I knew, before today, that there have been times in history where armed people forced unarmed people on a cross-country march, and anyone who couldn't keep up died. The Trail of Tears, for one. I couldn't have named another, but I thought everyone raised in the US had learned about the Trail of Tears in school. It would never have occurred to me that anyone could be ignorant enough, unthinkingly cruel enough, to use the term 'deathmarch' in any context other than the Trail of Tears or similar instances of the worst parts of human nature.
I just read
this, and then hit up Google because clearly I am lacking in knowledge about some of the worst things people have done to each other. I think I need to go be sick now. Not because of what
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
ephemere tells us about the horrors that occurred on the Bataan Death March. I don't squick at descriptions of violence.
Because there are people who use the term 'deathmarching' to describe forcing themselves to finish writing a fucking
novel. Because the I'm Feeling Lucky Google result for 'deathmarch' is about
software development.
People really are that ignorant. People really are that unthinkingly cruel.
I've seen the phrase 'losing faith in humanity'. I must not have grokked it till now.
