4 ms·

People love to mythologize. The truth is usually much more mundane. Columbus in particular has a combination of Mr. Magoo quality and nastiness that is will lea

People love to mythologize. The truth is usually much more mundane. Columbus in particular has a combination of Mr. Magoo quality and nastiness that is will lead history to forcefully forget him in short order.

nixon_why69 5mo ago
In short order after 500 years? You're not wrong about his qualities but he was still the guy who did it first, and it's still called the Columbian exchange.
- CuriouslyC 5mo ago
  When I was young Columbus was lionized in schools. Now young people I talk to demonize him more and more. He wasn't even first (Viking explorers beat him there by a lot), he was just first to brutally exploit. I'm sure the things that are named after him will be renamed eventually to honor more deserving figures.
  - inglor_cz 5mo ago
    That is a very US-ian perspective. AFAIK he is still lionized in Latin America, and likely will continue to be, as he is a sorta-kinda the ur-founder of all those nations.
    - nixon_why69 5mo ago
      Also, I'm not letting Columbus off the hook but he was on one island for like 3 years and he didn't even kill everyone. The US and Canada genocided most of a continent over 2-300. We were killing buffalo herds and not even harvesting the meat just to deny them food.
    - vintermann 5mo ago
      That may be true, but if so it will be a failure of education, and a tragedy of identity politics (was that gleeful rapist who was so loathsome even his own people sent him back to Europe in chains, really the best icon anyone could find to rally around?)
      - nixon_why69 5mo ago
        The US still celebrates presidents' day, near the birthday of early presidents who killed far more natives. Convenient to blame the non-anglo guy while most of the Spanish countries aside from Argentina didnt commit genocide to nearly the same extent.
        vintermann 5mo ago
        We don't actually need icons to rally around, whether we're anglo or whatever else you may identify as.
        nixon_why69 5mo ago
        That's a "fish don't know they're in water" sort of statement. Every other country is rallying around icons but we know the real truth? The effort to blame Columbus ahead of our own presidents is all about protecting our own icons.
        vintermann 5mo ago
        You don't have to rally around a country either. I'm not from the country you seem to imply with your "we" and "us" either way. I'm not protecting anyone's icons. It seems you're fishing for an identity politics argument.
        nixon_why69 5mo ago
        Sounds like a pretty small difference in opinions then, cheers.

nixon_why69 5mo ago

In short order after 500 years? You're not wrong about his qualities but he was still the guy who did it first, and it's still called the Columbian exchange.

CuriouslyC 5mo ago
When I was young Columbus was lionized in schools. Now young people I talk to demonize him more and more. He wasn't even first (Viking explorers beat him there by a lot), he was just first to brutally exploit. I'm sure the things that are named after him will be renamed eventually to honor more deserving figures.
- inglor_cz 5mo ago
  That is a very US-ian perspective. AFAIK he is still lionized in Latin America, and likely will continue to be, as he is a sorta-kinda the ur-founder of all those nations.
  - nixon_why69 5mo ago
    Also, I'm not letting Columbus off the hook but he was on one island for like 3 years and he didn't even kill everyone. The US and Canada genocided most of a continent over 2-300. We were killing buffalo herds and not even harvesting the meat just to deny them food.
  - vintermann 5mo ago
    That may be true, but if so it will be a failure of education, and a tragedy of identity politics (was that gleeful rapist who was so loathsome even his own people sent him back to Europe in chains, really the best icon anyone could find to rally around?)
    - nixon_why69 5mo ago
      The US still celebrates presidents' day, near the birthday of early presidents who killed far more natives. Convenient to blame the non-anglo guy while most of the Spanish countries aside from Argentina didnt commit genocide to nearly the same extent.
      - vintermann 5mo ago
        We don't actually need icons to rally around, whether we're anglo or whatever else you may identify as.
        nixon_why69 5mo ago
        That's a "fish don't know they're in water" sort of statement. Every other country is rallying around icons but we know the real truth? The effort to blame Columbus ahead of our own presidents is all about protecting our own icons.
        vintermann 5mo ago
        You don't have to rally around a country either. I'm not from the country you seem to imply with your "we" and "us" either way. I'm not protecting anyone's icons. It seems you're fishing for an identity politics argument.
        nixon_why69 5mo ago
        Sounds like a pretty small difference in opinions then, cheers.