The Michael Knowles Show - October 08, 2023


Anti-Columbus TikTok DEBUNKED ｜ Michael Knowles


Episode Stats


Length

9 minutes

Words per minute

193.84334

Word count

1,908

Sentence count

153

Harmful content

Misogyny

7

sentences flagged

Hate speech

18

sentences flagged


Summary

Summaries generated with gmurro/bart-large-finetuned-filtered-spotify-podcast-summ .

Is Christopher Columbus a big dummy or a brilliant genius? Is he the first man to see a mermaid, or the first person to discover the Earth is round? Or is he the only man to have ever seen a manatee? And why is it so hard to figure out who he was?

Transcript

Transcript generated with Whisper (turbo).
Misogyny classifications generated with MilaNLProc/bert-base-uncased-ear-misogyny .
Hate speech classifications generated with facebook/roberta-hate-speech-dynabench-r4-target .
00:00:00.000 As Ronald Reagan said, the problem with our liberal friends is not that they are ignorant.
00:00:04.700 It's just that they know so much that isn't so.
00:00:07.540 We went through the woke Christmas TikToks of a creator by the name of Cassandra.
00:00:14.840 And because you all enjoyed the thorough debunking so much,
00:00:19.020 we have decided to take on Cassandra's historical musings about one of my favorite men in history.
00:00:30.000 There is no evidence that Christopher Columbus thought manatees were mermaids.
00:00:44.720 Christopher Columbus said that he saw mermaids.
00:00:49.000 And liberal, scientific squishes have pretended that what he saw was a manatee.
00:00:57.600 He may have just seen a mermaid.
00:00:59.100 He didn't try to date the mermaid, by the way.
00:01:00.760 He didn't try to date a manatee or a mermaid.
00:01:02.640 But I don't know why people are so convinced that the man saw a manatee.
00:01:08.700 Manatees and mermaids don't look very similar.
00:01:10.800 And I think there's at least a 10% shot.
00:01:13.560 He just saw a mermaid.
00:01:14.860 Keep going.
00:01:15.420 He thought Earth was shaped like a boob, and the top part was the nip,
00:01:18.160 and the top part also so happened to be Eden, like the biblical Eden.
00:01:21.360 Put a pause right there.
00:01:22.600 I'm glad at least she's not saying that he thought that the Earth was flat,
00:01:26.940 or that everyone thought the Earth was flat,
00:01:29.180 but Columbus had the suspicion that maybe it wasn't flat.
00:01:31.580 I'm glad, because that just isn't true.
00:01:33.180 That's a ton of misinformation.
00:01:34.840 People thought the world was flat, for crying out loud.
00:01:36.640 So what's interesting here is that she's saying Christopher Columbus is a big dummy
00:01:41.040 because he thought that the Earth wasn't perfectly spherical.
00:01:44.180 Spherical! 0.62
00:01:44.540 But of course, the Earth is not perfectly spherical.
00:01:47.180 The Earth has topography, right?
00:01:49.260 The Earth has mountains.
00:01:51.000 The Earth has valleys.
00:01:52.260 The Earth has volcanoes.
00:01:53.460 The Earth has all of it.
00:01:54.240 So if her argument against Columbus is,
00:01:56.920 Christopher Columbus was a big stupid idiot because he thought there were mountains on Earth,
00:02:00.260 which obviously there are,
00:02:01.240 but he thought one of the mountains was really, really big.
00:02:04.740 Like, okay.
00:02:05.840 How could you?
00:02:06.700 I want this lady to draw me a map of the Earth, 0.99
00:02:09.960 and I want her to get the topography exactly right.
00:02:12.100 Good luck, lady. 1.00
00:02:12.700 I think Columbus is going to be a lot more right than you are.
00:02:14.380 Keep going.
00:02:15.000 He created one of the first slavery rings. 0.87
00:02:16.660 Many of these slaves were sold to his friends who were known murderers.
00:02:18.860 Put a pause there.
00:02:19.460 He created one of the first slavery rings. 0.87
