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The Spanish and Portuguese empires have much to be ashamed of too... Whether you should personally be ashamed for that is up to you.

GenericsMotors 9y ago
This is true; yet on the flip-side there is also a lot to be proud of. People tend to forget all the good. The same can be said for the Romans. They slaughtered and enslaved the native peoples of the Iberian peninsula, yet they also built roads, aqueducts, introduced new farming techniques and education. Should present-day italians feel ashamed of what their ancestors did? I don't think so.
- boomboomsubban 9y ago
  The "what about all the good Hitler did?" argument. Doing those things did not require the slaughtering and enslavement, there's no balancing act that makes those acceptable.
  - vim_wannabe 9y ago
    Different people, different time, different ethics. Also none of the things mentioned finance themselves. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qc7HmhrgTuQ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qc7HmhrgTuQ
  - GenericsMotors 9y ago
    Yeah, but you have the luxury of judging the actions of people who lived hundreds or thousands of years ago from the comfort of your living-room recliner. According to your extremist logic, the following were all pretty much Hitler as well: - Mayans - Egyptians - Chinese - Mongols - Romans - Macedonians - Persians - Russians - Omayyad Caliphate - Ottoman Empire/Turkey - All african tribes who sold their brethren into slavery - French - British - Portuguese - Spanish - Dutch - Germans Pretty much any civilization that has ever existed has committed atrocities. What they did was brutal and there's no excusing this, but they also did good. You can deny it all you want but this is a fact.
    - boomboomsubban 9y ago
      >Yeah, but you have the luxury of judging the actions of people who lived hundreds or thousands of years ago from the comfort of your living-room recliner. Yes. They have the luxury of my judgements having absolutely no impact on them. As their good acts do not compensate for the atrocities, we should be ashamed of what they've done, and try not to do the same in the future. Remembering the good without keeping that in mind leads to the same tragedies playing out again.

GenericsMotors 9y ago

This is true; yet on the flip-side there is also a lot to be proud of. People tend to forget all the good. The same can be said for the Romans. They slaughtered and enslaved the native peoples of the Iberian peninsula, yet they also built roads, aqueducts, introduced new farming techniques and education. Should present-day italians feel ashamed of what their ancestors did? I don't think so.

boomboomsubban 9y ago
The "what about all the good Hitler did?" argument. Doing those things did not require the slaughtering and enslavement, there's no balancing act that makes those acceptable.
- vim_wannabe 9y ago
  Different people, different time, different ethics. Also none of the things mentioned finance themselves. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qc7HmhrgTuQ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qc7HmhrgTuQ
- GenericsMotors 9y ago
  Yeah, but you have the luxury of judging the actions of people who lived hundreds or thousands of years ago from the comfort of your living-room recliner. According to your extremist logic, the following were all pretty much Hitler as well: - Mayans - Egyptians - Chinese - Mongols - Romans - Macedonians - Persians - Russians - Omayyad Caliphate - Ottoman Empire/Turkey - All african tribes who sold their brethren into slavery - French - British - Portuguese - Spanish - Dutch - Germans Pretty much any civilization that has ever existed has committed atrocities. What they did was brutal and there's no excusing this, but they also did good. You can deny it all you want but this is a fact.
  - boomboomsubban 9y ago
    >Yeah, but you have the luxury of judging the actions of people who lived hundreds or thousands of years ago from the comfort of your living-room recliner. Yes. They have the luxury of my judgements having absolutely no impact on them. As their good acts do not compensate for the atrocities, we should be ashamed of what they've done, and try not to do the same in the future. Remembering the good without keeping that in mind leads to the same tragedies playing out again.