What the Aztecs can teach us about happiness and the good life (2016)

Re:What the Aztecs can teach us about happiness and the good... by ncmncm on Saturday June 05, 2021 @08:40PM (#27409651)

Not to whatabout anybody, but a comparison of murder rates by the Aztecs to the murders of supposed witches by the Franciscan and, particularly, Dominican Inquisitions does not show Europeans in a favorable light. But at least Europeans tortured their victims first. I think the Aztecs preferred to feed and drug them, instead.

Still, if I were looking to pre-contact America for life lessons, I would look at some more northerly tribes, first. But we don't know as much about what they thought.

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Re:What the Aztecs can teach us about happiness and the good... by requin246 on Sunday June 06, 2021 @03:26AM (#27411421)

Your comparison is factually incorrect.

The documented death rate of the inquisitions is on the order of 4500 people over 400 years [1]. That’s a rate of 11 people per year.

Aztec sacrifice estimates are on the scale of 20,000 to 250,000 per year. [2]

In actual fact, the Aztecs are in a far worse light than the Dominicans and Franciscans. The Nazi comparison is valid. There’s no society on earth that would end innocent life on that scale for another 500 years.

[1]: https://history.stackexchange.com/questions/39443/what-was-t...

[2]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_sacrifice_in_Aztec_cultu...

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Re:What the Aztecs can teach us about happiness and the good... by ncmncm on Sunday June 06, 2021 @09:11AM (#27412917)

You are perhaps unfamiliar with the quote translated, "Kill them all. God will know his own."

The Albigensians alone numbered more than 4500.

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