YSK: Blankets with smallpox isn't real. It's literally made up history. At no point did the genocide of native Americans happen due to being purposely given blankets riddled with smallpox. It happened due to them being exterminated piecemeal by the US Government and invaders. It's another piece of history whitewashed because of a historical ear worm with ALMOST zero truth. Native deaths came from the smallpox doing it's own thing while the US Government did the rest. There weren't explorers handing them out trying to kill natives, the government didn't have some sinister plot with blankets with smallpox, even if people were trying to kill natives with blankets riddled with smallpox, it wouldn't have worked... It's bullshit. Researchers and historians firmly believe it cannot really be passed on that way. Smallpox is a super fragile virus, it dies quickly outside of the body. You cannot give people blankets and contract smallpox from it the same way you can't contract herpes sitting on a toilet seat or AIDS from kissing someone with it.
If this were reddit you'd see it pinned on my profile. Alas, that's deleted so I'm going to try to post something similar here so I can cite it. Unfortunately a mod more recently deleted my last info dump when random people inevitably try to ad hominem so I'm doing it here again.
=
Sauce regarding the 1 'verified' instance where a US Officer tried to give natives 2 blankets and a handkerchief at Fort Pitt. Historians believe the effectiveness to be almost entirely made up because you cannot give someone smallpox with blankets. Smallpox had already run rampant in the native population.*:
E: For clarity and conciseness since people were having issues somehow with me sourcing the 1 instance but somehow saying I wasn't including the 1 instance... that didn't work... because you can't give someone smallpox with blankets. Not only was it not even rare, there was only 1, verified, instance... which did not work. The colloquial use and thought of natives somehow being sneakily given smallpox through blankets regularly is a straight up lie. It sounds just plausible enough for people to share it but it has ZERO basis in reality. It doesn't work. And only 1 scumbag US Officer in a war against natives was ever confirmed to have tried it.
So if big mean Spotify doesn't want to pay indie artists unless we get 20 streams a month on each song, maybe you can help us get there. And maybe you'll find another favourite song along the way.
You know how one of the common symptoms of fascism is that they will describe their enemies as both weak and strong.
What would you call someone that describes themselves as both weak and strong?
For example "vote for me and I can definitely protect reproductive rights but actually bureaucracy prevents me from stopping the people trying to knock down reproductive rights."
Before: “You better vote blue so your basic human rights are protected!”
After: “What? You just expect them to close the concentration camps and also not let impoverished people die of lack of access to healthcare? You’re such a tankie and somehow also a Bernie bro!”
I’m leftist, and I’m willing to open a discussion with liberals, but so many times they become hostile at any criticism of capitalism or pointing out things like supporting ICE is categorically a fascist thing to do, and that compromises like Obamacare and Bidencare only benefit a small percentage of fairly well-off individuals and anything less than universal healthcare is harmful to the disadvantaged.
It wouldn’t be so bad if they didn’t then start the unhinged attacks with “Bernie bro” and “tankie” (which is especially weird, considering I’m an anarchist). I’m a middle-aged individual, and I’ve also been called a “child that needs to grow up” lol. Not saying you specifically do this or your friends, but it happens A LOT in online spaces. Worst are the forums overrun by neolibs such as r/SubredditDrama and like 90% of lemmy.world mods.