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Featured image for eye-poppingly gorgeous Social Media Graphics Set

Social Media Memes -FREE- 2021 Digital Video Marketing Stats – Stunning!

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This product is not for sale yet... but will be soon! 

We are prepping our launch pages now. Stay tuned.

* * * * *
However, you can get your FREE Social Media Memes by
clicking a button below. Opt in to notifications (red bell) to be notified when all the sets (Standard Edition of 100, Twitter and Pinterest Editions of 50 ea.) are available. 


In Enterprise Edition, you get 1000 memes! Yes, you read that correctly, ONE THOUSAND MEMES for Facebook/Instagram/LinkedIn, etc. as well as FIVE HUNDRED (500) each for Twitter and Pinterest.


That's a total of... OMG... 2000 graphics!!! 


You'll never have to worry about running out of content OR the dread "repeat tweet" ever again!

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It's here! The first of Mann's epic, arresting and BAM-POW beautiful social media memes. There's a reason I chose the word "stunning" to describe this set. Two reasons, actually. The first is how they look, and the second is the information they impart. 

Together, they rock worlds.

This big ol' set of 100 eye-popping social media graphics covers the most important "silo" within the broad subject of online marketing for 2021 (and beyond). What is it? Two words: video marketing.

Doubt this statement? Well, then you'd better check out the info in these social media memes themselves, because you'll quickly see I'm not exaggerating!

Social Media Graphics for Every Major Usage!

There are stunning changes afoot in the world of online marketing, and the influence of video on all of them cannot be understated. Most people are not aware of these big changes and how they will affect business at every level—from local mom-and-pop shops to global e-commerce and big name brand marketing operations. 

Post these cutting-edge social media memes and you will be perceived as the expert by informing your viewers of what is already here now, today, right under their noses—and more importantly, what is coming! 

Get Your Social Media Memes - KLIK!10 FREE • Set of 100 • Twitter, Pinterest • MORE!


FREE Social Media Memes for You!

You can get 10 FREE, unbranded social media memes for use in your own social media feeds right here, right now. These social media graphics can be posted to your site, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram, Tumblr, etc. Wherever you want! 

In fact, these social media graphics were designed specifically for the two biggest, most influential viral channels: Facebook and Instagram!

Marketplace Facts 2021 – Video Marketing | Set of 10 FREE Social Media Memes, Perfectly Sized for Facebook and Instagram!

These 10 gorgeous and informative graphics, representing the best in social media design, are 100% FREE to use as you see fit—and Mann's gift to you! The memes of this small set are NOT part of the larger set, which means you'll really have 110 unique social media graphics when you get both!

The Basic Set of Marketplace Facts includes 100 unique, colorful, unbranded social media memes that you can use to grab and hold viewer interest, provide valuable information to other business people and generate Likes and Shares for your own business.

You can re-brand them by putting your name/logo/site in the lower left corner, just as we have done for WebMarketingServices. Cool, huh?

Or, if you lack the interest, means or desire to do this for yourself, Mann and his team can custom brand these social media graphics for you. You have the option to order this at checkout. 

Mann is giving away #FREE #SocialMedia #Memes from his Video Marketing facts set. 

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Get Your Social Media Memes - KLIK!10 FREE • Set of 100 • Twitter, Pinterest • MORE!

Video Marketing Social Media Memes

Virtually every expert and indicator is pointing towards the same simple truth. Whether it's leaders in social media itself (Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc.) or leading research and metrics firms (Google, AdWeek, Alexa, etc.), they're all saying the same thing. The trends and numbers are indisputable and undeniable. 

In short: video is dominating marketing online. Period. End of story. Further, video is increasingly dominating the web overall.

These social media graphics from Mann are all about video and video marketing. They're topical, informative, interesting and, if you're NOT doing video, alarming! Heck, some would say these video marketing memes are far beyond alarming, as the truth revealed can be earth-shaking and perhaps even paradigm-shifting to some! 

Chart data courtesy of Wyzowl and Animoto.

