3 ms·

I've always found people declaring a particular position on any current event "on the wrong side of history" to be incredibly arrogant. Nobody knows how histor

I've always found people declaring a particular position on any current event "on the wrong side of history" to be incredibly arrogant. Nobody knows how history will portray (if it will record it at all) a particular current event in the decades to come. What gift of foresight do these proclaimers have, that allows them to so confidently make that assessment?

dannykwells 8y ago
Can you name times when any person or entity which was pro-genocide was ended up on the "right" side of history? Not that tech is committing genocide. But I think in those cases reasonable people would agree that those entities are on the wrong side of history, and they would (almost assuredly, if the past is a guide) be shown to be right.
- deogeo 8y ago
  Perhaps https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean-Jacques_Dessalines https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean-Jacques_Dessalines ? "In parallel to the killings, plundering and rape also occurred. Women and children were generally killed last. White women were "often raped or pushed into forced marriages under threat of death."" "The national anthem of Haiti, "La Dessalinienne", written in 1903, is named in his honor."
- MrZongle2 8y ago
  And my point is that nobody in the present has the insight as to state what "the right side of history" will be. And "the right side of history" could also change. Consider what "the right side of history" was in regard to Leon Trotsky. For a man who died in 1940, he was on the 'wrong' side of history in the Soviet Union until its end and not formally 'rehabilitated' in Russia until 2001. If you lived in the Soviet Union in 1950, what would you think "the right side of history" IRT Trotsky would be? How about 1980? Would it have been clear in 2000? Is it even clear today? And would his contemporaries have been able to predict any of that?

dannykwells 8y ago

Can you name times when any person or entity which was pro-genocide was ended up on the "right" side of history? Not that tech is committing genocide. But I think in those cases reasonable people would agree that those entities are on the wrong side of history, and they would (almost assuredly, if the past is a guide) be shown to be right.

deogeo 8y ago
Perhaps https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean-Jacques_Dessalines https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean-Jacques_Dessalines ? "In parallel to the killings, plundering and rape also occurred. Women and children were generally killed last. White women were "often raped or pushed into forced marriages under threat of death."" "The national anthem of Haiti, "La Dessalinienne", written in 1903, is named in his honor."
MrZongle2 8y ago
And my point is that nobody in the present has the insight as to state what "the right side of history" will be. And "the right side of history" could also change. Consider what "the right side of history" was in regard to Leon Trotsky. For a man who died in 1940, he was on the 'wrong' side of history in the Soviet Union until its end and not formally 'rehabilitated' in Russia until 2001. If you lived in the Soviet Union in 1950, what would you think "the right side of history" IRT Trotsky would be? How about 1980? Would it have been clear in 2000? Is it even clear today? And would his contemporaries have been able to predict any of that?