Random Intellectual Crazies

Should the RIC look into getting a new poll?

Of course!	23.1%	[ 88 ]
No.	5.0%	[ 19 ]
No. *boot to the head* Yes.	24.7%	[ 94 ]
Disagree, because I'm a noob and only here to disrupt your peaceful ways.	9.4%	[ 36 ]
Wait, I still haven't got my cookies from the last poll.	37.8%	[ 144 ]
Total Votes:			[ 381 ]

[EvFaerAshlynn]

My argument: Columbus did some good things, and he did some bad things, but let's face it. Those of us who aren't Native American in decent might not be sitting here in North America without the people of his era who got their butts over here.

[cait eats airplane]

Cait got her license!

[Albern Puppy]

Go Cait!

So how long till you get your moped?

[cait eats airplane]

Mmm, hm. Good question. D: Probably in a few months or so?

[What Tomorrow Brings]

Doktor Thodt

I'd be okay with it if they were just presenting the facts, like my history teachers did.
"The Europeans were immune to smallpox as a result of exposure. The native peoples had not been exposed to smallpox and therefore contracted it and died," rather than "Columbus caused a plague of smallpox. He was a horrible person and you should all hate him."
Or, "One of Columbus's goals in the New World was to find gold," rather than "Columbus was greedy and you should all hate him."

But it wasn't just small pox.

Columbus and his nefarious group of explorers not only set out to explore the new world, but claim it as their own. They completely ignored the idea of natives until they showed their dark, "savage" faces, and then the explorers neglected to greet them, but killed them instead. Not only indirectly with their foreign diseases, but they introduced an upgraded form of warfare, provided them with muskets, traded with them, then "stabbed them in the back," both literally and symbolically. They slaughtered them, battered their children, killed the men, and raped the women. They beat them down, scared and confused, forced some into the slave trade and killed the others that were of no use to them. They destroyed their homes, their crops, their families, and their lives because they were greedy and stingy enough to attempt to take over the new world in the proud name of their Lords and masters. And while they were at it, they also forced their Catholic religion upon the natives, and if they did not incorporate Jesus Christ into their life, they were killed or beaten. Stripped, broken, dead, in essence, the natives were left all because the European explorers wanted the famous "Three G's." God, Gold, and Glory.

Yeah. People.

I guess if I thought more about it, I could go more in depth, but the whole subject sickens me.

I don't care that Christopher Columbus "discovered" the new world. There were explorers before him that did less damage that weren't credited, because directly following their discoveries, people didn't settle, when after Columbus made his findings, he told "everybody and their mother." And so people thought, "HEY. LAND. LET'S GO STEAL IT." Of course, I'm sure they thought that the land was rightfully theirs, since an explorer in the name of wherever (theoretically) found it. So it was theirs to take over, no matter there were already inhabitants of the land or anything... We can just kill 'em and then settle. 'Cause we claim it. And we have guns. In essence.



Yeah. I'd give Columbus a life sentence too. And all of the stupid settlers who were daft enough to think that they could just go around killing the natives just because they wanted to settle there.

[-Chi-Iroi-]

Honestly, everyone in history has done thing that are bad and good, it's usually just one side that is focused on.

Take Martin Luther King Jr, for instance. He used to hold anti-america-type rallies and protests, because he didn't like this country. But people don't look at that aspect, they look at what he did for the black race in America.

Even further, look at Hitler. Everyone sees him as a terrible person (not saying he wasn't XP), but he also did good things. He united Germany, even though the reason was not good, he still did. Plus, Hitler is the reason the autobahn was created.

So pretty much, it all just depends on what you want to focus on, the good, or the bad.

P.S. HELLO RIC! razz

[What Tomorrow Brings]

Well, see, if I were being discriminated against, to that extent, I'm sure I'd have anti-whatever country I lived in rallies and protests as well, especially considering that the whole discrimination is unconstitutional. The 9th and 10th amendments to the US constitution are the two vague ones that allow the people to hold their "god given" or natural rights. And as such, or as we know as a society today, all humans are humans, and one human should not be able to deny another human their birth rights, or the rights that should be common amongst all people. Like, just because I'm olive colored, I should not be hated by another man and they should not act upon that hate because I am different.


And so yeah, I don't care if Dr. King was burning US flags. Our country by no means is innocent of a lot of things, and neither are other people. We all do make mistakes, and there is a bad side to everything. My whole point is this: Why sugar coat it all? We need to know the ugly truth, because if we're sheltered from it our lives, we're living in ignorance. And what does that make us? Well, ignorant of course, but blind as well. I mean... there are lots of things I don't know, but if I do know that someone was not perfect, their good is not going to outweigh their bad with me. I must know both sides, and I will acknowledge both of them truthfully. I won't sugarcoat what I have to say about the bad, nor the good.

