This is happening rather quietly

Not much, he was being sarcastic.
It's an inappropriate joke, but given the other content of this thread, I didn't even shrug.

 

FYI belgian roads suck.

 

http://www.mit.edu/~thistle/v9/9.11/1columbus.html

Interesting paper on the subject, though a bit biased.

 

His "sarcasm" was in very, very, very poor taste. Justifying his pretend racism because somebody else was objectionable/rude/racist/mean, is a pretty low standard.

 

It's amusing how the sarcasm offends you, but those who genuinely mean it are worthy of your approval.

I mean, you do see how that's silly right? You're more offended by the phrasing than by the content.

 

The vikings get no respect I tell you. No respect.[/Dangerfield impression]

I don't think renaming it helps. If anything, the generic quality of the new name might be worse.

I don't think having a Columbus Day is a bad thing, I think rather the ignorance of the subject is the problem, if anything. Even though Columbus didn't "discover" the nation, it's still a momentous moment in history, and should be remembered. But so too should all the resultant history that keyed off of it as well.

Merely renaming it, and to something generic like "Indigenous Peoples Day" doesn't help remove the ignorance, and risks further forgetfulness of what actually happened and why all for the sake of a platitude.

 

If you are gonna hold Trump to a certain standard, maybe you should hold yourself to it as well.

And, just for the record:

Trump commented on 6/15 that too many illegal aliens were guilty of breaking other laws as well, and millions pretended it was a racist statement.

Now you are actually pretending to be racist, but it is ok because... you are Belgian? Enamored with selfies? Great at SL? More cleverer than southerners??

 

he's not running for president so I don't think he needs to?'

isn't that statement blatantly untrue and aimed at immigrants, thus requiring no need to pretend it is racist because it probably is?

 

That comparison is bull and you know it.

Trump means what he says, I was clearly using sarcasm to get a message across that you didn't get. They are two completely different things. You can't claim a KKK member and some comedian who makes a racist joke are somehow guilty of the same crime. And even if I blank out meant all the horrible things I said, last I checked I wasn't running for POTUS which would make all of this irrelevant anyway. There's plenty of opinions from you and others that I don't agree with and would never want to see a POTUS share, I wasn't aware I should compare you to my favorite politician and hold you to his standard.

You just can't get past the fact that you got really upset about my blunt sarcasm while you were waving your American flag like a madman when others commented on how survival of the fittest species by Columbus was totally legit. At this point I don't know if you're just out to stir stuff up or if you genuinely believe all those controversial things while offended by my blunt, sarcastic human empathy.

 

I'm a decent enough human being to say that what we did in Congo was wrong, I don't have to go build houses there to mean it.

There's a difference between what I do and saying that the savages were better off getting a taste of western society. Too bad we also slaughtered a bunch of them, for the greater good no doubt. I can acknowledge that without colonization we wouldn't have our standard of living today, I can however do that while also acknowledging that a lot of it went paired with sub-human acts of violence. I don't have to make remarks about the civilized savage as the white man did a couple hundred years ago to defend slavery.

 

I see nuance is lost on you. There's no point in having this conversation then.

 

We don't know if it's true or not, because it's aimed at illegal immigrants that are largely undocumented and have no background checks done on them. And I don't think he's really intending to limit it to one race (but he might be) so much as talking about the one that is most prevalent in the voters minds.

I don't think it's racist necessarily (might be, intent and motivation is important for determining that sort of thing when it is still only "probably") so much as ignorant of the state of Mexico as a nation. His assertion is that Mexico is "sending"/encouraging it's worst element to go to the US, and while that might be true, I think there's enough wrong in Mexico that many people would go north as refugees, rather than (just/mostly) criminals trying to escape justice/expand into the north.

 

His Ego is too big, we need more threads to handle it!

Back on topic, kinda:

While I understand the sentiment, I think it is very much important to note that these acts of violence were (and still are) not "sub-human" but rather "human." Humans are strange. Capable of impressive acts of compassion, art, self-sacrifice for others, and those things which most today consider noble. Yet also capable of slavery, systematic genocide, and so on.

And the most "civilized" of nations were/are capable of it. It's not a contradiction, but rather an aspect of how broad "human nature" and "civilization" really is.

 

Just a heads up, Newsbuff is part of the team of PoxPoints, and if you disagree with the anti-intellectual, nationalist and in every other way disgusting and undignified vomit he spread over this thread, you might wish to consider a little boycott. I will.

 

I don't boycott businesses based on people's personal beliefs, unless those beliefs enter the business practice.

 

I do and see no reason not to. By doing business with them I finance them, and I have no desire to finance someone I'd describe as moderately evil

 

I mean, I could see an argument for not financing someone who's actually going to perform obnoxious deeds with the money. I doubt PoxPoints's members are going to start an evil club where they finance IS.

 

IS for Islamic State or Ironfist Stronghold?

 

But why should I support someone who I think is a harmful person? I don't see much of an obligation for a boycott, but no reason not to either.