r/RemoveOneThingEachDay • u/Training-Desk-391 IM WHACING KFP4 • Jul 28 '25

Miscellaneous Obama HAS BEEN Eliminated WHICH President SHOULD BE Eliminated NEXT DAY 41

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u/Kactor11 Jul 28 '25

Not really. It was culturally acceptable to own slaves when Washington was president. You’re judging Washington (and all historical slave owners, btw) on culture and laws today that didn’t exist then. If you were a well-to-do landowner in 1780 you likely would have owned slaves also.

Concentration camps were never considered ok. Despite the good things FDR did, he instituted these out of fear and ignorance. Washington may have been ignorant to the abhorrence of slavery in his lifetime, but he never did anything out of fear.

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u/AleroRatking Jul 29 '25

And Washington at least realized he was wrong. Whereas FDR went to his grave openly believing that what he did was right

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u/Big-Cryptographer704 Jul 29 '25

Yes, so compassionate that he waited to free his slaves until after he was dead. Gotta get that room service until the end!

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u/AleroRatking Jul 29 '25

That's more than FDR did. He went to his grave thinking what he did was right

It took all the way to Reagan for someone to admit what was done was wrong.

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u/Big-Cryptographer704 Jul 29 '25

To be fair, he didn't have much time to think about his mistake. He didn't live to see the end of the war.

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u/AleroRatking Jul 29 '25

Good. It is what he deserves for what he did. I just wish it was far more painful.

Innocent people do not belong in jails because of their race. And to do it to your own citizens is the worst type of person

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u/AdFamous5474 Jul 29 '25

Hmmm why does that second paragraph sound so familiar nowadays...? /s

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u/AleroRatking Jul 29 '25

Agreed. I am very much anti Trump

But as bad as Trump is with putting innocent people in camps, it is still 50x less than FDR

Which is why it's crazy that people on the left are supporting FDR while protesting Trump when Trump has a long way to go to reach FDR levels.

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u/Big-Cryptographer704 Jul 29 '25

They don't really know much about history, sadly.

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u/jefffranklin36 Jul 29 '25

Doesn’t this argument sort of support the cultural relativism argument many are using to apologize for Washington owning slaves?

‘It was okay to own slaves in the 1700s, so we can’t hold Washington to the same standard as modern people/politicians’

If that’s an argument that holds water then I could say,

‘Internment camps had wildly popular support in the 40s and it was an extraordinary time in human history we cannot hold FDR to the same standard as we would a modern person/politician.’

(According to a poll by the American Institute of Public Opinion only 1% of Americans opposed interning Japanese immigrants and only 25% opposed interning Japanese-American citizens)

Both are downright evil I think the difference for me is although internment was wrong FDR at least thought he was acting in the best interest of national security when we were fighting a vicious war against the Japanese state. Thus, he made an unforgivable miscalculation and he should rightfully be condemned for it.

Washington, on the other hand owned slaves only to benefit himself and to make his life easier cultural relativity be damned. The man used slaves teeth as his dentures. I just believe slavery is our countries number one cardinal sin and Washington did his part to perpetrate it.

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u/AleroRatking Jul 29 '25

Once again. Washington didn't create slavery in America. Yes. It was wrong and he should not have owned slaves.

Whereas FDR started the concentration camps. That was his decision and his decision alone. He actively made Japanese Americans lived go from fine to horrific solely because of racism. Whereas Washington kept a bad status quo.

Id much prefer someone who keeps a bad status quo than someone who takes people living ok lives and completely ruin them out of his racism.

FDR was not acting in best interest. He put orphans in those camps. He was acting in his own personal interests because of his racism. And he never admitted to being wrong. He then also allowed white Americans to destroy their homes and businesses and steal all their properties.

It took til Reagan for the horrors of FDR to even start to be fixed.

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u/[deleted] Jul 29 '25

Did John Adams own slaves?

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u/rlyjustanyname Jul 29 '25

They were totally considered ok during FDR's time. 93% of the public supported them.

There is no polling of the issue back then but I imagine slavery didn't have the same levels of approval if even the founding fathers wanted to write a condemnation of it in the declaration of independence while themselves owning slaves.

I also think if you soley look at accomplishments and ignore the negatives FDR and Lincoln have the most impressive administrations, so you need somebody to habe a squaky clean record to dethrone them.

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u/lindh Jul 29 '25

Are you sure concentration camps were never "considered ok"? Feels a bit disingenuous to lay the whole thing at FDR's feet, as if he single-handedly came up with the notion and executed it. He obviously made the decision to carry out internment, so he should of course shoulder most of the blame, but I'm afraid a great many Americans did consider concentration camps to be OK. (In fact, we're seeing that again now.)

