And then you get into the undertones of the flying monkeys, and everything gets really uncomfortable.

It's difficult to describe Baum's views on Native Americans without sounding flippant and insensitive, but the best way to describe them really might be "the most loving call for genocide in history." It's ... look, it's a lot.

When Baum first started working as a journalist, he wrote for a newspaper called the Aberdeen Saturday Pioneer providing columns and editorials. In these, he described Native Americans as "noble savages" who attacked pioneers out of "pure mischief." In one piece, he called for the extermination of all Natives, stating that after all of the atrocities the settlers had already put them through, it would be better to kill them all. It would be better, he claimed, to let them die as "Kings of the forest" than live subserviently.

So maybe we all take a breather here and let all of that soak in.

ncG1vNJzZmivp6x7qL7Up56eZpOkunB9l21rbHBfqbWmedGemKVlnZqur7XNoGSbnZieu6V506GcZq%2BZr66zsIyonWanqqh6p7jYoqWgZZ2ku6yx2Kxm