In fact, if YOU are not familiar with the trends and reality shown on these social media memes, you may need to sit down first!

Why? Because if you're not doing video you're not only missing out on the best, most effective (and arguably cost-effective) means of reaching people today, you're also falling further and further behind your competition, which may well be doing video and... here's the hard part... eating your lunch!

NOTE: If your competition is NOT using video right now, you have a remarkable opportunity many others would kill for. Don't squander it—take advantage of it! Leap ahead of the competition and establish your dominance while it's (relatively) easy! 

Business owners need to know that #video #marketing is now dominant. These Social Media Memes (F-R-E-E G-I-F-T) show it! 

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Get Your Social Media Memes - KLIK!10 FREE • Set of 100 • Twitter, Pinterest • MORE!

Social Media Graphics — One Set, Many Options

The Basic Set of Marketplace Facts 2021 consists of 100 informative video marketing memes on ten different, gorgeous square backgrounds, designed specifically for Instagram and Facebook. 

The set is directed at business people of all stripes (ranging from local brick and mortar shop owners to online marketers to Fortune 500 CEOs), and these graphics will open eyes as the stats open their minds (I hope). 

But what about other formats? You need special social media graphics to take advantage of platforms that DO NOT favor square image posts. 


For instance, this is what Twitter does to Mann's gorgeous social media graphics... 

Social Media Design Specifically for Twitter!

Image showing how our standard square Basic Set images look on Twitter. Particularly bad if you want your own custom branding to show!

Twitter, probably the #2 social media sharing network after Facebook, prefers horizontal format posts. Square posts will get trimmed top and bottom, which requires a click in order to be read. Not good for getting impressions or likes and shares (i.e. retweets).

My 1:2 proportion horizontal format version of the Basic Set has 50 paired posts designed to be perfect for Twitter!

Example of how Mann's 2up horizontal social media memes (i.e. the Twitter Version) actually look on the platform. Big impact – double tap – bang bang! 

Social Media Memes Made for Pinterest!

Pinterest, one of the best "alternative" social media platforms—and very popular with well-heeled users—prefers a vertical format post.

But recently, the network has said that "tower" posts, which used to dominate, are no longer preferred. 

They don't want posts which are too tall, and square or horizontal format posts simply do not get the impressions and engagement.

The 2:1 proportion vertical format version of the Basic Set has 50 paired posts designed to be perfect for Pinterest!

Example of how the 2up vertical social media memes (i.e. the Pinterest Version) actually look on the platform. Instant interest and response (screenshot taken minutes after posting)!

The good news is, as you can tell from the above, Mann has created special versions of my Basic Set for these kinds of applications (horizontal and vertical). You can get them as an upgrade, separately or together!

Enterprise Edition: Endless Social Media Memes...

100 unique graphics (50 for the Twitter and Pinterest sets) may seem like a lot of content, but it can go really, really fast.

At five posts a day (probably the most you want to do on many networks), that's only 20 days worth of fresh content!

Once you've run through the Marketplace Facts 2021 - Video Marketing set, you're faced with the prospect every serious social media marketer is faced with: to repeat, or not to repeat.

Some platforms are better about this than others, but the general rule of thumb is that you don't repeat if you can avoid it—and if you do repeat, spread it out over time.

The absolute worst thing you can do with your social media content (because it pisses both the platform and your regs off) is regularly repeat the exact same stuff over and over again. You can spread the 100 posts out far enough that you shouldn't have any worries about being penalized for repeat content. However...

With a gorgeous (and informative) set of social media graphics like these, you'll likely want to repeat them. Right? Especially when  they're generating engagement! Fortunately, there's a bullet-proof end-run around the duplicate content issue.  

What is it? It's THIS. Social Media Design X10!

The Enterprise Edition! Whether unbranded or custom branded to suit your preferences, you'll get ONE THOUSAND SOCIAL MEDIA MEMES from my Basic set! We put each and every video marketing data point on ten different backgrounds.

