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Re:A Letter From Winston Churchill’s Disappointed Mother by DoreenMichele on Saturday September 29, 2018 @10:03AM (#18100376)
Yeah, let's not put my mother on trial here. She's not participating in this discussion. She's not here to defend herself from such nastiness.

I was a minor when the discussion occurred. That no doubt influenced the wording.

It was a private conversation at home between mother and daughter. She had zero reason to think she needed to defend the remark as if it were a PhD thesis or testimony in a war crimes trial.

Re:A Letter From Winston Churchill’s Disappointed Mother by mikeash on Saturday September 29, 2018 @10:41AM (#18100603)
You posted it to a public forum at least twice. Here, you’re using it as a jumping off point to argue that the perception of Nazis as evil from the start is a “retcon.”

If you don’t want to discuss it, don’t post it. If you don’t want to defend it, don’t base an argument on it.

Re:A Letter From Winston Churchill’s Disappointed Mother by DoreenMichele on Saturday September 29, 2018 @10:45AM (#18100629)
That's a serious mischaracterization of my point. It's also justification for being nasty to someone who isn't here.

I'm not saying I'm not accountable for choosing to make the comments I've made.

Re:A Letter From Winston Churchill’s Disappointed Mother by mikeash on Saturday September 29, 2018 @10:57AM (#18100706)
It’s a mischaracterization of your point? You said:

> A lot of people simply cannot look objectively at anything related to WW2. They know how it ultimately turned out, so they basically ret-con it as "they were pure evil from the start."

I don’t know how else to read that other than as an argument that Nazis weren’t pure evil from the start.

Re:A Letter From Winston Churchill’s Disappointed Mother by DoreenMichele on Saturday September 29, 2018 @11:01AM (#18100735)
Then let me suggest you just walk away from this one. Your tactics are ugly. Your understanding of my point is lacking. This isn't likely to go good places.

I plan to drop it. It's been surprisingly well received so far, by which I mean it didn't turn into a shit show. I see no reason to go there at this late stage in the discussion.

Re:A Letter From Winston Churchill’s Disappointed Mother by mikeash on Saturday September 29, 2018 @11:14AM (#18100816)
How am I supposed to read it? A retcon is going back and changing the original story. Applied to real history, it means the retcon isn’t true. If Nazis being pure evil from the start is a retcon, then that means Nazis weren’t pure evil from the start. Not so?

I don’t want to walk away from pointing out that Nazis were, in fact, as bad as everyone thinks and were that way from the start. The fact that it’s been well received just adds further motivation to point this out.