The folks that write this type of stuff have this meaning - whites had more power, therefore their violent behaviors were more wrong than the violent behaviors of the folks with less power.
They should read "Guns, Germs and Steel" so they could see the reality of human experience. Those who progressed to agriculture had extra food and that allowed food storage, building of year around shelter, and specialization (smiths, farmers, politicians, priests, fishermen, carpenters, masons, etc). Disease followed, leaving the surviving "civilized" folks living in cities less vulnerable to the germs they supported via civilization. While they grew smaller and sicker eating an agriculturalist's diet, they could have a child each year, and would win the breeding wars.
Specialization and population growth was a two headed monster that allowed some groups to be as dominant as the whites were when they arrived in america. If they were violent to the natives, it was just as likely the natives were violent to them - only the ones with guns, germs and steel were better at warring and could replace those lost. The natives, limited to a child every 4 years, could not compete.
One example, the Comanche, who were exterminating competing tribes to dominate the great plains and the buffalo, were estimated to have been 16,000 in number at their peak. At that time, there were already millions of whites. Were whites worse than the Comanche because they were better at genocide? In my view, no, whites were evolving to a point of view that exterminating, enslaving or dominating non-white, or non-Americans, was wrong. That's why there are still pockets of natives in this country. That they were as murderous as the natives but better at it does not make for me the meaning that whites were bad and the less powerful natives were good. Humans are humans, with many good and bad elements in how we struggle to secure our own safety and abundance of resources.
Crying about asymmetry of power is missing the point that human groups have struggled for dominance since they were human, and this point in history may be the most peaceful time that has ever been.
https://bt24news.com/analysis-comment/opinion-the-vicious-reality-behind-the-thanksgiving-myth/
They should read "Guns, Germs and Steel" so they could see the reality of human experience. Those who progressed to agriculture had extra food and that allowed food storage, building of year around shelter, and specialization (smiths, farmers, politicians, priests, fishermen, carpenters, masons, etc). Disease followed, leaving the surviving "civilized" folks living in cities less vulnerable to the germs they supported via civilization. While they grew smaller and sicker eating an agriculturalist's diet, they could have a child each year, and would win the breeding wars.
Specialization and population growth was a two headed monster that allowed some groups to be as dominant as the whites were when they arrived in america. If they were violent to the natives, it was just as likely the natives were violent to them - only the ones with guns, germs and steel were better at warring and could replace those lost. The natives, limited to a child every 4 years, could not compete.
One example, the Comanche, who were exterminating competing tribes to dominate the great plains and the buffalo, were estimated to have been 16,000 in number at their peak. At that time, there were already millions of whites. Were whites worse than the Comanche because they were better at genocide? In my view, no, whites were evolving to a point of view that exterminating, enslaving or dominating non-white, or non-Americans, was wrong. That's why there are still pockets of natives in this country. That they were as murderous as the natives but better at it does not make for me the meaning that whites were bad and the less powerful natives were good. Humans are humans, with many good and bad elements in how we struggle to secure our own safety and abundance of resources.
Crying about asymmetry of power is missing the point that human groups have struggled for dominance since they were human, and this point in history may be the most peaceful time that has ever been.
https://bt24news.com/analysis-comment/opinion-the-vicious-reality-behind-the-thanksgiving-myth/