With the Enterprise Edition of my social media graphics, you get the Basic Set of 100 memes... TENFOLD! So yeah... the above... TIMES TEN!!! You'll get 1000 completely unique and original posts!

So, to be clear... that's 100 x 10 or... 1000 total social media memes!

1000.

Yep. Mann did that! 

Is he insane? Maybe. Arguably. Probably. But YOU can benefit from his madness. 

Get the Enterprise Edition if you don't ever want to worry about the dread "repeat tweet!" Oh, and for the real maniacs out there, we can even apply the same method to the Twitter and Pinterest versions, giving you 500 images instead of 50!

NOTE: We are NOT responsible for suicidal ideations if you attempt to schedule all 1000 memes at once! 

Marketplace Facts 2021 - #VideoMarketing - #Memes for FB, Twitter, IG, Pinterest. Even fully branded and customized 4 YOU! F-R-E-E Set. #Cool. 

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Get Your Social Media Memes - KLIK!10 FREE • Set of 100 • Twitter, Pinterest • MORE!

Custom Social Media Memes and YOU

Mann Can Add YOUR Logo and URL to the Entire Set!

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You will note that Mann's video marketing-oriented memes are unbranded in their basic form. For some, this is fine. But many folks want and need fully branded content. Rest assured, he's got you covered!

You can get a fully custom branded version of the Basic Set, the Twitter and Pinterest versions, and even the Enterprise edition, using your logo/brand mark. All you have to do is pay for the customization option you want and we'll take care of the rest. 

Trust Mann, who had to build this entire freakin' set the hard way. You DON'T want to have to do this by hand! Save MANY HOURS of your time and a TON of aggravation.

Let us custom brand your social media memes for you. Then all you have to worry about is posting 'em!

Get Your Social Media Memes - KLIK!10 FREE • Set of 100 • Twitter, Pinterest • MORE!

IMPORTANT NOTE: When you order the customization option, your social media memes become 100% UNIQUE TO YOU! There's no chance that Google, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, etc. will penalize you in any way for having social media graphics in your feed which are the same as everyone else!  

ATTENTION AFFILIATES!
There will be an affiliate program for this and future infographic projects. Stay tuned!

History Kards – Crowdfund? Private Offer? Death? You Decide!

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Greetings new friends and old. First, before getting to the meat of this post, let me plant a thought and make a request...

Please OPT IN to my site notifications. It's the best, easiest and most painless way for me to keep in touch with you, and I won't abuse the privilege! Word. 

So if you haven't already opted in, please press the red bell to do so. It will show up in the lower right hand corner of your browser tab—momentarily, if it isn't already visible. Thanks much! You rock.  

UPDATE Dec 7 (!), 2020: I've been away from this History Kards projekt for some weeks now—not entirely by choice. Exigent circumstances intervened. Like, for instance, helping rid the nation of Donald "Grab 'em by the pussy" Trump, hopefully for good.

Though the way things are going at this point, I wonder if we'll EVER be rid of the toxic fool entirely—a prospect which both horrifies and sickens me. One way or another (gag), we're stuck with him for some time to come. But I digress... 

OK. To begin...

So prior to this post, I've gotten VERY LITTLE feedback on the History Kards project, which I know has a lot to do with my vanishingly small online footprint—something I hope to correct soon enough—though I don't know that it's going to happen by means of social media! 

In fact, it's vital that I figure out a way to correct this issue if I'm ever going to get this and other projeckts beyond the "cool idea" stage and into the world. Which is what this post is all about, and how you can help. In short...

I NEED YOUR FEEDBACK on HISTORY KARDS! 

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To Crowdfund or Not to Crowdfund–That is the Question. OK. Well, One of Them...

As you may already know, my thought/plan here has been to crowdfund this thing. The first 12 kards are done, but that leaves 38 to go—which is an absolute TON of work.


Not to get into production difficulties in great detail, but let's just say that between the researching, writing and design, it can take several days per card. Yeah. So do the math...


