[cooper_ganglia]

This is satire, surely?

Downplaying the severity of despots like Mao by comparing them to democratically elected leaders is incredibly disrespectful to the 45,000,000 people that died as a direct result of catastrophic and coercive policies.

[danielheath]

I assume the reference was to Bush’s foreign wars, which killed _dramatically_ fewer people (under a million even in the most expansive estimates I can find)… although they also brought widespread poverty, rather than mass industrialisation and wealth.

[vaidhy]

Why is "democratically elected" so important? Democracies can also kill a lot of people. Hitler was democratically elected, so is Netanyahu.

If you are so inclined, one was had good intentions, but backfired badly while other is explicitly cruel.

[spauldo]

A democratic leader remains democratic throughout their term. W did his time and bowed out at the end of it. Another party stepped in peacefully afterward.

The only way Hitler could have gone out was in a pine box. That's the difference. He may have been democratically elected, but he wasn't a democratic leader.

[mathgradthrow]

care to say which you think is which?