Quote:
Originally Posted by CliffFletcher
They're where they are because their culture was destroyed. Their culture was destroyed because that's what happens when more advanced and populous cultures meet less advanced and populous ones. It's the outcome every single time, in every corner of the planet. It requires no malice on the part of the more advanced and populous culture (which isn't to say malice is absent).
I don't look at history through the lens of a Hollywood movie narrative, with heroes, villains, and saviours. There's nothing that could have preserved the native cultures of the Americas, given the enormous disparity in technology between the old world and new, never mind the disease vulnerability that resulted in 90 per cent of the pre-contact population falling prey to smallpox, etc.
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It might be important to, at the very least, recognize that there are in fact many villains in the ‘conquest’ of nations, with malice beyond comprehension. From Central America in the 1400s to modern day, actions and policies have deliberately inflicted more harm to the native populations of this the entire Americas than could be described in a forum post. Is it isolated to North American Indians? Certainly not, and I don’t believe the current population should be entirely responsible to atone for these past atrocities. But denying the vicious and willfully brutal past which has led to the unfortunate present is ignorant at best.
Regarding this case however, I do believe the jury made the right decision. Sad circumstance, but not one the charges should be convicted of murder, IMO.