"Pirates were bad, Grow up!" Topic

"I very rarely tell people to do this, and just for the record I'm a fan of Disney, at least the parks and animation. And on the whole blockbusters, phoney accents and silly outfits are allot of fun. But I try to never lose sight of what piracy actually represents. So I'm really writing this post about the concepts we chose to be repulsed by, rather than what got changed in a theme park ride.

On the ride, shortly after you enter the port town, after passing the pirate ship in your ride boat you behold a man being tortured. He is being dropped into a well and hauled back up again to loosen his tongue. Ahead is a bridge and to the left of it animatronic figures act out another vignette. It used to depict a line of women being sold at auction to cries of ‘we wants the redead' and other catcalls. Now it depicts a red-headed female pirate, and the line of people are coming to auction off their goods to the rest of the crew, presumably with little hope of recompense …."
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Amicalement
Armand

My 6-year old son loves wearing his tricorn hat everywhere, but he continually gets frustrated when people call him a pirate. He knows that pirates were the bad guys, and these people should recognise that he is an officer who hunts pirates! (sometimes he is an army officer and sometimes he's in the navy)

Welcome to Hollywood, where theft and destruction are good things, unless you steal and destroy studio property, and the bad thing about rape is that it isn't distributed evenly by "gender."

That said, no one's paying a premium for redheads any more? Talk about a decline in taste!

For those in to animation, there's an episode of 'Rick and Morty' where they make a pirate theme park that, in the words of one of the characters, 'doesn't sugar coat it' and is 'quite rapey'. Perhaps 'Pirates of the Caribbean' could learn a thing or two from it.

On TV today, "Jesse James: Lawman" Hollywood and reality are words never used in the same sentence.

In times past, when the common people has absolutely no say in how they were treated by the upper classes, criminals of various kinds became heroes.
Robin Hood in Britain. Janosik in Poland. The Hajuks of Hungary. Highwaymen in England and Ireland. Jesse James in the US. Pirates.
These figures have been thought of as anti-heroes over history because they snub their noses at authority, at the status quo and do everything the commoners simply wished they could do to "the man".
For most of human history, the law applied only to commoners. And the upper classes at this time did whatever they wanted to the commoners, with little fear of retribution. The article lists all the things pirates should be condemned for. But those in charge were hardly
"better". Read about the clearances happening at the same time. Or "transportation" as criminal punishment for minor offenses or being sold into slavery or indenture for similar offenses. There is a wealth of material out there that shows just how cruel the ruling classes could be, and how they got away with it systemically.
Pirates had no real "ideology" to make them anything more than criminals. Its perhaps why all prior great upheavals, like peasant revolts, simply burned out and accomplished nothing.
But by the mid 18th century, there was, and many knew about it. As a result, the concept of equality before the law, and that the law should apply to everyone, switched mere brigandage to the great revolutions in America and France.

Well said, Pan Marek.

Support that!.

Amicalement
Armand

Not the Pirates of Penzance – they were orphans

Gotta agree with Pan. This doesn't make the Pirates good guys, but then nobody is standing in line to accuse the nobility and royals of being paragons of ethics, morals, and virtues.

You are right my friend… but were you found people with those parangons…? (smile)

Amicalement
Armand