#a native population colonized by the english

[autismguy55]

controversial, but: jack being irish is a very common headcanon and i honestly just can’t see it. in chapter 2, jack says “we’re english, and the english are best at everything.” if lotf takes place in the 40s-50s like many assume, the irish war of independence had only happened about 20 years prior and ireland was freshly liberated. i’m sure we all know the atrocities the english committed against the irish, and i just don’t think an irish kid would say “the english are best at everything,” especially so soon after ireland gained independence. i don’t mean to bash anyone by the way, this is only my opinion

[headspace-hotel]

okay. so.

i'm reading this book The Origins of the Modern World by Robert Marks

and even from the beginning i was getting this weird feeling from it. I'm always really wary of books that are broad overviews of history that claim to explore big theory-of-everything explanations for very broad phenomena, because history is unbelievably complex and there is so much disagreement between historians about everything.

But anyway I come to this section (in the first chapter)

This writer's opinion is that the Americas seemed so abundant when English settlers first arrived because the Native Americans had been mostly killed, and as a result, the wildlife increased greatly in numbers and forests overtook the farms, creating what appeared to be a natural paradise.

I'm immediately suspicious of this paragraph because arguing that the mass death of Native Americans was good for nature seems really contradictory to the research I've explored, on top of being just...disgusting.

But it doesn't sound right in regards to how ecosystems work either. If populations of animals had recently exploded after millennia of being limited by a major predator, it would cause the plants to be overwhelmed by the herbivore populations. The land would be stripped barren and eroded, and soon the animals would be weak and starving.

So I thought to myself, huh, a citation. I will look at the citation and see what it says.

It's a book called Changes in the Land by William Cronon, who seems to be one of the most important and respected guys in his field. I thought, I have to find this book. So I did, I found the book, and spent like an hour reading through it.

And what I discovered, is that Cronon's book directly contradicts what Marks says in the paragraph that cites Cronon?!

So basically this entire book, Changes in the Land, is a detailed exploration of how the arrival of English settlers, the decline of Native American populations, and the slow transition to European farming and land use practices caused increasing degradation to the ecosystem, beginning very early on in colonization.

Changes in the Land quotes a great array of documents from the colonial period where settlers observed the soil becoming depleted, animals disappearing, and the climate itself becoming more hostile even in the 1600's. It's actually a really fascinating book.

Cronon tells us that Native Americans created lush and abundant conditions for wild animals by causing a "mosaic" of habitats, with different areas representing various stages of ecological succession. With this great diversity in habitats, and lots of transitional "edges" between them, the prosperity of the animal life was maximized. This was intentional, and really a type of farming.

The book essentially explains how European settlers couldn't recognize Native American life ways as "agriculture," they thought the land was just supernaturally abundant all by itself because of its inherent nature, and yet almost immediately after settlers came, the abundance of the land degraded and vanished. The settlers cut down vast amounts of trees, which caused erosion, which destroyed the river and stream ecosystems and starved the soil of nutrients. Destruction of forest caused less rain, and more extreme temperatures. It became a vicious cycle where the settlers had to abuse the land more and more just to survive.

The spiral pulled in Native American communities too, forcing them to turn to more exploitative means of survival like the fur trade, (which depleted the beaver population, which caused the decline of beaver ponds, which harmed the whole forest). It describes how the changing ecosystems left Native Americans with no choice but to turn to European practices for survival, which in turn depleted the land even further.

Even I was surprised to learn just how early on environmental disaster set in, and the incredible extent of it. English farming practices literally reshaped the map of New Haven between the 17th and 18th centuries:

To return to Marks, though...Marks' statement in the excerpt, where he says the "abundance" of animals continued throughout the 19th century, is blatantly false according to the source HE CITES.

Deer were becoming scarce in New England by the 1690's. It was so bad by 1718 that deer hunting was forbidden for 3 years at that time, and by 1800, deer were almost extirpated from New England. The book explains on another page that wild turkeys became so rare that a farmer's manual from the time said their domesticated turkeys were from Turkey—settlers had no opportunity to see a wild turkey and no idea they existed.

