Yeah, but this was colonial/early postcolonial Africa, and Hitler was in Europe. How well can you tell fine African leaders from atrocity committing ones? And, the average Lemming has an actual solid education.
This is the dudes explanation as well, when the media bothers him. Dad just picked a random major European leader.
I’m certainly no expert on Namibian history and culture, most of what I know comes from just now skimming the Wikipedia article
But a couple things jumping out at me
The area was at one point a German colony (and also at one point they carried out a genocide against the Herero people that some think may have been sort of a model for the Holocaust)
They also had apartheid similar to South Africa.
And to this day a whole lot of Africa doesn’t exactly have stellar access to education, the internet, etc. and even in some parts of the world that do have better access, there’s a lot of people in other parts of the world outside of Europe and the Americas who don’t quite grok* just how bad the Nazis were because it’s not something they cover so extensively in their history classes. I feel like every couple years I see some story come out of Asia somewhere where some business opens up with a Nazi theme and they don’t get why so many people in the West are mad about it.
So kind of taking a couple stabs in the dark here
It could be that his father named him after Hitler maybe trying to soften things up for him, like maybe the white people at the top of the apartheid heiarchy would be a little nicer if he was named after the biggest whitest racist he could think of.
Or maybe they were in a bit of an information bubble where he just really didn’t fully understand how bad Hitler and the Nazis were and went with it because he thought it had a nice ring to it
Maybe it was a way to give a giant middle finger to racists. Sort of a “haha, how do you like your leader’s name when it’s on a black kid? Suck it Nazis.”
Or maybe it was something else. That’s just a couple thoughts off the top of my head.
*fuck muskrat for trying to steal this word for his own bullshit.
Robert A. Heinlein was good friends with L Ron Hubbard — you may want to rethink your assertion that Musk is ‘stealing’ the word. Pretty sure that ship sailed long before Musk.
In the same interview with the German paper, Uunona said his father gave him the name without understanding its dark history.
“As a child I saw it as a totally normal name,” Uunona said.
Uunona insisted he rejects Nazi ideology and any dreams of world domination.
“It wasn’t until I was growing up that I realised: This man wanted to subjugate the whole world,” Uunona said. “I have nothing to do with any of these things.”
Idk, I guess I believe the guy, but his father must have been living under a rock.
Vinladen is named after Osama bin Laden, the founder of
Al-Qaeda […] His brother is named Sadam Huseín after the dictator of Iraq, Saddam Hussein, and his father planned to name the third sibling George Bush after U.S. president George W. Bush if it had been a boy.
I definitely recall talking to someone at Cisco TAC (or maybe Fortinet…but most of my dealings with FortiTAC lately are with the same groups of people…you get to a point in understanding the tech that only certain people can help you…) who has a “villainous” middle-eastern name.
Literally Hitler.
Also hes 59…so he’s born in 1966-ish. Hitler was recent history. That’d be like me calling my kid Suddam Hussein.
Oh really was there someone else by that name already? I hadn’t known.
You’d think at least a nurse or something would be like “uhh you might want to reconsider”.
Yeah, but this was colonial/early postcolonial Africa, and Hitler was in Europe. How well can you tell fine African leaders from atrocity committing ones? And, the average Lemming has an actual solid education.
This is the dudes explanation as well, when the media bothers him. Dad just picked a random major European leader.
I’m certainly no expert on Namibian history and culture, most of what I know comes from just now skimming the Wikipedia article
But a couple things jumping out at me
The area was at one point a German colony (and also at one point they carried out a genocide against the Herero people that some think may have been sort of a model for the Holocaust)
They also had apartheid similar to South Africa.
And to this day a whole lot of Africa doesn’t exactly have stellar access to education, the internet, etc. and even in some parts of the world that do have better access, there’s a lot of people in other parts of the world outside of Europe and the Americas who don’t quite grok* just how bad the Nazis were because it’s not something they cover so extensively in their history classes. I feel like every couple years I see some story come out of Asia somewhere where some business opens up with a Nazi theme and they don’t get why so many people in the West are mad about it.
So kind of taking a couple stabs in the dark here
It could be that his father named him after Hitler maybe trying to soften things up for him, like maybe the white people at the top of the apartheid heiarchy would be a little nicer if he was named after the biggest whitest racist he could think of.
Or maybe they were in a bit of an information bubble where he just really didn’t fully understand how bad Hitler and the Nazis were and went with it because he thought it had a nice ring to it
Maybe it was a way to give a giant middle finger to racists. Sort of a “haha, how do you like your leader’s name when it’s on a black kid? Suck it Nazis.”
Or maybe it was something else. That’s just a couple thoughts off the top of my head.
*fuck muskrat for trying to steal this word for his own bullshit.
Robert A. Heinlein was good friends with L Ron Hubbard — you may want to rethink your assertion that Musk is ‘stealing’ the word. Pretty sure that ship sailed long before Musk.
Idk, I guess I believe the guy, but his father must have been living under a rock.
Africa is not known for being well plugged in. Especially not in the 1960’s.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Osama_Vinladen
There is actually an Indian colleague in IT by the name that you have mentioned :)
Oh shit does he work for Cisco TAC? I think I’ve worked with him before. Forgot all about that.
Nah. Kinda similar big name, but I’d rather not name the company.
I definitely recall talking to someone at Cisco TAC (or maybe Fortinet…but most of my dealings with FortiTAC lately are with the same groups of people…you get to a point in understanding the tech that only certain people can help you…) who has a “villainous” middle-eastern name.
There’s likely more than one though.
Udolf Hitler?