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If you could travel back in time and alter any one historical event, what would it be?

PraiseXenu 6 Apr 27
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It is a paradox that if time travel were possible, you would not dare to go back in time and change anything. To do so, could/would result in an unpredictable and undesirable result. Consider that if someone went back in time and killed Hitler to save the 30 million people killed as the result of WWII, the Soviet Union may have taken over the entire European continent which would have resulted in a war with the U.S. and your ancestors may have been killed before you were born.

From a purely logical point of view, you are quite right of course. The interesting thing about this impossible hypothetical is it reflects people's attachment to past things that happened, usually bad things, sometimes personal, sometimes historical, and what they would change. In that sense it's interesting. Some would change big things - eg Hitler- some would change personal things - eg love interest etc - and some, like me, a specific awful person/event. In my own case, taking out Charlie Manson, I find it hard to believe that this time travel intervention would make the world a worse place.

65 million people were killed in ww2.

Youd need to go back and get rid of key people before they even get going. Trotsky replacing Stalin, for example, or getting rid of the weirdoes behind nazi race theories

@David1955 Consider that if you changed history, even if "better" for the world in general, would likely cause some catastrophic but uncalculable change for some people. In sum, what our lives are like today is very dependent upon the sum total of everything that has happened up to now.

@dahermit I'm aware of the argument. Some choose the 'change one thread in history and the whole picture changes' view, while others might say 'history is a tapestry and even if you change a few stitches the tapestry remains'. Who knows. Since this hypothetical will likely never be played out, we can speculate in safety. It may seem strange, but I'd rather take out Manson rather than Hitler, despite the enormity of the latter's crimes against humanity, because perhaps killing hitler might have led to an alternative even worse and militarily successful dictator from which we might never have recovered. Whereas Manson was a pimp, theif and conspiratorial multimurderer whose crimes could be expunged and the world a better place. But, you're right, who knows what the results would be.

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I would try to get John Kennedy to use an armored car>

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I like the religious historical inventions of some here. But, me, I would go back to March 1967 when Charlie Manson was released from jail, and kill the SOB before he went anywhere else and took so many lives and ruined so many others. No moral qualms about it whatsoever. Like taking out a terrorist before they kill the innocents.

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If I could still have my learning ability in place, I would love to observe/learn about how bipeds left Africa.

More than once, it seems. The really early ones had it easy, there was no Sahara desert, but the later exodus events ...... wow!

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I‘d kill Hitler before he comes to power. Close second i’d stop the archduke from getting killed, but that wouldn‘t necessarily stop WWI. 3rd stop kennedy assasination,

I was all about Kennedy until I read 11/22/63.

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If I could travel back in time I think I would go back to the early years of Napoleon. Sit him down and tell him to forget about Egypt and England and concentrate on the Louisiana territory. Explain to him that it was loaded with gold, silver and other valuable minerals. He should send France's considerable excess population there rather than into the army.
No other single event is as pivotal and optional as the sale of the Louisiana territory. Not only is the map of North America dependent on it but most of the history of the world is as well.
France could certainly have populated the territory with enough citizens to stop the westward expansion of the US. After the French revolution, France had a very sincere and genuine opposition to slavery. The territory would have served as a sanctuary for escaped slaves and possibly a base from which slave rebellions could have been organized. Even prior to the revolution, the French had a much more tolerant view of native Americans the the US did and it is much more likely that the native American nations would have fared better under France if for no other reason that its hard to do worse than they did in dealing with the US.
Europe would be spared the bloodbath of the Napoleonic wars and developed much more peacefully.
Finally, there would be no Donald Trump. There's no real logic behind that assertion. It just sounds good to say it.

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I wouldn't change anything. If I did, I would be different than who I am.

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Ahhhhh....there is that point in time in my early years where I wish I could go back and change the outcome of one little accident. I was goofing around with one of my brothers (He is 7 years my senior), so boys do what boys do and next thing I know I am laying on the floor with blood on my face all over. I went down and hit a 90 degrees edge on the floor and off it goes one of my front tooth, well half of it. The nerve hanging and I was in excruciating pain. Years passed by and the half tooth is dead so finally I am being sent to the dentist. This is years ago, technology was eons behind to what it is today. The piece (half anyway) was pulled off (big mistake and you pay dearly for it, you just don't know yet). The Frankenstein dentist (oh I have called him worst than that) build this partial... well, it's been more than 40 years and that little thing over time leads to other problems and it's an endless nightmare that will end when I die..... yeah, that's the thing I would go back to have it changed. Now, do I have any resentment towards my brother? I am glad you ask !!!... the answer is a categorical sound and solid NO. Hey shit happens, that's all there is to it. So no grudges here of any kind. So know you know a little bit more about myself, one of my front teeth is not real (shocking !!!!... I know, right?...well, it's not like we are going to date or anything so, no worries )

2

I know a standard answer here is to go back and kill baby Hitler. But, I think I would kidnap baby Hitler, try to raise him as a tolerant, good human being. Would be a great nature vs. nurture experiment.

he had already had abnormal potty training and had severe, put in the hospital beatings from dad, so, better to give his dad the ol snipperoo, lol

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Hitler with the Jews and the Nazis. I'd save all the Jews.

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How about going back and sterilising your parents at a young age, ... young age, ...young age, ...young age, ...young age, ...young age...

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Nothing..For we mere humans know not how the altering of one event could alter our lives today!

Keep some kind of record on how things are. Go back in time. Change something. Go forwards. Record the difference. Beneficial? Keep it. Not Beneficial? Go back. Talk to yourself about it, and don't change that event.
Repeat until you die. ?

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ahhh, I can't make up my mind, The Battle of Badon to understand how battles were fought back then, huge historical battles which really wouldn't have had that many fighters. The Battle of Agincourt to get the truth of it, or the execution of Joan of Arc if I could take my crew with me and mount a rescue, skewering the Bishop of Beauvais in the process.

2

Emperor Constantine's deathbed conversion, which in turn led to horror and bloodshed.

I thought Constantine converted, and then converted the empire, because he promised god he'd do that in exchange for a battlefield victory.

Maybe we should go back in time after studying the tactics he used and coach the enemy.

@JimG Not a bad idea there.

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Go back and wait for Romulus and Remus or whoever to show up, to found Rome.. And shoot them in the balls/sabotage the founding.

Great thinkers, philosophers, show up and heckle them/shitpost over them, make them look like a holes.

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I'd go back to the time of Charlemagne and say to him "No, that was just a dream. Trust me on this. You'll win the battle without taking ion that crazy new religion."

wrong person. Charlemange was more 'Convert or Die!' so maybe the pillow smother, but that would just make a power vac. for someone else.

@rafferty I should have googled it first. Sigh. That whole m"in hoc signo vinces" thing was probably just christian propaganda with no basis in fact. Oh well.

@Robotbuilder just convert or die, and its fine.
enjoy this song from dod finishing school:

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Eve and the Apple.

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November 2016

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Prevent Jesus's crucifixion - no Christianity (while I would be interested talking to Jesus - he seems to be quite reasonable for his time and place)
Stop WW1 - essentially the events that brought WW2 were set in motion back during WW1, thus this is the core event to be prevented - no Nazis, no Hitler, no Soviet Union...
Perhaps there still would be a great war at some point but the world would be different, perhaps better.

Considering the uncertainty that Jesus was ever born, let alone crucified...

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