Marks is supporting his statement using a source entirely dedicated to contradicting the exact thing he's saying! It's unbelievable.

How does this happen? Did Marks just have his own opinion and insert a famous book that seemed to be on the subject as support, without reading it?

I'm thinking now of all the times I've read a book and seen a citation on a statement and unconsciously thought "oh, well it seems there is evidence, so it must be reliable" when actually, something like this was happening. The array of ways misinformation can be propagated and never be found out is terrifying.

[matan4il]

Hello. Can I ask why everybody is calling Israel a "colonial" state? Because it annoys me very much when I see that for three main reasons:

1. My country was a former member of the British colonial rule. Do you know what happens when a country gets colonised? Every bit of the wealth generated went to the Crown, every political decision had to be approved by the Crown, laborers were exploited as much as possible, my people were directly under the orders from a British Monarch who actively hated them. The economy was in shambles after we got independence. As far as I know, since the state of Israel was created, it does not answer to any foreign country (the UN is not a country). How is this a European 'colony'?

2. Most(All?) people who immigrated to Israel were refugees. If Jewish people living in Europe did not have any ties to the land of Israel and were completely 100% European, why were most of them killed horrifically during the Holocaust for not being the right race? Why does nobody talk about the expulsion of Jews from the surrounding Arab countries? Where should these people go?

3. People also seem to forget that governments can be stupid. Just because they are the ruling party does not mean they're capable of making sound decisions for their people. Even a non-colonial government makes bad decisions. If you can separate Trump from the rest of the US, why can't you do the same for Israel?

I do not want to reduce the suffering of the Palestinian civilians. However using the wrong terminology is not the way to help these people. Please correct me if I'm wrong, but I'm really tired of this 'colonizer' takes.

(I hope I made my point clear as English is not my first language?)

Hi, lovely Nonnie!

Please, your English is great! I would have never guessed you're not a native speaker. :D

And you are absolutely right about every single point. Also, my heart goes out to you! I'm so sorry that your people have also suffered due to colonialism. I'm sending you BIG hugs!

Colonialism is what destroyed my people. After our homeland was repeatedly colonized, the Roman colonizers went even further than previous regimes, and expelled most of our ancestors from this land (a small Jewish minority wasn't, and that's why there has been a documented continuous Jewish presence in Israel for over 3,000 years). The expelled Jews became a spread out minority in other countries. With such small numbers in each country, it was easy to vilify us, we were vulnerable to every attack, with hardly anyone defending us, and no real option to defend ourselves. The Holocaust happening to us is directly linked to this way that we were forced to exist for almost 2,000 years in the diaspora.

Meanwhile, our land continued to be repeatedly colonized by different regimes. Each one did exactly as you said, exploited our country for their own benefit. The Ottomans, as just one example, cut off so many trees to build the Hejaz railway (which connected today's Syria to today's Saudi Arabia for the purpose of Muslim pilgrimage to the Saudi mosques), that the Land of Israel went through a desertification process. When Jews started returning in substantial numbers (because in small ones, there were always individual Jews who tried returning to our ancestral land), we did exactly what native populations try to do, restore the land, through continued research and development, to its pre-colonized state.

That's on top of the fact that, as you mentioned, we don't answer to or serve any European (or western) country. Colonies serve a metropole, but there is none for Israel. It's just our country. It's just the place where we live, even when it's incredibly difficult, because it's our ancestral homeland, which we've returned to, after our ancestors prayed for that for almost 2,000 years.

You're also spot on about the fact, that Jews were always discriminated against and persecuted in every country in the diaspora (with a few exceptions in South East Asia, the most important one being India). We were treated that way precisely because there was a historic recollection that we are foreigners. That we were south west Asians, living as a minority in countries that never truly wanted us, like Norway, or Spain, or Morocco. That's why it was so easy to kill us in the Holocaust. That's why it was so easy to expel us from Arab countries. Because we were never truly accepted by the locals.