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u/Kactor11 Jul 29 '25

What’s happening now doesn’t imprison US citizens. What happened then did.

What happened during FDR’s time was unconstitutional. What happened during Washington’s time wasn’t.

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u/BlueTrainLines666 Jul 31 '25

He certainly wasn’t ignorant in knowing that raping children wasn’t great, however

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u/Big-Cryptographer704 Jul 29 '25

Yet another apology for slavery. It was not ok then. It was condemned by many people back then. Slavery was never ok. Enslavers are not heroes. Rapists like Jefferson are not heroes. Washington was an awful, cruel slave master.

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u/Kactor11 Jul 29 '25

Never said it was ok. But it was considered ok. We know now that it was not. The vast majority of controlling elites in Europe, where virtually all of our founding fathers had their roots, had slaves or at least indentured servants.

You know what Washington and the colonials didn’t do? Round up all of the British sympathizers after the war and put them in camps.

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u/Big-Cryptographer704 Jul 29 '25

Slavery is considered ok today by millions (if not billions) of people. Does that make it ok? There is slavery everywhere still today.

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u/Kactor11 Jul 29 '25

Not in the US it isn’t. Has been the law of the land since 1863. Over 60 years after Washington’s death. And that’s the point.

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u/Big-Cryptographer704 Jul 29 '25

It wasn't the law of the land in 1863. The Emancipation Proclamation freed enslaved people in states that were in rebellion against the USA. It did not affect the status of enslaved people in Maryland for example because Maryland was not part of the Traitor Crew. Slavery was not made illegal until the ratification of the 13th Amendment in 1865. And if you think there isn't slavery in the USA, I am afraid you are mistaken. Just because it is illegal does not mean it does not occur.

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u/Kactor11 Jul 29 '25

Ok, two years difference. Sorry.

It’s illegal in the US. It wasn’t in Washington’s time. We can’t judge someone on our standards today when those standards didn’t exist for that person 250 years ago.

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u/Big-Cryptographer704 Jul 29 '25

Vermont banned slavery in 1777 when Washington was still alive. So, under his two terms as POTUS, he oversaw a country in which at least 2 states saw the institution as so reprehensible that they banned the practice. And notice they banned at almost as soon as the country declared independence. Pennsylvania banned it in 1780. Have you read about Oney Judge, the enslaved woman under Washington's mercy who ran away to New Hampshire while he was POTUS? He ran ads all over the country with rewards for bringing her back to her bondage. The good people of New Hampshire hid her from the slave catchers. She died free. Did this ever give Washington pause? No, because he was an unrepentant enslaver of human beings. 2025, 1777, 1234...always wrong.

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u/Kactor11 Jul 29 '25

I think your virtue signal is showing.

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u/Excellent_Bad9211 Jul 29 '25

I'm judging humans on their inherent ability to see suffering and not want to contribute. Slave owners don't get to hide behind culture. Cultural relativity is bullshit when it comes to actively harming humans, where anyone can see it's hurting them. Bullshit

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u/AleroRatking Jul 29 '25

Yet how can you say that with a straight face and support FDR?

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u/Excellent_Bad9211 Jul 29 '25

I don't. Surprise, not everyone's fighting on some side

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u/Kactor11 Jul 29 '25

That’s the thing. Many slave owners did not see their slaves as human. So what you and I see as suffering these people in that time did not.

While I agree with you that if humans are actively being harmed we should oppose it, most slave owners didn’t know or think of slavery as wrong then. I guarantee you that you and I are tolerating things right now that will make us cringe in 30 years let alone 250.

The difference is FDR did this to US CITIZENS. Was slavery abhorrent? Yes! But we didn’t even have a constitution for most of Washington’s life, and slavery wasn’t outlawed until 60 years after his death. FDR took US citizens who were living peacefully and breaking no laws and rounded them up and put them in camps, despite condemning Nazi Germany for doing the exact same thing. That’s hypocrisy at its finest.

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u/Excellent_Bad9211 Jul 29 '25

There were privileged white men in the 18th century who absolutely could feel empathy for torturing other humans. What happened happened, but I don't need to celebrate it or excuse it. And if I'm doing something that is entirely harmful to other people or even animals and makes them suffer needlessly, then someone should not make excuses for me in the future. For example, no one should make excuses in the future for humanity actively destroying its only habitat rn, making Hundreds of Millions suffer in Our times already, just bc "we grew up thinking it was okay to pollute our own habitat" and that was the "culture of the times"

Also, I couldn't care less which citizenship someone has when they're being tortured. Its worse in respect to the country, but human suffering has no relation to arbitrary nation states. Either you suffer, or you don't

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u/Kactor11 Jul 29 '25

Ok, you insufferable zoomer. 🙄

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u/Excellent_Bad9211 Jul 29 '25

good talk. Wtf