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John’s new gig writing for the New York Times … Wisconsin students get a “racist” rock removed from campus … Are present-day universities morally accountable for their involvement in the slave trade? … Debating the legacy of Christopher Columbus … Can we extricate modernity’s benefits from its history of brutality and genocide? … Is California gubernatorial candidate Larry Elder a sellout? …
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40 minutes of the “Racist Rock” and a very one-sided slam of Christopher Columbus with no solid historical references (hardly a debate) This was a 10 minute podcast in 65 minutes. I heard nothing really new about the Larry Elder campaign. I hope there is better preparation for the next broadcast. Glenn needs to step up his game.
I recently read Martin Dugard’s book about Columbus’ last voyage. Clearly Columbus had moral compunctions and ethics that the later conquistadors did not have.
There’s a telling incident when Columbus is shipwrecked, stranded with his crew on an island. When mutineers approached to ambush and kill him, local tribesmen did not stand aside and let the whites kill each other. Instead they warned Columbus — because he treated them so much better than the mutineers did.
Columbus’ skills as a mariner were unparalleled. One of the reasons for the mutiny I mentioned is that a large part of his crew became convinced he was literally a wizard!
When a large convoy was getting ready to return to Spain with its holds full of wealth, Columbus looked at the sea and he looked at the sky and he looked at the wind, and told them to find the safest harbor they could: a big storm — the word hurricane had not been invented yet — was coming. But they didn’t listen, and a lot of Columbus’ political enemies went to the bottom of the Atlantic.
Towards the end, the guys defend dissident blacks, like Clarence Thomas and Shelby Steele (and themselves), who are falsely accused of being “sellouts”.
The real “sellouts” of the black community are easily identified: they support the public school monopoly that, so often, fails to educate black children.
I enjoyed the podcast
I’m Portuguese, so I learned in school that Columbus wasn’t that great. He first pitched his idea to our king, but he miscalculated the circumference of the earth by 25%. A bit of a deal-breaker if you want a king to pour what would be a few billions of today’s money in your project. 2000 years before, the Greeks had calculated the circumference of the earth with a small deviation. But Columbus is much more than the navigator and the failled business man. Columbus is a symbol of the beginning of a globalized world. Columbus marks the birth of the new world. After Columbus the entire world found out about the Americas and the Americas found out about the rest of the world. In my opinion that’s what the statue represents. As John put so well we can’t set the clock back. I always cringe when I hear “We live in stolen land” such an empty virtue signaling. Any American that thinks so, can leave in my opinion. Many millions are entitled to passports of the land of their ancestors.
I think Glen and John were very candid about the statues of the confederates. I invite any American to travel through Europe and look for statues of traitors. I can tell you one thing about my country, you will not find a statue of any traitor or of 3 of our kings that were Spanish. Odd right? Why would you have statues of people that killed other Americans in order to destroy the unity of the country? Not to mention the beautiful cause of Slavery. Those statues were erected as a giant middle finger to the civil rights movement.
@jorgeespinha — Columbus died a wealthy man, even though the Spanish Crown never honored the overenthusiastic pledge it had made him of a 10% cut of all trade with the New World.
Native American tribes were constantly taking each other’s land by force (often killing the men and enslaving the women, in the process). The European settlers introduced the idea of buying land instead of stealing it; though they also sometimes lapsed back into the Native American method of obtaining land.
Imagine that the EU had chosen to oppose Brexit by force (instead of diplomatic and economic harassment). Who would then be the traitors: Britons who fought for Britain, or Britons who fought for the EU?
Replace EU with US, and Britain with, say, Virginia. Perhaps you can now see why the Confederates are rarely called traitors, except by leftists who don’t much care about truth or historical accuracy.
The US Constitution did not ban secession; while the 9th and 10th amendments to the Constitution reserve to the States and people all powers not explicitly granted to the Federal government by the Constitution. This implies that the Secessionists were following the letter of the law, while the Unionists were engaging in a usurpation.
@Taras
History to a certain extent is told by the winners. The 3 Spanish kings that I mentioned were our legitimate kings. It was legal and bidding. Also at the time it only officialised the reality, Portugal was at the time a vassal state of Spain. Did we become independent? No, we became for many decades a vassal state of Britain. I am also well aware that our identity was constructed, Portugal was forged from 3 or 4 bits of the peninsula that are very different in many ways. Yet, we do exist and have a history, a language and a culture. All this to say that my country wasn’t inevitable, had things been slightly different and I would have been a proud Spaniard.
Regarding my view about your history. I think Slavery was indefensible at the time. And the Union was on the side of the angels. I’m also aware of the position of Gore Vidal that considered Lincoln the evilest of presidents and blamed him for putting the USA on the path of militarism. From the strict point of view of “state rights,” the South had the right to keep its slaves. But I can have preferences, can’t I? I do put the end of Slavery and the preservation of the integrity of the US of A above the right to own slaves. I guess the Romans also had the right to throw the Christians to the lions but I don’t have to agree with it. But treason is on the eye of the beholder. However, the EU isn’t a country but a trade organization. I don’t think that if Mexico leaves NAFTA it will be treated the same way as the civil war.
Say rather, the EU is in the process of “evolving” from a mere trade organization to a political union, whether the member states like it or not. The UK is getting out while getting out is still possible.
Abraham Lincoln despised slavery,* but he repeatedly stated that, under the Constitution, he could do nothing about it where it already existed. His power as President was limited to vetoing the admission of any new slave states to the Union.**
Once the war began, however, he could use his war powers to free slaves, but only where their labor supported the rebellion. And after the war he was able to persuade the Congress and the States to pass constitutional amendments outlawing slavery permanently.
*“If slavery is not wrong, then nothing is wrong.”
**The smart move by the South would have been to wait Lincoln out — running against three Democrats, he had won less than 40% of the popular vote — and elect a more amenable President in 1864. But the South’s politicians, unlike their generals, rarely did anything smart.
@ Taras
The EU… It’s a complicated beast, when we joined it was calked European Economic Community. I did sign up for that! Now we are so entagled that I just think for the time being is better to be a member than to opt out. I feel like a battered wife that lives in mansion and fears starvation if she leaves her abusive husband. EU career polititians believe in post nationlism and they are dead wrong, when things are tough you turn to your countrymen. I wish we took care of our defense and didn’t depend on the US to take care of us. I feel that we are pathetic in that way.
Europe depends on the US to defend it: good luck with that! The Earp brothers slipped out of Tombstone in the middle of the night.
The only question is how much damage the Democrats will do this time before the grownups (i.e., Republicans) take back the government. And how much damage the Republicans can undo; usually little: China (Harry Truman); Cuba (JFK); Vietnam (LBJ & Congress); Iran (Jimmy Carter). And, outdoing all the rest in speed, Afghanistan (Joe Biden).