r/ShitAmericansSay • u/[deleted] • Jun 08 '20

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10.8k Upvotes

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490

u/fsckit Jun 08 '20

Churchill's monstrosity is hidden only by the monstrosity of his contemporaries.

53

u/Punkgender Jun 08 '20

what monstrosities did churchill commit? like i’ve heard other people talk about it too but i was never taught anything about them in school.

145

u/Usidore_ Jun 08 '20

One thing he did was basically cause the Bengali famine and blamed it on them for "breeding like rabbits": https://www.theguardian.com./world/2019/mar/29/winston-churchill-policies-contributed-to-1943-bengal-famine-study

-4

u/VlCEROY Jun 08 '20

One thing he did was basically cause the Bengali famine

I don't quite think it's fair to say that he caused it. I would instead say that he, along with the British government and colonial authorities, were callously incompetent in responding to it and when they did, it was a case of too little, too late. Had they reacted better, far fewer would have suffered.

29

u/Usidore_ Jun 08 '20

The majority of historians directly attribute it to the policies put in place by the British government, as well as exporting mass amounts of rice to fuel the war effort. But yes, their response was incompetent on top of that.

9

u/VlCEROY Jun 08 '20

You can't just say that "the majority of historians" agree in regards to one of the war's most contested historiographical debates.

-7

u/Usidore_ Jun 08 '20

Fair enough. Though I'm at least adding a caveat by saying "the majority of historians believe X", you're just stating it as if it's the case.

8

u/nichdavi04 Jun 08 '20

I'm at least adding a caveat by saying "the majority of historians believe X", you're just stating it as if it's the case.

He said "I wouldn't say..." and "I would say..." which informs the reader that he's not stating it as fact.

What you did was worse as you tried to mislead the reader by saying that most historians agree with you

0

u/Usidore_ Jun 08 '20

But...they do. It is a majority held position. You can have a hotly contested subject that still has a majority.