Was Christopher Columbus an idiot?

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

Yes. All the people who denied him funding were correct. They denied him not because they believed the world was flat, but because it was too large to reach China the other direction. And they were correct, Columbus and his crew would've died of starvation if there hadn't been a continent in the middle. And Columbus was such a fucking fool he refused to even consider he hadn't reached the Far East.

[afleitch]

Come on now...he did write the Goonies screen play...

[pogo stick]

No

[k-onmmunist]

Yes, but for a different reason.

Also, I believe the word 'genocide' is more appliable to him than 'idiocy'

[Хahar 🤔]

Yeah, definitely. It was like a mission to Atlantis.

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

Yes, but for a different reason.

Also, I believe the word 'genocide' is more appliable to him than 'idiocy'

He wasn't directly responsible for that, though the fact that he didn't have a problem with it either still renders him a HP. So an idiot and a HP.

[True Federalist (진정한 연방 주의자)]

He was an idiot, but to be fair, there was evidence available from fishermen and other sources that there was land far closer than where the eggheads thought China was.  The fault he and they shared was a failure to imagine the possibility of a landmass other than Eurasiafrica.

[RosettaStoned]

An idiot and a rapist.

[Tetro Kornbluth]

Yes. All the people who denied him funding were correct. They denied him not because they believed the world was flat, but because it was too large to reach China the other direction. And they were correct, Columbus and his crew would've died of starvation if there hadn't been a continent in the middle. And Columbus was such a fucking fool he refused to even consider he hadn't reached the Far East.

It's so good to - in this age of the internet and mass travel - to feel smarter than people whose greatest technological achievements included the astrolabe and the galleon. Plus as pointed out Colombus had heard the stories of land at that location - people were fishing around Newfoundland waters for at least a century before Colombus. He knew it was a risk; but I don't see how is lack of geographical knowledge makes him an idiot?

As for Colombus, et al not having the concept of there maybe being another continent across the ocean, early renassaince people (or at least the educated) didn't think that way - America isn't mentioned in Aristotle, Pliny, Plato, Tacitus, Cicero, Livy, Ptolemy, etc... there go how could it have existed? [This was seriously a debate in the 16th Century btw; also the existence of America seemed to contradict the biblical story of genesis. As the bering strait was not known yet; how did Adam's descendants get across to America?]

Need whether or not Colombus was a mass murder or not is a totally different question.

[minionofmidas]

He didn't just "hear" those stories of land to the Northwest. He may have been there.

So, his calculations on the size of the earth were hilariously wrong, while those that were accepted wisdom were right. That doesn't make him an idiot - it just makes him wrong.

[The Mikado]

I didn't particularly care for the movie version of Rent, and I don't think he did that great a job with the first two Harry Potter films, but idiot's a bit harsh.  I'm reserving judgment on I Love You, Beth Cooper.

[Associate Justice PiT]

     Yeah, he was pretty idiotic. To put it into perspective, his crew was virtually mutinous due to lack of supplies by the time they reached the Caribbean. He had absolutely no chance of reaching Asia without stocking up somewhere in between.

[jokerman]

Calm down, BRTD.  You remind me of smug Thrasymachus from Plato's Republic, who on the verge of an argument "coiled himself up like a wild beast about to spring, and he hurled himself at us as if to tear us to pieces."

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

Yes. All the people who denied him funding were correct. They denied him not because they believed the world was flat, but because it was too large to reach China the other direction. And they were correct, Columbus and his crew would've died of starvation if there hadn't been a continent in the middle. And Columbus was such a fucking fool he refused to even consider he hadn't reached the Far East.

It's so good to - in this age of the internet and mass travel - to feel smarter than people whose greatest technological achievements included the astrolabe and the galleon. Plus as pointed out Colombus had heard the stories of land at that location - people were fishing around Newfoundland waters for at least a century before Colombus. He knew it was a risk; but I don't see how is lack of geographical knowledge makes him an idiot?

As for Colombus, et al not having the concept of there maybe being another continent across the ocean, early renassaince people (or at least the educated) didn't think that way - America isn't mentioned in Aristotle, Pliny, Plato, Tacitus, Cicero, Livy, Ptolemy, etc... there go how could it have existed? [This was seriously a debate in the 16th Century btw; also the existence of America seemed to contradict the biblical story of genesis. As the bering strait was not known yet; how did Adam's descendants get across to America?]

Need whether or not Colombus was a mass murder or not is a totally different question.

