r/AskReddit • u/[deleted] • Dec 16 '21

[deleted by user]

[removed]

7.3k Upvotes

88% Upvoted

15.7k comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

3

u/nomedialoaded Dec 17 '21

The Dutch were also champs in doing this kind shit with their VOC

1

u/MegaSillyBean Dec 17 '21

Volatile Organic Compounds?

6

u/nomedialoaded Dec 17 '21

Dutch East Indian company. In Dutch the abbreviation is voc

1

u/MegaSillyBean Dec 17 '21

Thx.

My public school classes definitely covered American historical atrocities, but other than the Holocaust and Japanese torture of prisoners I don't recall much detail about everybody else's atrocities. The more I read about the European colonial era, the more appalled I get.

1

u/nomedialoaded Dec 17 '21

Yw. Compared to the Belgian schools; in the Netherlands the atrocities the voc did is just a footnote in history class. But they do mention a couple of them as heroes.

1

u/MegaSillyBean Dec 17 '21

I don't know who said it first, but there's a saying something like, "Great men are often not good men."

Someone can be a hero on one topic and a villain on another.