Sunday, August 25, 2019

L'Épuration!

Whilst we are discussing the canonisation of the Conquistadors (leave aside Cortés; he was a pimp), it really has to come down to a matter of degrees.

Yesterday morning in a coffeeshop in the mountains, I overheard Classic Colorado White Girl bending the ear of the baristo. Because of course the baristo agrees with you. (He'd better.) The topic was the death-penalty. She disagreed with it because sometimes an innocent man is convicted and, then, exonerated. Apparently some of these (honestly) Dindu Nuffins are now out on the lecture circuit, arguing that nobody else should be put to death either. (Which by some arguments makes them combatants in a political struggle, subject to the laws of war; but that's enough Heinlein for one night . . .)

We are talking Conservative thought on this night. They'd agree to be very careful about whom to convict, but when someone is a Diddu Sumpin : get a rope.

The Left is hardly immune to such thought either. I'd be sure it was just banter if not for the postwar Épuration in France. Of the many Nazi collaborators, a few hundred were executed, by process of law. Over ten thousand were simply murdered out of hand. The Épuration sauvage, 'tis called. But those guys deserved it. The Résistance may not have had better forensic and juridicial expertise in 1945 than we got in 2019, but they were better people. Or enim silent leges, anyway.

Sure. Why not. Liberals don't lose sleep over 10,000 German-mumbling French traitors - or 80,000; even Conservatives don't. They were all fine with carpet-bombs killing many more Germans than that, per run. Hell, Japan got nuked. Twice!

How many of the Mesoamericans deserved what they got? Or, at what point did that inter arma thing get lifted?

From anyone debating a "1519 Project", I should like to see a number. Nearest thousand, or ten-thousand, or hundred-.

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