What is History's greatest lie? (facts, invaded, Japan, slavery)
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To be a lie, a statement of untruth would have to be deliberately untrue, not just erroneous.
To find a historical lie, you need to find a deliberate untruth foisted on the public as truth being promoted as history.
What in the world is a Cheesequake?
Correct
Thus when people actually believed that the earth was flat, it was not a lie to say so.
As to the OP's theme, I find it interesting they threw out several things which could be a lie or the truth depending on ones perspective. For example "the cover-up of genocide on Native Americans". The way that statement is framed, one could assume a deliberate attempt to eradicate Indians from North America was the stated goal and official policy of the American government.
It would also presume that the Indians were a peaceful, benevolent people, never committing acts of barbarism and savagery to warrant much of the violence brought upon them. Sadly certain tribes that were more peaceful were generalized into a singular group, but they too were victims of the more savage tribe who also preyed upon them, not just white American settlers.
To mention the moon landing (as if it were to have been proven a lie) is also not very helpful to keep posters focused on actual historical lies that most people can agree on.
One example might be the Gulf of Tonkin incident/s where most people agree "the second attack" never occurred. Yet it allowed President Johnson to start the Vietnam War. Whether Johnson was duped or was secretly responsible for allowing a fake engagement to lead us into war is in question. Regardless, many people on both sides of the political spectrum believe it was a conjured up event.
Histories greatest lie?
Likely far from it, but it might qualify for the list of American histories greatest lie. Still it is a much better example than the two aforementioned which are not lies.
That we needed to drop the A-bombs in order to stop WWII.
It was nothing more than a show of force that started the Cold War, nuclear proliferation, and US Imperialism. It eventually fueled the Korean War, Vietnam War, and the Middle East conflicts. And look where we're at now...
That we needed to drop the A-bombs in order to stop WWII.
It was nothing more than a show of force that started the Cold War, nuclear proliferation, and US Imperialism. It eventually fueled the Korean War, Vietnam War, and the Middle East conflicts. And look where we're at now...
See that's the problem with this topic...it's going to spin everywhere. We have numerous debates in other history threads on the atomic bombing and the general consensus by just about everyone, after pages of debate and historical analysis, is exactly opposite of yours - the A bomb was absolutely necessary. However, it's tiresome to debate the topic for the umpteenth time and get into pages of debate again.
Please do a search on the topic in this forum.
Someone or some group would have to gain a benefit for beginning and perpetuating a "big lie". The Nazi idea of a super race of Aryans comes to mind. Modern day Holocaust deniers might be another. The divine right of kings and the noble aristocracy that supported it could be an example but they probably actually believed it to be true on some level.
That's easy. The current school of thought that blames Western civilization for all the world's ills, from colonialism to slavery to war to whatever. People who actually buy into this line of thinking don't know very much about history. Slavery existed world wide. Nations have been conquering other nations in every corner of the world. And there's not a nation around today that doesn't have a good bit to be ashamed of, whether we're talking about the U.S., the UK, Germany, Russia, China, Burma, you name it.
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