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Sympathy for the Devil: Columbus Day and Why it Matters
Townhall.com ^ | October 11, 2021 | Joseoh Bowman

Posted on 10/11/2021 5:21:09 AM PDT by Kaslin

Today is the second Monday of October and thus is Columbus Day. For many of us, this is little more than a three-day weekend. However, it is seen as an unjust celebration of “whiteness” and imperialism for an increasing number of Americans and signifies how uniquely evil America is. This hatred for Columbus and the misunderstanding of what it is he did is nothing new. In fact, the earliest criticisms of Columbus were made about a century ago by the old Democratic party institution, The Ku Klux Klan. The Klan did not want Americans celebrating a southern European Catholic like Columbus. They argued America was a protestant country founded by Northern Europeans. Anti-Columbus sentiment has festered and grown because of the broader apathy of many Americans who see today as a mere excuse for a three-day weekend. Even Columbus himself did not quite understand the magnitude of his voyages. He went to his grave thinking he had discovered the West Indies and not an entirely new pair of continents. Columbus and his explorations matter, though, and not just for people from the United States.

One of the common dismissals of Columbus is that he never even set foot in America. Instead, he landed in the Bahamas. So why should we care about him? What sense does it make for Americans to celebrate an Italian explorer in the employ of Spain, landing in the Bahamas while searching for the Indies?

The first thing progressives fail to understand about Columbus Day is that it is not a uniquely American holiday. It is also celebrated throughout Latin American and the Caribbean. In much of Latin America, the name used for it is "El Dia de la Raza y la Hispanidad," which translates to "The Day of the Race and the Spanish." It is seen as the first significant encounter between Europeans and native peoples, a cultural event of great importance not just for the United States but also for the Americas as a whole and for Europe. Is there evidence that other Europeans came to America before Columbus? Yes, there is. We now know Vikings were in Greenland and possibly Canada as early as the 10th century. However, was there a great cultural exchange between the natives and the Norsemen? Did the Papacy and the Royal Courts of Europe become aware of the New World and start investing in its exploration because of the Norse settlements in Greenland? The answer to these questions is no, so there is little point in celebrating them. With Columbus’ discovery of the New World came permanent settlements. It was one of the early events of The Age of Exploration, which was an undertaking by all European powers. Columbus’s discovery of The New World began a cultural exchange that changed Europe and the Americas forever. In his book America: The Last Best Hope, William J. Bennett points out that Columbus’ exploration of America introduced the potato, maize, peanuts, and turkeys to Europe, forever revolutionizing their farming practices, and Europeans introduced apples, grapes, and horses to the new world. The horse alone would become an essential element to the culture of many Native American tribes, such as the Comanches.

When criticizing Columbus, the criticism inevitably turns into a more exhaustive critique of the colonization of the Americas. There is no denying the conquest of the Americas was brutal and barbaric. That barbarity started with Columbus. He enslaved many Taino natives himself as slavery was a universal practice that spanned nearly every civilization on earth during that time. However, you must ask yourself if Columbus’ exploration made the world worse or better. Had Columbus not discovered the new world, there would be no age of discovery in which Europeans mapped and charted most of the world. There would be no Age of Enlightenment in which Europeans, specifically the British, finally recognized the evils of slavery and its incompatibility with Christianity. There would be no United States. With no United States, there would be no American Hegemony in the second half of the 20th century and no period historians call The Long Peace. We are still living in The Long Peace, and it is recognized as the most prosperous time in human history. The United States and the western world have been irrefutable forces for good and human progress. Therefore, we owe Columbus a debt of gratitude for blundering into the Bahamas in 1492.

The criticisms of Columbus have nothing to do with Columbus’ actions and everything to do with tearing down the United States and remaking it into something unrecognizable. The urban liberals who claim to be so offended by Columbus Day could easily donate their property to a Native American tribe and then move back to where their ancestors came from in Europe. They aren’t doing that, though, and they never will. They don’t actually care about these injustices they claim to be trying to correct. They care about power, and they’re trying to shame you into giving it to them. Don’t. Be thankful for The Age of Exploration and how it changed not only the United States but the whole of the Americas and Europe, and please, have a happy Columbus Day.


