this post was submitted on 28 Apr 2025
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[–] themeatbridge@lemmy.world 97 points 3 days ago (2 children)

Yes, Democrats ruined his reputation. Democrats and historians. Mostly historians, and people who aren't shitty bigots. Historians, people who aren't shitty bigots, and yes Democrats have ruined the once pristine reputation of the murderous slaver who was credited with discovering a territory full of people. Why would the Democrats do this.

[–] kryptonianCodeMonkey@lemmy.world 45 points 3 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (3 children)

Also, even the reputation he has was bullshit propaganda. The common canon of the story is that Columbus knew the Earth was round and everyone else told him he was crazy, that the Earth was flat and he was going to sail his crew off the edge of the world. That's not remotely true. Everyone knew he Earth was round. It was completely accepted and common knowledge at the time.

They did call Columbus crazy and say he was going to kill his crew, though. Not for believing the Earth was round, but for believing it was about a third the circumference that it actually is and was essentially known to be. The reason people didn't sail west to get to the Indies was because it was believed to be (and is) a loooong fucking trip. He disagreed and thought it would be about a third of what everyone else knew it to be. So he only stocked the three ships with enough supplies for this much smaller distance.

He sailed his men west past the point of no return to what absolutely would have been their certain deaths. And they got close to killing him over it when their supplies ran critically low. Had he not lucked out and found land WAY fucking early and nowhere near his destination, he would have been remembered, if indeed he were remembered at all, for being a complete moron, because he was. He was just a moron that got saved by dumb luck.

And that's the "heroic" stuff that we're meant to applaud him for, independent of the horrible treatment of the natives. He only got a holiday in the first place because Catholics wanted a American figure that represented them and so they lobbied hard for it. The guy was not an aspirational figure though. He just had good PR for a long time.

[–] djsoren19@lemmy.blahaj.zone 18 points 2 days ago

Honestly though, rejects all accepted scientifc logic and reason? Does something incredibly stupid and dangerous, just for money and clout? Nearly kills everyone around them in the process? Only bailed out through dumb luck, absolutely no talent to be found at all?

No wonder Trump loves Columbus, he was the first American!

[–] vaultdweller013@sh.itjust.works 4 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

Also there's an amusing hypothesis that the reason why Spain even sponsored Columbus was because European ships had been brushing up against the new world at an increasing rate since Leif Erikson and Thorfinn Karlsefni did their expeditions. Now if those brushs with the new world were intentional or not is up for debate but there is evidence that Irish sailors may have been poaching walruses around Greenland after the Greenland ivory trade started to collapse.

[–] swelter_spark@reddthat.com 3 points 3 days ago

I didn't know all of that. What a story.

[–] SarcasticMan@lemmy.world 18 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Just wait until he finds out Italians aren't white 🤯

[–] Linktank@lemmy.today 18 points 3 days ago

We already figured that out when Luigi was charged with terrorism or whatever.