History Main / PostMortemConversion

* Conservapedia is among the many who Post Mortem Convert George Orwell; they have also recently recast UsefulNotes/MartinLutherKingJr, another socialist. They also appropriate ''all'' of America's Founding Fathers (presumably including even UsefulNotes/ThomasPaine, who could be plausibly claimed as a liberal, or better yet, a radical).[[note]]Conservapedia (and contemporary American culture more generally) defines “liberal” in such a way as to include radicals, at least those radicals who support free and fair elections and universal human rights, anyway. This is different from how the rest of the world uses the terms.[[/note]] The noted Progressive reformer UsefulNotes/TheodoreRoosevelt as well.

* Conservapedia is among the many who Post Mortem Convert George Orwell; they have also recently recast UsefulNotes/MartinLutherKingJr, another socialist. They also appropriate ''all'' of America's Founding Fathers (presumably including even UsefulNotes/AlexanderHamilton, who could be plausibly claimed as a liberal). The noted Progressive reformer UsefulNotes/TheodoreRoosevelt as well.

* The infamous "Lost Cause Myth" often lionized Confederate generals as brave men resisting "Northern Aggression". However, Robert E. Lee, himself the most lionized man of all, opposed Confederates since he felt it would prevent the wounds of the American Civil War from healing.

* In the backstory of ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyX'', Yuna's father Braska was a rebel who questioned authority and reached out in peace to the Al-Bhed, a people that the theocratic CorruptChurch he belonged to liked to use as a scapegoat, and was cast out of the clergy as a result. When Braska set out on his journey, he mused on what a delightful irony it would be if he, Auron (then a warrior-priest in disgrace for political reasons) and Jecht (seemingly a drunken heretic claiming to be from a city destroyed 1000 years ago) were the ones to defeat [[EldritchAbomination Sin]]. Fast forward to the present, and the Church of Yevon is proclaiming Braska a champion of the Church to be emulated by the faithful while never mentioning the way he challenged the Church. There's even a short scene where Auron stands before a statue of Braska in a temple and comments on the irony.

* Done quite literally in ''WebAnimation/TheSagaOfBiorn'', which ends with [[spoiler:the title character being posthumously converted from Asatru to Christianity by being buried in hallowed ground by some nuns he rescued (as a side effect of his whole 'die in combat to reach WarriorHeaven' faith). Being sent to a [[HellOfAHeaven Heaven that resembles his own faith's Helheim doesn't please his spirit much.]]]]

* In ''Film/WagTheDog'', the propaganda spin-doctors turns a retarded rapist into a faked war-hero. When they can't control him, they get him killed. This is a huge improvement for them, since his corpse is easy to control. [[ShamCeremony Public burial of the "hero" ensues]].

* UsefulNotes/AdolfHitler is an almost universal inversion in that ''nobody'' wants him on their side. Whenever his beliefs are discussed outside of [[ThoseWackyNazis neo-nazi circles]] they never coincide with the beliefs of the speaker, [[GodwinsLaw and usually do coincide with those of the speaker's opponent]]. He is alternately labelled a left- or right-winger [[note]]Hitler's brand of Facism is generally accepted to be an extreme right-wing philosophy for its dependence on nationalism and militarism, though it draws from both ends of the spectrum and there are arguments to be made that it is ''neither'' right nor left wing.[[/note]]; a Christian, an atheist, an agnostic, or a pagan [[note]]Wiki/TheOtherWiki has [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Religious_views_of_Adolf_Hitler an entire article]] on this one.[[/note]]; for or against gun rights [[note]]Generally for - Hitler was a fan of the Swiss model of gun ownership and [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gun_legislation_in_Germany#Gun_regulation_of_the_Third_Reich loosened gun laws considerably]] for everyone except the Jews.[[/note]]; so on and so forth. HitlerAteSugar is this phenomenon in trope form.

* Darwin's writings (and later additions) were used during his lifetime and after his death to justify social Darwinism and eugenics. He disapproved of and fought against both.
** Not to mention the completely false story that he recanted his theory of evolution on his deathbed, along with accepting Christ (he was raised Christian, but died an agnostic).

* Any well-known dead political figure qualifies. It's always been a staple of politics and it's taken to ridiculous extents these days: "This is my new proposal... and I'm telling you right now, George Washington would have loved it!"

* Creator/FriedrichNietzsche despised anti-Semitism, nationalism, and (towards the end of his life) Germany (he took to insisting that he was ''Polish'', which is as false--perhaps [[TheGadfly intentionally so]]--as it is hilarious). It is therefore quite natural that ThoseWackyNazis appropriated his notes - heavily edited by his proto-Nazi sister - to make it seem like they had an intellectual program besides hating the Jews ([[LongList and the Roma, and the Poles, and the Russians, and...]]). Unfortunately for the world, [[UsefulNotes/DichterAndDenker Martin Heidegger]], a student of Nietzsche's thought, believed them....

