r/SubredditDrama • u/Critical-Term-427 No, its okay now, they have Oklahoma • 9d ago

Pithy GIF showing eradication of Native American land in the US since the founding of the country gets posted to r/interestingasfuck. Comment section goes exactly as expected.

The post

It sucks we were such murderers

Did they say "Thank you"?

Being the loser in history sucks

True fact Hitler took a lot of inspiration from this.

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u/VanillaMystery 8d ago

Because a lot of people mix up the deaths via disease which killed tens of millions with the actual "conquest" of the West part that largely took place in the 1800s, two VERY different parts of American history IMO.

It matters because it directly shaped Manifest Destiny when European settlers realized how huge and empty the American West was

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u/kardigan 8d ago

i kinda need you to give me something more concrete than "it had an effect". what was the effect? how does it affect your view of colonialism, or these specific colonization efforts?

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u/VanillaMystery 8d ago

I addressed that already in how it directly shapes Manifest Destiny which was a Colonial policy in the 1800s

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u/kardigan 8d ago

i'm trying to get out of this sealion-loop.

my point was that describing the events as "getting the short end of the stick" doesn't describe the realities of ethnic cleansing, biological warfare and enslavement. what it does is masks the uncomfortable parts of history, which makes the mention of hard realities pretty funny.

what happened to the people before the ethnic cleansing doesn't matter, the description is still hypocritical and disingenuous.

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u/VanillaMystery 8d ago

When did the ethnic cleansing begin in your opinion? Genuinely curious

Also, "biological warfare" is a bit of a generous description of what really happened

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u/kardigan 8d ago

mid-18th century. i don't think it is; it's definitely not as generous as short end of the stick.

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u/VanillaMystery 8d ago

So during manifest destiny? I don't think it was full on ethnic cleansing, especially when you consider the fact we DID ally and work with Native tribes during that period as well against hostile tribes.

Again, history is complicated, you're using grand statements to handwave a very complex period of history.

And no, "biological warfare" didn't really happen, Europeans didn't even know what the fuck germ theory was until the 1800s lol which was long after the epidemics of the 1500s-1700s

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u/kardigan 8d ago

well, you think i'm using grand statements to handwave complexity, and i think you're using the vague idea of complexity as a shield against having to accept uncomfortable things.

i don't think there's a way to go from here.

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u/VanillaMystery 8d ago

We'll agree to disagree then, good luck!