The whole time there's this tension between whether this kid is a genius or an idiot. And either way it's awesome.

Fuck me, the comments are awesome.

You MAY be overthinking this. Just a little.

Having a knee-jerk against the grain opinion isn't demonstrating "independent thought". Independent thought is when you rise above (i.e. act independently) of the ideas around you, not merely gainsay them.

You may ALSO be overthinking this video, and Bort's comment

It's not exactly independent thought, but it's not an against-the grain opinion either. It's a joke. He says that it's a joke in the video description.

Is it a good joke? The empty classroom helps seal the deal, but I think it could have been better.

Camonk: having a thought isn't "overthinking".

Just an FYI.

It is when it's about all the cocks you want in your mouth, which your "thought" plainly was.

Just an FRY. You dumb faggot

Even if it's a joke or knee-jerk iconoclasm, it still demonstrates some evidence of thought. It's high-school grade at best, but then again, the kid's in high school.

You MAY be overusing homosexual slurs. Just a little.

I used it once, you blasted knobhugging, dongsucking wastrel!

Also, have you never been here before?

I always assumed whenever people try to argue that a terrible person has done good things, they're trying to vindicate them based on those good deeds.

YOU'RE OVERTHINKING MY CRITIQUE (also I could be going through some kind of mental breakdown, but besides a few vocal outliers I'm pretty sure this site is making movement towards being more sensitive in general, so I took the opportunity to make mild judgment inside of a glib reversal)

and Flotsam, why? Demonizing people, even if they are the person who probably makes the most cogent argument that they WERE shit out of Hell's anus, really only seeks to strengthen individual prejudices and whitewash history. "The Good Things Hitler Did" is most likely always going to be a button for people, because they secretly fear that they'll come out of it somehow sympathizing with Hitler, which is CLEARLY NOT THEIR FAULT(!!!)

(in an academic setting) hitler shouldn't be mystified or turned into some kind of evil, unknowable boogieman -- it's a terrifying conceit that we feel the need to, that we are so arrogant with humanity's faults that we need to push them off onto some other nebulous category whenever we're faced with them. and yes, although it's not as imminent or omnipresent as certain political pundits would have you believe, IT IS possible that a world leader will rise to power as absolute as Hitler, and IT IS possible that person will abuse that power in just as horrifying or even more horrifying ways. that possibility dwindles when you have people to remind you of the cliff we're all standing on, even if it makes them unpopular.

...none of that really happened in this video, I'm addressing the kneejerk response, is all.

I'm saying that Hitler should be demonized in an unfair way, but when somebody says that Hitler did do some good things it comes off as if they're saying that it's okay that he murdered millions of people. I've seen arguments structured like this before coming from anti-semites. Maybe this is a reason why it's hard to begin with, with people like me assuming that people coming from this position are trying to vindicate him.

I think the fact that he orchestrated the killing of so many people makes it almost impossible for people to say anything positive about him. The weight of his terrible crimes exceeds whatever good he has done. He should of thought of that before he invested so much belief in Aryan supremacy. (Joke.)

How would you treat Hitler fair in education without demonizing him? I don't want to be the person to decide that, honestly.

I meant not saying in the first sentence.

Well, he starts out by saying that killing Jews was wrong. So how can he be saying that killing Jews is right?

The fact is that a bunch of people ARE saying that killing jews was right, right there in the you tube comments. It's offensive, but is it that big a deal? If you're going to talk about Hitler at all, you run the risk of people people saying outrageous and offensive things. If he says killing jews was good, that's wrong. Saying something that sounds vaguely like someone else talking about how killing Jews was good? Meh.

The kid is probably Jewish, by the way. His name is Herschel, for Christ's sake.

But he's not. I really think the only other person is the one filming it, and I think we're deliberately shown the empty seats in the first few rows. That adds to the conceit, but it's undercut when they start cracking up toward the end. You're probably not supposed to watch that far.

whoever posted it says he did it and it's a joke

This story would be way better if everybody involved, especially you, died

Eventually, everybody will.

I'm going to play Devil's advocate, take an unpopular position, and suggest that making a joke video on youtube doesn't make you as bad as a Nazi.

I'm also going to suggest that if you SAY that it's a joke in your video description, that's not trolling.