Person of the Year - Fail

[Guile]

Anyone else ever heard of the Time's Magazine "Person of the year" award? It's essentially an honor for whoever did the most in the world that year. It's a great idea, and sometimes we get some funny results, in hindsight.

First person of the year, 1929 Charles Lindbergh, flew solo across the Atlantic Ocean, outspoken Nazi Sympathizer.

1936, Bessie Wallis Warfield, married to the king of England, turned into a big scandal, also a Nazi Sympathizer.

1938, Adolf Hitler, brought Germany out of their biggest deppression, also took part in World War II and the death of 6 million civilians, often regarded as a Nazi Sympathizer

1939, Joseph Stalin, leader of the Soviet Union, helped the Russian economy expand and industrialize, killed 60 million civilians, a Nazi's friend.

1942, Joseph Stalin, no longer a Nazi's friend.

1951, Mohammad Mosaddegh, Prime minister of Iran, captured by joint US/Commonwealth forces in a Coup d'etat two years later.

1954, John Foster Dulles, American Agent, overthrew the previous Man of the year by planning said Coup.

1957, Nikita Khrushchev, Soviet Prime Minister, partly responsible for the Cuban Missile Crisis, which would have caused Thermonuclear Warfare, yipee!

1971, Richard Nixon, US President, also responsible for the Watergate Scandal.

1972, Richard Nixon, still not any better.

1974, King Faisal, head of Saudia Arabia, assassinated by his nephew, antisemitic.

1992, Bill Clinton, President of the United States, cheated on his wife while in office.

2006, You, because you use the internet, not much happened this year I guess...

2009, Ben Bernanke, head of the Federal Reserve, downside? Head of the Federal Reserve...

As you can see, sometimes, it's best to wait until someone's dead, before giving them an award, because they can't do something stupid six feet under!

[Maverick.]

Well, TIME is a controversial magazine. The choice lies between the editors and the writers. It is their magazine, so they decide who makes the cut. You have some sort of a point, but I believe they pick the person who they feel was most talked about, or made the most impact in the year. I never knew Hitler was person of the year though. Seems like they could have picked someone else instead of him on that one. :P.

[BDF]

Ha. Ironic stuff. Now we all need to contribute and come up with some outrageous theory that the Times magazine is manipulated by the illuminati and all their "person of the year" awards have gone to victims of monarch mind control in attempt to take over the earth... lmao.

[Snufkin]

I don't think Bill Clinton cheating on his wife is quite on the scale of the Holocaust.

[Anthropomorphic]

The idea behind "Person of the Year" is not about who the best, most moral, or most ethical person was. It's about the person with the most influence, the most grandeur and spectacle in media and public attention, and who made us think differently about something major in life.

But they just got lazy in 2006, obviously.

[Casey.]

Originally Posted by Snufkin

I don't think Bill Clinton cheating on his wife is quite on the scale of the Holocaust.

Stalin was worse than Hitler, and all of these dictators/presidents/ etc usually won the award before they messed up or started killing whole groups of people. But I do find it hilarious.

[BDF]

Originally Posted by Casey.

Stalin was worse than Hitler, and all of these dictators/presidents/ etc usually won the award before they messed up or started killing whole groups of people. But I do find it hilarious.

Stalin was possibly only worse than Hitler because he ran a bigger country with a larger population to kill, and because his communist regime actually lived on for a whole generation.