21% of Gen Z Americans think Adolf Hitler had some 'good ideas’

If people across the American political spectrum can agree on one thing, it’s that Adolf Hitler and Nazism were not just bad but the personification of consummate evil. After all, Americans, along with their Second World War allies, fought Hitler and Nazism all the way into Germany. The Holocaust, the deliberate extermination of six million Jews by Hitler and his Nazis, is accepted historical fact in US institutions of learning. 

Yet, an increasing number of Americans in the Gen Z age bracket as well as a small percentage of black and Hispanic Americans have begun to believe that Hitler wasn’t that bad and had some “good ideas.” A DailyMail.com/J.L. Partners poll discovered that 11 percent of Americans in general, 21 percent of Gen Z and black voters and 19 percent of Hispanic voters agreed that Hitler had some good ideas.

The survey asked 1,000 likely voters how they viewed Hitler: did he have some “good ideas” or was he “evil and had no redeeming features.” Although 77 percent said he was evil, 12 percent were unsure and 11 found some admirable policies.

But as is typical with the breakdown of accepted historical facts into debatable assumptions, younger voters were much more apt to cite Hiter’s good points as 21 percent of those under the age of 29 said Hitler had good ideas, while 16 percent of those aged 30 to 49 thought so and only seven percent of those between the ages of 50 and 64 could agree. It went down to five percent for those over 65.

If you’re wondering, 14 percent of former President Donald Trump supporters found some good in Hitler and nine percent of Vice President Kamala Harris' supporters also did. In a political slugfest, equating an opponent to Hitler is a sign of desperation because Hitler is still perceived as being beyond evil. A Democratic strategist outrageously recently compared Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump to Hiter, as she falsely accused Trump of supporting and promoting eugenics.

“If you need an example of the corrosive impact that social media can have on younger Americans' view of the world, this is it,” James Johnson, founder of J.L. Partners, told DailyMail.com when analyzing the data. The poll results are not unique in suggesting Gen Z is a lot more tolerant of evil dictators than Amerians have tended to ever be.

TikTok recently took down a bunch of Hitler videos where someone had dubbed the German speeches with an English translation. The clips quickly snatched up over a million views. Fascination with Hiter and the Third Reich is nothing new. Books and films devoted to the history of the Nazi era have always been popular. But there is a large gap between historical interest and political apologetics and more of the younger generation than ever before seems to be opting for the latter.