00:02:21.200 Are you insane?
00:02:21.920 The man sailed the ocean blue in 1492.
00:02:24.380 Slavery has existed since the dawn of man,
00:02:27.400 especially in Africa, sub-Saharan Africa, and Northern Africa.
00:02:32.840 No, it existed everywhere in the world.
00:02:34.360 It existed in the Americas long before Christopher Columbus ever got there.
00:02:37.560 And furthermore, slavery continues to exist today everywhere outside of the West.
00:02:43.920 But he says he created one of the first slave rings.
00:02:47.200 Where do you think he got the slaves from?
00:02:48.760 The slaves.
00:02:49.500 He got slaves from Native Americans, 1.00
00:02:52.780 some of whom were already enslaved,
00:02:54.420 or who were being attacked, captured, and cannibalized in some cases
00:02:57.980 by those wonderful natives.
00:02:59.500 The word cannibalism comes from the Carib Islanders.
00:03:02.000 And then, as slavery developed in the New World,
00:03:06.960 new slaves were imported from Africa.
00:03:08.800 Where did they get those slaves?
00:03:10.120 They got those slaves from other Africans who had been enslaving them.
00:03:13.080 Keep going.
00:03:13.640 He forced Natives to work in gold mines, 1.00
00:03:15.060 and he considered them his property.
00:03:16.380 The way he treated Natives was absolutely barbaric.
00:03:18.580 He would test the sharpness of his blades on them,
00:03:20.360 throw them in vats of boiling soap.
00:03:22.000 I mean, beheadings, just the most-
00:03:23.300 Put a pause there.
00:03:23.960 Yes, there was this system, the encomienda system,
00:03:26.680 and other systems of forced labor in the Americas.
00:03:30.060 A lot of it was about getting gold.
00:03:31.320 The purpose of getting gold, though, by the way,
00:03:32.660 was not so that Columbus could buy a corvette.
00:03:34.620 It was so that Columbus could fund another crusade
00:03:37.120 so the Christians could retake the Holy Land 0.99
00:03:38.700 from the Muslims who had conquered it, 0.99
00:03:40.180 which I think is an absolutely virtuous and valiant good cause
00:03:44.520 to be used with this gold.
00:03:47.140 But, furthermore, Christopher Columbus,
00:03:50.400 though he is accused of all this awful mistreatment
00:03:54.040 of the Native Americans,
00:03:55.600 more often than not was actually the defender
00:03:58.600 of the Native Americans against the Spaniards
00:04:02.200 who had come with him and who were running this colony.
00:04:04.900 So, the worst sort of claims against Christopher Columbus
00:04:09.480 in this regard come from a man named Francisco de Bobadilla.
00:04:13.180 Francisco de Bobadilla, though,
00:04:14.400 was the guy who took Columbus's job
00:04:16.220 as the governor of the Americas.
00:04:18.240 So, Francisco de Bobadilla was the guy
00:04:20.720 who was Columbus's chief political rival.
00:04:23.340 It would be like looking at the crimes of Hillary Clinton
00:04:26.280 and relying only on the diaries of Donald Trump,
00:04:30.720 or vice versa, the crimes of Donald Trump
00:04:32.900 relying only on the diaries of Hillary Clinton.
00:04:35.460 That is simply not reliable.
00:04:37.580 And there are many cases recorded
00:04:40.240 of the Spaniards trying to torture 0.95
00:04:42.240 and kill Native Americans, 1.00
00:04:44.340 and Columbus would come in on their side.
00:04:46.220 I think the best authority on this matter
00:04:48.420 is Bartolome de las Casas,
00:04:50.380 who was the first resident bishop of the Americas,
00:04:52.140 who remained a Columbus admirer and defender
00:04:55.860 until the end.
00:04:57.400 And Bartolome de las Casas is considered
00:04:59.280 one of the greatest defendants of Natives 1.00
00:05:01.180 in American history.
00:05:02.960 Keep going.
00:05:03.480 He even used these humans as dog food.
