Controversial Opinions (For Everything Other Than DC Comics)

[Gray Lensman]

I believe America will have a varied label in parts of its history regarding whether or not it's a good guy or a bad guy. Just looking at the last half century, we've seen considerable shifts in judgment on many parts of history. There will, of course, be some resume padding by the winners, but there will also be a recognition of flaws and mistakes.

I don't hear many good things about the Imperialist period at the transition from the 19th to the 20th centuries, nor the Banana Wars (which is really just a more specific part of the former). The best things I hear from those are how the careers of important generals started during them. Pershing was Governor of the Philippines and did probably the best job of anyone who had to manage the area before (and many since) - largely by a series of reforms that gave agency to them. Chesty Puller commanded a squad in Haiti and was also successful, partly from his willingness to listen to the non-white people under his command. Those commanders who came in thinking to 'civilize those savages' or other such nonsense always seemed to do poorly.

And neither of those was something I was taught in schools, but from documentaries I saw after - with the bits on Pershing being covered under multiple programs.

[Madam-Shogun-Assassin]

I don't hear many good things about the Imperialist period at the transition from the 19th to the 20th centuries, nor the Banana Wars (which is really just a more specific part of the former). The best things I hear from those are how the careers of important generals started during them. Pershing was Governor of the Philippines and did probably the best job of anyone who had to manage the area before (and many since) - largely by a series of reforms that gave agency to them. Chesty Puller commanded a squad in Haiti and was also successful, partly from his willingness to listen to the non-white people under his command. Those commanders who came in thinking to 'civilize those savages' or other such nonsense always seemed to do poorly.

And neither of those was something I was taught in schools, but from documentaries I saw after - with the bits on Pershing being covered under multiple programs.

Someone should do a docudrama on Americas dark history. The dark things people gloss over, or intentionally leave out. I'm surprised history channel never did this when it was actually a history channel. Everything was so white washed. If I was rich I would create the show and called it Dark History.

[CaptCleghorn]

I don't hear many good things about the Imperialist period at the transition from the 19th to the 20th centuries, nor the Banana Wars (which is really just a more specific part of the former). The best things I hear from those are how the careers of important generals started during them. Pershing was Governor of the Philippines and did probably the best job of anyone who had to manage the area before (and many since) - largely by a series of reforms that gave agency to them. Chesty Puller commanded a squad in Haiti and was also successful, partly from his willingness to listen to the non-white people under his command. Those commanders who came in thinking to 'civilize those savages' or other such nonsense always seemed to do poorly.

And neither of those was something I was taught in schools, but from documentaries I saw after - with the bits on Pershing being covered under multiple programs.

Now is one time. Much of our history has been whitewashed and that can't seriously be denied. The purpose of my comment was to suggest that both the white washing and exposition woill happen as we progress and get a more detailed picture of our history. The history classes I had in the seventies were different than the classes my son had in the 2000s. I want to bring out that both situations exist, whitewashing and exposition. Painting our view of history as all one or the other is wrong.

HS history curricula are seriously simplistic. Much is covered in a cursory manner. But the identification of US historical events as being less than golden is happening more and more. You may disagree with the speed at which this is happening or with the particular event that are looked at through a different lens, but we are getting a more balanced view.

[PwrdOn]

I hate it when people claim that they are only criticizing the government of a country and have nothing but respect for the people, because it is always such a blatant cop out. Most governments, even the most ruthlessly oppressive ones, enjoy fairly broad public support which is far less reliant on brainwashing and propaganda than most of us are willing to believe. People don't always like their leaders but on the whole they would prefer to put up with the devil they know rather than being ordered around by foreigners.

This is also the reason why most American military interventions fail so miserably. We like to delude ourselves into thinking that there is some mass of downtrodden people just yearning to be free, ready to democratically implement whatever agenda suits American corporate interests in exchange for the privilege of being able to drop a month's savings on a unicorn frappuccino. Though I suppose these days nobody in the Trump administration is talking about liberating the Iranian or North Korean people or promoting democracy, it's just naked self-serving aggression.

[dancj]

Why is judging a person's worth by their usefulness to us better than judging a person's worth by, for example, their attractiveness to us?

They're both somewhat innate, can be improved upon through work, and socially relative.

