I assumed that whatever magic would be used to get me a dinner with Hitler would only last for that meal and we'd be back to being in separate times. No matter how charismatic he is I don't think he could convince me to do anything at dinner, like try to kill a waiter.
Best I think he could do would be to make me think maybe he wasn't quite as bad as I've been taught, but once back home and out of his presence I think all that would do is make me do some research to check and I'd find out that he was indeed as bad.
Also, I'd not go to my dinner with him without my friends knowing about it and I'd ask them to be on the alert for any signs that I'd been unable to resist him and they could probably keep me from doing anything bad before I could be convinced to become rational again.
Sure, but I'd have an advantage over them because I'm not from Hitler's time and I'm not German.
Germany had a lot of lingering problems from WWI and prejudice against minorities such as Jews was widespread. This made people more receptive to arguments blaming minorities for the problems they were having. (And even with that many were able to resist). Sure, he apparently had god-like levels of charisma, but he was also in an environment that made converting people not as hard.
There wasn't anything going on the the mid '80s in the US that I was aware of that might make me similarly receptive. I was a few years out of college making a good living programming with plenty of friends and everything was going great. Plus I would be going in knowing his history and how it didn't work out well for those who joined him.
Best I think he could do would be to make me think maybe he wasn't quite as bad as I've been taught, but once back home and out of his presence I think all that would do is make me do some research to check and I'd find out that he was indeed as bad.
Also, I'd not go to my dinner with him without my friends knowing about it and I'd ask them to be on the alert for any signs that I'd been unable to resist him and they could probably keep me from doing anything bad before I could be convinced to become rational again.