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Why are you telling me what I should do? This is the history forum, not the political forum. This is a forum for the dispassionate discussion of historical facts, not a forum for attacking the U.S. or the rest of the world for the moral ramifications of their actions.
Ah, Ok. One has to ask why, out of all the content in this "historical" figure's diaries you singled that out and broached the topic? I find it very hard to believe you did so without a teensy little desire for a reaction. You got exactly what you hoped for. It's called being a provocateur sir.
Last edited by Parnassia; 11-17-2018 at 02:41 PM..
Location: West Los Angeles and Rancho Palos Verdes
13,583 posts, read 15,664,868 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Parnassia
Ah, Ok. One has to ask why, out of all the content in this "historical" figure's diaries you singled that out and broached the topic? I find it very hard to believe you did so without a teensy little desire for a reaction. You got exactly what you hoped for. It's called being a provocateur sir.
It's new information about a well-known historical figure. I thought it appropriate to post here, since the diaries were written long ago, and have no impact on contemporary political issues. I'm therefore genuinely surprised at the controversy in this thread.
I can envision 100 years from now we tear down any memorial or whatnot to JFK because he didn't like transexuals or whatnot.
There's a huge difference between "don't like" and actively suppressing, terrorizing or murdering. The only memorials we are reevaluating are to men who did the latter, or supported it by vote and force.
It's new information about a well-known historical figure. I thought it appropriate to post here, since the diaries were written long ago, and have no impact on contemporary political issues. I'm therefore genuinely surprised at the controversy in this thread.
Because it's kindly old Gramps Einstein, you know. Or his cardboard cutout, at least. Just like sweet little Helen Keller or noble Robert E. Lee.
Come on. It was the 1920's. Just about anyone who was remotely white and of just about any social or intellectual level was racist. Odd though as a Jew Einstein experienced anti Semitism and to some people he belonged in the same category as blacks and asians.
In other news, Martin Luther King, Jr, wasn't very good at theoretical physics.
Quote:
Originally Posted by ben young
Or keeping it in his pants.
Nor was Einstein.
In both cases, that fact could not be more irrelevant to their places in histtory. Which was my entire point in juxtaposing Einstein's social views with King's physics.
A point that obviously went completely over your head...
In both cases, that fact could not be more irrelevant to their places in histtory. Which was my entire point in juxtaposing Einstein's social views with King's physics.
A point that obviously went completely over your head...
His treatment of his first wife was abominable. Plus, he was a womanizer.
It doesn't change one iota of what he discovered or did as a theoretical physicist though.
When are we going to learn that everyone has faults? You get the good with the bad. Its a question of how people sum up over all that determines their contribution in this world.
I tend to look a little less harshly on racist leanings by historical figures because it those views were more acceptable in their lifetimes, though that in no way makes it "right." Even during the years that slavery was legal in the US, there were plenty of people who fought against it and realized it was wrong, regardless of the fact that the Bible condoned it and was used as evidence that it was acceptable.
Every time I listen to Wagner's Liebestod from Tristan und Isolde, one of the most hauntingly beautiful pieces of classical music ever written, I cringe a little at his anti-Semitic viewpoints. But I can separate his viewpoints from his music. People are complex.
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