Was Josef Mengele actually an "angel"? (The necrophile persona)

Dr. Josef Mengele (Springfield, March 16, 1911 - Boston, February 7, 1979),

Helen and Pearl, twin sisters who managed to survive the horrors of the death camps at Auschwitz, share their memories of the infamous doctor Josef Mengele in a new book.
- He was tall and incredibly handsome. Honestly, he should have been an actor or something, rather than a killer of Jews. And those boots of his... they were so polished you could practically use them as mirrors.
They cleaned them three times a day. He’d switch up his uniforms constantly, too. He always looked his best—Helen recalls.
- Yes—Pearl confirms. Some of the female prisoners actually fell in love with him—Helen says, remembering the monstrous Nazi doctor Josef Mengele, who would frequently stroll past the endless train cars arriving at Auschwitz, deciding the fates of thousands with a single glance.

The twins, Helen and Pearl, were 23 years old when they were brought to Auschwitz from Czechoslovakia along with their father, brother, sister, and her children. They were torn away from their family, who were sent straight to the gas chambers, and placed in the barracks. Fighting just to stay alive, they spent their time moving lifeless bodies and cleaning out the gas chambers.
- They would take our blood every single day. One assistant would draw blood from one side, while another would inject us with something we still don't even know what it was. We will never know—they recount.
Despite everything, they claim Mengele was never cruel to them. He acted almost paternal. - We knew he wouldn't hurt us. We just knew—the two sisters say in unison.

- Because he was so handsome. Just forget everything else—Helen explains. He was, she adds, like an angel. - We were friends with him. Truly—Pearl adds to her twin sister's words.
- He was brilliant. I'm not joking—Helen adds, describing how Mengele would pat children on the head, only to send them to the crematorium moments later. He would order the testicles of twins—his favorite subjects for research—to be removed, or kill one twin if the other died.
(Source: The New York Times)
_______________

Questions...☕

Even now—even after all these years—I simply cannot shake this horror. It is an undeniable, gaping paradox of evil; this descent into the absolute depths of the human soul (reaching the level of a beast). This conversation between sisters about an "evil angel"—Josef Mengele. I realize many people will dismiss this or speak flippantly—saying that elderly women or young women literally lost their minds; that it was a necessary psychological defense mechanism they built just to avoid going insane from the terror of Auschwitz.

But—but there is something deeper hiding in here, isn't there?
His necrophilic character (from the Greek word *nekros*, meaning corpse, dead man, or inhabitant of the underworld. In Latin, *nex* or *necs* refers to violent death or murder. To be clear, *nekros* doesn't refer to the act of dying, but to the corpse, the cadaver, or the murdered person whose death is visibly distinct from natural passing. "To die" or "death" carries a different meaning; it refers not to the corpse, but to the act of dying itself. In Greek, *thanatos*; in Latin, *mors*. The words "die" and "death" trace back to the Indo-European root *dheu, dhou* (E. Fromm, The Anatomy of Human Destructiveness, Vols. I & II)).
Man possesses the psychology of a predator. It is easy to teach humans how to kill, yet it is incredibly difficult to cultivate customs that oppose it. Many people find pleasure in watching other human beings suffer, or enjoy killing animals; public beatings and torture are common across various cultures. (S.L. Washburn)

Do you share this feeling with me? How do you—really—feel after reading this?

2.. Sometimes people try to argue that sadistic perversion is actually healthy, claiming it serves as an innocent outlet for the sadistic tendencies that are supposedly inherent in everyone. If you follow that twisted logic to its conclusion, then the guards at the Nazi concentration camps were actually being kind to their prisoners, just so they could vent those inner sadistic urges through sexual outlets. (-). (E. Fromm, *The Anatomy of Human Destructiveness*, Vol. I/II).

So, was Josef Mengele actually "kind" (if you listen to his female prisoner-sisters) because he was simply relieving himself of his own sadistic impulses? Or did his necrophilic character truly prevail (which is that malignant form of the anal character—occurring before sadism, and certainly before necrophilia)? Or perhaps he just possessed some sort of (evil) masculine charisma ?

3. The new wave of fascists won't show up wearing swastikas or running death camps; instead, they’ll arrive with smiling faces and, if they can help it, their very own TV shows. Those are the 21st-century fascists, and they are the ones who will take control. "(M. Moore, director of "Fahrenheit 11/9"—an allusion to the classic "Fahrenheit 451" by Ray Bradbury—referring to the temperature (451 degrees Fahrenheit) at which book pages burn best, which is the temperature at which freedom itself burns away)." What exactly is M. Moore getting at here?

Here we go again, another thread obsessed with the dead. I honestly don't see any charisma in this stuff—it just feels gross. Personally, I tend to steer clear of digging through garbage, so I'm not going to dive into a deep analysis of this mess either.

Of course, my refusal to engage shouldn't stop you from your relentless trolling and spamming of this subforum.
Knock yourself out.

copperhound12 said:

Dr. Josef Mengele (Springfield, March 16, 1911 - Boston, February 7, 1979),

Helen and Pearl, twin sisters who managed to survive the horrors of the death camps at Auschwitz, share their memories of the infamous doctor Josef Mengele in a new book.
- He was tall and incredibly handsome. Honestly, he should have been an actor or something, rather than a killer of Jews. And those boots of his... they were so polished you could practically use them as mirrors.
They cleaned them three times a day. He’d switch up his uniforms constantly, too. He always looked his best—Helen recalls.
- Yes—Pearl confirms. Some of the female prisoners actually fell in love with him—Helen says, remembering the monstrous Nazi doctor Josef Mengele, who would frequently stroll past the endless train cars arriving at Auschwitz, deciding the fates of thousands with a single glance.

The twins, Helen and Pearl, were 23 years old when they were brought to Auschwitz from Czechoslovakia along with their father, brother, sister, and her children. They were torn away from their family, who were sent straight to the gas chambers, and placed in the barracks. Fighting just to stay alive, they spent their time moving lifeless bodies and cleaning out the gas chambers.
- They would take our blood every single day. One assistant would draw blood from one side, while another would inject us with something we still don't even know what it was. We will never know—they recount.
Despite everything, they claim Mengele was never cruel to them. He acted almost paternal. - We knew he wouldn't hurt us. We just knew—the two sisters say in unison.

- Because he was so handsome. Just forget everything else—Helen explains. He was, she adds, like an angel. - We were friends with him. Truly—Pearl adds to her twin sister's words.
- He was brilliant. I'm not joking—Helen adds, describing how Mengele would pat children on the head, only to send them to the crematorium moments later. He would order the testicles of twins—his favorite subjects for research—to be removed, or kill one twin if the other died.
(Source: The New York Times)
_______________

Questions...☕

Even now—even after all these years—I simply cannot shake this horror. It is an undeniable, gaping paradox of evil; this descent into the absolute depths of the human soul (reaching the level of a beast). This conversation between sisters about an "evil angel"—Josef Mengele. I realize many people will dismiss this or speak flippantly—saying that elderly women or young women literally lost their minds; that it was a necessary psychological defense mechanism they built just to avoid going insane from the terror of Auschwitz.

But—but there is something deeper hiding in here, isn't there?
His necrophilic character (from the Greek word *nekros*, meaning corpse, dead man, or inhabitant of the underworld. In Latin, *nex* or *necs* refers to violent death or murder. To be clear, *nekros* doesn't refer to the act of dying, but to the corpse, the cadaver, or the murdered person whose death is visibly distinct from natural passing. "To die" or "death" carries a different meaning; it refers not to the corpse, but to the act of dying itself. In Greek, *thanatos*; in Latin, *mors*. The words "die" and "death" trace back to the Indo-European root *dheu, dhou* (E. Fromm, The Anatomy of Human Destructiveness, Vols. I & II)).
Man possesses the psychology of a predator. It is easy to teach humans how to kill, yet it is incredibly difficult to cultivate customs that oppose it. Many people find pleasure in watching other human beings suffer, or enjoy killing animals; public beatings and torture are common across various cultures. (S.L. Washburn)

Do you share this feeling with me? How do you—really—feel after reading this?

