David Bowie’s death.
Imperialism, but I don’t know who to stop, make Europeans contract a virus from the Americas, and not the other way around maybe
that or everything relating to the second world war, which would maybe have been averted if there was no christian conquest
where do you even start?
The expansion of Europe’s reach over the world in the 1500s and 1600s. Or at least the transatlantic slave trade. I would not exist, but a LOT of suffering would be prevented.
Which I believe would then create a paradox, because who’s going to stop the transatlantic slave trade if you don’t exist?
That depends on the kind of time travel we are dealing with. And as no information about that was provided… ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
There’s a book called The Years of Rice and Salt by Kim Stanley Robinson that kind of explores this idea. It’s an alternate history book where the black death kills 99% of the European population instead of about a third, and the world progresses essentially without any European people. It’s really good!
There have been many horrible events, but recency bias, I would be interested in what if Hitler never came to power, there was no WWII, and no Holocaust. Would his failure to forge a path to power have prevented many of today’s happenings and not put the US as the top world power for decades, or would we still have ended up here? Israel and Palestine would likely be different, nukes wouldn’t have been dropped, and maybe the Soviet union wouldn’t have collapsed. I’m not a history guy, so maybe all of this is off base. Again, certainly worse things in history that if changed would have reshaped the world, but this is definitely not a small thing affecting us today.
My guy, many of the Hitler policies was inspired by the southern US policies against the black population. Sometimes I wonder the nazi rise and fall didn’t prevent something like that happening in the US in the XX century.
I think we learn from our mistakes , but only for a short time. And then we repeat them again. Seems to take about 70 years or roughly the time period for most of the population to be replaced with people who never saw the reality of that history.
The whole world was moving towards fascism when Hitler came. That’s why he was able to run with it.
If not him, someone else. If not Germany. Somewhere else. Fascism is inevitable when we don’t teach history properly.
Unfortunately the decision makers / lawmakers are a slimy bunch that are good at propaganda.
Definitely an interesting “what if.” Hitler never coming to power would have completely reshaped the 20th century no WWII, no Holocaust, and a very different global power balance. So much of today’s world, from the US as a superpower to Israel- Palestine and nuclear politics, might have played out differently. Hard to say exactly, but it’s definitely one of those pivotal moments in history.
If Trump didn’t have a playbook I wonder if he could have accomplished the same tyranny he has.
I’m in the US Virgin islands at the moment on a trip, and I had a good conversation with a taxi driver. Tourism is way down and they are all just as disgusted and feel just as helpless as the rest of us. It’s still a US territory, but anecdotally his shit is flinging on everyone.
Trump is a symptom of the late-stage imperialist system the US Empire is in, not a unique figure dramatically changing the course of history.
Yeah, even without a playbook it’s wild how much influence he’s had. Sounds rough in the Virgin Islands too crazy how his actions ripple everywhere, even in territories most people barely think about.
It’s unfortunate and I’m embarrassed by my fellow countrymen. The US certainly has not often been on the right side of history, but in the here and now, I’m truly disgusted by it all.
That damn snake that thinks he can defeat God.
Yeah, some arrogance really knows no limits.
It wasn’t a snake until the curse. And it’s G-d’s shadow side.
I’d erase the bronze age collapse, my imagination runs wild thinking about what could have been if the development of civilization had continued unbroken.
Same here the Bronze Age collapse feels like one of those massive reset points. It’s wild to imagine how far civilization might’ve advanced if that momentum hadn’t been lost.
Imagine, human civilization might have been a thousand years ahead in mathematics, who knows, the mind boggles.
Columbus’ return to Spain.
His failure to return discourages further attempts for a while; and when contact is eventually made, it isn’t Spain in the immediate aftermath of the Reconquista looking to continue its momentum.
Meanwhile, the New World is made aware of Europe and perhaps acquires some resistance to Old World diseases before any larger confrontations.
Interesting point! So basically, if Columbus hadn’t returned successfully, Spain’s push into the New World might’ve slowed down, giving the indigenous peoples more time to get used to European contact and maybe even build some resistance to diseases before major conflicts happened.
That, and Spain (or whoever else) wouldn’t be coming in fresh off the surrender of Granada, with the attitude that all non-Christian states must be conquered as a matter of principle.
Exactly without that post Granada mindset, expansion wouldn’t have been driven by the same “conquest by principle” attitude, which could’ve changed a lot of outcomes.
Development of highly centralized, aggressive, megalomaniac, evil religions (like Christianity). Imagine how different the world would be if people’s religios view could have been free. There wouldn’t have been dark ages, we could be exploring neighboring systems by now. At least live on the Moon, even this would be huge.
Too damn many to just pick one single thing. So I’d go safe and erase our beginning itself. That should do it.
Yeah, deleting the beginning seems like the safest move it should clear things up
…until we’d re-emerge 🤷♂️
Yeah, just a matter of time before we’d surface again
The unification of the Italian peninsula by Rome. Because fuck the Roman Empire and fuck imperialism. (Also most of what you think you hate about Christianity is stuff the early Christians inherited from Roman culture).
Honestly, Rome’s unification caused more harm than good. Imperialism screwed over countless people, and a lot of the “problems” people blame on early Christianity are really just Roman cultural baggage.
The evolution of australopithecus. No humans whatsoever.
Yeah, just Australopithecus doing their thing humans weren’t even on the scene yet.
Bill Clinton fully admits to smoking weed in college.
Yeah, the infamous “I didn’t inhale” era hard to imagine that even being controversial today.
The extinction of the Neanderthals, or any of the other extinct human-like species. It’d be so fascinating to live in a world where there was another species that was close to us in intelligence but also so different. We’d be awful to them though.
The collapse of the Soviet Union
Yeah, the collapse of the Soviet Union really reshaped the whole global order.
9/11
I would’ve wanted to see what America today would become if that hadn’t happened. America had built up a lot of its reputation off the back of WW2 and was seen still as a good ally. George W Bush would not have become president for a second term because of how bad he was in office. American citizens would not be subjected to governmental survelliance to the extent it was after 9/11. And we wouldn’t have a recession that cratered the economy.
Would have been some other date, some other terrorists, some other victims.
US literally funded the terrorists and is surprised when they turn on them the moment the funding stops.
America had already spent half a century brutalizing and terrorizing the global South exactly as it did to Iraq and Afghanistan. The idea that they were seen as good is pure revisionism
The US Empire grew to imperial dominance post-WWII. It was seen as a good ally only to the west. 9/11 was the excuse, not the cause of the empire’s genocide in Iraq and subsequent plunder, and the recession wasn’t caused by 9/11 either, but was a natural element of capitalism’s regular boom/bust cycle.
With or without 9/11, the US Empire would still be a gradually dying empire hated by the world.