I'm not calling him an idiot for not knowing there was a continent in the area, I'm calling him an idiot for trying to reach the Far East in a way that would've never worked, regardless of if a continent was there or not.

[??????????]

Yes. All the people who denied him funding were correct. They denied him not because they believed the world was flat, but because it was too large to reach China the other direction. And they were correct, Columbus and his crew would've died of starvation if there hadn't been a continent in the middle. And Columbus was such a fucking fool he refused to even consider he hadn't reached the Far East.

I'm not calling him an idiot for not knowing there was a continent in the area, I'm calling him an idiot for trying to reach the Far East in a way that would've never worked, regardless of if a continent was there or not.

Christ, talk about the ultimate Monday morning quarterback.

[Хahar 🤔]

Yes. All the people who denied him funding were correct. They denied him not because they believed the world was flat, but because it was too large to reach China the other direction. And they were correct, Columbus and his crew would've died of starvation if there hadn't been a continent in the middle. And Columbus was such a fucking fool he refused to even consider he hadn't reached the Far East.

I'm not calling him an idiot for not knowing there was a continent in the area, I'm calling him an idiot for trying to reach the Far East in a way that would've never worked, regardless of if a continent was there or not.

Christ, talk about the ultimate Monday morning quarterback.

There was a reason nobody financed it. It looked stupid at the time.

[Mechaman]

     Yeah, he was pretty idiotic. To put it into perspective, his crew was virtually mutinous due to lack of supplies by the time they reached the Caribbean. He had absolutely no chance of reaching Asia without stocking up somewhere in between.

ditto

[dead0man]

Yes. All the people who denied him funding were correct. They denied him not because they believed the world was flat, but because it was too large to reach China the other direction. And they were correct, Columbus and his crew would've died of starvation if there hadn't been a continent in the middle. And Columbus was such a fucking fool he refused to even consider he hadn't reached the Far East.

You know the worst part?  History knows this and has known it forever...yet what did they teach us in school?  Yet he has a Federal Holiday.  Yet a third of this message board vote no in this poll.

[Bunwahaha [still dunno why, but well, so be it]]

It's so good to - in this age of the internet and mass travel - to feel smarter than people whose greatest technological achievements included the astrolabe and the galleon.

Ya, that's so cool to feel smart that way. So cool to judge people now, and in a country of which the creation has been a direct consequence of what this "idiot" did.

Haha. This is so caricatured, I could wonder whether it was serious. Seems it was.

Humility never hurts...

[Хahar 🤔]

The Cult of Columbus is disappointing.

[Bunwahaha [still dunno why, but well, so be it]]

The Cult of Columbus is disappointing.

Just to precise that, personally, I don't hold any cult toward this guy. I just found the attack toward him enough easy, and enough unfair...

[Eraserhead]

Come on now...he did write the Goonies screen play...

But he also directed I Love You, Beth Cooper. Epic fail, except for that one scene.

[Tetro Kornbluth]

Yes. All the people who denied him funding were correct. They denied him not because they believed the world was flat, but because it was too large to reach China the other direction. And they were correct, Columbus and his crew would've died of starvation if there hadn't been a continent in the middle. And Columbus was such a fucking fool he refused to even consider he hadn't reached the Far East.

It's so good to - in this age of the internet and mass travel - to feel smarter than people whose greatest technological achievements included the astrolabe and the galleon. Plus as pointed out Colombus had heard the stories of land at that location - people were fishing around Newfoundland waters for at least a century before Colombus. He knew it was a risk; but I don't see how is lack of geographical knowledge makes him an idiot?

As for Colombus, et al not having the concept of there maybe being another continent across the ocean, early renassaince people (or at least the educated) didn't think that way - America isn't mentioned in Aristotle, Pliny, Plato, Tacitus, Cicero, Livy, Ptolemy, etc... there go how could it have existed? [This was seriously a debate in the 16th Century btw; also the existence of America seemed to contradict the biblical story of genesis. As the bering strait was not known yet; how did Adam's descendants get across to America?]

Need whether or not Colombus was a mass murder or not is a totally different question.

I'm not calling him an idiot for not knowing there was a continent in the area, I'm calling him an idiot for trying to reach the Far East in a way that would've never worked, regardless of if a continent was there or not.

And how was he meant to know that? As Xahar pointed out, this was well acknowledged to an extremely risky venture.

[Alexander Hamilton]

An idiot and a rapist.