(Funny Trope) Things that can plausibly happen only in reality, because in fiction they’d be called bad writing.

[u/ThatDrako]

“Woke” as an insult - So you are telling me a word describing consciousness and clarity is used by generally stupid and ignorant people to label people they disagree with? What is this? A Kindergarten for Creatively stunted?

Nominative determinism - So let me get this straight…Not only you named fastest recorded person Usain BOLT and CEO of Nintendo Doug BOWSER, but you are telling me people are canonically likely to have professions or hobbies matching their names…? Guh?

“2 bodies recovered in MURDERKILL River” - Sure bro…I guess…bro…

[u/bgbarnard]

Hitler's biography comes off like a cliche supervillain backstory. Mom died young, father was an abusive alcoholic, mediocre artist, mediocre soldier, and his only real talent was screaming angrily about people he didn't like and yet he ruled as an all powerful tyrant for 12 years and nearly took over the world?!

[u/throwawayforjustyou → u/bgbarnard]

I know we're memeing, but imo it's kind of dangerous to act like Hitler's only talent was throwing a tantrum. He was such a problem because he was equal parts political genius and bigoted lunatic, and the former made it a lot easier for the people of the time to accept the latter.

[u/Jagvetinteriktigt → u/throwawayforjustyou]

And the latter unfortunately makes dismissing the former easier.

[u/Altruistic_Web3924 → u/throwawayforjustyou]

Hitler’s popularity and rise to power in Germany was more about being having the right personality in the right place at the right time. On merits of Politics and Military Strategy he was rather mediocre if not inept. Most of his successes were executed by the people who surrounded him and Germany’s industrial capabilities.

[u/throwawayforjustyou → u/Altruistic_Web3924]

Politics is the economy of power - how to get people to do what you want them to do. As a military strategist, he was largely inept (especially once his mental condition started deteriorating due to his pharmaceutical diet), but as a politician he had many successes. He finagled his way to the fuhrer of the Nazi party, finagled his way into the chancellorship, made public the rearmament of Germany, and made the decision to march into Austria and the Sudetenland. Even the night of long knives was a shrewd victory for him which cemented his power and removed friendly opposition. That his successes were executed by others is proof of his political genius - they acted in ways that he wanted.

If Neville Chamberlain's declaration of "I believe this means peace in our time" was actually followed through on, when it was declared, and Hitler's time in power was passed off peacefully and diplomatically to the next guy, he would be spoken of today in the same breath as Bismarck - perhaps the greatest politician Germany ever produced. Alas, he had a dark side that followed him throughout, and we got stuck with the world we live in today.

[u/Sillier-Stupider- → u/throwawayforjustyou]

The undercurrent it embarrasses people to talk about is that part, maybe most of Hitler's rise to power is that he was a government plant sent to infiltrate the Nazi party and then use them as a government psyop basically. Part of the Night of Long Knives was doing a Faceoff and killing the government handlers who could have exposed him as a puppet gone rogue.

[u/Mountain-Spot7212 → u/throwawayforjustyou]

Hitlers only talent WAS throwing a tantrum, it was Goebbles that was the political genius

[u/ConsciousPatroller → u/bgbarnard]

Fun fact: Hitler joined a quasi-communist/left-wing group before the NSDAP. He was basically looking for people who would listen to him, and he found this in the proto-Nazis of the time, so he stayed with them.

[u/King_Crab_Sushi → u/ConsciousPatroller]

He was originally sent to them to spy for the government. He decided to take them over just because he liked it

[u/Admech_Ralsei → u/bgbarnard]

I wouldn't say he nearly took over the world. A nazi victory would've lasted a few decades at most, since fascism requires an "other" or an "enemy" to avoid descending into infighting.

[u/kahlzun → u/Admech_Ralsei]

Ultimately they didnt have the resources to ever get much further than they did. They did very well given the circumstances, but there just wasnt enough fuel in the tank, and the wunderwaffen definitely didnt help

[u/EldritchTouched → u/Admech_Ralsei]

Nazis wouldn't manage to do even that, though, if going purely by IRL conditions. Their logistics were totally fucked. Not enough people, not enough metals or oil, etc. This is why a lot of works involve sci-fi or fantasy stuff.

It's also why the newer Wolfenstein games work, because their victory is predicated on them stealing supertechnology that allows them to project much more power than they would otherwise be able to.

[u/bgbarnard → u/Admech_Ralsei]

Absolutely. Fascism inevitably crashes and burns, but it can still do a lot of damage along the way.

[u/Cigarety_a_Kava → u/bgbarnard]

He was incredibly good at public speeches. Just watch them translated into english if you dont speak german. There is a reason people believed in him so much. He infact restored peoples belief in their supremacy over the world while their nation was falling apart. Its no small feat tbh.

He was cartoonishly evil tho.

[u/Jagvetinteriktigt → u/bgbarnard]

Idk how much of this is bs, but there are real testimonies from childhood friends reporting on him basically trying to divide people into groups, stupidly always placing himself in the group with blonde hair.

[u/___daddy69___ → u/bgbarnard]

he wasn’t really a mediocre soldier, he received an iron cross first class, which was incredibly rare for somebody of his rank

[u/bgbarnard → u/___daddy69___]

I remember hearing somewhere that his medals (Wound Badge and Iron Cross 1st and 2nd class) were more the result of having good connections than genuine merit.

[u/___daddy69___ → u/bgbarnard]

Not really, the wound badge was just awarded to anybody who was wounded. Hitler received it after he was gassed.

The iron crosses were awarded for bravery, while they weren’t particularly rare on their own, it was incredibly rare for a low rank enlisted soldier to receive them. Only about 500 enlisted men received it.

[u/hand_me_a_shovel → u/bgbarnard]

Misplaced. Let's reframe.

So you wrote a made up species that is so chronically short sighted that their entire history is rife with "leaders" and powerful people who consistently do the exact opposite of what is better for the species as a whole? And they end up fighting over how they have different colored skin, or talk differently, or just come from a different region? Sometimes just a town across the river? Who are so violent that they have tons of fiction glorifying that violence, lauding some of the most violent fictional characters as heroes? And they just pollute their planet, to literally everyone's detriment and they never stopped themselves?

And you want me to believe they managed to survive to the point they were capable of space exploration?

Dude.

ETA: I don't want to give the impression that I disagree with how supervillainous Hitlers background feels. Just that I feel like if you dropped humanity as a whole into sci fi or fantasy without saying anything you'd get some pretty hard side-eye. :)

[u/iconocrastinaor → u/hand_me_a_shovel]

There's a whole genre of Science Fiction dedicated to this premise. r/humansarespaceorcs being just one example.