A crowdfund would serve two purposes: 1) Participants will have a unique opportunity to both "get their name in lights" and benefit posterity by helping get these cards out into the world, and 2) the artist (moi) will be able to focus on the business of getting History Kards out the door, rather than just keeping the wolf from it. 


But this begs the bigger question at this point.


To wit: Does anybody even care?


Am I barking up the wrong tree here? Do people outside my immediate circle actually think this is a cool idea, too? Cool enough, in theory, to buy? 


'Cause there's no point in discussing a crowdfund if nobody cares. 


Do YOU?

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What the 'F' is History Kards? 

In short, as you can probably see here, History Kards is my idea to produce graphical playing card decks which have an intrinsic educational and entertainment value, in addition to just being a fun and more engaging way to play card games. 

Whether you're playing gin rummy, poker, solitaire, bridge, war... it doesn't matter, because History Kards is a standard 52 card deck, suitable for use with any card game. And unlike other card games, you might actually learn something by playing card games with History Kards!  

Here's the kicker that makes these cards truly unique, and allows YOU to become part of history (in a good way).


Each card—all the villains, from Aces to Deuces—has a named sponsor. A patron, if you will. And that can be YOU, pal! Cool, huh?


If you missed this feature before, just take another look at the art on this page to see where your name might go... 

Eventually, I want to produce original card games too. I've got plenty of killer koncepts for those. But that's a whole nother order of magnitude (or two) of complication and production difficulty. Creating a card game or card-based game makes the whole process much, much harder.

At this point, I want to focus on A) the product that has the broadest possible appeal, and B) the one which will take the least amount of time to bring to the market.

I believe, whenever and wherever possible, in KISS: Keep It Simple, Stupid. So, in short, as a one-man band, I believe I should focus on History Kards first. 

Which is why I believe History Kards is it, and all I need now is some help in getting it all done.  

Which is where YOU come in... 

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Where We're At

Based on how people I know have reacted to the concept, History Kards will generate interest, engagement and discussion in and of themselves. The appeal is broad. History buffs, in particular, really dig these cards, but they're suitable for just about any group of people and will enhance virtually any card game you might play.

History Kards will one day, I hope, be a household name.

I know they will make great gifts and stocking stuffers, too. Of course, in this horrible age of Covid, one wonders when we'll be getting together in groups to have fun ever again, but I digress... 

The question of the moment is: What next? 


Do we crowdfund now, crowdfund later (but make a special private offer to those of you who are early enthusiasts), or kill the whole thing all together?


Maybe you have a great idea I/we haven't thought of along these lines, in which case I hope you'll leave it in the comments below.


(Say, if you're a rich history buff who wants to be my patron, we can answer this existential question right now!  Crowdfund? Who needs a crowdfund with a rich patron, right?) 

Private Offer: It was suggested to me, and I think it might be a good idea, to make a special "ground floor" offer to those early enthusiasts who want to get involved. 

I'm thinking something along the lines of a Founder's Klub.

There would be a buy-in, of course, but it would provide valuable bonus content unavailable to the general Crowdfund crowd. For instance, Founders would receive a limited edition, gilt-edged, signed and numbered Collector's Edition of the first set of History Kards. There might only be 10 or 20 of these sets!


Each Founder would also be listed with every deck. 


Additionally, Founders would receive advance notice of the Crowdfund, giving them an edge on becoming the named sponsor of one or more kards.


Yeah, BTW, that's one of the cool things about History Kards. Each kard has a Sponsor's name right on it, for all the world and posterity to see! 

Where We Might Go

The debut set is the 50 Greatest Villains of All Time. But this is just the first of what I hope will be many different sets of History Kards, covering everything from people to places and things.

For instance, I'd really like to do a WWII deck, featuring the most important leaders on all sides of the war. Follow on, expansion or booster decks would include famous vehicles, weapons, battles, significant events and individuals. 