But even after expulsions and surviving the Holocaust, there are so many places in the world Jews could have turned to! Places where there would be less resistance to us forming a country. Yet, the overwhelming majority of Jews rejected such suggestions. If they hadn't, then we would have truly been colonizers. But that's not what we yearned for. We always dreamed of returning to our homeland, so eventually it became evident to everyone that there's only one real option for a Jewish state, and that is in the Jewish ancestral land.

The reason why people claim that Jews are colonizers of their own land (some deny all historic ties Jews have to Israel, despite every piece of evidence to the contrary, while others acknowledge the Jewish history of Israel and the continued Jewish presence there, but claim that it's been so long ago, it doesn't count anymore. I've never seen any other native group being told that there's a time limit on their native rights. Have you?) is because it allows a narrative that once again vilifies Jews.

When the worst thing Jews could have been was of an evil religion, they described us as evil in religious terms (accusing us of having killed Jesus, and accusing us of using the blood of non-Jewish kids to bake a special kind of bread meant for religious purpose). When the worst thing Jews could have been was of an evil race, they described us as evil in racial terms (describing us as being sub-human, and accusing us of wanting to take over the world, to destroy it for the rest of the human race). Now that de-colonization is such a powerful (rightfully so) narrative, the worst thing Jews can be is evil colonizers... So guess what we're suddenly described as? Evil colonizers, who plot, steal, abuse and genocide another population (when in reality we consented to coexist with it 76 years ago).

I hope that sort of answers it? Basically, it's the newest form of the same age old antisemitism. Find the worst thing Jews can currently be, and depict them as that.

Thank you for seeing past the vilification! It means a lot. I'm sending you lots of love! xoxox

(for all of my updates and ask replies regarding Israel, click here)

[what-even-is-thiss]

What do you think would our world be like if Christianity hadn't been invented? I'm not trying to start an anti-christianity argument, I am just wondering... Because it transformed our world and our cultures so much. For example, no Christianity = no colonization as we know it, would we still believe in heathen / nature gods or would another religion colonize the planet? What would that look like? Would we even have racism? Since "race theory" was invented by white christian colonizers to "justify" slavery.

I do think that it’s possible colonization would’ve happened in one form or another. What it would’ve looked like, I’m not sure. But people often forget that cultures with religions other than Christianity have historically erased and conquered.

As a Christian I don’t excuse the sins of those who share my faith. Their forgiveness is up to their victims, themselves, and God. And I recognize that Christians as a whole have a tendency to ignore our bloody history. But I also don’t think the world would necessarily be that much better without it. Different? Absolutely. Better? How would we know that? It wasn’t the only or first major religion to spread like wildfire. It wasn’t the only or first religion to be used to justify atrocities. Look at historical examples in Communist countries. Atheism being used to erase people’s religions. Look at the history of Islam. One of Mohammad’s first big feats was launching a military campaign. Look at Ancient Rome. Even though they let people keep their gods they still plugged their own gods in where they didn’t fit, used them to justify horrible atrocities, and severely discriminated against Jewish people.

People in power just want an excuse to justify their actions. Religion or lack thereof makes for a convenient excuse whether we like it or not. Without Christianity the world would still have power-hungry people looking to force their will on others and they’d find an excuse. Possibly in some other religion, possibly in something else. But Christianity became a world religion so long ago that I cannot tell you what I think would’ve happened exactly. If modern racism wasn’t invented something would still be contributing to discrimination.

Perhaps the cult of Isis would’ve taken over the world. It had some similar ideas to Christianity in some ways including a focus on love and a good afterlife for its followers and it was spreading a lot even though some tried to ban it. Maybe it was on its way to being the state religion before my guy Jesus showed up. And temples and shrines of Isis being erected in town squares would be the first step in colonizing an area.

