Talk:Mass murder

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'The greatest mass murders in recorded history took place in the Communist countries of the twentieth century.'

Although I think I know where you're going here (Mao and so on), these weren't directly mass murder. Terrible, yes, but wasn't the holocaust worse in that all of those deaths were ordered?

Wikinterpreter

Yes, yes, I mustn't inject my own personal opinion into the article. You can help me stay calm. --Ed Poor 14:40, 13 April 2007 (EDT)

If that remark was in earnest (sarcasm's fairly hard to pick up on the interweb), then I'm glad. Collaboration for great justice! Wikinterpreter

LOL, I am the primary enforcer of the rule against sarcasm here, so you can relax. I'm almost always in earnest. I use smileys or the like when I think context isn't enough. --Ed Poor 15:05, 13 April 2007 (EDT)

Cut:

for the most part due to the atrocities of the two World Wars (the Holocaust is often seen as the most grievous example of this), although actions such as economic measures which killed many, e.g. the Great Leap Forwards in Maoist China, or the widespread starvation that took place in Imperial Russia 1900-1917 could also construed as mass murder, although they are not as clear-cut

This is unsourced and really just sounds like personal opinion. --Ed Poor 16:06, 13 April 2007 (EDT)

I'd agree. The stated goal of the Holocaust was murder. The Great Leap Forward did not have that as a goal; it was just an inevitable byproduct. One addition I would make was Stalin's extermination of the kulaks.--Dave3172 16:21, 13 April 2007 (EDT)

I saw a film last night about an Olympic athlete sentenced to 17 years in prison for a drunk driving accident. He was not convicted of murder, but what he did was still a crime. --Ed Poor 16:23, 13 April 2007 (EDT)

Yes, I know that Atheism is the root of all evil, but...

...the quote that compares the Inquisition with the Holocaust and other things comes out of nowhere. I understand that Conservapedia wishes to preach educate about Evil Liberal Things (like atheism, homosexuality, liberals themselves, evolution, etc.), but why does this article need to drive that point home, too? Mass murder is wrong, but it was motivated by both religious and non-religious causes. Pointing fingers and trying to imply that one side did less is petty.

That aside, the quote compares only the inquisition with the collective death count of Hitler, Mao, and Stalin. Without even looking at exact numbers, that alone makes a halfway critical reader frown. The fact that I have absolutely no idea who "Dinesh D'Souza" is doesn't help, either. Checking the source, I see that it is from "Christian Science Monitor" with the title "Atheism, not religion, is the real force behind the mass murders of history". Mhh... yes, that's certainly an unbiased source... --Jenkins 08:55, 9 October 2007 (EDT)

External links

The "most evil regimes" list counts things like the Flu or famines. I didn't know that those count as mass murder, too. The list also clashes with the other external link (the one by Pat Johnson, some history professor somewhere). This ties in with the section above: Yes, I know what CP's opinion of atheism is, but I would appreciate more authoritative sources about mass murder in general instead of simple finger-pointing at atheism. If I get the time today, I'll start looking for a few myself. --Jenkins 09:11, 9 October 2007 (EDT)

Intro paragraph

Really needs clean-up. Right now, it looks like mass murder is genocide is democide and that "the term" was popularized by the Genocide Convention. Which leaves the questions: What term? We're in the article mass murder, so is it that one? Or is it (as the name implies) about genocide? If so, why is it listed here?

It's confusing at best. As above, if I get the time and nobody tackles this before then, I'll see what I can do. --Jenkins 09:17, 9 October 2007 (EDT)

Recent edit

After the non-existent reactions to my October suggestions here, I went ahead and made a few minor changes by putting the entire Genocide focus into its own section. This article is not about Genocide. It's about Mass Murder. We have a dedicated Genocide article already.

If it was just me, I'd remove the entire "Dinesh D'Souza" quote and maybe just replace it with an External Link. Right now, we need more material about mass murder in general, not just genocide and how atheism is to blame for the worst incidents. --Jenkins 15:56, 7 December 2007 (EST)

Serial killers

This edit is an improvement, and a further improvement would be to organize our articles about murder still more. Distasteful as this subject is, it must be done.

I would suggest that murder be divided into or refer to) mass murder and/or genocide (emphasizing the numbers) and serial killing which takes place over time. --Ed Poor ^Talk 10:39, 18 December 2009 (EST)