• @[email protected]
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    3 hours ago

    Imagine being able to successfully convince yourself that the existence of defences, and conflict, between neighbouring indigenous nations, is equivalent, to the point of nullifying, sailing around the globe genociding and enslaving its population as you go, for profit.

    White supremacy is a hell of a drug.

  • @RememberTheApollo_
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    4011 hours ago

    There’s no way humans didn’t have human problems. This seems like an extension of the “good ol’ days” that views the past with rose tinted glasses. There absolutely would have been theft, murder, laziness, have-nots…whatever. People are people.

    Ninja edit: found this.

    https://scholarworks.alaska.edu/bitstream/handle/11122/9753/8729.02.conn.1991.punishment-precolonial-indigenous.ch.pdf?sequence=5&isAllowed=y

    Banishment, execution, murder, and theft among other things were absolutely a thing.

    • @WelcomeBear
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      178 hours ago

      I would go so far as to say this is some classic “noble savage” bullshit that only serves to dehumanize people.

      • @PugJesus
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        33 hours ago

        Yeah, in a big way. The European colonists committing genocide on the Native Americans does not have to have the Native Americans as inhuman angels to be a massive atrocity and grievous wrong, and trying to take the position that the Native American societies were is nothing more than a xenophilic form of cultural conservatism and chauvinism.

        Native American peoples were people, like any other, with human problems common to any society, unlike what this quote implies. They do not have a ‘magic’ history for outsiders to aspire to become ‘as good as’, they do not have the secrets to the elimination of the dastardly social ills of ‘civilization’. They’re people. They’re people who deserved better than the atrocious treatment that they got, but the ‘Noble Savage’ stereotype is no more humanizing or acceptable than the ‘Ecological Indian’ stereotype.

        • @[email protected]
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          21 hour ago

          I really appreciate this perspective (it’s something I hadn’t considered before) Standing up for equal rights doesn’t mean we need to glorify or unconditionally defend a group, no matter who they are. For example, opposing police racism doesn’t require me to justify the actions of every Black criminal or attribute every single crime solely to systemic factors. (Though, of course, they often play a significant role.)

          People are people. We all have the best and worst human traits somewhere inside of us, and we deserve human rights not despite of that, but because of that.

    • @WaxedWookie
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      -53 hours ago

      Good thing we’ve sacrificed that relative utopia to solve all those problems, eh?

      • @[email protected]
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        11 hour ago

        Not even remotely close to a utopia, especially when compared to modern day, but I’m sure that doesn’t matter to you.

  • bizarroland
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    2516 hours ago

    The number of people that want to quote native Americans and talk about how native Americans were screwed over by the white man and how terrible it is all the things that have been done to them divided by the people in that group who are willing to give up their property and their lives and move back to their ancestral homes is the same as any number divided by 0.

    And I’m saying this as a Lakota man.

    You don’t want to actually do anything about the problem with native americans.

    You just want to feel Superior to other people.

    But don’t get off of your high horse because I’m sure the fall will kill you.

    • LukácsFan1917
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      8 hours ago

      First off it is incredible people are using the downvote button as an “I disagree” button even here. Vile fucking people.

      Most efficient way to solve the issue of reparations to descendants of slaves and indians is poverty alleviation programs and land reform, they are disproportionately affected by these things. No more rich men owning forests, even if they do it through “conservation” nonprofits. No more wealth hoarding by white americans who inherited expensive housing from the era of redlining.

      Also minority groups need special political representation in a democracy otherwise it is just wolves voting to have the sheep for dinner.

      This is what they fight tooth and nail because they know who would win from evening the scales.

      White political power is based on hoarding property, money, gerrymandering and preventing campaign finance reform.

    • db0OPM
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      315 hours ago

      Are you sure about that? Because I’m pretty much for decolonisation

      • @[email protected]
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        11 hours ago

        You can start by getting a passport and looking into emigrating away from the United States.

        Edit: well, I guess people don’t like it when I’m flippant, and do like it when db0 condescends to a minority. Good show.

        • db0OPM
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          1313 hours ago

          I’m not American and that’s not what decolonisation means anyway

          • bizarroland
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            -412 hours ago

            Then what the fuck are you doing talking about American colonialism when it doesn’t fucking affect you?

            You are very fucking brave taking a stance that other people should do something you yourself are incapable of doing.

            • @pyre
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              96 hours ago

              imagine thinking American colonialism doesn’t affect anyone outside America. not to mention the person who said they advocated for decolonization didn’t say for America only, so it’s even more absurd. news flash: colonialism affected the entire world.