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Editorial
KEYWORDS: christophercolumbua; columbus; columbusday; godsgravesglyphs; spain
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1 posted on 10/11/2021 5:21:09 AM PDT by Kaslin
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To: Kaslin

Happy Stone-Age Savages Day everyone!


2 posted on 10/11/2021 5:22:36 AM PDT by Brooklyn Attitude (I went to bed on November 3rd 2020 and woke up in 1984.)
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To: Brooklyn Attitude

The problem with all these Happy Indigenous Peoples Day people is that they’re never happy. They will cheer when they have all of us Christians tortured in the public arena though. But they gotta get through me first. F em.


3 posted on 10/11/2021 5:26:28 AM PDT by HighSierra5 (The only way you know a commie is lying is when they open their pieholes.)
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To: Kaslin

the KKK is the old, real white supremacist organization and the enforcement arm of the Democrat Party


4 posted on 10/11/2021 5:32:56 AM PDT by jarheadtom
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To: HighSierra5

“The problem with all these Happy Indigenous Peoples Day people is that they’re never happy. “

Ever notice how people who are so proud of their history and way of life mostly choose to live in heated stick houses with electricity, running water and air conditioning instead of Wigwams, tepees, etc? Drive cars and wear European style clothing instead of skins? Must be some advantages to living like the Palefaces.


5 posted on 10/11/2021 5:43:45 AM PDT by Brooklyn Attitude (I went to bed on November 3rd 2020 and woke up in 1984.)
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To: Kaslin

We now know the “infected blanket” lie is a disgusting slander originated by non other than the execrable fraud Ward Churchill.

The plains Indians are now recognized as one of the most warlike group of people documented. There was very little option other than all out war.

The Anisazi - the Ancestral Puebloans? They were eaten by their enemies in order to terrorize them. They are gone now, not so much as a sprig of parsley left.

The Aztecs? So despised by their neighbors that upon the arrival of the Conquistadors, local communities united with the Spaniards in order to annihilate the murderous beast-like Aztecs who had abused, terrified and slaughtered their men, women and children over the decades.

Fortunately thinking people are beyond this now and my directly Native American Patriot children have full access to American society and prosperity the left would instantly deny them if given a chance. Such is the greatness of American culture and such is the depravity of leftist scum.

Ref on scumbagger Churchill:
https://quod.lib.umich.edu/p/plag/5240451.0001.009/—did-the-us-army-distribute-smallpox-blankets-to-indians?rgn=main;view=fulltext


6 posted on 10/11/2021 5:48:49 AM PDT by Caipirabob (Communists...Socialists...Fascists & AntiFa...Democrats...Traitors... Who can tell the difference?)
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To: Kaslin

That’s a reasonable and rational analysis of Columbus’ legacy. Unfortunately, reason and rationale are wasted on the chattering monkeys who are determined to destroy America for a flawed vision of a totalitarian utopia that has never existed, and never will. I am weary of arguing with logic to mentalities that are incapable of comprehending. We are dealing with the drooling beast that Ayn Rand warned us about.


7 posted on 10/11/2021 5:49:55 AM PDT by Spok (Eschew the politics of envy.)
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To: Kaslin

The Ku Klux Klan were/are Protestant Democrats. They attacked and attack today, religious Catholics and Jews and prominent White and Black Republicans.


8 posted on 10/11/2021 5:56:43 AM PDT by jacknhoo ( Luke 12:51; Think ye, that I am come to give peace on earth? I tell you, no; but separation. I)
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To: Brooklyn Attitude
Happy Stone-Age Savages Day everyone!

That should be 'Conquered Stone-Age Savages Day'.

9 posted on 10/11/2021 6:00:12 AM PDT by rllngrk33 (It seems the soap box and ballot box have failed, it might be time for the bullet box.)
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To: Kaslin

Good synopsis of Columbus Day.

