• @neukenindekeuken@sh.itjust.works
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      103 months ago

      In the “Last Lion”, it’s clear that he was pampered very much as a child by his mother, he was sickly often, and so she doted on him. At this stage in his life, he was very much a mother’s boy.

      It’s amazing he turned out the way he did really. He still had some of those tendencies at the end, but a lot of his characteristics were exaggerated. For example his drinking. He didn’t actually drink more than 1 mixed drink a day usually, which he pulled on from his flask throughout. Any of the brandy or sipping beverages he was famous for consuming were typically non-alcoholic so he could retain his wits and make others think he was less together than he was. It was an intentional strategy, also, he still had health issues that prevented him from consuming too much alcohol. But he turned that into an advantage.

      • @dalekcaan@lemm.ee
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        133 months ago

        It’s honestly pretty incredible how much English propaganda survived the war. I still hear people claim English fighter pilots were orange because of all the carrots they ate to improve their night vision, which was a myth created by the English to keep the Germans from realizing they’d figured out radar.

  • @otp@sh.itjust.works
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    533 months ago

    Funny how they all have different vibes.

    Stalin looks like a bully. Hitler looks like he’s been bullied and is going to be a school shooter.

    Many of the others look like pompous twats and/or spoilt rich kids.

    • @neukenindekeuken@sh.itjust.works
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      113 months ago

      Pretty much. He was bullied most of his life and was an intolerable dickhead. Few people liked him for who he was. He was a sociopath and learned how to manipulate people to pretend to be charismatic or charming to get what he wanted.

      Which was revenge on all the people he felt wronged him.

        • @neukenindekeuken@sh.itjust.works
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          13 months ago

          Surely not. It’s not like anyone could be compared to Hitler or Mussolini right now on the world stage. It’s not like anyone who could is a deeply disturbed individual who’s using their powers to enrich themselves materially, and to get revenge on all the “bullies” that said mean things to them.

          It’s a good thing there’s not someone like that on the world stage right now, because it’d mean we’ve learned fuck-all from history.

  • 𝕽𝖚𝖆𝖎𝖉𝖍𝖗𝖎𝖌𝖍
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    293 months ago

    Interesting that both Hitler and Stalin are looking down their noses at the camera.

    That’s probably reading too much into a snapshot. They’re just kids here.

    (But just in case, keep your eye on that little snot who does that in the yearbook)

    • @TheFriar@lemm.ee
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      163 months ago

      I was going to say, maybe it’s the power of hindsight, but they both look like asshole shits and Mussolini looks like he is growing up with some serious emotional issues, maybe some hatred for women after his mother dressed him like that.

  • Rob T Firefly
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    283 months ago

    As someone who used to work with kids a lot, every last one of them look like a little shit who is about to make my day at work measurably worse.

    • Derpgon
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      113 months ago

      Worse, pooped his pants on purpose and is proud of it!

  • magnetosphere
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    213 months ago

    Roosevelt is dressed like a rich kid, but his face says “don’t fuck with me”.

  • stebo
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    183 months ago

    so Hitler never changed his haircut since he was a child

  • FundMECFS
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    3 months ago

    They all kind of look like dickheads ngl. Like that annoying kid who always breaks boundaries.

    (ie. they all look very full of themselves — I guess that’s how you become a leader…)

    • @protist@mander.xyz
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      143 months ago

      Part of the problem may be that the convention back then was to not smile when taking a picture

    • @conditional_soup@lemm.ee
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      3 months ago

      Idk, it’s hard to be mad at kid Mussolini. He looks like he’s just real upset to be there. All the other kids look like bullies or spoiled/sheltered nepo babies, though. Turn that frown upside down down, kid.

      • y0kai
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        73 months ago

        It would take him years, but the frown would eventually be turned upside down, under a bridge, if memory serves correctly.

  • @ohwhatfollyisman@lemmy.world
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    133 months ago

    what is the source for this?

    one doubts that such a photo of young Stalin exists, given the poverty in which the dictator grew up.

    • ℛ𝒶𝓋ℯ𝓃
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      163 months ago

      Can’t verify that one specifically, but a handful survive of his parents, as well as this photo of him from a school yearbook in 1893:

    • @yogurt@lemm.ee
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      33 months ago

      School class picture, the priest that let Stalin and his mom stay with him to get away from Stalin’s abusive dad faked a story about who Stalin’s dad was so he could get in to a free school for children of church officials.