* In Season One of ''Series/TheLastKingdom'', Prince Æthelwold tries to claim that his father named him, not Alfred, as heir on his deathbed. Unfortunately, he tries this with nobles who were at the king's deathbed and knew that not only had he done no such thing, Prince Æthelwold wasn't even there.

* Slightly played with in ''VideoGame/LastScenario'', where Alexander, one of the renowned heroes of the previous age, has a tomb erected in his honor in the Empire's capital city (the Empire being the faction Alexander was fighting AGAINST) [[spoiler: for an unjust war which he had turned his back on. There is however a kicker. The tomb is a fake that doesn't even have his body. That is because he was up to that point still alive, although due to being held hostage in a scientist military facility and having his memories mostly sapped by the setting's magical rocks biorites, he still fit the trope as he is generally unable to contest the falsehoods that his name was being used for. ]]

[[folder: Web Comics ]]

** Was UsefulNotes/AdolfHitler German or Austrian? [[note]]He was born in Austria and moved to Germany when he was three before moving back. He always identifies more as a German. Ethnically this was the case and he later of course embraced pan-German nationalism. He joined the German rather than Austrian army when World War One broke out precisely over dislike of his native country.[[/note]]

** Was UsefulNotes/AdolfHitler German or Austrian? [[note]]He was born in Austria and moved to Germany when he was three.[[/note]]

* Series/KamenRiderGaim has, in the web-movies of the Gaim Gaiden series, a guy named Shura. He used to be on Zack's dance team before [[TheRival Kaito]] [[SocialDarwinist Kumon]] took over. Several years later, after [[Spoiler:Kaito dies]], Shura takes over the dance team, Team Baron, and turns it into a wrestle-to-the-death, terrorist group who would use small bombs to become suicide bombers. And they did this in the belief that this was something that Kaito would want. Surprise, surprise- Kaito was nowhere near that type of thing. He was an ''Antisocial Darwinist'' who wanted to create a world where the weak wouldn't be oppressed and the strong wouldn't abuse ther power. So of course Shura had to be stopped.

** Was UsefulNotes/NapoleonBonaparte French or Italian? [[note]]He was born in France to a family of Italian descent and was active in both countries during his lifetime.[[/note]]

** Was Alexander Graham Bell (and his various inventions) Canadian, American, or Scottish? [[note]]Born in Scotland, moved to Canada at age 23 - his most famous experiments and the development of the telephone took place on both sides of the Canadian/American border (primarily in Boston and Brantford).[[/note]]

* In ''Webcomic/{{Drowtales}}'', [[http://www.drowtales.com/mainarchive.php?sid=9897 Quaintana discusses this]]. Then orders the statue of a queen idolized as a goddess to be broken to shards, despite not having much emnity towards her, because of her disgust at how the Sharens "converted" one of their high queens to godhood and then used her as an excuse to rule as tyrants. Bonus points due to the blind faith one of the other factions has for this goddess, and how their opposing faction knows that the so-called divine high queen ''became an archdemon''.

* [[http://mediamatters.org/blog/2013/12/06/limbaugh-whitewashes-his-past-attacks-on-mandel/197187 Limbaugh Whitewashes His Past Attacks On Mandela To Claim He's Conservative]]

* ''Drowtales'': [[http://www.drowtales.com/mainarchive.php?sid=9897 Quaintana discusses this]]. Then orders the statue of a queen idolized as a goddess to be broken to shards, despite not having much emnity towards her, because of her disgust at how the Sharens "converted" one of their high queens to godhood and then used her as an excuse to rule as tyrants. Bonus points due to the blind faith one of the other factions has for this goddess, and how their opposing faction knows that the so-called divine high queen ''became an archdemon''.

* The stonecutters from ''TheSimpsons'' claim that (among others) the signers of The Declaration of Independence [[AndZoidberg and Washington]] were Stonecutters, according to their Secret World History (this is a reference to the RealLife membership of many, including Washington, in the Freemasons, which the stonecutters are a thinly veiled parody of).

* In 1995, when Butterfly [=McQueen=] -- Prissy in ''GoneWithTheWind'' -- died in a house fire, a [[TheFundamentalist fundamentalist]] neighbor who had proselytized [=McQueen=] (a lifelong atheist) several times reported to the press that as [=McQueen=] was being carried out, she said she was repenting and claiming that she was really a Christian all the time. Other witnesses disputed this claim.