The internet couldn’t stop talking about Hitler on Friday afternoon, all thanks to The New York Times Magazine.
The magazine provided a perfect diversion for the internet’s Benghazi-adled minds with the ultimate quandary: if you could travel back in time, would you kill an infant Adolf Hitler?
We asked @nytmag readers: If you could go back and kill Hitler as a baby, would you do it? (What’s your response?) pic.twitter.com/daatm12NZC
— NYT Magazine (@NYTmag) October 23, 2015
The question proved deeply divisive, with 42 percent of readers saying that yes, they could kill baby Hitler. The post was enough to post “baby Hitler” trending on Twitter.
Of course, awful jokes abounded. Here are some of the best responses:
What if
Instead of killing Baby Hitler
You rewrote the Treaty of Versailles
Using the time machine you have
Just a suggestion
— Hayes Brown (@HayesBrown) October 23, 2015
smash baby hitler with a rock & say “u dont understand i’m from the future he’s going to kill alot of ppl”, u still going to jail
— Desus Nice (@desusnice) October 23, 2015
None of us get time machines because we’d shoot an innocent kid instead of teaching him to paint.
— Karan Lyons (@karanlyons) November 13, 2014
Why not just kidnap baby Hitler and raise him with love and care
— Tim Mak (@timkmak) October 23, 2015
Teach Baby Hitler To Code
— Simon Maloy (@SimonMaloy) October 23, 2015
what if baby hitler could travel through time and keep twitter from ever happening
— Leah Reich (@ohheygreat) October 23, 2015
.@JebBush would you kill baby Hitler
— Olivia Nuzzi (@Olivianuzzi) October 23, 2015
at the very least i would definitely unfollow baby hitler
— andy levy (@andylevy) October 23, 2015
*Opens Twitter*
*Sees Baby Hitler trending*
*Closes Twitter.*
*Ponders into distance, wondering what happened to humanity*
— Dave Rubin (@RubinReport) October 23, 2015
It was also very clearly a Friday afternoon at The New York Times.
@NYTmag would appreciate a response from @tmagazine rn thx
— NYT Magazine (@NYTmag) October 23, 2015
@tmagazine not hitler
— NYT Magazine (@NYTmag) October 23, 2015
About an hour after posting the ethical dilemma, the magazine reflected on the internet fervor it created:
lol
— NYT Magazine (@NYTmag) October 23, 2015
Wow - world becomes fixated on sophomoric existentialist question…
Oh for Jeebus’ sake! …Don’t fu*k with time. It never ends well.
(*Mike Godwin would never have become famous, for example!)
Thanks for playing!
(BTW: I bet evil was never cuter:)
http://2.media.collegehumor.cvcdn.com/dev/67/56/f8c9bdfbad65dcead8c4c1ecde74000d.jpg
Although the physics of time say it should move in both directions, the reality is it only moves forward. I have wondered if that is a proof of God or just an accident.
Wow. I never imagined we would use worldwide communication technologies to ponder mysteries of the universe that we debated in college while bagged out of our brains on some bad shit. i figured we’d just use them to get laid.
Perhaps it’s because there is no actual thing called time. It’s a construct we use to understand our environment.