I'll stick up for the people living in Mexico (what the pic depicts).

They were about as civilized as the Spanish at the time, the only difference was that they were honest about it, their sacrificial victims usually went willingly, even eagerly, and they ate the people they sacrificed.
So better on the first two and much worse on the last one. But dead is dead no matter what happens after you're dead.

The Spanish sacrificed plenty of people to their god. They just did it in other ways and didn't admit they were sacrifices.

They'd have mass baptisms the locals didn't understand and then kill them for heretics when they worshipped Jesus next to Quetzalcoatl, for instance. If they refused to convert, they killed them for that too.

They treated them all like slaves, even throwing down the rulers they had made deals with to beat the "Aztecs" (Mexica) and their allies.

They wiped out the culture and as much of the pre-Columbian history and memory as they could.
All while proudly proclaiming they were doing it for God and for the good of the poor, benighted heathens.

I hate the ending of the book "Aztec", the damn Spanish always win.
Without the human sacrifice, the civilization in Mexico was pretty cool. They were probably as advanced as ancient Egyptians in terms of engineering and non-religious society and must have had some cool pieces of art.
Like feather banners.
Imagine huge mosaic-like banners made entirely of hummingbird feathers.

Of course, they'd often hang over the skull rack in front of the pyramid, so it's not really a place I'd like to go, but I wouldn't want to go to 16th century Spain either, they'd kill me just as dead the first time I said, "God damn it" or "Jesus effing Christ".
They just wouldn't eat me afterward.

Its not just the double standard of whose bad behavior is ignored. Ask the question: are native Americans better or worse off overall? Whatever harmful actions and policies Europeans brought was countered by the instant access to 1000 years of technological advances.

What a paradise America would be had no one else ever come. We could all be intellectually indistinguishable from animals. Yay.

"their sacrificial victims usually went willingly"

WTF? It's been years since I've heard that canard.

"their sacrificial victims usually went willingly"

The people who recorded their history were in the rather odd position of routinely consigning heretics to the flames in order to save them. So it may have assuaged their consciences.

The point is that judging Columbus in the overall context of man's inhumanity to man over the eons is not merely ridiculous; it's insane.

These people need to get a life.

And if they can't do that, maybe at least they could try looking at a bigger picture than their current postmodernist narrative.

That the victims went willingly is a canard?

They fought Flower Wars between two alliances where the goal was to take prisoners expressly for sacrifice. They didn't try to kill each other, they tried to take each other prisoner.
The ones taken prisoner went willingly, even eagerly. They were dying for their gods and it was better than dying on the battlefield. It was more pleasing or they could have just had regular wars where people died instead of taking them home to sacrifice them.

Even the normal people taken for sacrifice were willing, it was their religion. They might not have always been real happy about being chosen for the "honor", but they usually went willingly.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not against your post, but the Spanish treated Mexico, Central and South America despicably.
That's always bothered me.
In the US they were basically stone age people.
Even the Iroquois weren't very advanced, contra what you often hear today. They lived short, brutish lives full of disease and danger.

We have international law because the Catholic priests looked at how the natives were being treated and told the military: God made man in his image. These are men, in the image of God. There is a creator how has given these men rights. The priests refused the military the sacraments of the church, damming the military to hell, if they didn't change the way they behaved. And the military did. From that sprang the idea that something more important than individual countries should be behind our laws. The Spanish conquest of the New World had more positives for the natives than negatives. Sure there were negatives, but there were more positives.

And somehow eating human flesh, because that's what the natives did, is alright because they are natives, and that's what natives do? If what you are saying is that non-Europeans are alright doing what they do, then don't forget: the African slave trade could not have existed without the cooperation of African tribes. Slavery exists now in parts of the Muslim world. No need to hate on Western Civilization. Local culture is o.k. to do whatever it wants to do?

Why was colomubs brought home in chains? Because he disobeyed the queen in his mistreatment of the natives.

"Columbus may have been an imperfect man, but his legacy and inspirational explorer spirit is directly tied to the Italian-American immigrant experience. Belittling Columbus may elicit knowing nods on Brown's campus, but in Little Italy, it only makes you look small."

I don't believe in rewriting history for the benefit of political correctness.

There are lots of mass-murderers in the history of humankind who are reviled by educated people for their crimes. Colombus's contribution to the study of geography should not exempt him from the light of truth.

He was a great explorer and a mass murder, theif, and torturer. Don't hide the truth for the cause of political correctness.

Why is everyone concerned with the feelings of people of Italian ancestry? What about the feelings of native americans? What if there was a day to celebrate his crimes. How would people of origin feel?

"What if there was a day to celebrate his crimes. How would people of origin feel?"

the parser thought my angle brackets were html

should read:
"What if there was a day to celebrate (name your favorite mass murderer)'s crimes. How would people of (corresponding ethnic) origin feel?"

"The ones taken prisoner went willingly, even eagerly."

No.

Thanks for good stuff