Reagan probably. If my understanding of history is correct, its the only thing that doesn’t delete me but helps the most.
Jack Welch’s whole business philosophy.
Before him, it was more or less understood that business owners had a responsibility to do what was best for their customers, their employees, their communities, and their company’s long-term sustainability; the companies that didn’t (or didn’t at least make it look like they were) were looked down upon.
Welch was the first one to popularize the notion that short-term shareholder value was the CEO’s highest priority. He normalized companies’ c-suites being cutthroat, craven capitalists.
To be sure, not everything that’s wrong with the world today can be laid at his feet. But late-stage capitalism can.
It was more Milton Freedman’s philosophy. Welch was teacher’s pet who implemented it to the fullest extent.
I say this as an American, from the bottom of my heart I wish Christopher Columbus never existed.
Every republican since Nixon.
Update: enjoying my cake 🍰
Jesus would be funny. Honestly any key religious figure or even their betrayers (Judas) would just make for just a wildly different human race.
I’m sure it’s been done, a novel where this exact thing happens would be kinda interesting.
Judas’ betrayal was a canon event for christianity, so I’m pretty sure Jesus would just snap him back to life.
Save the snap. Use it as leverage to shape the future by threatening tyrants into standing down, for I have no idea what might happen absent of a historical event happening.
Now. Who to start with? Bibi? Putin? MBS? Closer to home?
It’d have to be something fairly pivotal, but nothing so important or so far back that it prevents myself from existing amidst the swirl of history. I think I’d take the risk and say Reagan never became president. That would domino Reaganomics out of history, and remove the precedent of celebrities becoming president.
I’d have gone for Nixon, personally.
Like I said, if you go too far back, you might remove yourself from history. Reagan is close enough to my birth that I’ll risk it, but Nixon would definitely unmake me.
Richard Nixon
If it was an event, I would choose World War 2. I’m Bohemian (Gypsy) and my people were just as hated as Jews (I’m also like 10% Jewish). So snap Hitler out of history please.
We can propagate effects through time? Perfect. I’m going send a snap forward into the future. From now on, anyone that attempts to gather up the infinity stones gets instantly dusted.
I feel like it’s one snap per attempt.
Like, thanos couldn’t permanently limit population, his one snap was big but finite.
Might as well Snap away the stones. They’re a thing. Much easier, very finite, just make sure you Snap away the stones deep into the past.
Newton’s third law.
If I Thanos snapped myself, wouldn’t that just delete half of me? Left or right? Top or bottom half?
I’d go back to the very beginning, the Prime Mover, and prevent all of it from happening in the first place.
Whoever invented circular toilet seats and 1" long sink spigots.
I think the birth of Hitler is an easy choice. But I wouldn’t be surprised to learn that eliminating some earlier event could both right another wrong and negate Hitler’s existence.
Aside from that there’s the existence of the internet, which I’m not sure has been an overall benefit to humankind. I think about this often.
Mao is probably a lot more impactful than Hitler - I’m just uncertain if it’d successfully abort the damage.
