in a squatting position with a young bamboo plant lined up right under their asshole. Well, in a few days, you can imagine what happened. They also had "comfort women" for their soldiers, usually Korean or Chinese women. They were raped, beating, abused, and in some cases killed.

 

[Death Animal]

The WWII Japanese were pretty cruel, too. They tortured and killed POWs in a very creative way
QUOTE]

Here is document movie what they did to chinese people.

 

[waif]

Deep down it's psychological, as in what the does the person seek to gain from engaging in such heinous acts. If it's for pure pleasure, that's pure cruelty. If they are under orders, and are reluctant, that is not cruelty at all. Then there's the grey areas like insanity, blind nationalism/racism and the sake of religion.

Yes, this is what I've been trying to get people to realize - intent is the key. The cruelest person ever might have only killed one person, but they did it in the cruelest way imaginable.

The WWII Japanese were pretty cruel, too...They also had "comfort women" for their soldiers, usually Korean or Chinese women. They were raped, beating, abused, and in some cases killed.

A lot of people aren't aware of this, but during WWII Russian soldiers raped over 2 million German women between the ages of 6 and 80, many in excess of 60 times. Many were mutilated, cut with broken bottles, strangled, etc. During the occupation of Berlin mothers would have to hide their daughters at night when the Russian soldiers went out looking for young women to rape. Many family members were killed by soldiers trying to get them to divulge the location of their daughters.

 

[Einherjar86]

A lot of people aren't aware of this, but during WWII Russian soldiers raped over 2 million German women between the ages of 6 and 80, many in excess of 60 times. Many were mutilated, cut with broken bottles, strangled, etc. During the occupation of Berlin mothers would have to hide their daughters at night when the Russian soldiers went out looking for young women to rape. Many family members were killed by soldiers trying to get them to divulge the location of their daughters.

Terrible; but this often happens when an army occupies an enemy city. Soldiers have been separated and far away from women for so long, they've seen so much death and destruction... I'm sure at some point rape seems to them to be a trivial travesty, or at least on par with everything else they've seen (which to men in war can eventually just become normal). Believe me, I'm not trying to sympathize with these soldiers at all. It's terrible that this happens, and in Berlin it was to an extreme; I'm just trying to understand why it happens. Most armies that occupy enemy cities take advantage of the population, in more ways than just forced sex. War is hell.

 

[waif]

Yeah. It's just everyone tends to see the Allies as shining knights of freedom and justice - they weren't.
Also, the soldiers who participated in these atrocities have generally failed to show remorse.
And also, this isn't the fucking middle ages anymore - I think we're beyond raping the women, putting the men to the sword, and burning the fucking castle.

 

[Life Sucks]

My aunt actually almost got raped (she would be a bit over 80 years old if she were still alive). My dad (who is 15 years younger) was told by his parents to lie on a bed and pretend to be asleep while my aunt hid underneath the bed when the solders came into the house looking for a woman to violate.

 

[Einherjar86]

Yeah. It's just everyone tends to see the Allies as shining knights of freedom and justice - they weren't.
Also, the soldiers who participated in these atrocities have generally failed to show remorse.
And also, this isn't the fucking middle ages anymore - I think we're beyond raping the women, putting the men to the sword, and burning the fucking castle.

Absolutely. The occupation of Berlin was the shining moment of World War Two. Fascism has been overcome by the righteous Communist Empire! Yeah, right. It completely undermines everything they teach you in lower level history classes.

My aunt actually almost got raped (she would be a bit over 80 years old if she were still alive). My dad (who is 15 years younger) was told by his parents to lie on a bed and pretend to be asleep while my aunt hid underneath the bed when the solders came into the house looking for a woman to violate.

Gods. I can't even imagine being in that position.

 

[waif]

Absolutely. The occupation of Berlin was the shining moment of World War Two. Fascism has been overcome by the righteous Communist Empire! Yeah, right. It completely undermines everything they teach you in lower level history classes.

I think, though, that we've come a long way since then. While all the whining human rights people can be extremely annoying sometimes, they've supplied us with a social conscience that can't really be ignored. Stuff can and is still covered up, but when it gets revealed, something has to be done, or at least someone has to pretend to do something. So while we can sit by while Africa destroys itself because our social conscience lets us get off with wearing Save Darfur t-shirts as if that would ever accomplish anything, I don't think we could ever knowingly sit by as our allies committed atrocities.

 

[Zephyrus]

A lot of people aren't aware of this, but during WWII Russian soldiers raped over 2 million German women between the ages of 6 and 80, many in excess of 60 times. Many were mutilated, cut with broken bottles, strangled, etc. During the occupation of Berlin mothers would have to hide their daughters at night when the Russian soldiers went out looking for young women to rape. Many family members were killed by soldiers trying to get them to divulge the location of their daughters.

Rape of Nanking was worse than that. The Japs brutally raped and mass murdered them.

 

[Einherjar86]

Wasn't there a Japanese extreme film based on that?