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Why do we glorify horrible people from the distant past? (sh.itjust.works)

submitted 3 months ago by Konis@sh.itjust.works to c/asklemmy@lemmy.ml

109 comments fedilink hide all child comments

Julius Ceasar, Alexander the Great, Genghis Khan and many more...

These people had beliefs and worldviews that were so horribly, by today's standards, that calling them fascist would be huge understatement. And they followed through by committing a lot of evil.

Aren't we basically glorifying the Hitlers of centuries past?

I know, historians always say that one should not judge historical figures by contemporary moral standards. But there's a difference between objectively studying history and actually glorifying these figures.

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[–] index@sh.itjust.works 13 points 3 months ago (3 children)

who does that exactly?

[–] slacktoid@lemmy.ml 11 points 3 months ago (2 children)

The British with Winston Churchill, US with Reagan.

[–] index@sh.itjust.works 11 points 3 months ago (2 children)

Not everyone in UK or US is a brainwashed idiot. There's plenty of people who know their history and are in good faith.

[–] slacktoid@lemmy.ml 1 points 3 months ago

Plenty, yes. Majority? I doubt it

[–] NauticalNoodle@lemmy.ml 2 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) (1 children)

...The US with Winston Churchill.

—Actually I don't know the history surrounding Churchill, I know someone once asked in a r/explainlikeimfive reddit post, but all that I really remember was that he was super-conservative.

[–] ShinkanTrain@lemmy.ml 4 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago)

What he did to India is akin to what Belgium did to the Congo. He was also extremely racist, said Indians are "a beastly people with a beastly religion", Arabs are "a lower manifestation than the jews" who "only eat camel shit". The Jews, who he thought implanted communism in Russia as part of a conspiracy to control the world (same thing the Nazis said).

When defending the Israel plan of displacing Palestinian people, he said:

I do not admit for instance that a great wrong has been done to the Red Indians of America or the black people of Australia. I do not admit that a wrong has been to those people by the fact that a stronger race, a higher-grade race or at any rate a more worldly-wise race, to put it that way, has come in and taken their place. I do not admit it.

And of course Asians wouldn't be left out: "I hate people with slit eyes and pigtails. I don't like the look of them or the smell of them"

[–] nooneescapesthelaw@mander.xyz 1 points 3 months ago

Alexander the great is glorified in egypt

[–] ShinkanTrain@lemmy.ml 1 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago)

I'd wager most Americans have favorable opinions about the slavers, genociders and occasional rapists who "founded" the country. And Columbus.

Also, monarchies in general have favorable opinions about terrible people.