Moniquilliloquies.

jalwhite:

TW: MAJOR TRIGGER WARNING FOR PRO-INDIGENOUS GENOCIDE COMMENTS

ieithoedd:

Person:

As humans develop as a species, becoming largely more technologically advanced, the needs to preserve existing indigenous populations diminish. Efforts to preserve such indigenous populations actually come at the cost of world prestige. As tragic as the death of rich cultures and indigenous populations is, it is essential for humans to continue progressing both technologically, but also evolve into smarter beings. The expense of barbaric indigenous populations is the price of progress.

Angry Steve:

So, you want to support the continuing genocide of hundreds of different tribes throughout the Americas, Africa, Scandinavia, Australia, Siberia, India, Oceania, among other regions with high indigenous populations? Why is it that our technological “superiority” gives us the right to steal their land, destroy the environment and KILL (and rape, mind you) millions of innocent people? Instead of abusing our privileges, why don’t Western minds figure out ways to both advance technologically without the destruction of lands and cultures? These cultures (traditions, langauges, practices) often hold knowledge of things that Western sciences haven’t documented. Do you realize how many plants are undocuments by Western sciences, yet many do have medicinal qualities only known to indigenous groups in the Amazon and elsewhere in the world? There are also many animals that biologists haven’t documented that are known to indigenous groups.

Since when is science and technology the be-all-end-all anyway? Isn’t humanity (and I’m not just talking about to other humans, but all of nature as well) a desired goal?

I am deeply hurt and offended that you refer to indigenous populations as ‘barbaric’. Tell that to several my friends, who are of Cherokee, Lenape, Saami, Gael, Basque and Quechua descent, most of whom still have their traditions and culture. They’re just as much people as you and I. This first-world mindset is very harmful to everyone, as it creates a rift in humanity saying that people are “less fit for living” just because of their ethnicity and race.

Now, I hate to pull this card, but dictators like Hitler, Franco and Stalin (but more so the first) had your ideology that the price of progress is human life of people they viewed as lesser.

Wow.

As tragic as the death of rich cultures and indigenous populations is, it is essential for humans to continue progressing both technologically, but also evolve into smarter beings. The expense of barbaric indigenous populations is the price of progress.

Things like this make me nauseous. Folks wonder why we’re so protective of our cultures and our right to be self-determining peoples… this is what we’re up against. Even people that think our situations are ‘tragic’ believe that Indigenous people not as evolved. Not as human. That we are less worthy of life. Doesn’t matter how “rich” our cultures are. By existing - by surviving - we become obstacles in the way of progress. We are the price that folks like this are willing to pay for their own ideas of ‘progress’. Ideas firmly rooted in racism and greed.

To some, this might seem far removed from the realities of Indigenous people in the US and Canada but that’s only if you don’t know about the rhetoric used to promote and justify expansion, removal, and of course Manifest Destiny. This is the rhetoric that sent thousands upon thousands of Indian children to boarding schools to ‘civilize’ them. The same words that made it so folks don’t flinch when they hear the rates of violence against Native women. It only seem unrelated if you don’t know what’s happening in the Black Hills, the San Francisco Peaks, the XL Pipeline, and tribal lands all over the continent.

Our lives are still for sale in the name of progress.