MONDAY, OCTOBER 12 IS COLUMBUS DAY, WHICH WE HAVE
CELEBRATED IN VARIOUS PARTS OF THIS COUNTRY SINCE THE 18TH
CENTURY, EVEN BEFORE IT BECAME A FEDERAL HOLIDAY BACK IN 1937,
AND THAT IS PROBABLY LONG ENOUGH.
BECAUSE WHEN YOU FIND
OUT THE ACTUAL FACTS OF WHAT CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS DID WHEN HE
GOT TO AMERICA, YOU WILL SEE THAT IT IS ONE OF THE DARKEST
CHAPTERS IN AMERICA'S HISTORY.
I HAVE A LOT OF THESE FACTS, CENK,
SO FEEL FREE TO CUT ME OFF WHEN YOU WANT TO INTERJECT.
LET'S
START WITH SOMETHING LIKE, COLUMBUS INITIATED THE
TRANSATLANTIC SLAVE TRADE IN EARLY FEBRUARY 1494, FIRST
SENDING SEVERAL DOZEN ENSLAVED TAINOS TO SPAIN.
HE DESCRIBED
THOSE ENSLAVED AS WELL MADE AND OF GOOD INTELLIGENCE.
HE ORDERED
1600 OF THEM ROUNDED UP AND HAD 550 OF THE BEST MALES AND
FEMALES, ACCORDING TO ONE WITNESS, CHAINED AND SENT AS
SLAVES TO SPAIN.
OF THE REST WHO WERE LEFT, THE ANNOUNCEMENT WENT
AROUND THAT WHOEVER WANTED THEM COULD TAKE AS MANY AS HE
PLEASED, AND THIS WAS DONE.
SIGNIFICANT NUMBERS OF EVEN
THOSE EARLY SLAVE DELIVERIES ENDED UP DYING EN ROUTE.
LET ME COME IN THERE WITH A COUPLE AMAZING THINGS.
COLUMBUS
ALSO DESCRIBED THE NATIVES THAT HE RAN INTO WHEN HE FIRST
DISCOVERED THIS LAND -- IF HE DISCOVERED IT, HOW COME THEY WERE
ALREADY THERE -- HE SAID THEY WERE "SO FULL OF LOVE AND
WITHOUT GREED."
IDIOTS, HE THOUGHT.
IT MAKES IT SUPER EASY
TO ENSLAVE THEM, BEAT THEM, MURDER THEM, CHOP THEIR HANDS
OFF.
CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS, THE ORIGINAL ISIS.
WE WILL GET TO
THAT IN A SECOND.
HE LOOKED AT THEIR LOVE AND COMPASSION AS WEAK BECAUSE HE
COULD EXPLOIT IT.
THIS IS THE MAN WE CELEBRATE.
HE SAYS YOU TAKE THE SLAVES AND DO WHAT YOU WANT WITH THEM,
HERE'S WHAT THEY DID WITH THEM ACCORDING TO THE JOURNALS
AT THE TIME.
THIS IS HISTORY, NOT SOMEBODY ELSE SAYING IT, THEY SAID
AT THEMSELVES.
MOST OF THE QUOTES YOU SEE WILL BE TAKEN FROM HIS
PERSONAL JOURNALS.
IN THE JOURNALS OF COLUMBUS AND HIS MEN, THEY BRAG ABOUT HOW
THEY WOULD BREAK THE NATIVE WOMEN, AND THEY WOULD BREAK
THEIR WILL TO RESIST AFTER RAPE AFTER RAPE AFTER RAPE, THEN
EVENTUALLY THEY CAN GET THE WOMEN TO DO WHATEVER THEY WANTED
BECAUSE THEY RAPED THEM SO MUCH.
THIS IS THE MAN WE CELEBRATE.
WHEN I WAS A KID I WAS TOLD COLUMBUS DISCOVERED AMERICA, I KNEW HE
HADN'T BECAUSE THERE WERE PEOPLE THERE.
I GOT IT, HE DISCOVERED
IT FROM A EUROPEAN PERSPECTIVE, EUROPEANS CAME HERE, WE SET UP
AMERICA, WE CELEBRATED, AND I CELEBRATED.
BUT WHEN I GREW UP I
PUT CHILDISH THINGS ASIDE.
YOU WANT TO TAKE THE BLUE PILL AND
YOU WANT TO GO BACK TO THINKING CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS IS A LOVELY
GUY?
UNDERSTAND YOU ARE MAKING AN ACTIVE CHOICE TO DENY FACTS,
HISTORY, AND TO SAY, I LIKE TO BE IGNORANT.
THAT IS A CHOICE YOU
ARE MAKING.
