this post was submitted on 02 Sep 2025
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[–] Cassa@lemmy.blahaj.zone 72 points 4 days ago (3 children)

you forgot mr. genocide down in zion...

[–] CosmoNova@lemmy.world 24 points 4 days ago (6 children)

Perhaps you forgot Mr. Genocides (plural) in Beijing. It goes to show that we should be careful with hyperboles. This isn‘t a contest after all.

[–] Archangel1313@lemmy.ca 19 points 4 days ago (1 children)

Title is for the "most serious war criminal of our time". There's no hyperbole here. It literally is a genocide measuring contest.

[–] CosmoNova@lemmy.world 4 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago) (1 children)

But that‘s the problem. Just because that lunatic of a leader frames it like one doesn‘t mean we have to participate in it.

[–] Archangel1313@lemmy.ca 9 points 4 days ago

Or...you can rightfully point out that he should apply the same standard to Netanyahu, since the death toll in Gaza is several times higher than it is in Ukraine. After all, by his own words, there should be "zero tolerance" when dealing with war criminals.

If that is how he chooses to frame it...then make sure the frame encompasses all the available data.

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[–] Tuuktuuk@sopuli.xyz 6 points 4 days ago (1 children)

Comes easily at the second place. But it's only one nation, while Putin is killing several nations at the same time.

[–] plyth@feddit.org 7 points 4 days ago (1 children)

Why easily? E.g. the Iraq war was also without UN mandate and depending on analysis could have more civilian casualities.

[–] Tuuktuuk@sopuli.xyz 5 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago) (1 children)

A genocide is a worse thing than "just" killing several hundred thousand civilians. And of course, just alone the destruction of Mariupol gets at least close to 10 000 killed civilians, possibly more.

[–] poVoq@slrpnk.net 5 points 4 days ago (1 children)

Lets keep to real figures please. Ukrainian sources estimated shortly after that around 25,000 people were killed and a later independent investigation found likely evidence for around 10,000 killed.

[–] Tuuktuuk@sopuli.xyz 7 points 4 days ago

Now the number of zeroes is correct. Thanks!

[–] Goodlucksil@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 points 3 days ago (3 children)

Putin, in terms of a single person (don't forget Israel has had multiple ~~dictators~~ PMs), IS the biggest war criminal alive.

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[–] Formfiller@lemmy.world 54 points 3 days ago (17 children)
[–] aeternum@lemmy.blahaj.zone 7 points 3 days ago

Don't forget the Kims.

[–] TanteRegenbogen@feddit.org 6 points 3 days ago (1 children)

I'd say Putin and Netanyahu are about the same. Two illiberal state leaders seeking to genocide a people.

[–] Formfiller@lemmy.world 13 points 3 days ago

The global support makes Netanyahu worse

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[–] cows_are_underrated@feddit.org 28 points 4 days ago (1 children)

Idk, I would probably say that Netanjahu is even worse.

[–] shalafi@lemmy.world 12 points 4 days ago

He doesn't have nearly the power or reach of Putin. Also, Putin's been at this for a long time.

[–] talkingpumpkin@lemmy.world 27 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago) (8 children)

Merz's questionable judgement aside, what would we gain from having a nice ranking of war criminals?

Shouldn't our spineless politicians concentrate on trying to stop war criminals (all of them) instead of starting academic discussions on who's the "most serious"?

[–] Elchi@feddit.org 5 points 4 days ago

Merz’s questionable judgement aside, what would we gain from having a nice ranking of war criminals?

a Top Trumps war criminals

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[–] pastermil@sh.itjust.works 20 points 3 days ago

Merz should win the most seriously spineless European politician of the year.

[–] theacharnian@lemmy.ca 17 points 3 days ago (2 children)

Funny how using the superlative form ("most") he's sending us into a tailspin about who is "the most serious war criminal". As if that ordering really matters. War criminals being bad is like pedophiles being bad. Sure some are "worse" than others, but all of them are fucking creeps that need to be brought to heel.

Putin, Netanyahu, Trump, past US presidents (yea even that one), Blair, etc. All fuckfaces that every reasonable person should be denouncing.

[–] ozymandias@lemmy.dbzer0.com 5 points 3 days ago

of our time, i’d definitely put Netanyahu up there

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[–] ZoteTheMighty@lemmy.zip 15 points 4 days ago

Honestly, there's more stiff competition for the title lately than for the peace prize.

