What freaks me out about tyrannies..

[Agent 008]

Can you really blame the tyrans or the dictators?

You can say, "Yes, they start a terror in their country against their citizens."

But what freaks me out about this, is that dictators, essentially, never kill anyone. They never torture anyone.

Very often, and most of the time, they don't even directly order to kill anyone.

Ordinary people do it themselves, out of their own free will.
All the dictator does, is gives him an opportunity to do it. Encourages them to do it. They then are happy to do it.

Think about it. Normal people, you see every day that smile at you - given the chance would happily join the executive forces of terror.

Makes me think, that the person in power, is not really as responsible for everything as people make it look. To shift their own responsibilities and make the dictator their scapegoat?

What is a dictator, without people willing to carry out his orders?

[plutomic]

lmao.. at first glance, i thought it said trannies :X

[Dream of the iris]

That's still no excuse dude. I mean its like saying charles manson is innocent because he technically never killed anyone. Guess what he's still in prison because he may not of killed anyone but he certainly convinced a bunch of kids to do it and master minded the whole thing. It doesn't matter if Hitler never technically killed anyone, the fact that he gave out the orders is probably worse than the people doing the deed. I mean if anything his minions (lower minions of course) are probably more innocent than he is since they virtually have no choice but to carry out the act, because its either that or death. Whereas the dictator has a choice so if he chooses to have a bunch of people killed, it is he who is responsible for that....but the minions are partly to blame though. Just not nearly as much as the dictator though.

[Agent 008]

That's still no excuse dude. I mean its like saying charles manson is innocent because he technically never killed anyone. Guess what he's still in prison because he may not of killed anyone but he certainly convinced a bunch of kids to do it and master minded the whole thing. It doesn't matter if Hitler never technically killed anyone, the fact that he gave out the orders is probably worse than the people doing the deed. I mean if anything his minions (lower minions of course) are probably more innocent than he is since they virtually have no choice but to carry out the act, because its either that or death. Whereas the dictator has a choice so if he chooses to have a bunch of people killed, it is he who is responsible for that....but the minions are partly to blame though. Just not nearly as much as the dictator though.

Yeah - I'm not saying the autocrat is not to blame at all - just not as much as they make it to be?

I.e. you can't say "Oh no, Stalin seized the power, and killed or imprisoned millions of his own men". Because Stalin seized the power, set out the rules of the system - and then the system mostly just worked on its own. The secret police didn't go ask Stalin every time they imprisoned someone. The people were not forced to go tell on their neighbours, or subordinates. Those who joined the NKVD lived among their victims.

It just scares me how easily those people cooperated and the system started working almost autonomously. It's like the "prison" and "obedience" experiments combined.

Edit: And then, when the power changes and their old boss is considered a criminal, they quickly shift all the blame to him and say "but we were ordered, we had no choice". When the only reason they were put in that situation is because of themselves, and others like them. It's everyone's personal choice.

[capn-chronic]

lmao.. at first glance, i thought it said trannies :X

Same here.