In 1492, slavery, extraordinary forms of torture, cannibalism and human sacrifice were common practices in the Americas. The two most powerful states, those of the Aztecs and the Incas, were tyrannical autocracies. Hernán Cortés overthrew the Aztec empire in part because his handful of soldiers possessed superior weaponry and in larger part because Montezuma’s oppressed subjects joined forces with the foreigners.
The soi disant “progressives” who topple statues of Christopher Columbus and decry the European arrival in this hemisphere as a great historical malady will never be reasoned out of their antipathy. They were, so far as I can tell, never reasoned into it. They are moved by a deep, emotional loathing for the America that now exists, an America where chattel slavery has been abolished, the law forbids cruel and unusual punishments, cannibalism exists only as a movie plot device, and human sacrifice is inconceivable. They’re welcome to their preference for 1491, but I, for one, do not understand it.
President Biden issued proclamations for both “Indigenous Peoples’ Day” and “Columbus Day”. He wasn’t, however, triangulating. Both documents make it clear that he regards the country of which he is the highest elected magistrate as a tree growing from poisonous roots. No wonder that he wants to eradicate its past and build a utopian fantasy in its stead.
Further Reading: Dan McLaughlin, “Why We Celebrate Columbus Day”
John Hinderaker, “Happy Indigenous Peoples’ Day?”
Jeff Flynn-Paul, “The myth of the ‘stolen country’”
Armando Simón, “The Historical Falsification of Columbus’ ‘Crimes’”
Gene Vallorani, “An Italian-American Defends Columbus Day”
Thom Nickels, “Philly’s Battle of Columbus”
Glenn Reynolds’s annual Columbus Day post
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