Quote:
Originally Posted by Gideon
... As to the Native Americans... it wasn't a COMPLETED genocide, but it was sure as hell an attempt. ... The American government was more successful than Hitler, but still didn't quite finish the job. I don't think you get 'national guilt' for such things. It's no more mine or your fault what the government did 100 years ago than it is your average German's what Hitler did 70 years ago. It's a horrible passage of history and should be acknowledged as such... not sure what else you can do.
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While I agree with the latter part of your statement, let's not oversimplify. The American continent in the 16th and 17th centuries was hardly an orderly state, where "the American government" somehow decided to perpetrate "a genocide."
There were French interests, and Dutch, and Spanish.... And then there were the native populations,
who did in fact sometimes succeed at their genocidal attempts, completely exterminating other native tribes (look up the Iroquois, for instance, who exterminated most neutral indians during their drive to take control of the fur trade.)
As to nationalism (tribalism at a larger scale,) I regard only religion as a worst trait (primarily because it is an even stronger belief system, with a promise of "eternal" salvation for the truly faithful, and thus even more prone to great atrocities.)
Of course, one has to remember, that it is one thing to challenge the government when disagreeing with its policies, and quite another, to aid the enemy.