Has everyone read Biden’s (Obama’s/Soros’) anti-American “proclamation?”

https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/presidential-actions/2021/10/08/a-proclamation-on-columbus-day-2021/

Excerpt:

“Today, we also acknowledge the painful history of wrongs and atrocities that many European explorers inflicted on Tribal Nations and Indigenous communities. It is a measure of our greatness as a Nation that we do not seek to bury these shameful episodes of our past — that we face them honestly, we bring them to the light, and we do all we can to address them.”

________________________________________

Yeah, nothing says “not burying shameful history of our past,” like tearing down Democrat Confederate leader monuments of our nation’s history, eh!


10 posted on 10/11/2021 6:05:14 AM PDT by jacknhoo ( Luke 12:51; Think ye, that I am come to give peace on earth? I tell you, no; but separation.)
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To: HighSierra5

Last month Labor Day was panned by some goofy group. Today another goofy group is complaining. Veterans Day is next. I’m sure some goofy group will complain. Every holiday is no longer sacred.


11 posted on 10/11/2021 6:18:40 AM PDT by napscoordinator (Trump/Hunter, jr for President/Vice President 2016 )
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To: jarheadtom

Because democrats own the media, they no longer call democrats the founding of the KKK, but they call them separatists. Owning the media ispriceless.


12 posted on 10/11/2021 6:20:36 AM PDT by napscoordinator (Trump/Hunter, jr for President/Vice President 2016 )
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To: jacknhoo

Yeah but conservatives are the ones demanding they stay up.


13 posted on 10/11/2021 6:22:43 AM PDT by napscoordinator (Trump/Hunter, jr for President/Vice President 2016 )
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To: napscoordinator

“Yeah but conservatives are the ones demanding they stay up.”

_____________________________________________

As they should. Democrats do want to bury our history, because it is their dark history and they want it and more repeated. If our children are educated honestly about it, they will realize slavery, religious persecution and the fight to keep it is/was Democrat dark history and goals.

Democrats today are mounting the exact same fight against personhood of fellow humans. They’re doing the same today against the unvaccinated, unborn, patriots and religious Jews and Christians. They are fighting to make them all second class citizens and subhumans who are property of the state whose existence is allowed or terminated based on the whims of their god the state.


14 posted on 10/11/2021 6:35:47 AM PDT by jacknhoo ( Luke 12:51; Think ye, that I am come to give peace on earth? I tell you, no; but separation.)
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To: Kaslin
Yup. Not even actual indigenous peoples want to go back to what life was like before Columbus -- unless they're psychopaths.

Who Was Christopher Columbus? ~ Hero or Villain? Criminal or Crusader?
15 posted on 10/11/2021 6:53:48 AM PDT by Antoninus (Republicans are all honorable men.)
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To: Kaslin

The author goes PC in viewing the indigenous peoples of the American colonies entirely as peaceful victims of white people.


16 posted on 10/11/2021 7:04:31 AM PDT by Socon-Econ (adi)
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Visit the keywords for this year's additions.

17 posted on 10/11/2021 7:27:12 AM PDT by SunkenCiv (Imagine an imaginary menagerie manager imagining managing an imaginary menagerie.)
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To: Kaslin
“Who controls the past controls the future; who controls the present controls the past" - George Orwell, 1984
18 posted on 10/11/2021 7:32:55 AM PDT by Jan_Sobieski (Sanctification)
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To: jacknhoo

Some of that is true. But when democrats tried to teach slavery, we were happy with that either. In fact, school boards are being told to stop teaching slavery. Can we have it both ways?


19 posted on 10/11/2021 8:29:30 AM PDT by napscoordinator (Trump/Hunter, jr for President/Vice President 2016 )
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To: napscoordinator

“ But when democrats tried to teach slavery, we were happy with that either. In fact, school boards are being told to stop teaching slavery. Can we have it both ways?”

_____________

They’re not “teaching slavery.” They’re teaching teaching that white people are racists and since white people settled and established this nation it was established as a racist nation. Hardly the same thing and you sound like you may agree with them, considering how you twisted the truth about CRT.


20 posted on 10/11/2021 9:19:58 AM PDT by jacknhoo ( Luke 12:51; Think ye, that I am come to give peace on earth? I tell you, no; but separation.)
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