Perhaps the Chinese would be the first to colonize the new world. Or the Arabs. If Islam existed in some form or another. Or even with their old gods. Perhaps the traders of west Africa or the Norse. If you ask me, someone at least was bound to make contact across the water one way or another and unfortunately bring diseases like smallpox and measles with them. What their response would’ve been, I’m not entirely sure. Humans are often xenophobic, but they are also often caring.

It’s taken centuries for the native populations of the Americas to return to their pre-Columbus numbers. Whether or not that recovery would’ve happened faster under different leadership, I’m unsure because as the different colonizers demonstrated over time, there’s many different ways to “deal” with native populations. The English preferred to drive them out, the Spanish attempted to absorb them through intermarriage, the French slowly encroached on their territory and disrupted and took over their economies. And later in Africa and Asia the goal by all was generally to use the land and it’s people as a resource rather than a place to live.

Colonization was an extreme example and expansion of pre-existing techniques and attitudes. There can be arguments made that something like colonization was inevitable eventually with expanding technology such as better ships and guns. There can also be arguments made that it wasn’t. That guns don’t promise colonization. Perhaps something akin to old empires would’ve happened instead. Which isn’t always much better but is more contained.

Whether or not Russia as it exists at the size it is today is also up for debate. Some would argue it’s inevitable. Someone setting up shop in that exact spot has several flat weak points of land easy to invade from so any empire in that spot would find that the only way to protect themselves would be to own all of the land surrounding them. Then again, perhaps nothing is inevitable and that patch of land would be conquered and reconquered switching hands forever.

Alternate history is almost pure speculation. It’s fiction. A popular genre of fiction. You can probably find a book out there telling a story about this if you like.

[ghostiesandghoulss]

This is gonna be a bit of a long rambling personal post sooooo do what you will with that information

The way that Butchered Tongue makes me literally sob

Every time I learn more about Irish history and I learn why my name is spelled the way it is and why my family had to come here makes me feel sick

My last name is Egan, it should be Mac Aodhagáin but when the English colonized Ireland they changed the spelling of last names to kill their language and it happened for hundreds of years

This specific line of my family lived in Offaly for centuries until they were starved out of their own country by their queen who had stewardship over them.

But Irish is still spoken, I have ways of learning it, and people are taking back their names and the names of places. They failed at destroying that culture and I am so openly and annoyingly proud of my all my weird amount of Irish ancestry

But if it weren't for the colonization and imperialization of Ireland my name would still be Mac Aodhagáin. My language would be Irish and I'd be living on the same land that almost every other person in my line has lived on.

It makes me want to curl up and cry and it makes me so fucking angry and if this is how I feel about something that was so tame compared to what happened in America then I can only barely begin to imagine how Native Americans feel about how their land and their people and their cultures and their languages have been ravaged. And every other group of people who've had their cultural identity and their population obliterated for the sake of fucking profit

It's horrific what human beings do for the sake of control over other human beings. It makes me sick

I grieve the cultures that were stolen from me, both Irish and Scottish, and I’ve spent several years trying to reconnect with them, but I also know that it’ll never be the same as it could’ve been if they hadn’t been butchered by the English monarchy for hundreds of years. And that hurts very deeply

I encourage everyone to learn about their family history, and in turn it’ll help you learn about who you are.

And I also encourage everyone to listen to Unreal Unearth because it’s very good

[kemetic-dreams]

The term 'Sub-Saharan' Africa is a colonial language that was used to belittle African nations south of the Sahara and to separate the other countries from North Africa– Egypt, Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Libya, and Sudan due to them being Arab states.

Colored, Negro, Black, Nigger

Every one of these terms come from the mindset of Europeans not Africans. Indigenous African societies do not use the term black as a racial identity outside of influences brought by Western cultures.

Contemporary anthropologists and other scientists, while recognizing the reality of biological variation between different human populations, regard the concept of a unified, distinguishable "Black race" as socially constructed.

