"[Bryan] Singer explicitly draws parallels between the Holocausts survived... and chapters from U.S. history that resulted from mass hysteria and fear of groups allegedly posing a threat to the American way of life." -Lawrence Baron, X-Men as J Men

One interpretation- mass hysteria and fear lead to negative events. Baron cited the Holocaust, but I'd like to reference a few other instances.

Yes, the Holocaust works; Jews, gypsies, gay people, and other groups targeted by Hitler were "different" from people he grew up seeing. Hitler was German. He wanted to be an art student. Perhaps he found people with blond hair and blue eyes the most attractive and genuinely believed that he was doing a service to future generations in eliminating "unattractive" members of society (and non-German ones). Was this an early attempt at genetic engineering?

Did Hitler feel threatened by anyone who did not fit his mold? We were too scary, so he tried to kill us? It's amazing that a single person can have such influence over a group just by instilling fear.

The show The Twilight Zone uses fear to do some odd things. The neighbors are all meeting together. A new family has just moved in, and did not attend the meeting. The new family has an "unsightly" fence. Suddenly, no cars, phones, or electronics work. Of course, the new additions are suspect. Not eight minutes into the episode, one man says, "I'll get my gun." Later a guy says, "We should make a perimiter! ...Get weapons!" Someone responds, "We don't even know if we're under attack!" slowly, surely... everyone kills each other. Their house has power and a working car. Obviously, they must be terrorists. "Are you one of us? Or one of THEM?" A mob forms (with tiki torches and shovels and gasoline) and the group sets fire to the house! The episode ends: "it isn't enough for a sole voice of reason to exist. In this time of uncertainty we're so sure that villians lurk around every corner that we will create them ourselves if we can't find them. For while fear may keep us vigilant, it's also fear that tears us apart." I'd give you a link, but the show is so bad that I won't encourage you to watch it. Please don't go out of your way; it's twenty minutes of your life you won't get back.

The new neighbors never even had faces! They never came out of the house or talked to the group. Someone went in the house and talked to the newcomers. He returned with a positive report, which merited an angry response to the effect of, Why are you defending them? You must be a terrorist too!

This mob mentality, fear, and lack of all the facts makes bad things happen!

I want to discuss one final example. September 29, 2010 at Rutgers University some college students planted a hidden camera in Tyler Clementi's room. He was filmed having sex with another male; as a result, he committed suicide. My boyfriend's mom, Chris, was telling me about it, so I found a small news blurb on Google /blurb. What a cruel thing to do! Chris brought up a good point, though: If Tyler wasn't there, someone else would have been the target. She said bullying has nothing to do with the victim: it's about the bully.

So the question becomes: If somebody had killed Hitler before the Holocaust, would it still have happened? Are there infinite bullies and victims?