Oh man I sure pissed off a scifi author I really like.
That's a bummer for me. As I said, I like the guy. Good writer, excellent essayist, fun AF.
No, it's not Larry Correia, thank God. Guy's famously brutal to people he doesn't like.
...So I have highly specialized knowledge of a really limited number of really narrow fields. History is NOT one of them. The guy in question is a history buff. Has forgotten more than I know.
About the only part of American history that I know in detail is the lives of the pilgrims at Plymouth MA. They sucked up ALL the history oxygen growing up, as my town was where lots of them settled, and my neighborhood was also an indian camp and later, battlefield.
So said battle was a big deal in my hometown, and also to the local tribes' descendents even today.
The author in question got REALLY upset when I pointed out that Massasoit, the indian chief, pushed the pilgrims really hard to make war on all tribes but the Wampanoag, but in failing that, when the pilgrims later signed the mutual defense treaty the year after their arrival, Massasoit lied and successfully was able to get the pilgrims to massacre the indians at Wessagusett.
It's always possible I was fed propaganda, too. Perhaps the author was right?
Well, turns out the tribes' web site also acknowledged that Massasoit 'probably' lied to make the massacre happen. His son, King Philip, used that massacre many years later as part of the justification for the war he kicked off.
Like I said, I don't know much. It was kinda cool how with all the revisionist history that we get over anything involving the indians, the story remains consistent whether the tribes or the pilgrims' writings tell it. None of them covered themselves in glory, for damn sure. I am glad that on verification, I wasn't wrong.
Still, the whole thing's weird for me. Getting called names by someone I respect just sucks. I'm not good at people I guess... and this is something that happened over 400 years ago. Why in the world did feelings get hurt that hard?
Eh, oh well I guess. I don't see a question of history being worth the nuclear level of assmad that happened.
Glad I go home soon. Last watch tomorrow.
1 comment:
Well Paul, you, being one yourself, know how we New Englanders get butthurt over stuff that happened four centuries ago. It's something in the water I guess, maybe it's all that shellfish we eat.
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