Apparently even at the time the kon-tiki expedition was largely regarded as racist pseudoscience. Heyerdahl made a simple raft when Austronesian people have sophisticated outrigger canoes and refused to accept the common knowledge of the day because he said they were "too primitive" to sail into the wind.

Edit: he also hypothesised colonisation by a white, blonde, blue-eyed people rather than. Y'know. Polynesians. Because he believed only white people could be capable of such a feat.

[–] CleverOleg@hexbear.net 6 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Got it, just to be clear I read Kon-Tiki in 8th grade and hadn’t followed up on my knowledge since, I didn’t realize it was racist pseudoscience (but in hindsight I totally see that)

[–] Blakey@hexbear.net 3 points 1 week ago

No worries, I had to look it up myself. I was only tangentially aware of it but the timeframe made me wonder how gross it was (turns out, SUPER.)