2.. Sometimes people try to argue that sadistic perversion is actually healthy, claiming it serves as an innocent outlet for the sadistic tendencies that are supposedly inherent in everyone. If you follow that twisted logic to its conclusion, then the guards at the Nazi concentration camps were actually being kind to their prisoners, just so they could vent those inner sadistic urges through sexual outlets. (-). (E. Fromm, *The Anatomy of Human Destructiveness*, Vol. I/II).

So, was Josef Mengele actually "kind" (if you listen to his female prisoner-sisters) because he was simply relieving himself of his own sadistic impulses? Or did his necrophilic character truly prevail (which is that malignant form of the anal character—occurring before sadism, and certainly before necrophilia)? Or perhaps he just possessed some sort of (evil) masculine charisma ?

3. The new wave of fascists won't show up wearing swastikas or running death camps; instead, they’ll arrive with smiling faces and, if they can help it, their very own TV shows. Those are the 21st-century fascists, and they are the ones who will take control. "(M. Moore, director of "Fahrenheit 11/9"—an allusion to the classic "Fahrenheit 451" by Ray Bradbury—referring to the temperature (451 degrees Fahrenheit) at which book pages burn best, which is the temperature at which freedom itself burns away)." What exactly is M. Moore getting at here?

Personally, I feel like this topic aligns perfectly with my own understanding—a realization that has ripened through my own experiences and observations.🙂

I noticed it with my own two eyes long before 🙏 Leibniz claimed this world is the best of all possible worlds.....

Now, someone who’s a bit slow on the uptake will inevitably ask:

How can my friend Leibniz-Parsifal claim this world is the best when it’s filled with the repulsive topics posted by someone from California, or when it's crawling with worms, filth, and the primal evil of the Democrats and Republicans? 🤔

Well, I’ve explained it once, and I’m happy to explain it again:

1) Life is fundamentally good. If it weren't, 95% of people would just end it all. Since only about 1-5% of people actually do that, it stands to reason that the other 95% find life worth living. That gives life a solid rating of 9.5 out of 10!!👍

2) Beyond that, life and the universe—much like the number 42—are like a beautiful lotus flower. Just because a lotus grows out of the mud doesn't diminish its beauty, right?
The fact that it feeds on the muck of these dark topics doesn't take away from the elegance of the bloom.🙂

3) Furthermore, the universe is like a stunning mosaic. Sure, maybe the bottom-left corner is shattered, and the top-right looks a bit ugly, but AS A WHOLE, this mosaic—this cosmic Holodeck we call the universe—is absolutely magnificent.

BRAVO, AUTHORRRRRRRRR!!!🙏 🙏

Joseph Bailey41 said:Here we go again, another thread obsessed with the dead. I honestly don't see any charisma in this stuff—it just feels gross. Personally, I tend to steer clear of digging through garbage, so I'm not going to dive into a deep analysis of this mess either.

Of course, my refusal to engage shouldn't stop you from your relentless trolling and spamming of this subforum.
Knock yourself out.

Don't just look at the "surface"; dive deep, all the way to the bottom... into your own "oceans"...(?)
This isn't "digging through garbage" at all, it's something else entirely...☕

The obsession with seeking "law and order" (instead of life and structure) and more severe punishments for criminals, along with the fixation on violence and destructiveness among certain "revolutionaries," are merely further examples of the powerful allure of necrophilia in today's world. We need to create conditions where the development of the human being—that unfinished and incomplete creature, unique in nature—is considered the most important goal of all social structures. True freedom and independence, and an end to all forms of exploitative power, are the prerequisites for igniting a love for life, which alone can defeat the love of death. (E. Fromm, The Anatomy of Human Destructiveness, Part II)

copperhound12 said:Don't just look at the "surface"; dive deep, all the way to the bottom... into your own "oceans"...(?)
This isn't "digging through garbage" at all, it's something else entirely...☕

The obsession with seeking "law and order" (instead of life and structure) and more severe punishments for criminals, along with the fixation on violence and destructiveness among certain "revolutionaries," are merely further examples of the powerful allure of necrophilia in today's world. We need to create conditions where the development of the human being—that unfinished and incomplete creature, unique in nature—is considered the most important goal of all social structures. True freedom and independence, and an end to all forms of exploitative power, are the prerequisites for igniting a love for life, which alone can defeat the love of death. (E. Fromm, The Anatomy of Human Destructiveness, Part II)

Believe it or not, I don't see any traces of necrophilia or necrophiliac tendencies there (if you can even find a better way to put it).

"Quote:"

copperhound12 said:Don't just look at the "surface"; dive deep, all the way to the bottom... into your own "oceans"...(?)
This isn't "digging through garbage" at all, it's something else entirely...☕

The obsession with seeking "law and order" (instead of life and structure) and more severe punishments for criminals, along with the fixation on violence and destructiveness among certain "revolutionaries," are merely further examples of the powerful allure of necrophilia in today's world. We need to create conditions where the development of the human being—that unfinished and incomplete creature, unique in nature—is considered the most important goal of all social structures. True freedom and independence, and an end to all forms of exploitative power, are the prerequisites for igniting a love for life, which alone can defeat the love of death. (E. Fromm, The Anatomy of Human Destructiveness, Part II)

Since this book was written back in 1973, the author isn't really commenting on the world we live in today, but rather the one he inhabited at the time. If you look at how things have shifted, modern necrophilia shows up in the way people parade around mummified saints through city streets, rather than in calls for harsher punishments for criminals. Today’s "exploitative powers" have actually been pretty smart; they realized that a more liberal approach helps them stay in control much longer. It’s not even the revolutionaries who carry the weight of violence and destruction anymore—it's the mainstream media. The whole landscape has changed. There is still room to love life, but you can't just spark that feeling with some government decree. You can't manufacture perfect conditions either, not while we're living under a capitalist system where the "invisible hand of the market" dictates the media landscape—a media that essentially feeds off our human curiosity for everything weird and bizarre. And honestly, that's exactly what's happening with these little flowers you keep dropping—without being asked—onto a subforum that's supposed to be a virtual oasis of peace and reason.

If you were trying to subtly flex your necrophilia by using that old "show, don't tell" trick, then mission accomplished. If you weren't, honestly, you just failed miserably. And as for our dear moderators? They’re clearly dead and buried. ☕

Joseph Bailey41 said:Believe it or not, I don't see any traces of necrophilia or necrophiliac tendencies there (if you can even find a better way to put it).

"Quote:"

Since this book was written back in 1973, the author isn't really commenting on the world we live in today, but rather the one he inhabited at the time. If you look at how things have shifted, modern necrophilia shows up in the way people parade around mummified saints through city streets, rather than in calls for harsher punishments for criminals. Today’s "exploitative powers" have actually been pretty smart; they realized that a more liberal approach helps them stay in control much longer. It’s not even the revolutionaries who carry the weight of violence and destruction anymore—it's the mainstream media. The whole landscape has changed. There is still room to love life, but you can't just spark that feeling with some government decree. You can't manufacture perfect conditions either, not while we're living under a capitalist system where the "invisible hand of the market" dictates the media landscape—a media that essentially feeds off our human curiosity for everything weird and bizarre. And honestly, that's exactly what's happening with these little flowers you keep dropping—without being asked—onto a subforum that's supposed to be a virtual oasis of peace and reason.

If you were trying to subtly flex your necrophilia by using that old "show, don't tell" trick, then mission accomplished. If you weren't, honestly, you just failed miserably. And as for our dear moderators? They’re clearly dead and buried. ☕

Don't be like that!

Half of the original post is centered on the concept of beauty. Specifically, the physical beauty of Josef Mengele.

