quixotecoyote said:
You realize you just refered to the Nazis as the "historical pariah of the day," correct? Was that an unintentional minimization or are you here to play along with Giwer and MaGZ?
Not even a pause in the frothing of the mouth? Here, let me introduce you to certain elements of the English language:
Pariah:
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/pariah?show=0&t=1286910910 said:
: one that is despised or rejected : outcast
Is there ANYTHING in that statement that denies, handwaves, or attempts to minimize Nazi wrongdoing? Is that statement remotely inaccurate? (And for the record, imbecile: My family is Jewish. I grew up celebrating Hanukkah. I lost huge numbers of relatives to Nazi depredations.)
"Historical pariah of the day" is, in fact, nothing more than a general term that was necessary because I was in fact making a general statement about this sort of guilt-by-not-criticizing-loudly-enough idiocy that is ubiquitous on these supposedly skepticism-based boards. Other "historical pariahs of the day" might include "Stalin, Mao Zedong, Napoleon Bonaparte, the Normans, etc". It
is possible, once again, to note something positive about Napoleon - his contribution via the Napoleonic code for instance - without denying or handwaving the thousands upon thousands of lives he destroyed in the name of personal ambition.
You realize that Roman Legion renactment groups are almost all LARPing SCA types, not living history types, right? And the few I've found that are more historical based
don't hide the dark side of Roman civilization.
That's called a
passing reference. You notice that there are, in contrast to that short paragraph regarding slavery in a long historical description, literally dozens of pages on that site devoted to proper attire? This is the norm for roman reenactment groups...hours (and/or pages) devoted to the proper manner of armor construction but almost nothing regarding the legions' status as one of the primary instruments of roman slavery.
http://www.legionxxiv.org/standards/
http://www.larp.com/legioxx/
http://web.utk.edu/~cohprima/
There are vastly greater numbers of references on the Wikings site to Nazi racism/atrocity.
quixotecoyote said:
For example, if someone called Al Quaeda the "villian of the day" in a mocking manner and then gave the Romans in same category as a similar example, I'd suggest they were in the frothing loony category. And I bet we can find someone who did just that with the Nazis if we try to read his posts.
Yeah, how DARE one even compare the atrocities of an empire with institutionalized slavery,
that slaughtered one in ten of its own soldiers for cowardice, and/or conducted literal
mass crucifixion of its enemies to Al Qaeda or the Nazis.