00:05:05.700 There was about 10,000 people that he did this to.
00:05:07.600 When he first met the Arawaks, 1.00
00:05:08.760 he wrote that they were peaceful, handsome,
00:05:10.460 and they traded everything they owned.
00:05:11.980 He also mentioned that they didn't have swords,
00:05:13.640 and with 50 of his men,
00:05:14.640 he could do whatever he wanted with them.
00:05:16.040 After these people showed him nothing but kindness.
00:05:18.400 When he ran out of money and he needed funding,
00:05:20.200 his writing completely...
00:05:20.820 Put a pause there.
00:05:21.420 So, when Columbus first met the Tainos
00:05:24.560 and the other natives around the Caribbean,
00:05:27.060 it is true he said these people are very simple,
00:05:29.160 we'll be able to conquer them very easily.
00:05:30.760 He said things like this.
00:05:32.720 He also told the Spaniards not to take advantage of them.
00:05:36.160 You see this in very reliable historical accounts,
00:05:39.260 especially Admiral of the Ocean Sea
00:05:41.020 by Samuel Elliot Morrison,
00:05:42.420 a very, very respected Harvard historian.
00:05:44.840 So, yes, he was engaged in a mission of conquest.
00:05:48.920 That is true.
00:05:50.460 But he wasn't some genocidal,
00:05:52.460 psycho-sexual killer or anything like that, okay?
00:05:55.060 That is a bunch of nonsense.
00:05:57.040 And in many, many cases,
00:05:58.920 he was the one urging charity and prudence and restraint.
00:06:03.440 Keep going.
00:06:04.020 He wrote that they're evil, savage cannibals
00:06:05.720 with dog-like noses who drink the blood of their victims. 0.55
00:06:08.140 Some of them were.
00:06:10.400 Some of them were.
00:06:11.540 Not the Taino Indians, but the Caribs were. 0.96
00:06:14.400 They were cannibals. 0.96
00:06:15.880 They were savage cannibals. 0.99
00:06:17.220 Who would eat the Tainos?
00:06:18.880 He noticed, Columbus saw when he arrived
00:06:20.820 that the Taino Indians had marks on their bodies.
00:06:23.700 And he said, where do you get those marks from?
00:06:24.960 And they got the marks from these maniac Carib Islanders 1.00
00:06:28.100 from whom we get the word cannibal.
00:06:30.320 So maybe this lady doesn't like that, 1.00
00:06:31.880 but to quote my colleague over here,
00:06:34.820 facts don't care about her feelings. 1.00
00:06:36.340 Keep going.
00:06:36.640 Also, historians are pretty sure he wasn't even Italian.
00:06:39.480 He was a brave Italian explorer.
00:06:42.420 He wasn't even good at speaking or writing Italian,
00:06:44.360 and they believe he was the illegitimate son
00:06:45.960 of a Portuguese friend.
00:06:46.540 Oh my goodness.
00:06:47.060 Put a pause there.
00:06:48.300 Historian.
00:06:48.620 Give me a break.
00:06:49.420 What historian?
00:06:50.000 You notice she doesn't cite the historians
00:06:51.680 because there aren't any.
00:06:52.500 All of the top Columbus historians
00:06:53.700 are quite convinced that the man was Italian.
00:06:57.280 He may not have written Italian very well,
00:06:59.180 but he didn't write Italian very well
00:07:00.520 because the man didn't come from a ton of means.
00:07:02.140 The man was largely self-educated,
00:07:04.900 and he wrote in Spanish.
00:07:06.140 I mean, he became a Spanish sailor,
00:07:08.700 though he was an Italian himself.
00:07:11.560 Keep going.
00:07:12.100 He also never even stepped foot in what we know as a United States.
00:07:14.780 He landed in the Caribbean.
00:07:16.040 So big misconception.
00:07:17.600 Is that a mis...
00:07:18.140 Put a pause there.
00:07:19.160 Who thinks that Christopher Columbus walked around New York?
00:07:23.600 Hey! 0.99
00:07:24.480 I'm walking here!
00:07:25.860 Who thinks that?
00:07:26.340 Nobody thinks that.
00:07:27.280 No Columbus defender thinks that.
00:07:29.360 It's only the big libs who hate Columbus,