We’ve reached a point where we can spend much more time—though significantly less time on actual philosophy—obsessing over aesthetics. It seems our modern discourse is almost entirely preoccupied with surface-level appearances. Who looks good? Who’s wearing the right designer label? That’s pretty much the extent of the media coverage whenever they decide to discuss politicians or the ruling elite these days.

Presentation matters. I suppose it’s just easier to swallow poison if it comes in an aesthetically pleasing bottle. Or, more likely, people don't even give a second thought to what's actually inside; they just react to the packaging. And regarding that whole necrophilia subject—there's always that preference for youth. I sometimes find myself wondering if the bones of a sixty-year-old woman hurt any less than those of someone younger. Or perhaps they actually hurt even more.

When it comes to this whole necrophilia thing, I find the obsession with graveyards just as baffling. Personally, I see no reason to visit a cemetery just to pay respects to the deceased—because, quite frankly, they’re dead. I don't feel any internal drive to show up and leave flowers on someone's grave just because it's All Souls' Day or some other anniversary. It feels performative to me.

When a living being finally passes, the organism undergoes this gradual transformation back into atoms—essentially becoming stardust. Personally, I’ve always felt that the only decent way to handle a dead body is to cremate it and let the ashes scatter.

copperhound12 said:

Dr. Josef Mengele (Springfield, March 16, 1911 - Boston, February 7, 1979),

Helen and Pearl, twin sisters who managed to survive the horrors of the death camps at Auschwitz, share their memories of the infamous doctor Josef Mengele in a new book.
- He was tall and incredibly handsome. Honestly, he should have been an actor or something, rather than a killer of Jews. And those boots of his... they were so polished you could practically use them as mirrors.
They cleaned them three times a day. He’d switch up his uniforms constantly, too. He always looked his best—Helen recalls.
- Yes—Pearl confirms. Some of the female prisoners actually fell in love with him—Helen says, remembering the monstrous Nazi doctor Josef Mengele, who would frequently stroll past the endless train cars arriving at Auschwitz, deciding the fates of thousands with a single glance.

The twins, Helen and Pearl, were 23 years old when they were brought to Auschwitz from Czechoslovakia along with their father, brother, sister, and her children. They were torn away from their family, who were sent straight to the gas chambers, and placed in the barracks. Fighting just to stay alive, they spent their time moving lifeless bodies and cleaning out the gas chambers.
- They would take our blood every single day. One assistant would draw blood from one side, while another would inject us with something we still don't even know what it was. We will never know—they recount.
Despite everything, they claim Mengele was never cruel to them. He acted almost paternal. - We knew he wouldn't hurt us. We just knew—the two sisters say in unison.

- Because he was so handsome. Just forget everything else—Helen explains. He was, she adds, like an angel. - We were friends with him. Truly—Pearl adds to her twin sister's words.
- He was brilliant. I'm not joking—Helen adds, describing how Mengele would pat children on the head, only to send them to the crematorium moments later. He would order the testicles of twins—his favorite subjects for research—to be removed, or kill one twin if the other died.
(Source: The New York Times)
_______________

Questions...☕

Even now—even after all these years—I simply cannot shake this horror. It is an undeniable, gaping paradox of evil; this descent into the absolute depths of the human soul (reaching the level of a beast). This conversation between sisters about an "evil angel"—Josef Mengele. I realize many people will dismiss this or speak flippantly—saying that elderly women or young women literally lost their minds; that it was a necessary psychological defense mechanism they built just to avoid going insane from the terror of Auschwitz.

But—but there is something deeper hiding in here, isn't there?
His necrophilic character (from the Greek word *nekros*, meaning corpse, dead man, or inhabitant of the underworld. In Latin, *nex* or *necs* refers to violent death or murder. To be clear, *nekros* doesn't refer to the act of dying, but to the corpse, the cadaver, or the murdered person whose death is visibly distinct from natural passing. "To die" or "death" carries a different meaning; it refers not to the corpse, but to the act of dying itself. In Greek, *thanatos*; in Latin, *mors*. The words "die" and "death" trace back to the Indo-European root *dheu, dhou* (E. Fromm, The Anatomy of Human Destructiveness, Vols. I & II)).
Man possesses the psychology of a predator. It is easy to teach humans how to kill, yet it is incredibly difficult to cultivate customs that oppose it. Many people find pleasure in watching other human beings suffer, or enjoy killing animals; public beatings and torture are common across various cultures. (S.L. Washburn)

Do you share this feeling with me? How do you—really—feel after reading this?

2.. Sometimes people try to argue that sadistic perversion is actually healthy, claiming it serves as an innocent outlet for the sadistic tendencies that are supposedly inherent in everyone. If you follow that twisted logic to its conclusion, then the guards at the Nazi concentration camps were actually being kind to their prisoners, just so they could vent those inner sadistic urges through sexual outlets. (-). (E. Fromm, *The Anatomy of Human Destructiveness*, Vol. I/II).

So, was Josef Mengele actually "kind" (if you listen to his female prisoner-sisters) because he was simply relieving himself of his own sadistic impulses? Or did his necrophilic character truly prevail (which is that malignant form of the anal character—occurring before sadism, and certainly before necrophilia)? Or perhaps he just possessed some sort of (evil) masculine charisma ?

3. The new wave of fascists won't show up wearing swastikas or running death camps; instead, they’ll arrive with smiling faces and, if they can help it, their very own TV shows. Those are the 21st-century fascists, and they are the ones who will take control. "(M. Moore, director of "Fahrenheit 11/9"—an allusion to the classic "Fahrenheit 451" by Ray Bradbury—referring to the temperature (451 degrees Fahrenheit) at which book pages burn best, which is the temperature at which freedom itself burns away)." What exactly is M. Moore getting at here?

I don't think that's accurate; reality is actually quite the opposite. Take the US, for example—we had a significant conflict relatively recently, yet even so, there are far fewer people who have killed another person than there are people who have never killed anyone at all.

If you look at Germany or any other major Western nation that hasn't seen war since 1945, the percentage of killers is incomparably lower. Therefore, the ratio heavily favors those who have never taken a life.

As for animals, modern technology has reached a point where fewer and fewer people are actually killing animals for food—in fact, they aren't killing them at all.

And animal cruelty? That speaks more to the profound misery of the abuser or a rage they haven't learned to control. In the past, an angry man might have vented his frustration on his wife or child, but today, in places where such behavior is illegal, they vent on an animal, and in places where even that is forbidden, they take it out on a store shelf.

Sam Martinez9 said:Don't be like that!

Half of the original post is centered on the concept of beauty. Specifically, the physical beauty of Josef Mengele.

We’ve reached a point where we can spend much more time—though significantly less time on actual philosophy—obsessing over aesthetics. It seems our modern discourse is almost entirely preoccupied with surface-level appearances. Who looks good? Who’s wearing the right designer label? That’s pretty much the extent of the media coverage whenever they decide to discuss politicians or the ruling elite these days.

Presentation matters. I suppose it’s just easier to swallow poison if it comes in an aesthetically pleasing bottle. Or, more likely, people don't even give a second thought to what's actually inside; they just react to the packaging. And regarding that whole necrophilia subject—there's always that preference for youth. I sometimes find myself wondering if the bones of a sixty-year-old woman hurt any less than those of someone younger. Or perhaps they actually hurt even more.

When it comes to this whole necrophilia thing, I find the obsession with graveyards just as baffling. Personally, I see no reason to visit a cemetery just to pay respects to the deceased—because, quite frankly, they’re dead. I don't feel any internal drive to show up and leave flowers on someone's grave just because it's All Souls' Day or some other anniversary. It feels performative to me.

When a living being finally passes, the organism undergoes this gradual transformation back into atoms—essentially becoming stardust. Personally, I’ve always felt that the only decent way to handle a dead body is to cremate it and let the ashes scatter.

