[ How is this a Scientific American article? ]
This whole article is akin to calling Sir Issac Newton a blithering idiot because he couldn’t figure out the theory of relativity....
They fail to mention that the slavery system was SET UP by the British when they setup the BRITISH COLONIES, and it took a while and lot of American blood to eventually unwind it.
If anyone can SHARE a large part of the blame of the “Original American Sin” it is the BRITISH!
Funny how these idiot political ideological slanted science nerds can excuse other cultural sins if they are located ELSEWHERE in the world, but if that sin is in OUR OWN country but located ELSEWHEN, the prospect of excusing it using the academia tool of “Cultural Relativism” becomes an impossible task.
Exactly.
You have to remember, liberals are HUGE on moral relativity.
They beat on ancient history and people (in the US colonies, anyway) that cannot be changed. They are absolutists when it comes to old news.
But they are relativists when it comes to the here and now. People today are excused left and right, even killers, because the pseudo-commies say we have to “understand” and “see things their way”!
Why not apply that to dead people whom you can’t change now?
That was Jefferson's own argument, but it really doesn't work. Slavery came in about the same time representative government came in. Nobody forced it on the colonists.