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"Maybe the best comparable person is Christopher Columbus" Columbus was a religious extremist who thought the world was egg shaped and that he had landed in In
by moocowduckquack 13y ago
"Maybe the best comparable person is Christopher Columbus"
Columbus was a religious extremist who thought the world was egg shaped and that he had landed in India rather than the Bahamas, even after it became increasingly clear that he hadn't, and who thought that his own travels were to do with the bringing about of the end times according to Christian prophecy. I am not sure he is necessarily the best person to use as a comparison.
- InclinedPlane 13y agoAll of that is eccentricity compared to Columbus' very real crimes against humanity that he committed during his voyages. He enslaved huge numbers of people and put them to work in forced labor under brutal conditions. It was so egregious that the Spanish had to remove him from his governorship. He should rightly be one of the most controversial figures in history. Comparing him to anyone in modern history (except maybe Stalin or Hitler) is at best an insult. There are plenty of other people who are comparable to Musk, obviously not the same in every way, but similar in certain respects. Steve Jobs and Bill Gates come to mind, Jobs more than Gates. Henry Ford. Andrew Carnegie. In an odd way, Ray Jardine. Nikola Tesla.
- SuperChihuahua 13y agoThanks for the input. I didn't know that it was wrong to compare Elon with Columbus. Others have complained about it as well, so I will probably find a another explorer.
- moocowduckquack 13y agoNot being funny, but if you are writing a book about someone and intend on comparing them to historical characters, you probably should go through history a bit more generally and find people who genuinely reflects the person you are describing, rather than go and decide that you just want an explorer and then seek one to wedge in.