Western Bias?

[MrBanana]

What is the point of the Chinese claims anyways? The obviously were as succesful (if it happened, which I don't think it did) as the Vikings colonies, and they didn't get there first either.

I thinbk Columbos "discovering" Cuba, and by extension America, is an over-hyped but still valid achievment.

And why are we accusing Firaxis of being Western'biased by not mentioning some blatant lies. It's not like Firaxis is a western company... oh wait.

 

[civ_king]

Are you able to make any post lately that doesn't include some blatantly erroneous assertion, designed to insult at least some identifiable group?

I mean really. You're just being silly at this point. History textbooks are normally written by historians from all over the world, not just Texas. And it isn't just conservative white Christians that write them, either.

If you insist on starting these silly hate-speech threads and making ridiculous statements in order to stir us up, at least do it with some style.

In the US he is basically correct, Texas is the main market for textbooks (in the US) and smaller states use the Texas books with inserts

 

[Me,myself,and,I]

Yeah but most textbooks here are written by Liberals not conservatives. Try going through school here as a conservative, it's a nightmare. They actually try and teach people that the entire world was peaceful except for Europe and the the Europeans made everybody else violent. Cause the Aztecs were soooo peaceful.

As for the Chinese, it's more than believable that they may have found the new world first, but A. they never did anything about it. B. They promptly forgot about it.

 

[EmperorValacar]

If you live in the west there is tons of western bias. During the middle ages the byzantines,arabs and moors were the torchbearers of civilization. Most knights were nothing more than drunken LEEROY JENKINS chargers who just charged blindly into battle thinking that archers or horse archers were lowly and wouldn't kill them(see agincourt for instance). In reality western europe was the backwards part of society not the byzantines,arabs,moors. Also the vikings discovered america <.<

 

[Me,myself,and,I]

All true... and then Europe moved on and the rest of the world did not.

Besides Vikings are western.

 

[civ_king]

Yeah but most textbooks here are written by Liberals not conservatives. Try going through school here as a conservative, it's a nightmare. They actually try and teach people that the entire world was peaceful except for Europe and the the Europeans made everybody else violent. Cause the Aztecs were soooo peaceful.

As for the Chinese, it's more than believable that they may have found the new world first, but A. they never did anything about it. B. They promptly forgot about it.

What country are you in?

 

[Ahriman]

In the US he is basically correct, Texas is the main market for textbooks (in the US) and smaller states use the Texas books with inserts

California is larger, but it has more idiosyncratic rules, and so doesn't tend to swing other markets as much.

However, the recent heavy media coverage of the politicization of the Texas textbook content (Jefferson out; too liberal) has led to the possibility of the Texas books have less influence; publishers are saying they have no intention of using these extra changes for books in other markets.

Too soon to tell though.

 

[Me,myself,and,I]

Dang! Keep forgetting this isn't the 2k forums, I'm American.

 

[civ_king]

Dang! Keep forgetting this isn't the 2k forums, I'm American.

then what state are you in with Liberal textbooks?

 

[Plotinus]

Moderator Action: This is the Civ V forum. It's for discussing Civ V. It is not for discussing questions of history or questions of bias in the American education system. We have a World History Forum for the former, and an Off-Topic Forum in the latter. If you wish to discuss these topics, please visit these forums, where you will find that they have already been thrashed to death in more detail than you could possibly require.

The topic of this thread is the Civilopedia of Civ V. I'd be grateful if everyone could stick to that topic while they're in this thread.

 

[kaltorak]

Don't worry, I doubt there will be much about the discovery of america in the civilopedia, since spain isn't included in civ5

 

[Me,myself,and,I]

Quid?

Would answer you civ_king but the mods are not amused.

 

[Akka]

My question is - does Civ, now in its 5th incarnation, with all the resources at its disposal (civ 4 could pay for spock for crying out loud), have the responsibility to be historically accurate as possible in the Civilopedia entries that pertain to real history?

AFAIK, the Civilopedia has always been quite accurate. It has stated clearly accepted facts. It's perhaps not up-to-date with all unproved-even-possible theories, but that's not a requirement.

And if there is a definite "western bias", it's perhaps because the West simply dominated the whole rest of the world for centuries. Just a guess.

 

[Abraxis]

-An estimated one third of persons of East Asian and Native American descent have an alcohol flush reaction, a condition where the body cannot break down ingested alcohol completely because it lacks the genetically coded enzyme that performs this function in the bodies of drinkers with "European" tolerance levels.

there is some hard evidence right there. Debatable yes, but genetic similarities like this certainly add to the point.

 

[astrognash]

-An estimated one third of persons of East Asian and Native American descent have an alcohol flush reaction, a condition where the body cannot break down ingested alcohol completely because it lacks the genetically coded enzyme that performs this function in the bodies of drinkers with "European" tolerance levels.

there is some hard evidence right there. Debatable yes, but genetic similarities like this certainly add to the point.

That would be due to the attached picture, illustrating how the first peoples migrated into America during the Ice Age.

 

[Abraxis]

That would be due to the attached picture, illustrating how the first peoples migrated into America during the Ice Age.

could also just be a natural genetic state for our species given limited exposure to alcohol. Though there are plenty of cultures who didn't use alcohol that never adapted this trait.

Like I said, debatable.

but keeping the 1/3 ratio consistent after the gene pool branches off for 17,000 years (I think is when the bridge melted?) also seems unlikely. We know Asians crossed the land bridge, but to get that genetic trait that consistent between the two cultures again seems like it would require more recent interbreeding.

 

[luke2345]

It's like this. Person A discovers a cure for cancer, and cures himself, his mother, and then never tells anyone else, ever. Person B, some 500 years later, "discovers" a cure for cancer, and tells the world. Regardless of how he got that cure, or the fact that A discovered it first, who really deserves the credit?

If the Vikings had, you know, actually told someone else in Europe about the New World, then maybe things would be different. But they didn't, and so we credit Columbus.

they did but people forgot.
there is this book before columbus which tell's about america.

 

[awesome]

-An estimated one third of persons of East Asian and Native American descent have an alcohol flush reaction, a condition where the body cannot break down ingested alcohol completely because it lacks the genetically coded enzyme that performs this function in the bodies of drinkers with "European" tolerance levels.

there is some hard evidence right there. Debatable yes, but genetic similarities like this certainly add to the point.

if the chinese actually had made it to the americas, it would have been only as early as the 1420's, maybe a little later since i forget when zhang he died. that's the first and only time until recent history that china actually looked outward. and even still, that's only because the emperor wanted everybody in asia to know that china defeated the mongols. it also wouldn't have been in massive amounts like with the europeans.

so basically, that's not very good evidence.