BUT NOW THAT I KNOW THE FACTS, OBVIOUSLY I CHANGED
MY MIND ON CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS BECAUSE NOBODY EVER TOLD ME WHAT
THE REAL FACTS WERE.
YOU FIND OUT THE REAL FACTS AND YOU GO,
YOU WOULD HAVE TO BE A MONSTER TO WANT TO CELEBRATE THIS GUY.
THEY LEAVE IT OUT OF THE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL TEXTBOOKS.
WE
HAVE MORE BARBARITY BUT THE FUNDAMENTAL FACTS AS YOU POINTED
OUT, HE DID NOT DISCOVER AMERICA.
FIRST OF ALL, OTHER
EUROPEANS HAD ALREADY BEEN TO AMERICA AT THAT POINT, AND AS
YOU POINT OUT, WELL OVER 100 MILLION NATIVE PEOPLE WERE
LIVING THERE.
THEY DISCOVERED IT FIRST.
THEY DID NOT THINK THAT
THE WORLD WAS FLAT AT THAT POINT, THEY HAD NOT THOUGHT THAT
FOR OVER 1000 YEARS, HE WAS NOT BRAVE AND BEING WILLING TO GO
OVER THE EDGE OF THE WORLD.
AND HE DID NOT GO ON A MISSION OF
EXPLORATION, IT WAS A COMMERCIAL ENTERPRISE AND A RELIGIOUS
ENTERPRISE TO FIND GOLD AND TO FIND SLAVES AND CONVERT THEM
WHERE POSSIBLE.
THE INITIAL SLAVES WE TALKED ABOUT PROVED
UNPROFITABLE, BUT HE LATER WROTE LETTERS IN THE NAME OF THE HOLY
TRINITY GO ON SENDING ALL THE SLAVES THAT CAN BE SOLD.
THERE
YOU GET BOTH THE RELIGIOUS AND THE COMMERCIAL CONSIDERATIONS IN
ONE SENTENCE.
WHEN SLAVERY DID NOT PAY OFF HE TURNED TO A
TRIBUTE SYSTEM, FORCING EVERY TAINO TO FILL A HAWKSBILL WITH
GOLD EVERY THREE MONTHS.
IF NOT, HE ORDERED THEY WOULD BE
PUNISHED BY HAVING THEIR HANDS CHOPPED OFF, OR CHASED DOWN BY ATTACK
DOGS.
AS A SPANISH PRIEST WROTE, THIS TRIBUTE SYSTEM WAS IMPOSSIBLE
AND INTOLERABLE.
THEY NOT ONLY HAD THEIR HANDS CUT OFF BUT THEY
WERE FORCED TO WEAR THEM AROUND THEIR NECK ON THONGS.
A LITTLE BARBARIC THERE.
IMAGINE IF ISIS HAD CUT OFF HANDS, WHICH THEY DO, SO
DOES SAUDI ARABIA.
AND THEY MADE THE KIDS, 14 AND 15-YEAR-OLD
KIDS, WEAR THE HANDS AROUND THEIR NECK, AND THEN THEY SAID,
I AM ONLY CHOPPING IT OFF BECAUSE HE DID NOT GIVE ME
ENOUGH MONEY, ENOUGH GOLD, ENOUGH BRIBES.
AND THEN THEY
RAPED THE WOMEN, THEY DO THIS TO THE KIDS, TO THE ADULTS, AND
THEN THEY SIC DOGS ON THEM, RIP THE FLESH FROM THEIR BODY AS WE
ALL WATCH.
WE WOULD RIGHTFULLY CALL THEM MONSTERS, THE WORST OF
THE WORST, RIGHT?
WHEN COLUMBUS DOES THE SAME EXACT THING, WE
NAME A NATIONAL HOLIDAY AFTER HIM.
AGAIN, IF YOU DIDN'T KNOW
-- I DIDN'T KNOW EITHER.
IT IS OKAY, YOU ARE NOT A BAD PERSON.
WE WERE ALL TOLD, HEY, COLUMBUS WAS WONDERFUL.
ITALIAN, COMES
HERE, DISCOVERS AMERICA.
BRAVE, ALL THAT STUFF.
YOU DIDN'T KNOW.
BUT NOW YOU KNOW.
YOU CAN'T CELEBRATE THAT GUY.
THERE IS MORE THEY HAVE TO KNOW, UNFORTUNATELY.
THIS IS
ANOTHER SECTION FROM CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS'S PERSONAL JOURNAL. 100
CASTELLANOS ARE AS EASILY OBTAINED FOR A WOMAN AS FOR A
FARM, AND IT IS VERY GENERAL AND THERE ARE PLENTY OF DEALERS WHO
GO ABOUT LOOKING FOR GIRLS, THOSE FROM 9 TO 10 ARE NOW IN
DEMAND.
