[Emma_Goldman]

WW2 was the deadliest conflict in human history, and involved both the Holocaust and the first - and so far only - military use of nuclear weapons. To say nothing of the fact that it completely reshaped the international order and led directly to the Cold War.

Even if you zoom out and view it, like Eric Hobsbawm, as belonging to a century of warring ideologies much like the wars of religion, it will remain one of the foremost events in world history for a long time. It would take many thousands of years for it to become a 'footnote', assuming the species even lasts that long.

[noworriesnate]

In the Jewish Roman wars, the Jews murdered 250k men, women and children on the island of Cypress, skinning them and boiling their flesh, and they also completely depopulated Lybia and did similar things in Alexandria. The result? The Romans renamed Judea to Palestine, cypress passed a law that activated instant death penalty on any Jews who landed on the island. Maybe that was the origin of modern day antisemitism? Maybe we don’t move on from stuff like this, instead it becomes racism. Maybe we can be different this time and not say that all these ancient religions (including ancient Germanic paganism) are evil.

[naniwaduni]

Centuries, plausible enough. Thousands? What are the most salient historical events to you over a thousand years old? Would you really bet on last century's Big Thing being so uniquely great that nothing will compare for another thousand years?

[Emma_Goldman]

I didn't say nothing would compare for thousands of years. I said it wouldn't be a mere 'footnote'.

[etc-hosts]

I hate being That Guy, but it is possible more people died in the 1850 Taiping Rebellion.

[watwut]

It is not. Significantly more people died in WWII. Taiping rebellion is third if ordered mu causalities, WWII first.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_wars_by_death_toll