alternatehistory.com

OTL could be considered a bit of a wank for democracy, egalitarianism and human rights in that almost every government on Earth at least claims to favor these concepts. What I wonder is if this state of affairs is a more or less inevitable result of cultural and economic progress or if a different set of values could have arisen if history had taken another course?

More specifically, could more social Darwinist values be embraced? I don't mean "social Darwinist" in the narrow sense of adhering to the ideas of Herbert Spencer but in the sense of a focus on might makes right, survival of the fittest, ruthless exploitation of the poor, no respect for what we call human rights and, well, from a modern perspective more "evil" values in general. What changes would be necessary for such values to become dominant in modern society? Bonus points if you can make slavery acceptable, if not widely practiced.
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