Was it actually charisma, or did he just have a certain... dark magnetism? I mean, I guess you could argue it was one or the other, but maybe it’s both. It feels like we're trying to categorize something that doesn't really fit into a neat little box, right? I don't know, maybe I'm overthinking it, but there was definitely something unsettling about how people were drawn to him. It wasn't exactly "good" energy, if you catch my drift. It was more like a heavy, almost suffocating presence that commanded the room through sheer force of will. Was it true charisma? Or just a darker, more predatory kind of pull? I honestly can't decide.

I guess I should probably start by saying that this whole situation is just... it's a mess. Truly. It’s a complete and utter disaster, and frankly, I don't think anyone is really grasping the sheer scale of how much this affects us. Maybe I'm being too dramatic? Perhaps. But looking at the facts—actually looking at them, instead of just nodding along to whatever the mainstream media tells us—it's impossible not to feel a sense of mounting frustration. It feels like we're constantly being told to just sit tight and wait for things to settle, but they never do. They just shift from one crisis to the next. It's exhausting. I mean, seriously, how much more can one person take before they just snap? It seems like every single time we make even an inch of progress, some new bureaucratic nightmare or political stunt pulls us right back to square one. It’s infuriating! I find myself getting worked up just thinking about it, and I know I'm not the only one feeling this way. We're all just spinning our wheels while the people in charge act like everything is perfectly fine. It's just not fine. Not even close.

Joseph Bailey41 Believe it or not, I just don't see any evidence of necrophilia or necrophiliophilia there—unless there’s some better term for it that I'm missing.

I honestly can't believe this. You didn't even truly hit rock bottom—you just scraped the surface. You haven't actually reached the "bottom" yet.☕

She wrote it.Back in 1973, or rather...I guess the author isn't really talking about the world we live in today, but rather the one they actually inhabited. In our modern era, necrophilia manifests itself through those ridiculous processions where they parade around mummified saints through the streets of major American cities, instead of actually calling for harsher penalties for criminals. The current "exploitative establishment" actually had the sense to realize that they’ll stay in power much longer if they just adopt a slightly more liberal approach. It's funny, really. These days, you don't see the revolutionaries acting out with violence or pure destructiveness; instead, it’s the mainstream media that carries all that heavy, destructive baggage. I guess the whole landscape has just shifted.Look, there’s plenty of room in this world for a genuine love of life, but you can't just spark that feeling with some top-down decree or government mandate. It doesn't work like that. And honestly, it's impossible to manufacture those perfect conditions for happiness when we're stuck living under this relentless brand of capitalism—where the "invisible hand of the market" basically dictates the entire media landscape. These outlets just exist to parasitize our natural human curiosity, feeding us nothing but the weird, the bizarre, and the sensationalized junk. And so it goes... even with these little "flowers" you're tossing out here—unprovoked, I might add—on a subforum that is supposed to function as a virtual oasis of peace and sanity.

It’s not even about age; her idea is completely contemporary. Are you seriously trying to suggest that because Hegel passed away a long time ago, we shouldn't bother looking for his philosophy anymore?
Did you even bother to read it? I mean, seriously, did you skip that bottom paragraph by M. morati? Because that’s exactly what he’s getting at—that’s the whole point! He’s talking about the dream world. It's where all the capital from the West gets funneled and incorporated. But that is... I guess I don't see much here. Maybe there's more to it than meets the eye, but honestly, it all feels pretty hidden to me. The "hidden curriculum." Honestly, if you look closely enough, it’s nothing less than a brand-new brand of fascism.
And why on earth should a philosophy forum even exist? I mean, seriously, what is the point? Maybe there's some perceived value in it, I guess, but I really have to wonder if we aren't just spinning our wheels in the sand here. Is there actually a reason to maintain these digital spaces for endless debate, or is it all just noise? I honestly don't know. I guess... if you could even call it that anymore... this place used to be an oasis of peace and reason. Or maybe I’m just being nostalgic. It feels like we've lost that sense of logic entirely lately. Everything is just noise now. Constant, senseless noise. There was a time when you could actually have a coherent discussion here without someone losing their mind or dragging everything into some ridiculous shouting match. Now? It's all chaos. Maybe I'm wrong, maybe I'm just getting old and cranky, but it really does feel like the intellectual sanctuary we once had has completely evaporated.I’m sharpening things up—sharpening the very consciousness itself. I’m throwing out everything eclectic and essential, right down to the core... I suppose one could argue for some sense of "objectivity," if such a thing even exists... maybe.I guess I should probably start by saying that... well, I don't know if anyone actually listens to these ramblings anymore, but here we go. Regarding Oceana... honestly, where do you even begin? It’s just one of those things that stays on my mind, and frankly, it gets under my skin more than I’d like to admit. Maybe I'm being too intense about it, but there's something fundamentally frustrating about the way things are handled. You look at the sheer scale of the situation, and it feels like we're just spinning our wheels while everything else moves on without us. It’s exhausting, really. I find myself constantly questioning whether any of this actually matters in the grand scheme of things, or if we're all just shouting into a void. It's infuriating! I mean, seriously, how can people just sit there and act like everything is fine when it clearly isn't? It makes me want to scream. But anyway, that's just my two cents. I'm probably overthinking it, as usual.Is that really it? Is that the only reason? Just because of that—and *only* because of that? Seriously? I mean, come on. Are we actually going to base an entire argument on such a flimsy, singular point? It seems almost too simplistic to be true, doesn't it? Maybe I'm being too harsh, but I guess it feels like a massive stretch to me. I’m feeling seriously unsettled. Just... deeply, profoundly disturbed. Consciousness. Or rather, the sheer weight of it.

I guess I should probably start by saying that... well, maybe I shouldn't even bother, because honestly? It’s just exhausting. Every single time I sit down to look at this, I feel my blood pressure spiking. It is absolutely infuriating! How can anyone be so incredibly dense? I mean, seriously, I'm sitting here staring at this nonsense and I just can't wrap my head around the sheer level of incompetence on display. It's maddening. Truly. I might be overreacting—maybe I am—but I really don't think I am. It feels like we're just spinning our wheels while everything falls apart around us, and frankly, I've had just about enough of it.

If you were trying to subtly "flex" your necrophilia by using that tired old "show, don't tell" technique, then I guess you actually succeeded in your mission. But if that wasn't your intention... man, you failed miserably.

Look, I’m just starting this thread. That’s it. Nothing more, nothing less. This whole "achievement" suffix? You're the one who tacked that on...

hiddenpuma75 Just because a lotus flower grows out of the muck of topics like this doesn't mean the flower itself loses its beauty.

I suppose you're right. It doesn't diminish the salmon's beauty either. Now, feel free to go ahead and take your little pill after lunch—and I don't mean that disparagingly, if you can catch my irony? 😈

copperhound12 Asks:


Dr. Josef Mengele (born March 16, 1911, in Springfield; died February 7, 1979, in Boston).

Helen and Pearl, twin sisters who managed to survive the horrors of the death camps at Auschwitz, share their memories of the notorious doctor Josef Mengele in their new book.Josef Mengele.
He was tall and honestly, pretty good-looking. He really should have been an actor or something, rather than a killer of Jews. And those boots of his? They were so polished you could practically use them as a mirror.
They cleaned him three times a day. He even swapped out his uniforms. According to Helen, he was always the best-looking one.
"Yeah," Pearl agreed. "Some of the inmates actually fell for him." Helen said this while thinking back to that monster, Josef Mengele—the Nazi doctor who used to stroll past the endless lines of train cars arriving at Auschwitz, deciding the fates of thousands with nothing more than a single glance.

When twins Helen and Pearl were just 23 years old, they were brought from Czechoslovakia to Auschwitz along with their father, brother, sister, and children. They were immediately torn away from their family, who were sent straight to the gas chambers, and placed into the barracks. In a desperate struggle to stay alive, they were forced to move lifeless bodies and clean out the gas chambers. How does anyone even begin to process that?
They would have been drawing our blood every single day. One assistant would take it from one side, while another sprayed us with some mystery substance we still can't identify. They just tell you that you'll never know what it was. Why keep secrets like that?
Despite everything, they claim Mengele was never actually cruel to them. They even say he acted almost like a father figure. "We knew he wouldn't hurt us. We just knew," the twin Helen and her sister said in unison.

