Which 20th century dictator caused worst genocide vs own pop

Some of the Honorverse topics got me thinking of this one.

Sociopathic Candidates:

Hitler - Attempted to kill entire segments of the population of his own country.

Mao - Sheer numbers killed. Actual numbers are heavily disputed somewhere between 30-80 million.

Stalin - A contender like Mao on sheer numbers of killed. Actual numbers are heavily disputed somewhere between 20-60 million.

Pol Pot - Winner of the biggest % of his own people killed at 20-25% of the Cambodian population.

Do you include the ones on the African continent where there is no reliable source of data because so many died out in the bush? Are not some of those ongoing? How do we count displaced people in the totals?

Genocide is a world wide problem today. The results of all the wars of "ethnic cleansing" in parts of Europe, South America and the Middle East are being felt around the world. With the body counts reported in the 80s and 90s and the number of displaced people, how do you rate them compared to the ones from earlier history? We have no idea of the percentage of deaths in some of the tribes, nor do we in many cases know the original number of people that made up a tribe to even make an educated guess.

Do you include the ones on the African continent where there is no reliable source of data because so many died out in the bush? Are not some of those ongoing? How do we count displaced people in the totals?

Genocide is a world wide problem today. The results of all the wars of "ethnic cleansing" in parts of Europe, South America and the Middle East are being felt around the world. With the body counts reported in the 80s and 90s and the number of displaced people, how do you rate them compared to the ones from earlier history? We have no idea of the percentage of deaths in some of the tribes, nor do we in many cases know the original number of people that made up a tribe to even make an educated guess.

You're right the list should be longer. Why exactly does humanity have so many sociopaths bent on slaughtering millions of their OWN people?

If you dont include the requirement of against their own population, there are probably several leaders in africa and south america who have wiped out entire tribes, equating to 100% genocide.

and how many of these always start out by using thier "ahem" religion to validate this butchery. Far too many to count, and all nations are guilty of that particular crime.

viciokie wrote:and how many of these always start out by using thier "ahem" religion to validate this butchery. Far too many to count, and all nations are guilty of that particular crime.

Three of the top four were atheists, Stalin, Mao,& Pol-Pot. Hitler was a lapsed catholic IIRC, and Stalin even studied for the clergy. Of course state-ism can be called a religion of it's own in a way. Any ideology that promotes intolerance is IMHO a disaster waiting to happen.

Poker

pokermind wrote:
Three of the top four were atheists, Stalin, Mao,& Pol-Pot. Hitler was a lapsed catholic IIRC, and Stalin even studied for the clergy. Of course state-ism can be called a religion of it's own in a way. Any ideology that promotes intolerance is IMHO a disaster waiting to happen.

Poker

Hitler was quite religious. Exactly what religion he claimed, roll a die and take your pick.

And the other 3, well they pretty much worshipped their own power. Well, Stalin was more paranoid than religious.

Some of the Honorverse topics got me thinking of this one.

Sociopathic Candidates:

Hitler - Attempted to kill entire segments of the population of his own country.

Mao - Sheer numbers killed. Actual numbers are heavily disputed somewhere between 30-80 million.

Stalin - A contender like Mao on sheer numbers of killed. Actual numbers are heavily disputed somewhere between 20-60 million.

Pol Pot - Winner of the biggest % of his own people killed at 20-25% of the Cambodian population.

I think the big differentiatior here first of all has to be that Pol Pot and Hitler WANTED to kill their own people. In large numbers.

Mao and Stalin, to them it was a means to an end or even an "unfortunate sideeffect" most of the time.
And the numbers for Stalin are probably too high even on the low end. And the highest claims against Stalin are FAR higher than that, above 100M at least. That that is a practical impossibility didn´t stop cold war propaganda from claiming it.

While the numbers for Mao are an open question, especially in that it´s hard to assert if Mao actually was even indirectly responsible, and there´s a bunch of deaths that are uncertain or may have happened incidentally during fights with the nationalists and so on.

Personally i think it´s doubtless that Pol Pot was the worst. Once you start looking outside their own borders, Hitler is and hopefully forever will be the worst. Really do not want to see someone overtaking that number one spot.

biochem wrote:Some of the Honorverse topics got me thinking of this one.

Sociopathic Candidates:

Hitler - Attempted to kill entire segments of the population of his own country.

Mao - Sheer numbers killed. Actual numbers are heavily disputed somewhere between 30-80 million.

Stalin - A contender like Mao on sheer numbers of killed. Actual numbers are heavily disputed somewhere between 20-60 million.

Pol Pot - Winner of the biggest % of his own people killed at 20-25% of the Cambodian population.

How many Georgians did Stalin Kill? He slaughtered Russians, Ukrainians, and other ethnic groups (including the planned cultural genocide of Belarus starting in 1939 and hitting its stride in May, 1941), but how many Georgians? Georgian Jews, yes. But Georgian population?

Hitler was an Austrian. How many Austrians did he kill?