Death and destruction are absolutely terrible. They are not the only way to reshape or destroy a society. Like the parent comment said, the tools of mass manipulation that can be created with the data and platforms available today can have just as broad of an effect over time, if not moreso because it's invisible.

How would you convince someone of that?

If that's really your marker, nothing but another war or the other horsemen will meet it. We can probably repeal all the laws on the books without hitting it.

The issue is not seeing something someone else may not - that's but a symptom that allows the burying of much illegal and discriminatory activity. There's been plenty of examples of both in recent years - Cambridge Analytica is just one.

> id say something like ww2 is “extremely bad”

WW2 was a result of a far right government and its rapid rise to power, mainly as a result of propaganda and misinformation. So...