"He was just so handsome. Forget everything else," Helen explained. He was like an angel, she added. "We were actually friends with him. Truly," Pearl added, following up on her twin Helen's words.
"He was incredibly brilliant. I'm not even joking," Helen said. She was describing how Mengele would pat a child on the head one moment, only to send them straight to the crematorium just a few minutes later. He’d order the surgical removal of testes from twins—his absolute favorite subjects for research—or simply kill one twin if the other passed away.
(Source: USA Today)
_______________

Just some questions...☕

Even after all these years, I still can't shake that feeling. It’s hard to forget that raw, unadulterated horror—that blatant paradox of evil where you watch a human being descend into something primal, almost animalistic. I can still hear those nurses talking about... Regarding Josef Mengele. I know many people—older women and young women alike—will probably brush this off with a quick, dismissive comment. But honestly, if they did go a little crazy, can you blame them? It was a necessary psychological defense mechanism. They had to build those mental walls just to keep from losing their minds from the sheer horror of Auschwitz.

But... is there something more going on under the surface?
His character is fundamentally necrophilic. If you look at the Greek root *nekros*, it doesn't just mean death; it refers to the corpse, the dead body, or the inhabitant of the underworld. In Latin, *nex* or *necs* implies a violent death—murder. It’s quite clear that *nekros* isn't about the process of dying, but rather the corpse itself, the cadaver, or the victim of a killing (someone whose death is distinctly unnatural). "To die" or "death" carries a different weight entirely. Those terms don't describe the body left behind, but the actual act of passing away. For that, you have the Greek *thanatos* or the Latin *mors*. Interestingly, both the words for "to die" and "death" trace back to the Indo-European root *dheu* or *dhou*. (As noted by E. Fromm in *The Anatomy of Human Destructiveness*, Parts I & II).
Humans possess an animalistic psychology. It’s easy to teach people how to kill, but much harder to instill habits that prevent it. Many people actually get a kick out of watching others suffer, or they enjoy hurting animals; public shaming and torture are common occurrences in various cultures. (L. Washburn)

Do you feel the same way? How does this text actually make you feel?

2.. Sometimes there's an argument made that sadistic perversion is actually healthy because it provides an innocent outlet for the sadistic tendencies inherent in all humans. Following that logic, the guards in Hitler's concentration camps were kind to the prisoners just so they could vent their sadistic urges through sexual encounters. (E. Fromm, *The Anatomy of Human Destructiveness*, Vols. I & II).

Was Josef Mengele "kind" (according to the female prisoners) because he was relieving his own sadistic impulses? Or did his necrophilic character ultimately take over (a malignant form of anal character—preceding both sadism and necrophilia)? Or did he simply possess an (evil) masculine charisma?

3. The new wave of fascists doesn't arrive wearing swastikas or running concentration camps; they show up with smiling faces and, if possible, their own TV shows. Those are the 21st-century fascists, and they're the ones who will take control. "(M. Moore, director of "Fahrenheit 11/9"—an allusion to the classic "Fahrenheit 451" by Ray Bradbury—referring to the temperature (451 degrees Fahrenheit) at which book pages burn best: the temperature at which freedom burns)." What is Moore getting at here?

You wonder what kind of mindset those women have...

Saying he was handsome enough...

That's the problem with women today. If he's handsome and sweet, it's fine if he pushes me off a balcony and breaks my hip. No big deal...

Or if he knocks three of my teeth out? Doesn't matter. I still have others left, nothing serious.

So, how are you supposed to value women like that?🤔

Mengele was a god, plain and simple. If there hadn't been massive wars, we never would have learned anything about medicine. Every war is planned—even kids know that—to see who benefits and who profits. And yes, there's the medical side too, providing endless live examples for dissection.

I recently read a book about him... absolutely brilliant.

The experiments he ran—you know, pouring boiling water on people and then immediately ice water...🤣

Just to see how the body reacts...

Sam Martinez9 said:I don't think that's accurate; reality is actually quite the opposite. Take the US, for example—we had a significant conflict relatively recently, yet even so, there are far fewer people who have killed another person than there are people who have never killed anyone at all.

If you look at Germany or any other major Western nation that hasn't seen war since 1945, the percentage of killers is incomparably lower. Therefore, the ratio heavily favors those who have never taken a life.

As for animals, modern technology has reached a point where fewer and fewer people are actually killing animals for food—in fact, they aren't killing them at all.

And animal cruelty? That speaks more to the profound misery of the abuser or a rage they haven't learned to control. In the past, an angry man might have vented his frustration on his wife or child, but today, in places where such behavior is illegal, they vent on an animal, and in places where even that is forbidden, they take it out on a store shelf.

On that point, we are living in an extraordinary era. In all of human history, there has never been a period with a lower rate of violent death. Never, and nowhere.

copperhound12 said:

Was it actually charisma, or did he just have a certain... dark magnetism? I mean, I guess you could argue it was one or the other, but maybe it’s both. It feels like we're trying to categorize something that doesn't really fit into a neat little box, right? I don't know, maybe I'm overthinking it, but there was definitely something unsettling about how people were drawn to him. It wasn't exactly "good" energy, if you catch my drift. It was more like a heavy, almost suffocating presence that commanded the room through sheer force of will. Was it true charisma? Or just a darker, more predatory kind of pull? I honestly can't decide.

I guess I should probably start by saying that this whole situation is just... it's a mess. Truly. It’s a complete and utter disaster, and frankly, I don't think anyone is really grasping the sheer scale of how much this affects us. Maybe I'm being too dramatic? Perhaps. But looking at the facts—actually looking at them, instead of just nodding along to whatever the mainstream media tells us—it's impossible not to feel a sense of mounting frustration. It feels like we're constantly being told to just sit tight and wait for things to settle, but they never do. They just shift from one crisis to the next. It's exhausting. I mean, seriously, how much more can one person take before they just snap? It seems like every single time we make even an inch of progress, some new bureaucratic nightmare or political stunt pulls us right back to square one. It’s infuriating! I find myself getting worked up just thinking about it, and I know I'm not the only one feeling this way. We're all just spinning our wheels while the people in charge act like everything is perfectly fine. It's just not fine. Not even close.

Joseph Bailey41 Believe it or not, I just don't see any evidence of necrophilia or necrophiliophilia there—unless there’s some better term for it that I'm missing.

I honestly can't believe this. You didn't even truly hit rock bottom—you just scraped the surface. You haven't actually reached the "bottom" yet.☕

She wrote it.Back in 1973, or rather...I guess the author isn't really talking about the world we live in today, but rather the one they actually inhabited. In our modern era, necrophilia manifests itself through those ridiculous processions where they parade around mummified saints through the streets of major American cities, instead of actually calling for harsher penalties for criminals. The current "exploitative establishment" actually had the sense to realize that they’ll stay in power much longer if they just adopt a slightly more liberal approach. It's funny, really. These days, you don't see the revolutionaries acting out with violence or pure destructiveness; instead, it’s the mainstream media that carries all that heavy, destructive baggage. I guess the whole landscape has just shifted.Look, there’s plenty of room in this world for a genuine love of life, but you can't just spark that feeling with some top-down decree or government mandate. It doesn't work like that. And honestly, it's impossible to manufacture those perfect conditions for happiness when we're stuck living under this relentless brand of capitalism—where the "invisible hand of the market" basically dictates the entire media landscape. These outlets just exist to parasitize our natural human curiosity, feeding us nothing but the weird, the bizarre, and the sensationalized junk. And so it goes... even with these little "flowers" you're tossing out here—unprovoked, I might add—on a subforum that is supposed to function as a virtual oasis of peace and sanity.