00:07:31.460 who pretend like this is a big misconception.
00:07:34.920 Just like the libs who say,
00:07:36.420 you know, all these dumb people
00:07:37.920 used to think the earth was flat.
00:07:40.140 What a misconception that was.
00:07:41.060 No, they didn't.
00:07:41.780 People have known that the earth is roughly spherical.
00:07:45.520 Spherical! 0.62
00:07:46.300 Since antiquity.
00:07:47.660 Okay, that's not...
00:07:48.180 You're the one with the misconception
00:07:49.860 about people's misconceptions.
00:07:51.240 Keep going.
00:07:51.500 After his horrific crimes,
00:07:52.800 he was taken back to Spain in shackles.
00:07:54.380 But he was forgiven so graciously
00:07:55.820 that they even gave him his own holiday
00:07:57.160 because they thought the good outweighed the bad.
00:07:58.820 Okay, put a pause there.
00:08:00.180 No, the Spanish didn't... 1.00
00:08:01.640 The Columbus Day holiday,
00:08:03.180 to which I assume she is referring,
00:08:04.760 was established in 1891 in the United States
00:08:07.720 because there was a mass lynching
00:08:09.720 of Italian-Americans in Louisiana.
00:08:12.480 And then the Columbus holiday
00:08:14.040 kept cropping up every so often.
00:08:15.780 In the 1930s, it cropped up under FDR,
00:08:17.980 and so they established it as a holiday.
00:08:20.380 For Italians, though, it was actually a holiday
00:08:22.020 just to give Italians a little bit of a feeling 0.99
00:08:24.080 that they were welcomed into the country.
00:08:25.860 Columbus Day is a day of Italian pride.
00:08:28.580 Columbus was sent back in shackles
00:08:29.860 because Bobadia outfoxed him in the Americas
00:08:32.180 and took his job and sent him back.
00:08:34.220 And Columbus was absolutely furious about this.
00:08:38.680 And he wrote in his diaries that he said,
00:08:40.440 if there is any justice whatsoever,
00:08:42.420 these people will all burn in hell
00:08:43.960 for what they've done to me,
00:08:45.420 for the slander and defamation
00:08:47.820 that they have undertaken.
00:08:49.180 And also, by the way,
00:08:50.460 he wasn't forgiven so graciously.
00:08:52.740 That did not happen.
00:08:53.880 And even from the wonderful monarchs
00:08:55.500 Ferdinand and Isabella,
00:08:57.260 Columbus made it back.
00:08:58.140 But part of the reason
00:08:59.000 that he was kept in his shackles,
00:09:00.720 part of the reason why I think
00:09:01.940 the Crown was so inclined to believe Bobadia
00:09:04.620 was because the Crown owned Columbus
00:09:06.840 a lot of money.
00:09:08.380 And so if they were able to accuse him of a crime,
00:09:10.880 they wouldn't,
00:09:11.640 they would be far more justified
00:09:13.120 in not giving him all of the money
00:09:14.660 that they owed him.
00:09:15.400 Keep going.
00:09:15.980 It is now 2021.
00:09:17.260 And for the life of me,
00:09:18.120 I cannot figure out
00:09:19.080 why this man still has a holiday.
00:09:21.360 Right.
00:09:21.760 You can't figure it out
00:09:22.700 because you don't know anything
00:09:23.720 about how the holiday was established.
00:09:25.400 You don't know anything
00:09:26.180 about who the man was
00:09:27.500 or what the man did
00:09:28.380 or your own civilization.
00:09:29.820 Without this man,
00:09:31.140 you would not be here.
00:09:32.580 Okay?
00:09:32.780 You don't know anything
00:09:33.620 about any of that.
00:09:36.400 And so you can't figure out
00:09:37.600 why he's got a holiday.
00:09:38.740 Maybe you should first
00:09:39.840 learn all those things
00:09:41.520 about the man
00:09:42.520 and who he was
00:09:43.200 and what he did
00:09:43.800 and what his relation is to you.
00:09:45.380 And then you might have
00:09:46.500 a greater appreciation of him.
00:09:48.340 I'm Michael Knowles.
00:09:48.960 This is The Michael Knowles Show.
00:09:50.120 We'll see you tomorrow.