Black is a term developed in the Colonial Assembly of Maryland, after a rebellion called Bacon's Rebellion, fought from 1676 to 1677.

The alliance between European indentured servants and Africans (a mix of indentured, enslaved, and Free Negroes) disturbed the colonial upper class. They responded by hardening the racial caste of slavery in an attempt to divide the two races from subsequent united uprisings with the passage of the Virginia Slave Codes of 1705.

White took on the meaning "British, Christian and having rights. Black meaning not having rights.

These divided the two populations, by giving poor Europeans with no power, unprecedented power over all non-Europeans.

The laws were devised to establish a greater level of control over the rising African slave population of Virginia. It also socially segregated white colonists from black enslaved persons, making them disparate groups and hindering their ability to unite. Unity of the commoners was a perceived fear of the Virginia aristocracy, who wished to prevent repeated events such as Bacon's Rebellion, occurring 29 years prior.

By refusing to call you an African, it belittles you, no such thing as black names, black land or black languages. It is like calling a woman big lips or flat butt and refusing to call the woman by her actual name. "Hey colored girl, or black boy".

In social psychology, a stereotype is a generalized belief about a particular category of people.

African populations have the highest levels of genetic variation among all humans. 

Why You Probably Shouldn't Say 'Eskimo'

People in many parts of the Arctic consider Eskimo a derogatory term because it was widely used by racist, non-native colonizers. Many people also thought it meant eater of raw meat, which connoted barbarism and violence. Although the word's exact etymology is unclear, mid-century anthropologists suggested that the word came from the Latin word excommunicati, meaning the excommunicated ones, because the native people of the Canadian Arctic were not Christian.

According to the Constitution of India, we are “the people of India that is Bharat”

In English language discourse, the word ‘India’ is used and in Hindi expressions, the word ‘Bharat’ is used. The Anglicised call it ‘India’, and the indigenous call it ‘Bharat’. Our ruling class calls it ‘India’, the others, the janata, call it ‘Bharat’. It has become a trend and fashion to prefer the word ‘India’ over ‘Bharat’. We converse with the country in Hindi and other vernaculars while we govern it in English.

Japanese people usually refer to their country as Nihon or Nippon 

The name "Japan" in English is derived from the Portuguese word "Japão," which was used during the 16th century when Portuguese traders and explorers first arrived in Japan. The Portuguese term "Japão" likely evolved from the Malay word "Japang" or "Japang Pulau," which referred to the Japanese archipelago.

The Japanese people themselves refer to their country as "Nihon" (日本) or "Nippon" (日本), and these terms have been used in the Japanese language for centuries.

As European seen themselves as the elites of all races and god's chosen people. They took on the mindset of what I say makes the most sense.

Renaming essentially all populations they came in contact with, using their language as opposed to learning the language of the natives.

And whatever religion or spirituality people had Europeans demonized it and forced converted people to Christianity.

[daybringersol]

Guys. Guys we can make Prime make sense. I swear. Guys.

If this can help any Prime Defenders authors out there, here's how I'm working out the problems with Prime being a different planet than Earth while still being so similar (including having french & italian-american people). Feel free to use if it's of any help and/or twist it around for your purposes; if I can save someone a headache, I'll be happy, I sure got a bunch trying to make any sense out of this.

// tw slavery mention, colonisation mention

Earth is a late-stage capitalism hellscape, and tries to colonize Prime to get away from their crumbling planet. Prime stops them, since with their superpowers, they are infinitely more powerful than humans. Earth panics and sends them workers (taken from colonized communities) as peace offerings (2073). Prime is shocked at being sent what are essentially slaves, just frees them and cuts contact with Earth. So now in every major city, there are diasporas of different human communities, who have, over multiple generations, proliferated, kept & adapted their traditions, and started getting powers. Actual artifacts from Earth are extremely rare and often passed down generations.