            • db0OPM
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              1312 hours ago

              I’m capable of caring for things other than my immediate self interest

              • bizarroland
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                -112 hours ago

                I don’t know if you’re being obtuse or if you’re just not getting it.

                My statement was that the people who use native American sayings to make themselves feel Superior to other people are fundamentally incapable of putting their money where their mouth is.

                You’re saying “I’m all for other people putting their money where my mouth is” as if that somehow accomplishes anything or refutes my point.

                You don’t seem to understand how stupid/pointless/arrogant/self-serving that is.

                • @gap_betweenus
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                  11 hour ago

                  arrogant/self-serving that is.

                  Some astronomical projection is going on here.

                • db0OPM
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                  1111 hours ago

                  I didn’t try to make myself superior. I just quoted a Native American. All the rest is your interpretation.

    • @rockSlayer
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      -313 hours ago

      If I had money to own land, I’d return it to the appropriate tribe. I’m actively decolonizing my life and support the return of all federal land to tribes along with reparations. Don’t put words in my mouth

        • @rockSlayer
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          27 hours ago

          I’m not doing it because I believe I’m a savior. I’m doing it because it’s the right thing to do. My point is that broad sweeping statements aren’t helpful and efforts to progress AIM and the landback movement are far more worthwhile.

    • @Valmond
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      -114 hours ago

      A number divided by zero equals infinity.

      Except if it’s zero then (so 0/0) it is either undefined or any number IIRC.

      • bizarroland
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        512 hours ago

        If you plot out any number divided by x, as x approaches 0 the answer goes towards Infinity, yes.

        When it reaches zero it ceases to be a number.

        Every number divided by 0 is “undefined”, and it is not undefined because we can’t describe it, it is undefined because it does not exist, because you cannot divide things by 0.

        • bizarroland
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          -412 hours ago

          You might say that if you don’t divide a number the number remains itself. But you are saying to divide a number by not dividing the number.

          That mathematical process does not work. One or the other must be true for the operation to happen.

          You might be saying that an infinite amount of nothing can go into any something, but that is also not true. For there to be nothing, there cannot be something.

          Zero is not a number in and of itself save for when it is literally the descriptor of the lack of the existence of a quantity.

          Trying to divide a number by zero is like trying to divide existence by non-existence. If existence exists, then there is no non-existence to divide it with.

          Therefore you cannot mathematically compute how much non-existence there is in existence.

      • @[email protected]
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        13 hours ago

        No. The standard field (that is, a ring where both operations are abelian groups) on the complex numbers doesn’t have a multiplicative inverse of 0; rings can’t have a multiplicative inverse for the additive identity. You can create an algebra with a ring as a sub-algebra with such, but it will no longer be a ring. My preferred method is to impose such an algebra on the one-point compactification of the Complex Numbers, where the single added point is denoted as “Ω”.

        I started this project when I was 12, and when I could show that the results were self-consistent this was what I had settled on:

        let z be a complex number that is not otherwise specified by the following equations. Note: the complex numbers contain the Real numbers, and so the following equations apply to the them as well.

        0Ω=Ω0=1

        z+Ω=Ω+z=zΩ=Ωz=Ω=ΩΩ

        Ω-Ω=0. Ω-Ω=Ω+(-Ω)=Ω+(-1Ω)=Ω+Ω=0

        The algebra described above is not associative. That is to say, (AB)C does not always equal A(BC).

      • bizarroland
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        1515 hours ago

        This is a logical fallacy called “ad hominem”, you’re attempting to tear me down as a human being rather than address the salient parts of my argument, and that’s because you don’t actually have a good answer to my argument so you’re just being a dick head.

        In this case, me being a native American indicates at least some small portion of the native American viewpoint on a topic that was brought up about native Americans.

        Had it not been relevant I would not have mentioned it.

  • @[email protected]
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    5819 hours ago

    Kinda weird that everyone had a horse. Considering there where no horses in the Americas before colonialism.

    • @OneOrTheOtherDontAskMe
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      1817 hours ago

      There were. They just happened to have died out. So, ancient native Americans, potentially horse-knowledgeable, and then they died out 10000 or so years ago.

      Which is an even weirder and more fun fact, an addendum fact.

      • azuth
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        34 hours ago

        There were no horses in America, there were evolutionary ancestors of horses that would not be able to fulfill any horse role.

        Just like zebras are not horses and wolves not dogs. They would obviously not be owned by Native Americans nor would the Native Americans have a remarkable body of knowledge about them (like they developed with actual horses).

        Horses were bred to be big and strong enough in Central Asia.