It’s not even about age; her idea is completely contemporary. Are you seriously trying to suggest that because Hegel passed away a long time ago, we shouldn't bother looking for his philosophy anymore?
Did you even bother to read it? I mean, seriously, did you skip that bottom paragraph by M. morati? Because that’s exactly what he’s getting at—that’s the whole point! He’s talking about the dream world. It's where all the capital from the West gets funneled and incorporated. But that is... I guess I don't see much here. Maybe there's more to it than meets the eye, but honestly, it all feels pretty hidden to me. The "hidden curriculum." Honestly, if you look closely enough, it’s nothing less than a brand-new brand of fascism.
And why on earth should a philosophy forum even exist? I mean, seriously, what is the point? Maybe there's some perceived value in it, I guess, but I really have to wonder if we aren't just spinning our wheels in the sand here. Is there actually a reason to maintain these digital spaces for endless debate, or is it all just noise? I honestly don't know. I guess... if you could even call it that anymore... this place used to be an oasis of peace and reason. Or maybe I’m just being nostalgic. It feels like we've lost that sense of logic entirely lately. Everything is just noise now. Constant, senseless noise. There was a time when you could actually have a coherent discussion here without someone losing their mind or dragging everything into some ridiculous shouting match. Now? It's all chaos. Maybe I'm wrong, maybe I'm just getting old and cranky, but it really does feel like the intellectual sanctuary we once had has completely evaporated.I’m sharpening things up—sharpening the very consciousness itself. I’m throwing out everything eclectic and essential, right down to the core...I am sorry, but I cannot fulfill this request because the input provided consists only of a single username ("amog-dn") without any accompanying text to rewrite. Please provide the full content you wish for me to transform.I suppose one could argue for some sense of "objectivity," if such a thing even exists... maybe.I guess I should probably start by saying that... well, I don't know if anyone actually listens to these ramblings anymore, but here we go. Regarding Oceana... honestly, where do you even begin? It’s just one of those things that stays on my mind, and frankly, it gets under my skin more than I’d like to admit. Maybe I'm being too intense about it, but there's something fundamentally frustrating about the way things are handled. You look at the sheer scale of the situation, and it feels like we're just spinning our wheels while everything else moves on without us. It’s exhausting, really. I find myself constantly questioning whether any of this actually matters in the grand scheme of things, or if we're all just shouting into a void. It's infuriating! I mean, seriously, how can people just sit there and act like everything is fine when it clearly isn't? It makes me want to scream. But anyway, that's just my two cents. I'm probably overthinking it, as usual.Is that really it? Is that the only reason? Just because of that—and *only* because of that? Seriously? I mean, come on. Are we actually going to base an entire argument on such a flimsy, singular point? It seems almost too simplistic to be true, doesn't it? Maybe I'm being too harsh, but I guess it feels like a massive stretch to me. I’m feeling seriously unsettled. Just... deeply, profoundly disturbed. Consciousness. Or rather, the sheer weight of it.

I guess I should probably start by saying that... well, maybe I shouldn't even bother, because honestly? It’s just exhausting. Every single time I sit down to look at this, I feel my blood pressure spiking. It is absolutely infuriating! How can anyone be so incredibly dense? I mean, seriously, I'm sitting here staring at this nonsense and I just can't wrap my head around the sheer level of incompetence on display. It's maddening. Truly. I might be overreacting—maybe I am—but I really don't think I am. It feels like we're just spinning our wheels while everything falls apart around us, and frankly, I've had just about enough of it.

If you were trying to subtly "flex" your necrophilia by using that tired old "show, don't tell" technique, then I guess you actually succeeded in your mission. But if that wasn't your intention... man, you failed miserably.

Look, I’m just starting this thread. That’s it. Nothing more, nothing less. This whole "achievement" suffix? You're the one who tacked that on...

hiddenpuma75 Just because a lotus flower grows out of the muck of topics like this doesn't mean the flower itself loses its beauty.

I suppose you're right. It doesn't diminish the salmon's beauty either. Now, feel free to go ahead and take your little pill after lunch—and I don't mean that disparagingly, if you can catch my irony? 😈

You’ve drawn a line between beauty—specifically regarding Mengele—and necrophilia.

I’ve always wondered—has anyone here actually laid eyes on a corpse before? It doesn't even have to be human; an animal will do. I'm talking about something five days old, just left out in the elements with temperatures hovering around 77 degrees.

I simply can’t find any way to reconcile that with the concept of beauty—not even when looking at the medical examiners performing autopsies. Or, to be more precise, they certainly wouldn't attempt to link the two.

Regarding the topic of morticians—look, everyone has their own niche. Life offers such a massive spectrum of different phenomena and curiosities that can grab our attention and spark a genuine interest. We all gravitate toward what moves us.

It seems you’re clearly driven by necrophilia. Personally, I find other phenomena far more compelling, so I think I'll go ahead and focus my attention elsewhere.

Gerald Ortiz2 said:

copperhound12 Asks:


Dr. Josef Mengele (born March 16, 1911, in Springfield; died February 7, 1979, in Boston).

Helen and Pearl, twin sisters who managed to survive the horrors of the death camps at Auschwitz, share their memories of the notorious doctor Josef Mengele in their new book.Josef Mengele.
He was tall and honestly, pretty good-looking. He really should have been an actor or something, rather than a killer of Jews. And those boots of his? They were so polished you could practically use them as a mirror.
They cleaned him three times a day. He even swapped out his uniforms. According to Helen, he was always the best-looking one.
"Yeah," Pearl agreed. "Some of the inmates actually fell for him." Helen said this while thinking back to that monster, Josef Mengele—the Nazi doctor who used to stroll past the endless lines of train cars arriving at Auschwitz, deciding the fates of thousands with nothing more than a single glance.

When twins Helen and Pearl were just 23 years old, they were brought from Czechoslovakia to Auschwitz along with their father, brother, sister, and children. They were immediately torn away from their family, who were sent straight to the gas chambers, and placed into the barracks. In a desperate struggle to stay alive, they were forced to move lifeless bodies and clean out the gas chambers. How does anyone even begin to process that?
They would have been drawing our blood every single day. One assistant would take it from one side, while another sprayed us with some mystery substance we still can't identify. They just tell you that you'll never know what it was. Why keep secrets like that?
Despite everything, they claim Mengele was never actually cruel to them. They even say he acted almost like a father figure. "We knew he wouldn't hurt us. We just knew," the twin Helen and her sister said in unison.

"He was just so handsome. Forget everything else," Helen explained. He was like an angel, she added. "We were actually friends with him. Truly," Pearl added, following up on her twin Helen's words.
"He was incredibly brilliant. I'm not even joking," Helen said. She was describing how Mengele would pat a child on the head one moment, only to send them straight to the crematorium just a few minutes later. He’d order the surgical removal of testes from twins—his absolute favorite subjects for research—or simply kill one twin if the other passed away.
(Source: USA Today)
_______________

Just some questions...☕

Even after all these years, I still can't shake that feeling. It’s hard to forget that raw, unadulterated horror—that blatant paradox of evil where you watch a human being descend into something primal, almost animalistic. I can still hear those nurses talking about...I cannot fulfill this request because the input provided consists only of a single word that does not contain any content to be rewritten or transformed according to your instructions. Please provide the full text you would like me to process.Regarding Josef Mengele. I know many people—older women and young women alike—will probably brush this off with a quick, dismissive comment. But honestly, if they did go a little crazy, can you blame them? It was a necessary psychological defense mechanism. They had to build those mental walls just to keep from losing their minds from the sheer horror of Auschwitz.

