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Comment by coldtea | Hacker News Reader

>were some of the most disturbing and violent ever and I find this almost giddy excitement over human sacrifice to be very off-putting.

Heck, until past century the crowds gathered to watch hangings, guillotines and other executions all over Europe.

And just past century the Germans burned to death 6 million Jews, gypsies, leftists, and homosexuals.

Then there are the lynchings as a means of justice (in the West) and for blacks in the South, plus other types of "mob justice" in which whole communities would often participate (or stand and enjoy the show).

Those Aztec societies were cruel, but "giddy excitement over" death extends beyond them. And at least they have the excuse to not have had modern science, schooling, wikipedia, and all tons of culture back then...

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> 6 million Jews, gypsies, leftists, and homosexuals.

It was worse than that. The total number of holocaust victims was about 17 million, the Jews were just the biggest group at around 6 million.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holocaust_victims

Wtf? I have to check the wikipedia article, but I thought even the 6 million total was stretching it a little.

Executions were of condemned criminals. The Western world, and many others, mobilized to stop Nazi Germany. Lynching was an illegal act. I'm not sure those really compare to industrial scale ritual sacrifice as a cornerstone of the society.

>The Western world, and many others, mobilized to stop Nazi Germany.

That was more of an effort to avoid Germany getting more powerful (and affecting them) than a humanitarian mission. Besides, half of the "western world" took side with the Nazis, including a full blown pro-Nazi government in occupied France (with tons of sympathizers pre- and during the occupation), Italy (of course), Austria, Bulgaria, Estonia, Norway, Ukraine, and so on.

>Lynching was an illegal act.

And yet few ever got into prison for it when it was practiced.

> "And yet few ever got into prison for it when it was practiced."

Unsurprising since the act was a public display of societal contempt for the legal system. Often the person to be lynched would be torn from a jail by the mob; demonstrating that the judicial system had no power when faced by the will of the mob.

The Western world did not believe in concentration camps for a few years after the war ended, IIRC, so it's impossible for them to mobilize to stop Holocaust - if that's what you mean.

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