It's not about judging someone's worth. It's about judging someone's ability to do their job. People in charge should be chosen because they're moral and competent - not because they're attractive or rich.

[ZombieHavoc]

The 5 most important UK bands of the 60s, in my opnion:

Black Sabbath
The Who
The Kinks
The Rolling Stones
The Beatles

It's really just personal bias to not include Led Zeppelin, and I will admit they are a band that took a long time for me to really ever get into, despite trying and buying various albums over the years. I heard "Achilles Last Stand" on DIRECTV's older Boneyard-style channel at one point and become obsessed, and have since found other songs I like.

Another, I assume controverisal opinion: The Clash only released two essential albums, and London Calling ain't one of 'em (although "Death or Glory" is one of their best tunes).

[aja_christopher]

Someone should do a docudrama on Americas dark history. The dark things people gloss over, or intentionally leave out. I'm surprised history channel never did this when it was actually a history channel. Everything was so white washed. If I was rich I would create the show and called it Dark History.

I haven't watched this yet so I'm not advocating anything in the film -- just knew about it and decided to provide a link.

[ed2962]

The 5 most important UK bands of the 60s, in my opnion:

Black Sabbath
The Who
The Kinks
The Rolling Stones
The Beatles

It's really just personal bias to not include Led Zeppelin, and I will admit they are a band that took a long time for me to really ever get into, despite trying and buying various albums over the years. I heard "Achilles Last Stand" on DIRECTV's older Boneyard-style channel at one point and become obsessed, and have since found other songs I like.

Another, I assume controverisal opinion: The Clash only released two essential albums, and London Calling ain't one of 'em (although "Death or Glory" is one of their best tunes).

Give 'Em Enough Rope by the Clash is a great album in my opinion. It's unfairly maligned because the record company brought in Sandy Pearlman who did Blue Oyster Cult to produce and make the band more "FM Radio friendly." However, the songwriting, the performances, and the sound quality are all top notch.

[ZombieHavoc]

Give 'Em Enough Rope by the Clash is a great album in my opinion. It's unfairly maligned because the record company brought in Sandy Pearlman who did Blue Oyster Cult to produce and make the band more "FM Radio friendly." However, the songwriting, the performances, and the sound quality are all top notch.

Oh, I love Give Em Enough Rope. That and the s/t are masterpieces (I prefer the US version of the s/t over UK, too, because the album has to open with "Clash City Rockers" in my opinion).

[The Darknight Detective]

The 5 most important UK bands of the 60s, in my opnion:

Black Sabbath
The Who
The Kinks
The Rolling Stones
The Beatles

Replace Sabbath with Zep and that would be my personal preference and also the majority opinion of the kids I grew up with during the '70s.

[BeastieRunner]

Yardbirds had Beck, Page, Clapton ... I'm always amazed they were never that big with those guys in the band.

John Paul Jones, Robert Plant, John Bonham and many other rock legends cut their teeth playing for the Yardbirds.

[dancj]

Another, I assume controverisal opinion: The Clash only released two essential albums, and London Calling ain't one of 'em (although "Death or Glory" is one of their best tunes).

I don't know there other albums to compare, but London Calling is a brilliant album.

[Emperor-of-Dragons]

People like to use Hanlon's Razor as a cop out explanation for everything. But they fail to account for prejudice, which could lead to malicious things. For example I personally think David Simon, was kinda restrained actually when making the TV series The Wire. He down played the institutional racism of the drug war and general shoddy policing, and just blamed everything on Hanlon's Razor. A typical white liberal deflection imo. But otherwise I thought the show was rock solid.

[Kirby101]

People like to use Hanlon's Razor as a cop out explanation for everything. But they fail to account for prejudice, which could lead to malicious things. For example I personally think David Simon, was kinda restrained actually when making the TV series The Wire. He down played the institutional racism of the drug war and general shoddy policing, and just blamed everything on Hanlon's Razor. A typical white liberal deflection imo. But otherwise I thought the show was rock solid.

What about people like Trump, who are both stupid and full of malice. Sometimes it's hard to figure out which attribute is cause for his actions.

[Scott Taylor]

What about people like Trump, who are both stupid and full of malice. Sometimes it's hard to figure out which attribute is cause for his actions.

For me, its the Big Apple Razor. "Never attribute to malice or stupidity that which is adequately explained by being a New Yorker."