Oddbean

@46cd5609 (I will totally have this fun conversation!) So I'm not a doctor and can't speak to that aspect of it. But I can talk about the history. It's possible that, had Hitler's condition been known, his enemies would have taken the same kind of comfort in it as I take in certain people being 80, so I'll certainly grant you that. But with the benefit of hindsight, it's pretty clear that Hitler wasn't incapacitated by whatever it was. Did it contribute to his actions? Sure. I'd just argue that it didn't mean the same thing as him being 80. With the benefit of hindsight it's entirely possible that people of the future will look at Trump being 80 and think I was being wildly optimistic. He could certainly live longer than I expect. But I take more comfort in his age than I might if he were thirty and had a degenerative condition. You as a doctor would probably be in a better place to say for certain, but Hitler's decline over the course of his Fuhrer-ship doesn't lead me to believe that he wouldn't have lived and thrived for quite a few years longer had the war gone differently. I like the scholarship surrounding Hitler's condition. It's very compelling and exclaims some puzzling things. I just don't know that I believe it to be a smoking gun, any more than the stuff that has come out about his drug use is a smoking gun. I guess that's all I'm saying. I don't think the drugs would have killed him quickly either.