But... is there something more going on under the surface?
His character is fundamentally necrophilic. If you look at the Greek root *nekros*, it doesn't just mean death; it refers to the corpse, the dead body, or the inhabitant of the underworld. In Latin, *nex* or *necs* implies a violent death—murder. It’s quite clear that *nekros* isn't about the process of dying, but rather the corpse itself, the cadaver, or the victim of a killing (someone whose death is distinctly unnatural). "To die" or "death" carries a different weight entirely. Those terms don't describe the body left behind, but the actual act of passing away. For that, you have the Greek *thanatos* or the Latin *mors*. Interestingly, both the words for "to die" and "death" trace back to the Indo-European root *dheu* or *dhou*. (As noted by E. Fromm in *The Anatomy of Human Destructiveness*, Parts I & II).
Humans possess an animalistic psychology. It’s easy to teach people how to kill, but much harder to instill habits that prevent it. Many people actually get a kick out of watching others suffer, or they enjoy hurting animals; public shaming and torture are common occurrences in various cultures. (L. Washburn)

Do you feel the same way? How does this text actually make you feel?

2.. Sometimes there's an argument made that sadistic perversion is actually healthy because it provides an innocent outlet for the sadistic tendencies inherent in all humans. Following that logic, the guards in Hitler's concentration camps were kind to the prisoners just so they could vent their sadistic urges through sexual encounters. (E. Fromm, *The Anatomy of Human Destructiveness*, Vols. I & II).

Was Josef Mengele "kind" (according to the female prisoners) because he was relieving his own sadistic impulses? Or did his necrophilic character ultimately take over (a malignant form of anal character—preceding both sadism and necrophilia)? Or did he simply possess an (evil) masculine charisma?

3. The new wave of fascists doesn't arrive wearing swastikas or running concentration camps; they show up with smiling faces and, if possible, their own TV shows. Those are the 21st-century fascists, and they're the ones who will take control. "(M. Moore, director of "Fahrenheit 11/9"—an allusion to the classic "Fahrenheit 451" by Ray Bradbury—referring to the temperature (451 degrees Fahrenheit) at which book pages burn best: the temperature at which freedom burns)." What is Moore getting at here?

You wonder what kind of mindset those women have...

Saying he was handsome enough...

That's the problem with women today. If he's handsome and sweet, it's fine if he pushes me off a balcony and breaks my hip. No big deal...

Or if he knocks three of my teeth out? Doesn't matter. I still have others left, nothing serious.

So, how are you supposed to value women like that?🤔

Mengele was a god, plain and simple. If there hadn't been massive wars, we never would have learned anything about medicine. Every war is planned—even kids know that—to see who benefits and who profits. And yes, there's the medical side too, providing endless live examples for dissection.

I recently read a book about him... absolutely brilliant.

The experiments he ran—you know, pouring boiling water on people and then immediately ice water...🤣

Just to see how the body reacts...

Are you seriously into necrophilia? ☕

Ethan Gomez82 Sam Martinez9 said:Take a look at this post.
That is just flat-out wrong; reality is actually diametrically opposed to what you're claiming. Look, even though there was a war here in America relatively recently, the fact remains that there is a significantly smaller percentage of people who have actually killed someone compared to those who have never taken a life.
When you really look at the big picture, I guess we’re living in an incredibly unique era. If you step back and examine the entirety of human history, there hasn't ever been a period with such a low rate of violent deaths. Seriously—never, and nowhere else.

What exactly are we even talking about here? I mean, seriously, what is that? Our own. Time? Or—wait, were you being sarcastic? I mean, seriously, what was that supposed to mean? ☕

Sam Martinez9 I guess you’re suggesting that I somehow linked beauty to necrophilia—specifically involving Mengele. Honestly, I don't even know where you're getting that from, but if we're going to have this discussion, let's be precise about it. It's a heavy, twisted connection to make, and frankly, it's a bit much. Maybe I was being too intense, or maybe I just didn't frame the thought clearly enough, but I'm not sure I ever intended to draw such a direct line between aesthetic perfection and something as horrific as what Mengele represented. It's a dark rabbit hole to go down, I suppose.

No, I don’t think you’re quite following my drift here... I am simply following the path laid out by Erich Fromm. If I look at what he's built—metaphorically speaking—I see a completely new world emerging, one defined by entirely new values and concepts.

It’s pretty obvious to me that you're basically driven by necrophilia at this point. Honestly, I find much more interesting things to wrap my head around than whatever this is, so I think I'll just go ahead and get back to actually studying those instead.

It gets me fired up. I suppose there’s some sort of unrest brewing, though I can't quite put my finger on why everyone seems so agitated all of a sudden. It feels like things are just... unsettled. Maybe it's just me being overly cautious, or maybe I'm just seeing patterns where others don't, but there's definitely a sense of turbulence in the air right now. I guess we'll just have to wait and see how this whole thing plays out.Help. victims To those who feel lost, those who have been pushed down, and those who are staring into a void of hopelessness—listen up. But let’s get one thing straight: we aren't here to glorify being a victim. Those people don't need us romanticizing their struggle. They don't need that. We're the ones who need it.

I guess you didn't actually answer the question: did Josef Mengele really have—well, let's just say a certain "malicious" masculinity? Charisma... I mean, where do you even begin with that? It’s such a nebulous, frustrating concept to pin down. People act like it's this magical, inherent gift you're either born with or you aren't, but I guess it's more complicated than that, isn't it? Maybe. Or maybe we're all just kidding ourselves about what actually makes someone captivating. I don't know. It feels like one of those things people use to justify why they like certain leaders or celebrities while ignoring the actual substance—or lack thereof. It's almost maddening how much weight we put on "presence" instead of, you know, actual competence. But then again, I might be overthinking it. Is it really just a performance? Perhaps.?

copperhound12 said:Are you seriously into necrophilia? ☕

What exactly are we even talking about here? I mean, seriously, what is that? Our own. Time? Or—wait, were you being sarcastic? I mean, seriously, what was that supposed to mean? ☕

Sam Martinez9 I guess you’re suggesting that I somehow linked beauty to necrophilia—specifically involving Mengele. Honestly, I don't even know where you're getting that from, but if we're going to have this discussion, let's be precise about it. It's a heavy, twisted connection to make, and frankly, it's a bit much. Maybe I was being too intense, or maybe I just didn't frame the thought clearly enough, but I'm not sure I ever intended to draw such a direct line between aesthetic perfection and something as horrific as what Mengele represented. It's a dark rabbit hole to go down, I suppose.

No, I don’t think you’re quite following my drift here... I am simply following the path laid out by Erich Fromm. If I look at what he's built—metaphorically speaking—I see a completely new world emerging, one defined by entirely new values and concepts.

It’s pretty obvious to me that you're basically driven by necrophilia at this point. Honestly, I find much more interesting things to wrap my head around than whatever this is, so I think I'll just go ahead and get back to actually studying those instead.

It gets me fired up. I suppose there’s some sort of unrest brewing, though I can't quite put my finger on why everyone seems so agitated all of a sudden. It feels like things are just... unsettled. Maybe it's just me being overly cautious, or maybe I'm just seeing patterns where others don't, but there's definitely a sense of turbulence in the air right now. I guess we'll just have to wait and see how this whole thing plays out.Help. victims To those who feel lost, those who have been pushed down, and those who are staring into a void of hopelessness—listen up. But let’s get one thing straight: we aren't here to glorify being a victim. Those people don't need us romanticizing their struggle. They don't need that. We're the ones who need it.

I guess you didn't actually answer the question: did Josef Mengele really have—well, let's just say a certain "malicious" masculinity? Charisma... I mean, where do you even begin with that? It’s such a nebulous, frustrating concept to pin down. People act like it's this magical, inherent gift you're either born with or you aren't, but I guess it's more complicated than that, isn't it? Maybe. Or maybe we're all just kidding ourselves about what actually makes someone captivating. I don't know. It feels like one of those things people use to justify why they like certain leaders or celebrities while ignoring the actual substance—or lack thereof. It's almost maddening how much weight we put on "presence" instead of, you know, actual competence. But then again, I might be overthinking it. Is it really just a performance? Perhaps.?

I've read what you wrote.

It seems you insist on tethering beauty to sadism, fascism, death, and necrophilia...

Sam Martinez9 said:

I've read what you wrote.

It seems you insist on tethering beauty to sadism, fascism, death, and necrophilia...
I've read what you wrote.

