Do not cite the Young Turks.
Former Subscriber (maybe still?), Wolf-PAC supporter, but I do not and will not watch their videos anymore. It's gone from lightly opinionated but educated commentaries on politics to downright reactionary hysterics.
Couple things in regards to this video:
1) No one gives a flying **** about Colombus. So Colombus was an ****. Ok, cool. Nobody cared about the guy to begin with. This is a guy that comes up briefly in 3rd grade when we're told about how America came to be, he's by no means a revered or important figure for anyone in the big picture of things. The entire video is presented with this sort of premise that Americans and others actually give a damned about the guy and revere him as an important and amazing historical figure. Hell no, he's that guy that gets me an extra day off of work, nothing more. This has the same effect to if you told me "DID U KNO NAPOLEON BONAPARTE WAS KIND OF A JERK?" Cool, I believe you immediately and have zero ****s to give.
What's more important to me is what the **** the person's angle is with telling me Colombus is terrible. Is this gonna be some anti-America speech and how genocide is ok when the west does it? Is this gonna be about how our country lies to us or something? Dude, Colombus gets away with looking very neutral because his actions are taught to 7 year olds. By the time you're teaching those same people but at 14, Colombus just isn't relevant at all. There's no conspiracy here, this is just dumb luck that has allowed Colombus to go about with a relatively neutral reputation for most people.
2) TYT is reactionary hysterics. The video itself basically wants to imply Colombus is responsible for slaughtering 3 million natives like an ****. A quick google search will immediately diminish those claims in two important ways:
1) The "Experts say" line they use is an obvious weasel word, and of course the reality is that the number claims vary from as low as ~100,000 to as high as 8 million. If you use one the most cited sources on wikipedia (which refer you to books from Yale University by a guy named, Irving Rouse at the bottom here), then the numbers named are in the 500,000 to 1 million range.
2) Colombus is not directly responsible for their deaths, as 90% of the population had no immunity to smallpox and died from that. The way the information is presented, they'd have you believe the guy rode around killing them for sport (TOTAL side-note: my American family has Scottish origins and I know **** all about them because we always get mean looks and turned away at those scottish conventions as we're told our ancestors ran down some hill and killed their neighbors for sport. Good job, my ancestors. Kill grandma for bonus points) and never stopped. No, he indirectly did so just by exposing them to a disease they weren't built to resist. I'm not doubting he did terrible ****, but how about we stick to the facts and not exaggerate them, as the video would have you believe this guy is old skool Hitler.
3) There's a snippet in there about Colombus pimping 9 and 10 year old girls. I actually forgot to search this, but given my above searches, I again would have my doubts he was pimping them. Enslaving them? Absolutely, but the way they delivered the excerpt seemed designed to make you think "AND HE'S A PEDOPHILE TOO? GOD I HATE HIM" when infact the excerpt makes absolutely zero mention of anything sexual going on with the girls. Again, I don't know, it's merely a suspicion, and after all, if they wish to make this claim, the burden of proof is on them. This and many other parts of the video need a giant [citation needed], is the point.
The point is that it's very easy to see something like this and get pissed off. It's very easy to look at a historical figure that did bad things and demonize them until they're going toe-to-toe with Hitler. I would be quicker to ask what's the purpose in that, as well as point out that there's nothing objective about exaggerating all the worst aspects and leaving out important snippets in his favor. Granted, not trying to defend the guy: as I and I'm sure many others have stated, who gives a damned about Colombus? Throw him under the bus 20 times for all I care. I merely question the motive in doing so. It feels like a witch hunt for the sake of a witch hunt.
So how about we just go back to not giving a damned about the guy, take solace in knowing some new snippets of history, and then we enjoy Colombus day all the same cause hell yeah free day off of work?
I wonder what the people who think the unintentional spread of disease is should be avenged centuries later would say when they realize that before Native Americans could get theirs people of Europeans descent would get the chance to wipe out central Asia for the bubonic plague (which killed more than half of Europe)?