Columbus made a genocide possible. How can you want to celebrate that as though he is the end all of modern day society as we know it? Native cultures at the time were just that-their cultures. Columbus setting the wheels in motion for the eradication of almost the entire population of American Indians is not…

My apologies...I did not realize you were a Swedish politician.

Do you really believe that European or Western cultures and their contributions are not given any respect?? That people don’t still study Aristotle, Hegel, the Renaissance, the Enlightenment? The architecture of the fallen Roman empire, as well as of modern Berlin? As these things should be studied! I think the point…

Who’s moving the goalposts? Your argument, as evidenced by your opening statement, is that Columbus Day should be preserved as a US holiday. But since I did not limit my argument to rebutting yours, I’ll bite: even if we celebrated Mesoamerican cultural accomplishments, that would be different from celebrating their…

Um...okay, but why should Columbus be recognized for something he did not do? He did not discover North America. This is fact. Historically we know this holiday exists because Italian Americans wanted a notable Catholic from what is now Italy to be given an observed holiday, but now America is finally listening to…

I think that is the sticking point. Admitting that much of the world is shitty because of Colonization is difficult for white people. Now would it have been shitty without Colonization? Probably. People have always found a way to kill each other and steal shit. And it may have simply been a matter of time until…

Uh.....

Ok, I’m not gonna lie, that was WAY tl;dr. But you’re essentially arguing that Columbus is way way important to America, right?

The analogy is merely illustrative. The central point is that an unintentional positive outcome of a systematic atrocity does not justify the celebration of that atrocity.

It’s a matter of luck, and truth be told, Europeans got lucky. Superb geographical position, great access to natural resources, more contact with the rest of the world than anyone at the time due to said geographical position, more technological advancement than anyone else partly because of said contact. Native…

You need to check yourself. How can you possibly want to celebrate a man that, if by what you’re saying, is responsible for the eradication of an entire people. All tribes are different and although natives make up 2% (TWO!!!!) of the population that is in no way accounting for the lost culture of every tribe that was…

Hell, Europe had been scavenging fron the technological and scientific advances of Asia and the Middle East for centuries before they decided to raid the Americas.

What modern day people would prefer is irrelevant, of course most people would like to keep the conveniences they’ve grown up with. The correct question should be asked of the people who actually endured the “discovery” and should be phrased as, would you put up with being tortured, murdered and looted en masse if it…

You missed the point that a street that had been named something else (coincidentally, Delaware Avenue, as in Delaware Indian) was renamed TO Columbus Blvd in the same year that a more forward thinking city decided to do away with Columbus Day because obvious.

“The fact is that most Native Americans alive today, although living in greater poverty than the average American, are almost exclusively enjoying the benefits of the Columbian exchange, while experiencing little or none of its drawbacks.”

Your comment has left me a bit confused.

Yes, that might be the most condescending passage in your entire condescending comment. That you gloss over the history of Native American conflict with European conquerors, particularly regarding the United States government and its series of unequal treaties and seizure of native lands, is telling, but maybe not as…

Celebrating the unintentional benefits of a systematic enslavement/genocide/what have you is profoundly absurd. The Nazis invented rockets and without them we wouldn’t have a space program, or the very many wonderful things that have been the result of our space program. It does not follow that we should therefore…

Hey, it’s not like the Vikings stumbled upon the land mass several hundred years earlier than Columbus or anything.

“They aren’t because history is always sanitized when presented to children, as it should be.”