Lending itself to this concept quite well would be a Wild West deck, Age of Pirates deck, decks dedicated entirely to subjects like American Presidents, Golden Age of Hollywood, famous people, cities and events of the Ancient World, etc., etc., etc..

If you have suggestions, please drop them in the comments below. 


Also, be sure to...

Take the HISTORY KARDS Kwiz!

Tell Me Whatcha Think, Friend!

So this is where YOU get to weigh in, and I really hope you do, 'cause I NEED some feedback here—hopefully positive feedback.

Please use the Comment Box below—scroll down!

  • If you really like what you're seeing and are excited by the concept, then please let me know. 
  • Similarly, even if you're not personally all that excited but you think others will be, then gimme the skinny. 
  • Even if you hate the idea, I'd like to know why.
  • Finally, what do you think is the best course of action here? A private offer before crowdfunding? Direct to crowdfunding? Ritual seppuku?

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One last thing: if you like what I'm doing here and want to see me continue working on History Kards, please SHARE on social media. Commenting and sharing would be really boffo! Every little bit helps with Google, if nothing else. Thank you!  

WHEN HISTORY CARDS BECAME HISTORY KARDS

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IDEA AS BRAND MARKETING STRATEGY

Not every great idea comes complete with an equally brilliant brand marketing strategy. Few do. It's one thing to have a great idea and another thing entirely to sell it. Proper branding can make or break a product. A good branding choice can carry you a long way on a limited budget, whereas a bad one might not work for any amount of money. 

On top of this, projects evolve and change. It's important to think about your branding from early on—even from the very beginning. But it's also important to remain flexible, because the brand which was so perfect for one version of a product might not be for the finished one.

In any event, this particular project is one of those obvious ones which did not require any great creativity on my part. When the idea of History Cards popped into my head, my next thought (because I'm a marketing dork) was: "And the name is the brand! Awesome!!!"

However, the totally obvious choice ended up as a loser, of a sorts. What began as a "no brainer" ended with a change of mind.

GENESIS

I originally decided to call my history-related playing cards series History Cards, with a capital 'C'—simple, straight and to the point. Right? That I couldn't get the .com domain for the name didn't bother me too much. Other domain extensions were available, though it's common wisdom (and probably actually true) that ".com" is still the best, overall.

The theory goes that when people think of websites, they think of ".com"—right? I mean, when was the last time you thought of ".net" or ".org" for that matter? Sure, they're still two of the "big three" original TLDs (top level domains), but who uses them? These days, almost nobody. Even charities and non-profits tend to use ".com," which is pretty funny since such organizations are explicitly non-commercial, and ".org" is specifically for such utilizations.

However, there's a counter argument, insofar as using a non-.com domain. That is, the domain would still be "HistoryCards"—short, sweet, memorable, to the point. For a number of reasons (from branding to SEO), I thought it would make sense to go this route. Following this decision, I decided to go with .xyz because it is, IMHO, the most memorable of the new TLDs. So, I was reasonably happy with HistoryCards.xyz

Would I have preferred HistoryCards.com? Sure. Of course. But again, I couldn't get it. So, as far as I was concerned, I settled for the next best thing.

SECOND THOUGHTS

Staircase wit is one of my special talents. And so is second-guessing myself. I can talk myself into just about anything, and just about as easily talk myself out of it, too. :-/

Not long after making the "History Cards decision," the dread second thoughts began to stir. As I worked along, the thought kept bugging me that while HistoryCards.com was long gone, HistoryKards.com was available and ready for the taking. Not incidentally, the "k" thing is on brand for me personally, as you may have noticed herein. Though never a planned affectation initially, I started substituting "k" for "c" on this site and in my work whenever and wherever possible, both to be a tad bit jarring—and therefore more memorable—and because it's a play on my broadly Germanic/Nordic (GerMannik/Nordik?) heritage. Besides, if I could get a .com, that would make up for the unusual spelling—though that, in and of itself, made it memorable and more brand worthy.

I mean, look at all the companies today which have made small (or large) fortunes with completely non-sense but memorable ones. Sadly, there is no ".kom" though.

