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When The New York Times Magazine asked, Twitter answered.
The magazine made a decision to poll its readers on a pretty old and redundant question: “If you could travel back in time and face baby Hitler, knowing what kind of monster he would grew up to be – could you kill him in the cradle?” This department is usually tasked to conduct polls to find more information on the income of household’s, age, and such other details.
Every week, the magazine publishes one question under the head “Dear Reader” and the results from the survey are revealed.
“[This question is] a little more offbeat, and peculiar and personal”, said Silverstein. “I thought more people would say they would”, Silverstein told CNNMoney on Friday.
However, the poll reaches a lot farther than the audience of the magazine. Responses on Twitter have ranged from thought-provoking to ridiculous. A little more than 40% of people answered yes, while 30% said they would not kill the future dictator and author of the Holocaust. One user said “I would absolutely have gone back in time to kill Hitler”, and added that “although unfortunately, killing baby Hitler would not stop the rise of fascism”.
Along with the ethical debate lies the question of uncertainty this would bring regarding our timeline.
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“Removing Hitler from history would be a gamble with the highest stakes imaginable”, writes Matt Ford for The Atlantic.
