Columbus day ?

[imabanana]

meow.meow.

[Deleted]

You celebrate it by walking into someone's home and tell them you live there now.

[Kujako]

I prefer to think of it as celebrating when someone got lost looking for India, refused to admit it so just called the people he found "Indians".

[Kalcheus]

"Fun" thing is that in the US, you also have a national holiday celebrating the end of civil war, which resulted in the abolition of slavery,

Um, what? This is news to me here in the US.

while on Columbus day you're basically worshiping the pioneer of mass slavery between your country and Europe. This feels crazy.

Columbus Day is barely celebrated any more in the US. It's almost at Arbor Day-level enthusiasm.

[Deleted]

Is that comic accurate? He sounds like the worst possible kind of man.

[frumper]

Columbus didn't invent slavery, nor did he enslave me. I'm not sure I draw the same connection as you. He landed here and established a colony. Without that step by someone there would be no America. That is what is celebrated. If it would have been Rob Smith, then he'd have brought over slavery and everything else that was happening in those days.

[Vizardlorde]

I dont recall Columbus doing any mass killings, while his "discovery" did cause a lot of deaths he was just an explorer trying to find a shorter route to Asia. The ones who actually did a lot of killing were the conquistadors that came for colonization like Ponce de Leon and I dont remember if Hernan Cortez.

[Subetei]

I was just reading about that... supposedly a woman was paraded through town naked and then had her tongue cut out for insulting the status of one of his brothers and Columbus applauded this for defending the family honor. The Columbus brothers were removed by the spanish and thrown in prison. Documentation of the numerous complaints where found in 2006 i believe.

[Kalcheus]

Is that comic accurate? He sounds like the worst possible kind of man.

It overstates (I've certainly never heard that the African Gold economy collapsed solely because of Columbus).

[jackofwind]

Is that comic accurate? He sounds like the worst possible kind of man.

It actually largely is - he was a giant shitbag, but he lived so long ago that people only know the romanticized version of his story.

[frumper]

Also, like chrth said, I don't have a clue what holiday you're talking about for the end of the civil war.

[Kalcheus]

I've also learned from Orson Scott Card that if Columbus hadn't discovered America, Europe could've been conquered by Americans.

No, I'm not joking. And it's actually a pretty decent read (altho it does over-romanticize Columbus). It's called Pastwatch: The Redemption of Christopher Columbus.

[Subetei]

I've also learned from Orson Scott Card that if Columbus hadn't discovered America, Europe could've been conquered by Americans.

No, I'm not joking. And it's actually a pretty decent read (altho it does over-romanticize Columbus). It's called Pastwatch: The Redemption of Christopher Columbus.

I'm curious...How does that book explain how or when the natives would have developed ships that could sail that far? They weren't collectively a seafaring people like the vikings.

[imabanana]

How many more of these "OMG OMG you silly Americans really do this?!?!?!?! HOW CRAZY AND STUPID OF YOU, we're clearly better" threads do we really need on MMO-Champion Off-Topic Forums?

FYI, no one really cares about Columbus Day unless it somehow nets them a day off work, just like our other myriad of minor holidays on the calendar.

This is not against "silly Americans" or anything like this, as stated in my post I also find this being national day in Spain crazy, and this is far from being a US only thing.

Columbus Day is barely celebrated any more in the US. It's almost at Arbor Day-level enthusiasm.

Barely celebrated maybe, but the fact is that it still remains a national holiday in his honor, which is what I find unbelievable.

Is that comic accurate? He sounds like the worst possible kind of man.

Oatmeal is usually quite accurate, but with lots of facts that are still non widely agreed on by many historians. I mostly put it in my post because I was sure someone would brought it up as answer. Wanted to make quite clear from me very first post that it contained lots of unverified/biased information. But still always giving lots of interesting pointers if you want to dig further into the subject, just don't ever take any of his comics as facts before checking further by yourself. (another good example is the one on Tesla http://theoatmeal.com/comics/tesla, where he states so many unclear things as facts, but still giving so many interesting things to search for)

[Ashnazg]

You celebrate it by walking into someone's home and tell them you live there now.

For the analogy to be proper, you have to walk to public property and claim it as your own. Since Indians never did believe in the concept of ownership.

[Kalcheus]

I'm curious...How does that book explain how or when the natives would have developed ships that could sail that far? They weren't collectively a seafaring people like the vikings.

It does. I've never verified the historical accuracy of the supposition though, but a lot of the other Meso-American stuff he talks about in the book is true so I'm giving him the benefit of the doubt on it.

[Åmbulance]

Columbus day you're basically worshiping the pioneer of mass slavery between your country and Europe. This feels crazy.

That sure is a nice fucking reach you have there.

[Xargoth6634]

And once again, Columbus Day brings out a small amount of QQ from people who just figured out that bad shit has happened over the course of the world's history, while the rest of America barely notices its passing. Also, I'm going to take a lot in that comic with a grain of salt, although I can't say I care enough to go read the entirety of the comic author's 2 secondary sources. What do you wanna do, change the name? Gonna make the city of Columbus change their name now too? This whole thing is ridiculous.

[frumper]

Barely celebrated maybe, but the fact is that it still remains a national holiday in his honor, which is what I find unbelievable.

The guy planted the seed that is modern day America. The holiday is a tip of the hat to that event. What is wrong with that?

[Vizardlorde]

It does. I've never verified the historical accuracy of the supposition though, but a lot of the other Meso-American stuff he talks about in the book is true so I'm giving him the benefit of the doubt on it.

Does he explain ho they overcome the arrow vs bullet, metal vs wood/stone, and plate/chainmail vs leather issues?