10-10-2018, 01:19 PM
(10-09-2018, 01:16 PM)fredtoast Wrote: But Neil Armstrong is still considered a hero for what he did.
You can't blame slavery on Columbus. He had nothing to do with that.
He did not treat the Indians well, but he was not the one who exterminated them either. Hating him for that is like hating Thomas Jefferson and George Washington for owning slaves.
Columbus may not deserve a national holiday because he actually failed at what he was trying to do (find a new trade route to the Orient), but he does not deserve to be blamed for what happened to the native Americans or the establishment of slavery in the New World.
I don't disagree with any of this. I will only add to the argument that he wasn't even Neil Armstrong in that he wasn't the first European to set foot in the Americas. But aside from that, he was a piece of shit. His rule as governor was reportedly tyrannical. As for slavery and the indigenous populations, he sure set a precedent with those by selling people into slavery for minor crimes and massacring the inhabitants of the islands.
"A great democracy has got to be progressive, or it will soon cease to be either great or a democracy..." - TR
"The test of our progress is not whether we add more to the abundance of those who have much; it is whether we provide enough for those who have too little." - FDR
"The test of our progress is not whether we add more to the abundance of those who have much; it is whether we provide enough for those who have too little." - FDR