THEY HAD SET UP A SYSTEM OF PIMPS AND SLAVERY IN THE NEW
WORLD.
HE RETURNED WITH MORE MEN AFTER SAYING HE COULD
CONQUER ALL THE NATIVES
BECAUSE THEY HAD SO LITTLE EXPERIENCE WITH WAR THAT HE
NEEDED ONLY 50 MEN.
ON HIS SECOND TRIP HE BROUGHT CANNONS
AND ATTACK DOGS.
IF NATIVES TRIED TO ESCAPE THEY BURNED THEM
ALIVE.
OTHER TIMES HE SENT DOGS TO HUNT THEM DOWN AND THEY WOULD
TEAR OFF THEIR ARMS AND LEGS.
IF THE SPANIARDS RAN SHORT OF MEAT
TO FEED THE DOGS, BABIES WERE KILLED FOR DOG FOOD.
ADDITIONALLY, AND THIS IS ONE OF THE SOURCES FOR THE INFORMATION,
ONE OF COLUMBUS'S MEN WAS SO MORTIFIED BY COLUMBUS'S BRUTAL
ATROCITIES AGAINST THE NATIVES THAT HE QUIT WORKING FOR
COLUMBUS AND BECAME A PRIEST.
IN A SINGLE DAY, HE WAS AN
EYEWITNESS AS SPANISH SOLDIERS DISMEMBERED, BEHEADED OR RAPED
3000 NATIVE PEOPLE.
SUCH INHUMANITIES AND BARBARISMS WERE
COMMITTED IN MY SIGHT AS NO AGE CAN PARALLEL.
THE FINAL TOLL FOR THIS BARBARITY, DISEASE, KILLING,
TORTURE, EXPERTS GENERALLY AGREE THAT BEFORE 1492 THE POPULATION
ON HISPANIOLA PROBABLY NUMBERED ABOUT 3 MILLION.
WITHIN 20 YEARS
OF SPANISH ARRIVAL IT WAS REDUCED TO 60,000.
WITHIN 50
YEARS NOT A SINGLE ORIGINAL NATIVE INHABITANT COULD BE FOUND.
WOW.
MILLIONS WERE KILLED AS A RESULT OF THE EXPLORATION,
THE DISCOVERY.
WOW.
THAT IS ON ONE ISLAND, BY THE WAY.
THIS WAS THEN SPREAD THROUGHOUT THE REGION.
IF THAT IS NOT TERRORISM, WHAT IN THE WORLD IS?
I MEAN, THAT
TERRORISM IS SO THOROUGH, AFTER ALL THE RAPES AND BEHEADINGS AND
SETTING PEOPLE ON FIRE, THEY KILLED AT FIRST NEARLY EVERYONE,
AND THEN EVENTUALLY EVERYONE.
THEY KILL EVERYONE THEY SEE.
IT'S ONE THING TO BE IGNORANT, AND THAT IS ACTUALLY SOMETHING
THAT PLAGUES US ALL.
WE ARE ALL IGNORANT OF DIFFERENT THINGS.
I
DON'T KNOW PARTICLE PHYSICS.
AND THERE IS A LOT YOU DON'T KNOW
AND I DON'T KNOW, THAT'S OKAY.
IF YOU ARE ON A QUEST TO LEARN,
THAT IS FANTASTIC.
THAT IS EXACTLY RIGHT, WE ARE ALL ON A
QUEST TO LEARN.
BUT ONCE YOU KNOW, IT IS AN EASY DECISION.
IF
AFTER KNOWING THIS, AND YOU KNOW THAT THE CONTEMPORARIES WROTE
THIS, THIS IS NOT SOME INTERPRETATION LATER, THEY WROTE
THIS IN THEIR JOURNALS, AFTER YOU KNOW IT AND YOU STILL WANT
TO SAY THIS IS A GOOD MAN BECAUSE I DON'T CARE, BECAUSE HE
WAS WHITE OR ITALIAN OR HE DID IT FOR -- HE'S THE FOUNDER OF
OUR COUNTRY?
IF YOU DON'T CARE ABOUT THIS, YOU ARE A TERRIBLE,
TERRIBLE PERSON.
IF YOU STILL WANT TO CELEBRATE THIS GUY, IT
WOULD BE LIKE CELEBRATING THE LEADER OF ISIS.
THIS IS EXACTLY
WHAT ISIS DOES, AND HE DID IT AT A LEVEL THAT ISIS COULDN'T
IMAGINE.