I posted last week about Florida’s acceptance of climate denialist “science” materials for their curriculum.
The materials come from the online right-wing supported “Prager University”. (Kind of like Trump University, but with lower standards)
Now, from the same source, lessons about Slavery that climate deniers want your children to internalize.
Just for your orientation on this, while Moms for Liberty will still allow it, Auburn University has a page with excerpts from Columbus’ Journals, as well as some notes from contemporary historian, the Priest Bartoleme de Las Casas.
“They…brought us parrots and balls of cotton and spears and many other things, which they exchanged for the glass beads and hawks’ bells. They willingly traded everything they owned…They were well built, with good bodies and handsome features…They do not bear arms, and do not know them, for I showed them a sword, they took it by the edge and cut themselves out of ignorance. They have no iron. Their spears are made of cane…They would make fine servants…With fifty men we could subjugate them all and make them do whatever we want.”
Columbus, describing his first encounter with Native Americans
“…the admiral (Columbus), it is true, was as blind as those who came after him,and he was so anxious to please the King that he committed irreparable crimes against the Indians…
...(the Spaniards) grew more conceited every day and after awhile refused to walk any distance…(They) rode the backs of Indians is they were in a hurry or were carried on hammocks by Indians running in relays…(They) thought nothing of knifing Indians by tens and twenties and of cutting slices off them to test the sharpness of their blades…
…They (Indians) suffered and died in the mines and other labors in desperate silence, knowing not a soul in the world to whom they could turn for help…
…(In 1508) there were 60,000 people living on this island (Hispaniola), including the Indians; so that from 1494 to 1508, over three million people had perished from war, slavery, and the mines. Who in future generations will believe this? I myself writing it as a knowledgeable eyewitness can hardly believe it…”
– Bartolome de las Casas, a young priest who participated in the conquest of Cuba and transcribed Columbus’ journal
Below, local Florida News report from WESH – TV Orlando.
Hmm. What’s also interesting about this is that the animated Columbus argument is 100% moral relativism, and many Christians have a major beef with moral relativism. In fact, Dennis Prager himself has argued against it:
https://dennisprager.com/column/moral-absolutes-judeo-christian-values-part-xi
I’m already completely disillusioned with the rationality of man. We aren’t rational when viewed as a species – we are rationalizers. We want to believe certain things, therefore we bend our own realities to fit those wants. All of this ‘anti-woke’ BS in Florida, Texas, and elsewhere is more of the same. It still makes me angry, though.
There are always exceptions, of course. In the time of slavery in the New World, Thomas Jefferson owned hundreds of slaves and thought the practice a moral depravity at the same time:
https://www.monticello.org/thomas-jefferson/jefferson-slavery/jefferson-s-attitudes-toward-slavery/
But then, he was a genius, and most people aren’t.
Teacher: “Children, Columbus was no saint. He definitely enslaved the Indians he met.”
Prager: “On the Contrary, my Columbus here is saying that everybody did it!”
Teacher: “Just what I said: no saint”