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> What have we become? A nation of thieves. Actually, seems we started that way.
by foobarbazqux 13y ago
> What have we become?
A nation of thieves. Actually, seems we started that way.
- Ygg2 13y agoI'm pretty sure that's Australia, right? America started as land of religious zealots.
- MikeCapone 13y agoTell that to the U.S. founding fathers...
- VLM 13y agoThe people who were here thousands of years before Puritan nutcases started getting dumped here to get them away from the civilized people, would beg to disagree, if they hadn't mostly been genocided away. Thats probably what OP was referencing. America started as a bunch of vaguely Asiatic foragers crossed over more or less in Alaska a couple thousand years ago. The noob bible thumpers arriving a couple centuries ago wiped out the first wave pretty effectively but they hardly "started it".
- pessimizer 13y agoI'm pretty sure that "America" was being used to refer to the United States, not the entire New World or even the particular portion that the United States happens to sit on.
- deleted 13y ago[deleted]
- mistercow 13y ago>Thats probably what OP was referencing. You think OP was calling American Indians thieves?
- alexqgb 13y ago"America started as a bunch of vaguely Asiatic foragers crossed over more or less in Alaska a couple thousand years ago." It was more like 18,000 - 12,000 years ago, and perhaps earlier, well before civilizations, or even their agricultural precursors appeared anywhere on the planet. You're talking about walking across the Bering Straits a solid 10,000 years after the last ice age ended. But thanks for the explainer.
- derleth 13y agoMostly, we started as a land of commercial opportunists taking advantage of royal grants. The religious zealots just played better in the history books of 100+ years ago, so they get most of the attention.
- foobarbazqux 13y agoIt's a good point; the British government was the root source of the thievery. Perhaps we started as a nation of mercenaries.
- derleth 13y agoIf you ignore the fact the various tribes stole from each other. Native Americans weren't a single, homogenous mass, and they certainly weren't Noble Savages ignorant of the ways of war.
- foobarbazqux 13y agoIf you steal a quarter from Bob, and Bob steals a marble from you, are you saying it isn't theft (morally) for me to come along and take your quarter and Bob's marble and all your other toys while I'm at it? Is it stealing to exchange a grain of sand for your quarter? The Dutch bought Manhattan for around $1000 adjusted.
- samuellevy 13y agoEveryone loves to forget that America was also a British penal colony[1]. They also love to forget that America also has the highest rate of incarceration in the developed world[2]. Stop with the "Australia is a penal colony" bullshit. [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Penal_colony http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Penal_colony [2] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_incarceration_rate http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_incarcerat...
- dkuntz2 13y agoAustralia was a penal colony... Botany Bay was a penal colony... I'm confused by your asking to stop spreading ... truths? Sure, people don't mention that America was also a penal colony, but that doesn't mean Australia wasn't, too. And, Australia was sort of the British replacement for their American penal colonies.