If we really want to work in the idea that France is its own planet, as mentioned by Bizly in one of the Rolleds (though I'm pretty sure it is a joke), we could say that french people managed to escape Earth and its climate crisis by finding an habitable planet big enough for a (relatively) small country like France, while too small for the rest of Earth.

The reason that primeans are so similar to humans is because the conditions in which the population lived to grow to this degree were similar to Earth, and thus they've evolved similarly. The reason some things have different names on Prime than on Earth, while some words stay the same (for exemple, brands) is because humans brought their knowledge of technology here, tried to remake what they remembered from Earth to make themselves at home, and some of those became popular even with primeans.

Gender as an idea is most prevalent in human communities, as most primeval languages are gender-neutral. Some primeans have decided to play with gender themselves, though they don’t always seem to really understand its rules. Story is written in english, which is one of Mark's native languages (in my fic, his dad is italian-american & his mom is quebecoise) and thus gendered language is used through the eye of Mark (works for my fic, I don't know about yours), who was raised with gender being associated to a person's perceived sex. How Mark interprets people's gender might not have anything to do with their actual genitalia or other hidden sex characteristics.

Lexicon :

Of Prime: Primeval (Adjective.)

Original prime resident (According to humans.): Prim (Noun. Plural: prims. Familiar, somewhat derogatory.)

Original prime resident (According to themselves.): Primean (Noun & adjective. Plural: primeans. Neutral. Means resident of Prime, which would include current human residents, but not used as such. Can also be used as an adjective for things related to Prime.)

Human: Human (Noun & adjective. Plural: humans. Neutral, though sometimes used derogatorily.)

[buzzdixonwriter]

No More Old White Men For President

I think we’ve seen the last of old white men as political leaders for this century. 

Not saying there won’t be old political leaders.

Not saying there won’t be white political leaders.

Not saying there won’t be male political leaders.

Just saying we’re not going to see any combinations of all three (maybe two of three provided the politician is really good at their job).

Good.

As a distinct subset, old white men have never been the majority in this country.  They wielded their unearned status over women and minorities and younger people to leverage power and control for hundreds of years.

But that was then, this is now.  A hundred  years ago the country was almost ninety percent white; in less than twenty-five years current demographic projections will reduce that to just under fifty percent, making whites the largest minority in a country made up of minorities, but a minority nonetheless.

Good.

Right now, whites are no longer effectively a majority in the U.S.  Including people of mixed ancestry who identify as white, only seventy-one percent of the country is white.

When persons of mixed ancestry are taken out of the mix, that number today drops to less than sixty-two percent.

The cause of this precipitous drop in the white population? 

The whites’ own pernicious “one drop rule” that goes all the way back to the earliest colonial era.

As demonstrated by the fabled “lost colony” of Roanoke, white English colonists in the new world felt no particular attachment to their home culture across the Atlantic and when treated shabbily by their absentee masters back in merrie olde England were perfectly capable of defecting to one of the local Native American tribes.

Realizing they couldn’t force indentured servants to work like slaves, the landed gentry began importing actual slaves from Africa.  Unlike the indentured servants who colonized America, the enslaved Africans faced perpetual chattel slavery with their children born into slavery as well.

Small wonder many of them sought escape to the west where they could be adopted and accepted by local tribes.

Add to this various frontiersmen willing to intermarry with Native Americans -- not to mention the countless number of half-white children born into slavery after white slaveowners raped their mothers -- and whites in American -- particularly that entitled white gentry class -- sought to exclude as many people as possible from the body politic by claiming one drop of non-white blood meant that person by legal definition was non-white.

Don’t listen to the malignant MAGA nonsense; identity politics were created by white men for the protection and preservation of white men.

In the beginning, “white” applied only to those of English or Northern / Western European descent. 

Jewish people, no matter where they came from, weren’t accepted as “really” white.  The Irish and Italians were viewed as subhuman thugs.  A select few French, German, Scandinavian, and some upper crust Spaniards and Slavs were allowed in the white man’s world, but most Eastern Europeans, Middle Easterners, and all Asians were excluded.

