• AngryCommieKender@lemmy.world
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    2 months ago

    Go back to 1911 and convince Taft to concede the Republican nomination to Roosevelt. That allows Roosevelt to stomp Wilson, get the US into the war before Russia left, and get the war over with years earlier.

    This prevents both Stalin and Hitler from rising to power, and prevents most of the European theater of WW2, as well as a host of other knock-on effects.

    https://youtu.be/hLiI6kXZkZI?si=YJZMmkpOH4FZQiLt

    • merari42@lemmy.world
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      2 months ago

      In this scenario Lenin does not manage to take over Russia and the warning to the world by the real life examples of Germany and Italy about the dangers of fashism does not happen either. Authoritarianism raises its ugly head later in a world with better weapons and more destructive potential for humanity.

  • Boozilla@lemmy.world
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    2 months ago

    I’d like to say something noble like warn Amelia Earhart, or hookup Adolph with some Bob Ross videos. But if I’m being honest, I would probably be selfish. I would tell past me to not fuck up quite a few things that past me royally fucked up.

  • Etterra@lemmy.world
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    2 months ago

    I’d go hunt down Ronald Regan at about age 30 and empty an entire magazine of .45s into his dome while he slept.

  • linearchaos@lemmy.world
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    2 months ago

    I’d go back and write a book with just enough truths to cement myself as a soothsayer. I’d then warn of wars, eco disasters, pandemics, natural disasters. Then I’d invest some money in some good places and make sure it made it to my kids after I’m gone.

  • reddig33@lemmy.world
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    2 months ago

    I think saving JFK would really alter the timeline. I doubt Nixon would have ever been president.

    Preventing the Iranian hostage crisis might also have had a huge impact.

  • Mac@mander.xyz
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    2 months ago

    i would not eat the kiosk chili dogs i ate earlier—they were pretty fucking bad.

  • over_clox@lemmy.world
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    2 months ago

    I’d find the first motherfucker that started smoking stuff, whether it was first tobacco or whatever, and get rid of him/her before anyone else ever learned of the practice/habit.

    Would have been better health for countless people afterwards, if simply nobody ever knew…

    • merari42@lemmy.world
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      2 months ago

      Smoking was discovered independently in many cultures with different substances used by different cultures. In the Americas, it was tobacco, while the Scythians of Central Asia used cannabis in ritualistic hotboxes, as evidenced by archaeological finds of smoking tools in kurgans. Other regions, like India and Southeast Asia, saw the smoking of opium and herbs.

  • sasquash@sopuli.xyz
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    2 months ago

    I would try to save the roman republic and prevent the roman kindgom. It would also be interesting to see what would have happend if they never switched to christianity.

    • Lvxferre@mander.xyz
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      2 months ago

      To prevent the empire would be more complicated than it looks like, since you got multiple rebellions and civil wars popping up as early as 135 BCE. They ultimately boiled down to

      • plebeians and/or slaves pissed due to poor living conditions
      • local peoples rebelling against Roman oppression
      • some patrician family wanting a larger slice of the pie

      And those are all problems that are damn hard to address without leading to plebeians being manipulated, local peoples being suppressed, and cutting down the power of the patricians by a central, strong government. That’s basically what Caesar tried to do, and Octavian achieved.

    • grue@lemmy.world
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      2 months ago

      But the Roman Republic (509 BC–27 BC) happened after the Roman Kingdom (753 BC–509 BC).

    • over_clox@lemmy.world
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      2 months ago

      I’d add the Spanish Inquisition to that agenda. But who knows, perhaps the Holocaust might not have ever happened if the Spanish Inquisition never happened. 🤷‍♂️

      Time travel thoughts bring up all sorts of hypotheticals…

  • Arc🌰@lemmy.world
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    2 months ago

    I prefer to rewind time with me along, be young again, that kind of time travel. Of course with my knowledge and memories of up to before my “time travel”, be retained. I could only remember what I could any way. The future would surely not happen exactly as the same before. Live a new younger life, a seemingly fresh restart at an early point in my life.