Disproving pseudo-historian Dan Richard’s fake history of Atlantism

For over 100 years Atlantis hunters have considered American congressman Ignatius Donnelly to be the father of modern-day Atlantis hunting, but pseudo-historian Dan Richards claims the true father was Frenchman Charles-Étienne Brasseur de Bourbourg, because Donnelley was a racist, and Dan doesn’t want modern Atlantis hunting to have originated with a racist. In this video I provide overwhelming evidence that Dan is wrong.


Media credits

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Persus, Nicolas Claude. Русский:  Аббат Шарль Этьен Брассёр Де Бурбур, before 1874date QS:P,+ – -00T00:00:00Z/7,P1326,+1874-00-00T00:00:00Z/9 1874. The Manuscript Hunter: Brasseur de Bourbourg’s Travels Through Central America and Mexico, 1854—1859 / Translated and edited by Katia Sainson. — Norman, OK : University of Oklahoma Press, 2017. — P. iii. — (The American Exploration and Travel Series; 84). — ISBN 978-0-8061-5502-9. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Abb%C3%A9_Brasseur_de_Bourbourg.jpg.

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