      • @[email protected]
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        110 hours ago

        We also learned about horses in America from the book of Mormon. They were also around approximately 2 - 3,000 years ago before all the good light skinned believers died out. Along with their horses…

        Weird less fun non fact addendum to the weird fun addendum fact.

      • @AEsheron
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        513 hours ago

        As the other comment pointed out, horses used to be found in the America’s, but had since gone extinct before Europeans reintroduced them.

  • @Blue_Morpho
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    7320 hours ago

    https://www.canada.ca/en/department-national-defence/services/military-history/history-heritage/popular-books/aboriginal-people-canadian-military/warfare-pre-columbian-north-america.html

    “As early as the year 1000, for example, Huron, Neutral, Petun and Iroquois villages were increasingly fortified by a timber palisade that could be nearly 10 metres in height, sometimes villages built a second or even third ring to protect them against attacks by enemy nations.”

    • @[email protected]
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      5819 hours ago

      I was going to say. First Nations did not have some amazing peaceful utopia. They killed each other for resources too.

  • @samus12345
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    3018 hours ago

    This feels very “noble savage.”

    • 🏴Akuji
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      515 hours ago

      You think so?
      I read it as a native american highlighting good points of an already functioning model of civilisation before white men brought them, figuratively and literally, all the misery and disease of their own

      • @samus12345
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        915 hours ago

        It was a knee-jerk reaction. I looked up the quote, and it was made by John Fire Lame Deer. The reason it sounds “noble savage” to me is because, as you say, it’s highlighting only the good points of his peoples’ history. They fought and killed one another just like all people have. On the other hand, it’s not his responsibility to describe every good and bad thing in said history and there’s no doubt they had a way of life that was working that the colonialists destroyed. I guess one very cold comfort is that the colonialists have continued their destructive way of life to the point that they will be destroyed as well.

  • @Feathercrown
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    2719 hours ago

    This perpetuates an inaccurate stereotype, and separately, it makes no sense. Downvoted.

  • @shalafi
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    3020 hours ago

    A man’s worth was measured by how good he was at killing the other tribe’s men. So there’s that.

    • @[email protected]
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      1817 hours ago

      Native Americans weren’t/aren’t some monolithic people. Back then they no doubt had a lot of different ideas on measuring a man’s worth.

    • @Madison420
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      120 hours ago

      That’s how it works in civilized society too…

      • @Feathercrown
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        1219 hours ago

        Really? You go to work and your boss says “hey, I’ve noticed you haven’t killed enough members of our corporate rival this year”?

            • @Madison420
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              16 hours ago

              The irony being that this jokes existence proves my point.

              Ed: don’t spam me with dumb shit and then ban me so I can’t respond when you look a fool.

              Argue in good faith or I dunno get fucked?

              • @Feathercrown
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                316 hours ago

                Literally how? It’s a joke, that’s the point. Society doesn’t actually function that way.

        • @Madison420
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          -117 hours ago

          I didn’t say business, I said civilization and yes you just described war which is what the comment was about anyway.

            • @Madison420
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              A civilized society is a civilization bud, that said if you think business = society I’d say you have bigger issues to tackle.

              A civilization (also spelled civilisation in British English) is any complex society characterized by the development of the state, social stratification, urbanization, and symbolic systems of communication beyond signed or spoken languages (namely, writing systems and graphic arts).

              Lol yes, you can’t be bothered to pick up a dictionary but it’s me who won’t ever learn anything. Totally.

              Good luck with that shit bud.

              • @Feathercrown
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                -216 hours ago

                bud

                Blocked. Feel free to never learn anything because you think you’re above everyone. This is what happens when a leftist adopts a conservative mindset. Be warned, lurkers!

        • @shalafi
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          26 hours ago

          Mod wants this comment unread. Click “source” to read it.

  • db0OPM
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    417 hours ago

    Way too many motherfuckers want other to Google for them and are a bit too eager to cry “fake” or “noble savage”.

    I’m not arguing that life was perfect and that native Americans had perfectly working anarchism, I’m just quoting one such person. Get over yourselves.

      • 🏴Akuji
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        311 hours ago

        You might be interested in this paper by Yvette Running Horse Collin, a doctor in indigenous studies: https://scholarworks.alaska.edu/handle/11122/7592

        Chosen excerpt:

        Although historians generally claim that the Indians of the Southeast first acquired horses in the 1690s from the Spanish, there is written Spanish record of the Southeastern Indians having been seen with horses as early as 1521 in what is now Georgia and the Carolinas. This is particularly interesting as it would have been impossible for the first horses that the Spanish brought to the mainland (what is now Mexico) in 1519 to have escaped unnoticed, “make it” to the Georgia and Carolinas area, and have multiplied in two years’ time.