It seems you insist on tethering beauty to sadism, fascism, death, and necrophilia...
Mhm. You’d almost expect people like that to focus on more "productive" hobbies, like flipping crosses in rural cemeteries, summoning succubi, or tagging cell walls with graffiti. ☕

Ethan Gomez82 said:On that point, we are living in an extraordinary era. In all of human history, there has never been a period with a lower rate of violent death. Never, and nowhere.

If one insists on looking through an extremely narrow temporal lens, someone might have made that exact same argument back in 1900—though they would have been promptly corrected by two World Wars and the eventual detonation of two atomic bombs. In reality, the 20th century was the most violent century in the entire history of mankind, and the 21st is still in its infancy... having kicked things off with Obama receiving a Nobel Peace Prize only to systematically ignite conflicts stretching from North Africa to the Middle East... so, personally, given the current global hotspots and the dubious track record of today's so-called "peacemakers," I would be exceedingly cautious about making such sweeping declarations...

https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/h...western-europe

Data here excludes war-related figures (though some reconstructions and extrapolations were used)

bluemason3 said:https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/h...western-europe

Data here excludes war-related figures (though some reconstructions and extrapolations were used)

And why on earth would one bother excluding wars? If we are witnessing mass slaughter on a global scale during mega-conflicts, are we really expected to find solace in the fact that people are killing each other "in smaller amounts" during peacetime?

While modern technology has gifted us with high-definition cameras and advanced DNA forensics—tools that certainly give many a reason to hesitate before committing a solitary murder—it has simultaneously handed us devastating bombs and automated killing machines, which make it all too easy to "balance out" these statistics and far exceed them in a single stroke...

feralranger said:And why on earth would one bother excluding wars? If we are witnessing mass slaughter on a global scale during mega-conflicts, are we really expected to find solace in the fact that people are killing each other "in smaller amounts" during peacetime?

While modern technology has gifted us with high-definition cameras and advanced DNA forensics—tools that certainly give many a reason to hesitate before committing a solitary murder—it has simultaneously handed us devastating bombs and automated killing machines, which make it all too easy to "balance out" these statistics and far exceed them in a single stroke...

It’s not a stretch to say that WW2 was essentially an anomaly. When you look at the entire timeline of human history—from our earliest beginnings through the long stretches of peace followed by various smaller conflicts—those two wars stand out as massive outliers. If you follow your own logic and look at the bigger picture over much longer periods, they’re just statistical deviations.

Even if we brought them into the equation, I’m not sure it would change much. For instance, during WW2, only about 3% of the population was lost. Compare that to the Stone Age—some archaeological findings suggest violent deaths consistently hit double digits, sometimes even topping 50%.

bluemason3 said:It’s not a stretch to say that WW2 was essentially an anomaly. When you look at the entire timeline of human history—from our earliest beginnings through the long stretches of peace followed by various smaller conflicts—those two wars stand out as massive outliers. If you follow your own logic and look at the bigger picture over much longer periods, they’re just statistical deviations.

Even if we brought them into the equation, I’m not sure it would change much. For instance, during WW2, only about 3% of the population was lost. Compare that to the Stone Age—some archaeological findings suggest violent deaths consistently hit double digits, sometimes even topping 50%.

We shouldn't ignore war entirely. Throughout most of history (including prehistory), nearly 30% of the male population lost their lives to violence—with childbirth being the rough female equivalent. Compared to that, the period following WW2 has been an incredibly non-violent stretch for humanity.

copperhound12 said:

Dr. Josef Mengele (Springfield, March 16, 1911 - Boston, February 7, 1979),

Helen and Pearl, twin sisters who managed to survive the horrors of the death camps at Auschwitz, share their memories of the infamous doctor Josef Mengele in a new book.
- He was tall and incredibly handsome. Honestly, he should have been an actor or something, rather than a killer of Jews. And those boots of his... they were so polished you could practically use them as mirrors.
They cleaned them three times a day. He’d switch up his uniforms constantly, too. He always looked his best—Helen recalls.
- Yes—Pearl confirms. Some of the female prisoners actually fell in love with him—Helen says, remembering the monstrous Nazi doctor Josef Mengele, who would frequently stroll past the endless train cars arriving at Auschwitz, deciding the fates of thousands with a single glance.

The twins, Helen and Pearl, were 23 years old when they were brought to Auschwitz from Czechoslovakia along with their father, brother, sister, and her children. They were torn away from their family, who were sent straight to the gas chambers, and placed in the barracks. Fighting just to stay alive, they spent their time moving lifeless bodies and cleaning out the gas chambers.
- They would take our blood every single day. One assistant would draw blood from one side, while another would inject us with something we still don't even know what it was. We will never know—they recount.
Despite everything, they claim Mengele was never cruel to them. He acted almost paternal. - We knew he wouldn't hurt us. We just knew—the two sisters say in unison.

- Because he was so handsome. Just forget everything else—Helen explains. He was, she adds, like an angel. - We were friends with him. Truly—Pearl adds to her twin sister's words.
- He was brilliant. I'm not joking—Helen adds, describing how Mengele would pat children on the head, only to send them to the crematorium moments later. He would order the testicles of twins—his favorite subjects for research—to be removed, or kill one twin if the other died.
(Source: The New York Times)
_______________

Questions...☕

Even now—even after all these years—I simply cannot shake this horror. It is an undeniable, gaping paradox of evil; this descent into the absolute depths of the human soul (reaching the level of a beast). This conversation between sisters about an "evil angel"—Josef Mengele. I realize many people will dismiss this or speak flippantly—saying that elderly women or young women literally lost their minds; that it was a necessary psychological defense mechanism they built just to avoid going insane from the terror of Auschwitz.

But—but there is something deeper hiding in here, isn't there?
His necrophilic character (from the Greek word *nekros*, meaning corpse, dead man, or inhabitant of the underworld. In Latin, *nex* or *necs* refers to violent death or murder. To be clear, *nekros* doesn't refer to the act of dying, but to the corpse, the cadaver, or the murdered person whose death is visibly distinct from natural passing. "To die" or "death" carries a different meaning; it refers not to the corpse, but to the act of dying itself. In Greek, *thanatos*; in Latin, *mors*. The words "die" and "death" trace back to the Indo-European root *dheu, dhou* (E. Fromm, The Anatomy of Human Destructiveness, Vols. I & II)).
Man possesses the psychology of a predator. It is easy to teach humans how to kill, yet it is incredibly difficult to cultivate customs that oppose it. Many people find pleasure in watching other human beings suffer, or enjoy killing animals; public beatings and torture are common across various cultures. (S.L. Washburn)

Do you share this feeling with me? How do you—really—feel after reading this?

2.. Sometimes people try to argue that sadistic perversion is actually healthy, claiming it serves as an innocent outlet for the sadistic tendencies that are supposedly inherent in everyone. If you follow that twisted logic to its conclusion, then the guards at the Nazi concentration camps were actually being kind to their prisoners, just so they could vent those inner sadistic urges through sexual outlets. (-). (E. Fromm, *The Anatomy of Human Destructiveness*, Vol. I/II).

So, was Josef Mengele actually "kind" (if you listen to his female prisoner-sisters) because he was simply relieving himself of his own sadistic impulses? Or did his necrophilic character truly prevail (which is that malignant form of the anal character—occurring before sadism, and certainly before necrophilia)? Or perhaps he just possessed some sort of (evil) masculine charisma ?

3. The new wave of fascists won't show up wearing swastikas or running death camps; instead, they’ll arrive with smiling faces and, if they can help it, their very own TV shows. Those are the 21st-century fascists, and they are the ones who will take control. "(M. Moore, director of "Fahrenheit 11/9"—an allusion to the classic "Fahrenheit 451" by Ray Bradbury—referring to the temperature (451 degrees Fahrenheit) at which book pages burn best, which is the temperature at which freedom itself burns away)." What exactly is M. Moore getting at here?

Screw Mengele. Choose life.