The old propaganda in the USA was that Columbus discovered America. Ha HA Ha
Indigenous Peoples’ Day, the new holiday
Google: COLUMBUS in the BAY of PIGS, an historical poem on the Columbus Invasion
Also it would have been better if America had not been “discovered” by anyone other then all the people that used to live here who we kinda tried to exterminate.
Out here, it’s Columbus Day. I know because the kids get Columbus Day off from school but I have to work. The kids are home with a day off today and I’m sitting in the office at work, so it must be Columbus Day.
Did Columbus ever get to mainland North America? Seems he just hung around the Bahamas, Caribbean, Central America and South America. Must not have liked the colder Northern weather.
Maybe Columbus Day is the day the Indigenous Peoples discovered Columbus.
The propaganda that is written into most school textbooxs is biased largely in favor of the Anglo-Saxon. The same textbooks often paint indigenous people as savages, nomads and even ancient terrorists… when in fact they made many advances in farming and medicine that helped the early colonizers of the Americas. You just can’t escape the propaganda machine.
The fact that Columbus showed up to “America” in rough shape on a ship that was about to sink, then taken in, fed and cared for by indigenous peoples while he repaired his ship isn’t often reported… nor is the fact that his second trip to “America” was, in part, to capture (to sell into slavery) or kill those very same indigenous people that helped him, to pillage their crops and homes, to even go so far as to dig up their dead and steal the treasures with which they were buried.
Noooosiree, Columbus is an iconic hero, the great discoverer, the brave voyager, leader of men, founder of a new nation. Blah blah blah. Whoever writes that crap should be demoted to a position where they’d be forced to proofread MySpace pages until the end of eternity.
Columbus is credited (by the powers-that-used-to-be) for discovering “The New World.” Didn’t see the movie. The caribbean is part of the new world. From a European point of view he made this big discovery, which led to riches, expansion, fame and other good stuff for many other Europeans.
Hopefully someday we will be more objective in our treatment of past events that formed our country and continent. Not a Columbus fan and want to make a statement? Protest by going to work or school! 
Fun fact: Nearly every Old World culture has claimed discovery of the New World. So who did it? I don’t know! What type of Indian? There were so much types…most people who “discovered” America saw Indians living there already. Ironic how they call that a discovery, right?
It surprised me when my book said Colombus was a Christian. I thought he only acted like one because the kings in Spain would kill him if he wasn’t Christian. They also invented the theory that the Eart was flat, so that people kept living there and got afraid to move out because they would fall off the Earth and paid taxes.
The “The World is Flat” theory was created by Washington Irving when he wrote a biography of Columbus centuries later.
From Wilkepedia
Often people feel ashamed of atrocities committed in the past by their ancestors. This includes colonialism, slavery and the segregation conflict in the 20th century. White self-hatred is often related to feelings of dissatisfaction about the current capitalistic nature of society and social issues such as income inequality and pollution. It is often argued that evidence of widespread White self hatred in academic circles is the protection that political correctness offers to all racial or cultural group with the exception of mainstream whites.
A more benign version of this type of White self-hatred is referred to as White Liberal Guilt. White Liberal Guilt can cause a person to become overly concerned with making up for past injustices and this influences their decisions and actions. For example, a person voting between two candidates for public office, one white and one a minority, may decide that even though they feel the white candidate is more qualified to be elected, they will feel guilty if they do not vote for the minority candidate because it helps make up for past discrimination.
glorifying savages is fun. the more primitive they were, the more we love them and feel sorry for them now. and it’s not just an american thing. look at the australian aboriginals - their development lagged the rest of the world on almost a geologic scale, but now they seem like such an interesting people. (actually, i think they glorify the aborigines just to sell more crappy “art” to tourists)
Bugman, why do feel the need to be such a jerk? You like to post irrelevant anti-liberal schlock rather than actually participating in a useful discussion.
The only thing worse than a sore loser is a sore winner.
Pointing out the fact that I believe the posts above sounded like a bunch of people that hate themselves makes me a jerk? At least I’m not posting irrelevant liberal schlock. I typed self loathing into google, and this was the first thing that came up. I went to the entry and read it. It pretty much spelled out exactly what I was seeing. If that is being a jerk good. What would you call a person who called you a jerk?
How is hating* Columbus self-hatred?
*)I don’t like to use the word “hate” here, but for lack of a better word.
wrong idea: I think that once you realise your parents/ancestors were not saints (though you owe much to them) you are becoming a grown-up.
funnily nationalists everywhere are using the same arguments : in Japan to “forget” war crimes, in Turkey to negate the armenian problem, and so on.
again not idealising your kin does not mean self-hatred.
For sure there are problems about generalising: though the overall tendency was the crushing of a set of cultures by a set of other cultures it is wrong to think that “natives” were benevolent: most were as “human” as their ennemies. So colonisers were quick to spot the things that were terrible just to negate the status of “human” to natives and thus negate their existence and cultures.
history is a long succession of such stories. Acknowledging this is not guilt, I just hope it will help us about handling the future …
edit: that was post 666! 
Self loathing. Better.
It’s not the one post that makes this self hate/ self laoathing, but the continual posts/threads that show an outright disdain for everything that is generally recognised as “american” from religion, holidays, constitutional issues, founding fathers, social issues, having children etc… Self loathing.
I understand: not being american I did not felt that. But humourous self-deprecation is not a bad exercise (I emphasize :humourous) and does not mean you have low self-esteem.
everyday poke fun at your most cherished value: you will get stronger! angryness will fade away! and you will make it easier to recognise a well documented and argued case from just annoying intellectual fads.
Good point. I get plenty of self-deprecation every morning when I look in the mirror.
As much as a handsome guy can.
Nobody mentioned white people here until someone said we all hate ourselves. Uh, at least those of us who think of ourselves as white.
oh by the way bugman I had to reply on previous postings about sweden … because the week before I spent a whole week in Sweden. I happened to stay in a suburb heavily populated by migrants.
frankly by walking in the evening night in empty paths between the buildings I never felt any anguish whatsoever (I even felt happy!).
For sure I do not look like an ordinary Swede (in fact the first person who spontaneously talked to me was himself iranian) so my opinion is though shit happens and is duly reported by newspapers I did not felt that I was in a war zone 
Sweden is a wonderful place to live and work.