• ImaProfessional1 [he/him,comrade/them]
      ·
      4 years ago

      WW2 brought a fat surprise and then a little surprise, but WWI was a torrent of shock. Like. Yeah, war... it’s no good folks. But the world was in collective catatonic horror at the drop of a hat. The “why” was irrelevant so quickly. The honest thought was directed towards “there is no way to stop this” and the world entered the modern age. All at once. Like going to bed a fifth grader and then waking up with a fucking Afro between your legs. It was exactly that. Very unpleasant and very unexpected. 10 days before the outbreak of it, there was no thought war was a possible thing (in the general population). And then Europe exploded all at once.

      Fight me, bro.

      The original is always the best.

      • AlexandairBabeuf [they/them]
        ·
        4 years ago

        over 3 times more people died. only one country had the temerity to do a communism over ww1-->some dozen did over ww2. civilians had a much more limited 'role' in ww1, only russian & polish & belgian civilians were getting shot in ww1, vs. literally all of them except americans in ww2.

        aerial bombings, firebombings, these must be as traumatising as the fields of flanders. you wanna talk about vast cultural trauma--holocaust, nuclear bombings, japanese atrocity in china, the list goes on and on and on

        • ImaProfessional1 [he/him,comrade/them]
          ·
          4 years ago

          Agree, 100%. I was using violence and mortality too ambiguously. The deaths are not comparable. But to be very callous, work camps and starvation doesn’t have violence in the same way. I went very very out of my way to drop this, but a veteran who was intimately acquainted with both said “the trenches were just as bad as Treblinka”. I am referring to work/POW camps. I should have been clear. The Holocaust is... just a given in my opinion. Like, nothing can compare. Also the 50,000 German civilians who committed suicide en masse kinda falls off the radar when getting nitty gritty. You hit the nail on the head though concerning clear non-combatants. The Second War was elevated mechanized warfare brought to every street corner. Thanks for helping me hash this out. :sicko-instapot: