Both of these statements are correct and aren't mutually exclusive
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deleted
· 2 years ago
My point exactly.
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deleted
· 2 years ago
First of all, the comparison is technically correct, as much as it's technically correct to compare a dinghy to an aircraft carrier. They're bpth boats. Also, something bad isn't made any better because other bad things happened as well. But I don't think this is a great place discussing this in detail.
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What's more important here I think: I have never actually heard any real person in real life saying White Europeans have exclusively been doing anything bad, except in strawman arguments. Exactly as presented right here: DeGrasse Tyson speaks of European history specifically, not ALL history generally. It's sort of sad seeing a bright mind like Dennis Wingo come up with such weak crap.
Yea, technically diametrically opposed to truth would require he say something like “land has never been stolen through force.” Anything less than that will have a degree of truth.
What would be more accurate would be to say that it has a questionable relationship with honest framing.
The thing with tweets is that it’s not an unsafe assumption that all the context of the statement is encapsulated in the tweet by which I mean, he’s likely not responding to anyone, he’s likely not referencing outside of the tweet except in what is explicitly stated in the tweet in this case “European colonial history.”
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Arguably even just the way he worded what he was speaking about “European colonial history” actively acknowledges the fact that it isn’t just Europeans doing this otherwise it would just be “colonial history.”
An example of a far more dishonest and more “opposed to truth” way this could have been worded would be something like
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Colonial history in 7 words:
“Europeans: is that yours? It’s mine now”
Neil didn't say "all history" he specified European Colonial History. Dennis just made the assumption that others think the entirety of human history is just European Colonialism. He just made all of human history about White Europeans.
"Is that yours? It' mine now." Is six words that can be acclaimed to any culture that did anything resembling conquering, be it another nation, or the tribe just past the river. That's the fault I find with Neil's tweet. Using this "meme" as a reason to put the blame for why humans do this on one period of history (note: recent history, which we can dissect with much more clarity and nuance than ancient history) from one culture group is erroneous. I'm not saying neil is saying this, in a vacuum he is correct, but across the broader records of history, ancient and modern, we shouldn't take this tweet as exclusive to one culture or group of cultures.
But this tweet is specifically about a specific culture or group of cultures. Neil specifically made it about European Colonial History, not anyone else. To then broaden it to include everyone defeats the point of making it about a specific group and then takes it out of context. No one that I can see is arguing that it couldn't also apply elsewhere but when talking in specifics, like he is, it does seem to fit nicely. This is the whole "all squares are rectangles but not all rectangles are squares" bit of logic.
My problem is for talking about European colonialism, he fails to point out anything unique or particularly eye-catching about it. I suppose my problem reading the tweet doesn't give any new information since all I see is "__________: Is that yours? It's mine now." To me it just feels like a lazy meme template using genericity instead of specificity passed off as wisdom. I didn't learn anything new from the tweet about Europe and their colony making period of history.
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Edited 2 years ago
deleted
· 2 years ago
Oh, bummer, no in-depth historical information and background analysis on a complex matter in a tweet?
You wont get a dissertation in tweet form. His tweet, like most political or historical commentaries, will always lack nuance. These are dog whistles through and through.
There was this famous Italian that said it better and in less words. "Veni, vidi, vici."-generally attributed to Julius Caesar. Translating it into English makes it six words but who needs to translate.
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What's more important here I think: I have never actually heard any real person in real life saying White Europeans have exclusively been doing anything bad, except in strawman arguments. Exactly as presented right here: DeGrasse Tyson speaks of European history specifically, not ALL history generally. It's sort of sad seeing a bright mind like Dennis Wingo come up with such weak crap.
What would be more accurate would be to say that it has a questionable relationship with honest framing.
The thing with tweets is that it’s not an unsafe assumption that all the context of the statement is encapsulated in the tweet by which I mean, he’s likely not responding to anyone, he’s likely not referencing outside of the tweet except in what is explicitly stated in the tweet in this case “European colonial history.”
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An example of a far more dishonest and more “opposed to truth” way this could have been worded would be something like
-
Colonial history in 7 words:
“Europeans: is that yours? It’s mine now”