I'm not going to say that removing Hitler would have solved all our problems prior to WW2 because I can't know that. No one can know how that would have affected things. However, my point is that debating Hitler would not have solved that situation. It might have gotten you murdered by him or his flunkies. That's my main point though. People act like conflicts of ideas have never been solved by force except by authoritarian regimes. Every country on this planet (including the U.S.) has solved conflicts of ideas by force, many times. I think it is dangerously naive to believe that all conflicts can be resolved through simple debate in the marketplace of ideas. I'm sure there were people who were advocating that during the 1940s, and if we had followed their position (particularly in the European Theater), we might now live in a world where all of Europe is now unified under a Nazi flag and all Jews have been killed off except those who escaped to the U.S. Historians would not look upon the U.S. kindly.
I'm not going to say that removing Hitler would have solved all our problems prior to WW2 because I can't know that. No one can know how that would have affected things. However, my point is that debating Hitler would not have solved that situation. It might have gotten you murdered by him or his flunkies. That's my main point though. People act like conflicts of ideas have never been solved by force except by authoritarian regimes. Every country on this planet (including the U.S.) has solved conflicts of ideas by force, many times. I think it is dangerously naive to believe that all conflicts can be resolved through simple debate in the marketplace of ideas. I'm sure there were people who were advocating that during the 1940s, and if we had followed their position (particularly in the European Theater), we might now live in a world where all of Europe is now unified under a Nazi flag and all Jews have been killed off except those who escaped to the U.S. Historians would not look upon the U.S. kindly.