[–] Emptiness@lemmy.world 14 points 4 days ago
[–] EuroCentrist@feddit.org 13 points 3 days ago (1 children)

And he is absolutely right. Putin doesn't care about honor, dignity and ethics. He is interested in expanding and maintaining his power and is prepared to artificially keep his war alive as long as he has to answer to the Russian and Ukrainian people. Anyone who invites a criminal into their home will soon be a victim of the criminal's games. Only toughness can stop the insane nationalism of the Russians, deadly toughness.

[–] Aceticon@lemmy.dbzer0.com 8 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago) (1 children)

Putin's a complete total psychopath for whom human life has no value.

And yet he's fucking Mother Theresa of Calcuta by comparison with mass baby murderer Netanyahu whose troops actively target children.

You will notice that Merz has "forgotten" about Netanyahu is this "most serious war criminal of our time" scale.

This is all smoke & mirrors: German mainstream politicians loved Putin and they especially loved the money they got paid when they retired from politics for "consuting work" or even board memberships in companies like Gazprom, and it took months and a lot of pressure from everybody else in the West to get Germany to start disconnecting from Russia and reduce the money they sent Putin's regime for things like gas which was used by the likes of BASF as cheap raw material in their processes to get a competitive advantage over other chemical companies. Also getting them to actually start supporting Ukraine militarily was like trying to pull teeth out - I remember how everybody and their dog had to send tanks to Ukraine before Germany finally got around to sending their old tanks there.

I very much doubt that these statements from Merz are any more than pure image management, especially because his "unwavering support of the Jewish State" (his own words) has showned that for him too, just like for Putin, human life has no value when a person is not from the "right" ethnicity.

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[–] DancingBear@midwest.social 13 points 3 days ago

With a self reported civilian death ratio at over 80%, Netanyahu wins this award by far.

[–] FarraigePlaisteach@lemmy.world 12 points 4 days ago (1 children)

“Why do you notice the splinter in your brother’s eye, but do not perceive the wooden beam in your own eye?” (a famous person from what's now called Palestine)

[–] Melchior@feddit.org 3 points 3 days ago (1 children)

In what world is Merz even close to as bad as Putin, let alone significantly worse. The worsed he did was deliver weapons and political backing to Israel. Putin has started the largest war in Europe since WW2 and is activly involved in a lot more conflicts like the massive civil war in Sudan and Syria.

[–] FarraigePlaisteach@lemmy.world 4 points 3 days ago (7 children)

I don’t think the point of that quote is to measure who has the most or least amount of wood, but to point out the hypocrisy of complicity and selective condemnation.

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[–] piezoelectron@slrpnk.net 11 points 4 days ago (1 children)

Israel has murdered more children than all other killings in the same time period. Also more bombs dropped on Gaza than on Tokyo in WWII.

[–] Melchior@feddit.org 4 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Sudan has some estimates of half a million children starved to death in that period. Putins war in Ukraine is also extremely deadly. Add to that the civil wars in Myanmar and Syria.

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[–] A_norny_mousse@feddit.org 10 points 4 days ago (1 children)

Tough words for Mr MealyMouth. I wish he would do that more often.

[–] ISOmorph@feddit.org 4 points 3 days ago

I'm the opposite. I wish he would stfu. Idealy forever.

[–] randomname@scribe.disroot.org 9 points 4 days ago

Brutal Escalation of Large-Scale Russian Federation Attacks on Ukraine Setting Grim Casualty Records, Jeopardizing Fragile Diplomatic Momentum, Security Council Hears

  • Since the [Russian] invasion began, 14,054 civilians, including 730 children, have been killed, while more than 36,000 have been injured, he said, also acknowledging the conflict’s spillover into the Russian Federation where there have been civilian casualties in Belgorod, Kursk and Bryansk.
  • Slovenia’s delegate [emphasized] that Moscow’s second-largest air assault of the war on 28 August saw 620 drones and missiles launched mostly at Kyiv, destroying residential buildings and damaging the European Union delegation and British Council premises. These are “not military targets”, but densely populated areas, she stressed.
  • Yulia Svyrydenko, Prime Minister of Ukraine, told the Council that the Russian Federation’s 28 August assault [were] killing 25 people — including 4 children — and wounding 63 others. Among the victims was a girl “not yet three years old, born under Russian shelling in October 2022, and killed by Russian shelling in August 2025”, she said.
[–] Steve@startrek.website 7 points 4 days ago (1 children)
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[–] phoenixz@lemmy.ca 6 points 3 days ago

As much as I'd love to agree with it because it's damned close to being true, the real winner is Netanyahu, of course

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