The 1492 Project

15 October 2019, I posted about Admiral Colón of... Liguria, best I can tell. I'd left it that he was an incompetent overshadowed by Cortés, whom I'd read more about and have some admiration for. Anyway 'tis That Time Of Year, when the Wypipo Tribe be called to "celebrate" indigenous peoples. Preferably not by eating them like the Caribs had done to the Bajans . . .

The main hit I had against this guy was that I thought he was a slaver.

I don't blame Columbus for the diseases. I chuckle at his geography but that's not a hit against his morals or rulership; same goes for the man's apocalyptic Catholicism. Even on the slavery thing I generally have a "compare A to B in the context of A and B" ethos, as you can see from my stance on The Jab: we don't compare The Jab with "everything else being awesome", we compare The Jab with catching CoVID. (I mean, unless you are a PJMedia reader with a brain full of the HSV.) From the captive's perspective: if those fighting over his flesh are a slaver and a cannibal, he should root for the slaver. Especially if that one promises to enslave the cannibal! But maybe we can go without the slavery entirely...?

Enter Armando Simón who, as a Latin, has finally had enough. He hits the same points I just did, adding more.

He's following "Adam Mill" but seems a sight better-informed than that midwit srrvative ever was (if John Stuart Mill and Adam Smith loved each other very much...). For a start Simón goes to the primaries where "Mill" relied on nineteenth-century fanbois. It helps that Simón can actually read Spanish. I don't know about Nahua but, for Columbus, we don't need Nahua.

I'll nudge Simón that he might need [Yucatec] Maya. I recall that Colón's fleet skirted their peninsula, technically Norte'mericano. He could add that the Caribbean population was never high. Where he blames Native Americans for syphilis' entry into Spain I'd more blame the Portuguese fresh outta Kongo. And yeah, we all know that everyone in the AD 1490s knew our Earth ain't flat. What this Admiral actually thought about this planet's equatorial topology was arguably even more retarded.

Also: that Columbus enslaved people isn't about his first voyage with a couple of "Caravel" tugboats. Obviously that canard is ridiculous. If we're judging Columbus we're judging his tenure as the Viceroy of all the West.

Overall, Simón's takedown although ranty is far superior to "Adam Mill". Put him alongside Darío Fernández-Morera.