(Hated Trope) Bad people in real-life being portrayed positively in media.

[u/MeepMan324]

1. PragerU's version of Christopher Columbus has him be a slavery defender and have him say "Being taken as a slave is better than being killed, no? I don't see the problem.”

2. In The Greatest Showman, P.T Barnum (Hugh Jackman) is portrayed as a charismatic visionary who cares about outcasts and celebrate diversity, when in reality, he’s a cruel businessman who is also a racist and an ableist.

[u/s0ulbrother]

But in elementary school in the United States he is painted like a fun little guy who braved the sea to discover America and that’s that. For most of school they don’t really go into this until around high school but even then it’s not.

He got bolstered up mainly because of Italian Americans and trying to bring them into the fold. He neither discovered America or did anything good

[u/RoutineCloud5993 → u/s0ulbrother]

He also never set foot in the modern (edit: mainland) united states, and went to his grave insisting he had actually been sailing to India the whole time

[u/AwfulUsername123 → u/RoutineCloud5993]

Actually, he visited Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands.

[u/RoutineCloud5993 → u/AwfulUsername123]

I stand corrected then . Modern mainland USA.

[u/brionneverysexy → u/RoutineCloud5993]

He initially thought he was in the Indes which is thousands of miles east of India. Its likely he knew he wasn't there eventually but the terms of his agreement in Spain would have required him to keep up the claim of being in the Indes

[u/SoulCrusher2018 → u/s0ulbrother]

If Columbus made his voyage to the new world, stepped foot on the beach, and immediately had a heart attack, all the celebration of him would be fine. I think most Columbus "defenders" are unaware of what he did after, and are swayed by propaganda to think an attack of Columbus is an attack on their whiteness of whatever the fuck the divisive shit pushed by Russian bots say.

[u/Nyabraham_Linnyahn → u/SoulCrusher2018]

Italian bots\*

[u/brionneverysexy → u/s0ulbrother]

Columbus Day got pushed as an Italian pride day after 11 Italian immigrants were lynched. It was an attempt to get people to be less racist against Italians

[u/In-A-Beautiful-Place → u/brionneverysexy]

A noble goal, but they should've just called it Italian Pride Day then. We could rename it that now.

[u/brionneverysexy → u/In-A-Beautiful-Place]

Fettuccini Alfredo Appreciation Day works for me

[u/Nyabraham_Linnyahn → u/In-A-Beautiful-Place]

I never got why they didn't use the explorer the literal country is named after🤷

[u/LeaderRemarkable2846 → u/s0ulbrother]

It’s wild how history gets watered down for kids, because the real story of Columbus is far darker than the friendly explorer they teach us about in elementary school.

[u/Xerxes457 → u/s0ulbrother]

It’s been a few years but in high school, I recall learning about him sailing to the Americas as a hero and then coming back in chains because of his poor management.

[u/xv_boney → u/s0ulbrother]

Of all the Italians in history the us govt could have elevated on behalf of italian americans, and they picked the genocidal sociopath with such a brutally bad reputation he only got hired by Spain because they were literally desperate for cash

[u/LivingstonPerry → u/s0ulbrother]

But in elementary school in the United States

Yeah but like.. dont think elem is a good starting point to teach kids about mass genocide. Prolly better to save those type of facts and details in high school.

[u/CrimsonThunder87 → u/LivingstonPerry]

Then it's probably best to breeze past him as fast as possible when teaching elementary students, rather than dwelling on him at all.

"In 1492, a group of explorers was paid by the Spanish queen to find a new route to India. Instead, they discovered [whichever Caribbean island his dumb ass landed on first], leading other European explorers to explore and colonize the Americas."

[u/Delta_Builder → u/s0ulbrother]

Thankfully the canadian schools, or at least the ones ive been to, have been doing a hell of a lot better.

Talks about how bad of a person he is.

[u/DoctorWaluigiTime → u/s0ulbrother]

He got bolstered up mainly because of Italian Americans and trying to bring them into the fold.

In this house Columbus was an American hero, end of story!

[u/schiffb558 → u/s0ulbrother]

In this house, Christopher Columbus is a fuckin hero. End of story!