Really? That seems like an absurd statement.

There were plenty of people willing to apply those standards back in those days, even if they rarely had significant political influence outside of a handful of cases. e.g. Las Casas (almost a contemporary of Columbus) even managed to convince the Spanish state to pass legislation in 1542 that might be even considered progressive by the standards of the of the 1700s or even 1800s (of course it wasn’t necessarily very effective).

Why do you want to erase them from history?

> we are led to be miserable in everything.

Are we? How does saying that Columbus was greedy and cruel (even by contemporary standards) somehow makes us miserable? Seems entirely tangential..

“repaint history” = correct historical inaccuracies in textbooks

“In the worst way possible” = as correctly as possible

“Using standards that should not be applied” = using the proper standards and I don’t like that for “reasons”

“No wonder people are so miserable and divided these days” = No wonder people don’t like people that spread the same misinformation as me at the moment

“When we are led to be miserable in everything” - “when led to learn from our prior mistakes and try to improve the future of ALL peoples”