Never forget Christopher Columbus's linguistic crimes and horniness for manatees

My sarcasm detector almost failed with that one.

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This further mutated into “cannibal” when Columbus wrote about his unproven fears that some of the native people might eat them. He never witnessed this happening, of course;

The original Karen.

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The effort to get his expedition funded and planned (no matter how bad his seamanship) took some planning. Columbus was almost certainly not stupid. I can’t help but think “they are not half as beautiful as they are painted” is ironic.

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More like the entire GOP presidential platform: “y’all are gonna do stuff, stuff we don’t like, socialistic COMMIE stuff, we just KNOW it!!”

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Fortunately, some are now advocating against it:

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Where does extreme narcissism end and stupidity begin? Asking for an orange friend

Every year, I’m reminded of this episode of The Sopranos, but haven’t actually watched it since it aired:

It’s brilliant writing. A bunch of overweight, lazy, privileged white men grousing about actually oppressed people advocating for recognition and rousing themselves to violence.

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The Carib > Canib thing exemplifies the arc of human discovery. Explorer/researcher/whatever ventures into unfamiliar territory armed with preconceptions (if I sail in that direction I’ll reach Asia). When explorer encounters a new experience (island populated by people he doesn’t recognize), explorer interprets it in a way that fits those preconceptions (I sailed in that direction, so this is Asia, so these people are some kind of Asians). This interpretation is shaped by explorer’s limited knowledge of the world (these Asians call themselves Carib? Canib? Wait a minute. Genghis Khan was Asian. Canib, Khanib–these people are descended from Genghis Khan!) and informed by explorer’s fears and prejudices (unknown people are savages. Savages eat other people. These savages will probably try to eat me). All these assumptions, inaccuracies, and misinformation are bundled together into a “discovery” which explorer takes home and which shapes “understanding” for generations to come, becoming nearly impossible to change.

I was refrering more to the “we set aside a day for this” thing. Yup, loads of statues and colonial hangovers - just look at recent events in Bristol!

But nobody’s yet saying we should make it a national day of celebration.

Although thanks to the current government, I had to put “yet” in the last sentence. What a bunch of tossers…

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yarr

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Reminds me of that episode of Disenchanted in which Prince Merkimer celebrates his bachelor party with an orgy on “Mermaid Island.”

mermaids

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Quite so…

not Italian.

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Mea culpa. It had been a while since I actually read the comic and I mis-remembered it.

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Lol, wrong forum

The days are for the colonies. We have “Australia Day” or “Invasion Day” (YMMV) and “Waitangi Day” or “New Zealand Day”.

Same story, different costumes - accumulation by dispossession.
Their journals and letters tell it clearly…

Christopher Columbus:

“They would make fine servants. With fifty men we could subjugate them all and make them do whatever we want … They should be made to work, sow and do all that is necessary and to adopt our ways.”

Captain James Cook:

“It doth not appear to me to be attall difficult for Strangers to form a settlement in this country. They seem to be too much divided among themselves to unite in opposing, by which means and kind and gentle usuage the Colonists would be able to form strong parties among them.”

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If the single word “Catholicism” “basically suggests Catholics are assholes,” who am I to disagree?

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lol’d at your comment :slight_smile: . Follow my blog for more single word blog posts that say a lot.

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