Even more than HistoryCards.xyz, HistoryKards.com began to sing to me. And the more I tried to tell myself that I should ignore this gut-level impulse, the harder and harder it was to disregard. It really began to eat at me.

So, I was talking myself out of what I'd talked myself into. Go figure. What little I lost with a "c" was more than made up for by a "k". Even the SEO argument was not very strong; with just a little bit of traction, people searching for "history cards" will still find "history kards"!

Besides, the great thing about domains is that they can be pointed anywhere. I knew I could (and since have) pointed HistoryCards.xyz to this site, just as HistoryKards.com will, if and until I decide to build out a dedicated site. I can tell you one thing, though; that's' not gonna happen unless the project takes off and becomes a viable commercial one. Only then would it be worth the trouble!

One of the reasons I originally chose "HistsoryCards.xyz" was for SEO reasons. I want to rank for the term "history card(s)"—even though, at this point, it's not a term people search for.

Finally, I just like the look of History Kards over History Cards. To me, it's just stronger. And as I said before, I think it's notably memorable whereas the original version is kinda bland, and therefore not especially so. Not that, either way, it makes that much of a difference. If you can't remember some historical playing cards as "history cards"—however you spell it—it doesn't much matter if you spell it with a Q.

This brings to mind the great Monty Python sketch where a character being interviewed on TV explains that his name is Raymond Luxury Yacht, but it's pronounced Throat Warbler Mangrove.



But I digress...

THE CHANGEOVER BEGINS

So, the other day, I woke up with my mind changed. "F*ck it," I thought. You can argue it either way, but in the end, it comces down to personal preference. My feeling was that "History Kards" was just going to be better, long run, than boring old "History Cards." It was that simple.

But there was a further complication. As I'd already started using HistoryCards.xyz, switching over to HistoryKards.com was going to entail redoing some art and purging pieces that were already out there. Ugh. That was a moderately big downside to contemplate, and it almost talked me out of the changeover. But ultimately, I decided to make the change now, when the pain would be limited, rather than sitting pat and becoming increasingly restive and regretful about it.

I just knew that end of the day, I was not going to be happy with History Cards. And the longer I waited, the worse it would get from a "rebrand" standpoint.

So, I took the plunge. History Kards it is.

All things considered, I believe the new version of the name is better than the old, and a better overall brand marketing strategy.

What do you think? 

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HISTORY KARDS TERMS & METHODOLOGY

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The kards are pretty self explanatory. Name, Born and Died are obvious. After "Died" is a number in parenthesis, which is the age of the villain at death. Era, Dtoll and Drate require a bit more explanation, which follows...

ERA

This is the "active period" during which the villain in question did the harm that made him or her infamous. It usually equates to the period of time in which he or she was in charge, or in command of some kind of entity which did the harm.

For instance, in the case of Hitler, it's the period from his appointment to Chancellor of Germany, upon which he declared himself Fuhrer ("Leader") and took complete control over all of the nation, to the end of his life (which was also the end, for all intents and purposes, of Nazi Germany). 

For someone like Mao Zedong, it represents the lengthy period of time from when he was a revolutionary and head of the Chinese Communist Party all the way through to being the undisputed leader of China.

Note that the bracketed number following the Era range is the total number years during which the villain did his or her worst.

DTOLL

This is short for "Death Toll." It represents the total number of deaths directly attributable to the villain in question.

Since killers on the scale of the 50 Greatest Villains of All Time don't achieve their infamy by working alone, it also represents the crimes of the people and organizations subordinate to said monster.

As I've noted elsewhere, and historians have pointed out time and time again, many, if not most, of history's worst mass murderers did not personally get their hands dirty. At least not much.

