If You Put Hitler In Your Book About The Top 10 Most Inspirational Leaders Then You Gotta Write A New Book
NEW DELHI — An Indian publisher came under fire this week for including Hitler in a children’s book about world leaders who have “devoted their lives for the betterment of their country and people.”
Annshu Juneja, a publishing manager at the imprint, said by email that Hitler was featured because, like Barack Obama, Nelson Mandela and Mahatma Gandhi, “his leadership skills and speeches influenced masses.”
“We are not talking about his way of conduct or his views or whether he was a good leader or a bad leader but simply portraying how powerful he was as a leader,” he said.
Full story here.
This just doesn’t feel like something that should be difficult to avoid. How dumb do you have to be to not be able to find ten inspirational leaders before you pick Hitler? Calling Hitler someone who inspired his country is true, but it feels like you’re leaving a few things out. Feels like the result of said inspiration should be pretty important. Also, is this really the take you want to go out into the world on? Like do you want to be the guy arguing for this at a bar? I'm ALL for playing devil's advocate, but this is too much devil, too little advocate. Crazy to think this sentence might exist somewhere, "Barack Obama was the first black president of the United States and inspired the nation to believe in positive change, and on a similar note, Adolf Hitler got Germany super pumped to incinerate six million Jewish people!"
Isn’t one of the unspoken qualifiers of a book like this that the person in question is, like, the opposite of Hitler? I shouldn’t have to say this. Is this blog over yet? If you can’t name ten inspirational people before Hitler then you gotta read a book, bro: a book that doesn't have a cover like this.
Which one of those doesn't fit guys? Which one seems like the mean one?
I got a list for you.
- Martin Luther King: pretty important dude in the American Civil Rights movement. Not Hitler.
- Abraham Lincoln: signed the old Emancipation Proclamation and stopped our country from self destructing. Not saying he had the best facial hair but it was better than Hitler’s. Also, he’s not Hitler.
- Michael Jordan: would dunk on Hitler. Not Hitler.
- Ghandi: tough to be surrounded by British colonizers and preach non-violence; this guy was definitely not Hitler.
- Joan of Arc: took on the Church with a capital ‘c’ when writing it lower case meant you got burnt at the stake. Also got burnt at the stake. Also, not Hitler.
- Harriet Tubman: did some pretty risky stuff when being a black person was even more risky than it is now. Very much not Hitler.
- Brian Scalabrine: emblematic NBA bench player. Most famous for his nickname, “White Mamba”, and not being Hitler.
- Winston Churchill: inspired a nation to resist the German war effort. Big enemy of Hitler.
- Eleanor Roosevelt: longest serving First Lady and advocate for woman’s rights. Very different from Hitler.
- Albert Einstein: pretty smart dude, way smarter than Hitler.
Boom, I’m an author. Ready for publishing.