Sure, Columbus found the new world, yadda yadda, but really... the method in which he and his men took it over, amongst the other Europeans, was so far from necessary and humane that... well, their credit to discovering the new world just kind of pales in comparison to the bad that they did.

And Dr. King did much more good than bad. Anti US rallies aren't as significant when the subject and cause of the rallies was unfairness to the African-American race, especially considering that the people were wronging their own country by not following their own constitution, or governing rules....




.....Dx

[cait eats airplane]

I am so confused as to what is going on right now. Who are we talking about and why?

[What Tomorrow Brings]

cait eats airplane

I am so confused as to what is going on right now. Who are we talking about and why?

There was a previous discussion about a group of kids enacting something about Columbus and giving him a life sentence for being a bad man. And from this discussion, I got the impression (I may have gotten the wrong one, mind you all) that we, or the people of the previous discussion, were agitated about the fact that the students gave Columbus a life sentence in prison because they believed he got the natives sick and killed them. And it seemed to me that they felt that Columbus had been done an injustice, "for heaven's sake he discovered the new world." And so I presented other information (paraphrased) that historians have evidence of. Like, the enslavement and raping of the natives, etc. The mistreatment, inhumane and sickening. So, not only did the Europeans bring over their foreign diseases, that they were unaware they were bringing with them, but they actually felt the need to kill and ravage the native peoples because they wanted that land and felt that it was theirs, rightfully and respectfully. They were daft.

And that was my presentation.

And now the discussion has progressed into the matter of opinion, which is okay. It's the idea of how you look at the person and if you choose to view the good or the bad. When personally for me, Columbus's (and the Europeans') bad outweighs his(their) good immeasurably.

[Lady Rattus]

Holy crap, it looks like I started something.
Mostly I'm irritated because it seems like they're only teaching the bad. One of my favorite teachers made it a point to tell us that Columbus did (or at least started) some pretty horrible things. We read a book which told us some of those horrible things. I'm not denying that he was an awful person. I think we would have been better off had it been the Christian Norsemen who ended up colonizing, 'cause they weren't focused on gold and land. But if the Americas hadn't been discovered, I would be living in the Old World. Ireland wouldn't be that bad, but I don't really want to live in the UK, and I especially don't want to live in France or Germany.
I know it's trendy to hate America now, but I think what we're really doing (or trying to do; meaning to do) is hating the people who are raping the document that acknowledges our inherent rights, and therefore ignoring those rights. We should hate them, not our country. It's past the age of revolutions here in America, but we can at least vote them out of office, and continue voting politicians out until they get the picture and do what we want, or at least treat us like human beings rather than a herd of ignorant sheep.

tl;dr
I hate everyone.

Fun Fact: Apparently the warmest recorded year recently was... 1998.
I hear some bits of the country are having record low temperatures again.
Given the weather we had here in Illinois in the summer, I think we'll be one of those bits soon. We had one week where it was hotter than the hubs of Hades, and then it was (relatively) cool and wet the rest of the time. It was/is so soggy that farmers have been having difficulties harvesting their corn.
Eh. I'd rather have it cold than hot, I guess.

[-Chi-Iroi-]

The reason they were unhappy with the "sentencing" Shouty-pants, was because they felt they did not put together completely sound arguments. They weren't trying to argue/discredit the fact that he gave the people diseases, but more that the article they were talking about made it sound more like they were attacking him than actually making a statement.

Demi

I'd be okay with it if they were just presenting the facts, like my history teachers did.
"The Europeans were immune to smallpox as a result of exposure. The native peoples had not been exposed to smallpox and therefore contracted it and died," rather than "Columbus caused a plague of smallpox. He was a horrible person and you should all hate him."
Or, "One of Columbus's goals in the New World was to find gold," rather than "Columbus was greedy and you should all hate him."

[Lady Rattus]

I was sort of exaggerating, but you know. Public schools sort of piss me off because I went to a really crappy one, and my mom taught at an even worse one for a year (bonus awful points for essentially being an inner-city school), and from what I've been reading and hearing, it seems like the quality is steadily going downhill, especially in the grade schools.

EDIT: Oh Mr. Crepsleeeey. <3
My computer hates video, but I watched this one just for you.
Fff. I know they'll probably butcher the book, but I can't help my excitement.

[-Chi-Iroi-]

>Does a jig and throws sparkles all through the RIC and ten leaves for class<

[Lady Rattus]

http://www.myfoxorlando.com/dpp/news/volusia_news/101009_Man_killed_pet_rat
:[
This guy should be charged with animal cruelty, and $3000 dollars bail is not nearly enough.
The son of a b***h kills a domestic rat because he wanted a cigarette. I think that's a sign that he's a nutcase, but that's really no excuse. You know how I like to say rats are smarter than some people? This... is proof.

[cait eats airplane]

All's I saw was tl;dr and I began laughing uncontrollably. Ah, good times in the GD. Yes. Yes.