  • Stalin didn't personally arrest or convict the vast numbers of Soviet citizens who were exiled to near-certain death in the Gulags or simply liquidated under his authority. 
  • Hitler is believed to have personally executed a few enemies over the years, but most of the dirty work of the Third Reich was done by his henchmen (and women).
  • Chiang Kai-Shek and Mao Zedong did spend a lot of time in the field where blood was shed, fighting the Chinese Civil War amongst themselves, and then fighting together against Imperial Japan's invasions. But when it came to genocide, political murder and crimes against civilians, it was generally others who did the real dirty work.
  • King Leopold of Belgium never came within a thousand miles of the blood being spilled in his name and for his benefit in the Congo Free State. The same near-total detachment from mass murder and crimes against humanity can be said for Hirohito. 

Nearly every villain down through the ages believes (or has convinced himself) that what he is doing is justified and even good. Even the pure psychopaths who don't need to justify their crimes need others to help them, and in this, an ideology which permits or even celebrates murder is more than just useful, it is necessary. Enemies must be demonized and dehumanized in order to get average people (most of whom have a conscience) to do horrific things to their fellow man. 

One wonders if mass murder and genocide would even be possible if it weren't for the odious ideologies which poison minds and convince large swathes of people that inhuman behavior is somehow acceptable and even preferential. 

In a way it makes perfect sense. No man, no matter how homicidal, can kill large numbers of people over weeks, months and years without willing collaborators and awful machinery at his disposal.  

DRATE

This is short for "Death Rate." In some ways, it's a more important statistic than DToll, because it measures the average annual death toll during the Era in which the villain was active.

In other words, I divided the total number of deaths by the number of years the villain was active (Era); this results in an average, which is the DRate. Obviously, this is a rough estimate, but it certainly gives one a different perspective. 

For instance, in total numbers of deaths, Hitler ranks third, behind Mao Zedong and Josef Stalin. These last two dictators committed their crimes against humanity across decades, giving them much higher total body counts.

But what makes Hitler arguably the single worst mass murderer of all time is the rate at which people died under his reign. His regime set the standard for industrial-scale murder. Let us hope no future leader ever aspires to anything like it.

METHODOLOGY

If you want to know more, you can read a detailed explanation of the background to this project. As I discuss there at length, rating history's greatest (i.e. worst) villains is hardly an exact science. No two experts, looking at the same evidence, arrive at the same conclusions. In the end, it all falls into the realm of "best guestimate," and in that regard—perhaps appropriately, given the project—it is more art than science. 

I doubt that "exact science" for something like History Cards is even possible. 

For example, even in a hyper-anal, super-detail oriented society like WWII-era Nazi Germany, where extensive and voluminous records were kept on everything—including the very regime's crimes against humanity—it's impossible to have an exact accounting of its worst transgressions. Records were lost and destroyed, of course, and some attempt was made to cover up the most egregious crimes of the Third Reich, especially towards the end of the war (many of Hitler's subordinates realized that all was lost and a reckoning on the way).

But even if we had a perfect set of records, they are not to be fully trusted. Nazi exterminators had incentives to lie about their "kill count," just as US troops did in Vietnam. There were inevitable mistakes and record keeping errors. And beyond this is the ugly truth that for millions of Nazi victims, there was no record kept whatsoever. Does anyone really believe that the Einsatzgruppen (the SS death corps) kept a tally for every single person they killed in the vast swath of death they cut across Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union? 

When compared to most other eras and entities involved in large-scale crimes against humanity, the Third Reich's book keeping was damn near perfect—and it is the exception which proves the rule. 

By contrast, when Genghis Khan was laying waste to entire regions, and killing people on a vast scale, there was a dearth of detailed records—few which exist today and are considered useful by historians. What is true for Genghis Khan is true for most of the mass murderers in history, which probably explains why even the experts disagree—and in many cases, so dramatically.  

So, for each villain I chose a number range, from low death numbers to high death numbers (though in some cases tossing the far outliers), based on the estimates of respected academics and experts. From there I took an average, which became the DToll. I think it's about the best anybody can do. 

If YOU have information or ideas which might be value to this project, please leave a comment below or kontact me directly. The former is preferred, as others will then be able to see what you have to say and weigh in. 

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