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I think that the reason that most of the responses here have been satirical is that you are raising an unanswerable question.
We have no agreed upon standard of what constitutes "worst", you seem to think that it is decided by scale and scope.
It is not. If I brutally murder three people while you brutally murder two, we are the same, that I have an additional victim doesn't make me worse or more black hearted.
Consider the list submitted by annika. Except for the Spanish Inquistion and the extermination of the native Americans, all are 20th Century crimes. No Huns, no Mongols, no Romans, no Vikings or Vandals. All of those groups behaved with just as much homicidal cruelty as the modern ones, yet do not rate a mention. Why? Modern technology has made slaughter more efficient and enhanced the scale for spreading cruelty, but the people behind these acts were not any more wicked than when the killing had to be done by edged weapons and spears.
Further, your focus on the last stages of slavery, the African experience, does so while neglecting the fact that in ancient times, typically a third of the civilized populations were slaves. I do not believe that spending your entire life as a galley slave was any more pleasant than spending your entire life as a field hand in Mississippi.
Well, all these are bad. But I don't know. All of these examples resulted in less loss of life, lasted less time, and had less residual effects than American Slavery. Slavery killed some 60 million Africans/African Americans, it lasted for many generations (1500s to 1865), and the negative residual affects can still be felt to this day.
I might say westward expansion and the destruction of Native Americans may be a tie or a close second. But every other example (albeit tragic) were relatively brief. For example, the holocaust lasted from the early 1900s to 1945 and resulted in the deaths of 11 to 17 million people.
It's one thing to be murdered. It's another to have your entire history and knowledge of your people erased and treated worse than an animal for generation after generation coupled with torture and murder as a daily part of life for several lifetimes... And we haven't even started getting into post-emancipation lynchings and Jim Crow...
Fair enough, but we all have our opinions. But are you saying that being burned in a crematorium is somehow less 'evil' because it didn't go on as long? But I will add that Stalin's enslavement and destruction of some 26+ Russians and Ukrainians destroyed much of their history as well. Also, African Americans are not the only ones who were enslaved, and were hardly the first.
Slavery still exists today. Women (primarily from Russia and Eastern Europe) are bought and sold all over the world for the sex trade.
Fair enough, but we all have our opinions. But are you saying that being burned in a crematorium is somehow less 'evil' because it didn't go on as long? But I will add that Stalin's enslavement and destruction of some 26+ Russians and Ukrainians destroyed much of their history as well. Also, African Americans are not the only ones who were enslaved, and were hardly the first.
Slavery still exists today. Women (primarily from Russia and Eastern Europe) are bought and sold all over the world for the sex trade.
I understand what you and Grandstander are saying, But if an atrocity lasted longer or was done more frequently, i do kinda consider it worse. If a guy killed 3 people and another guy killed 4 for the same foul reason, I think the guy who killed 4 has done a worse deed... he chose to take one more life than the other and I think each life is important to somebody...
Like you said, I guess it's a matter of opinion, but I'm not looking at the people's motives and how "evil" their hearts were... I'm just looking at what they did and how bad was the damage.
I'm also not saying, "Oh, pity the blacks, either". I thought it was a legitimate question. Everything you mentioned in the above paragraph (burning alive, sex slaves) were all built into the institution of slavery in the western hemisphere, except it lasted far longer and was ingrained into the fabric of society.
And it is true that Africans weren't the only people enslaved. But that is why I prefaced the question with "in known history". I mean we could say that the Pharaohs treated the Israelites worse, but we really can't know what slavery was like back then. As far as all the known instances of slavery, I have never come across an account that tops slavery in the Americas in terms of sustained human cruelty.
So I'll get back to the question, considering Grandstander's points and your points, what crime against humanity (in your opinion) do you feel is worse than slavery in the Americas and feel free to explain your rationale...
...But are you saying that being burned in a crematorium is somehow less 'evil' because it didn't go on as long? ...
Just a point: The dead bodies were burned in crematoriums, the camps used gas chambers, shooting, hard labor, starvation and disease, etc. to do the killing.
I understand what you and Grandstander are saying, But if an atrocity lasted longer or was done more frequently, i do kinda consider it worse. If a guy killed 3 people and another guy killed 4 for the same foul reason, I think the guy who killed 4 has done a worse deed... he chose to take one more life than the other and I think each life is important to somebody...
Like you said, I guess it's a matter of opinion, but I'm not looking at the people's motives and how "evil" their hearts were... I'm just looking at what they did and how bad was the damage.
I'm also not saying, "Oh, pity the blacks, either". I thought it was a legitimate question. Everything you mentioned in the above paragraph (burning alive, sex slaves) were all built into the institution of slavery in the western hemisphere, except it lasted far longer and was ingrained into the fabric of society.
And it is true that Africans weren't the only people enslaved. But that is why I prefaced the question with "in known history". I mean we could say that the Pharaohs treated the Israelites worse, but we really can't know what slavery was like back then. As far as all the known instances of slavery, I have never come across an account that tops slavery in the Americas in terms of sustained human cruelty.
So I'll get back to the question, considering Grandstander's points and your points, what crime against humanity (in your opinion) do you feel is worse than slavery in the Americas and feel free to explain your rationale...
I've already explained myself. My opinions differ from yours.
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