Um, because they also were proto-socialist, had better healthcare and hygiene than Europe of the time, and had social norms stressing unfailing politeness? I me

Um, because they also were proto-socialist, had better healthcare and hygiene than Europe of the time, and had social norms stressing unfailing politeness? I mean, it’s true their morals seem alien and inhuman to us, but that doesn’t actually make them bad people as such, and I certainly wouldn’t reduce the whole of Mesoamerican civilization to ‘those nasty guys who sacrificed people’. (Further reading: someone at a forum I belong to who is well-read in this area has been doing an excellent series of posts on the Mexica: https://www.verduria.org/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=712 https://www.verduria.org/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=712, which if you ignore the long discussions between posts is a really readable introduction to Mexica society.)