…that is, until the number of white people in America began declining, then suddenly previous barriers held against the Irish, Italians, and Eastern Europeans dropped in order to reinforce white ranks.

But to this day Latin Americans, African-Americans, Middle Easterners, and Asians are kept outside the old white men’s circle of power.

Oh, a few token representatives are allowed in:  Fetching females who parrot what the old men want to hear, sociopathic opportunists of all kinds willing to make a buck by selling out others like them, etc.

But by excluding all those tainted by so much as “one drop” of Native American, African-American, Middle Eastern or Asian heritage, selfish old power hungry white men hoped to concentrate all the benefits of citizenship on themselves alone.

Well, that didn’t last long.  First African-Americans were freed, then women got to vote, then laws forbidding Asians from being American citizens were struck down, and finally laws against miscegenation were abolished.

The latter meant a lot of people now claimed membership in two subsets of American, the traditional pure white stain [sic!] and something else.

This results in bizarrely arcane rules and regulations, as well as increasingly paradoxical cultural standing.  A single “full blooded” Native American great-great-grandparent enables one to claim membership in that tribe, a tall kid without a noticeable epicanthic fold can be accepted as white even if one parent is fully Asian.

On the one hand, the true American ideal is liberty and justice for all with every person having a chance to participate in society to the best of their abilities. 

On the other, there’s definitely a cultural subset that wants to make sure old white men (and the various subsets of that subset, viz. white women, young white men, etc.) are more equal than others.

But their day is drawing to a close.

Already there are enough old white men who do believe in liberty and justice for all and who vote for young and female and minority candidates to ensure this country’s coalition of minorities get a say in how things are done.

Donald Trump and MAGA represent that last feverish attempt to hold onto power before old white men no longer find the country deferring to them simply because they’re old white men.

Oh, there will be old white men involved in politics in years to come.

They will start as young white men who know how to deal and make alliances with all the other subsets in the country.  A few will be successful enough at their careers to survive long enough to become old white men…

…but they’ll never wield the same dominant clout old white men used to have.

I trust we will not have another old white male president for the rest of this century.  That particular combo is a toxic turd that needs to learn to play will with others.  We will have old people male and female, of all sorts of different backgrounds serve as president, and we’ll probably have a few younger-to-middle aged white men as well, candidates who grew up in the new realpolitik and understand their age and skin tone and assigned genitalia give them no more special consideration than anyone else.

  © Buzz Dixon

[witch-of-the-creek]

Fascinating flora, special edition.

White Sage

I am still doing a regular post about sage in general, but as a conservationist and student of ethnobotany, I wanted to address the conservation status and history of salvia apiana in particular.

White sage is endemic to Southern California and parts of Northern Baja, and is a valuable medicinal and cultural resource to indigenous populations who were forcibly relocated to these areas. Today, the majority of white sage is cultivated by indigenous Americans on protected land.

Smudging refers to a variety ceremonies that involve the burning of sacred herbs. The British, Spanish, and French colonizers started to relocate indigenous people, to wash away their culture, take their children, and erase their languages. Smudging is an English word that was used to generalize and belittle a widely held set of spiritual practices, and has now been reclaimed by many indigenous communities.

The use of this plant by non native people, and the misappropriation of the word ‘smudging’ came much later, around the time the first legal protections were established to protect the remaining people and culture. “In the 1960s, the hippie movement co-opted the use of white sage and evolved into the New Age Movement.” (Ramirez, Rose & Small, Deborah)

The popularity of white sage has only gotten higher, and with a boom in demand, illegal harvesting of the plant has become all to common a practice. “With very few commercial growers of white sage (Salvia apiana), the vast majority of products are wild-harvested.” (Ramirez & Small)

“What I learned when I was in California and visited the Etiwanda Preserve was that it is the epicenter of the current commercial harvest.” (Leopold, Susan).

“What is important to stress is that this underground sage mafia is not ethical or sustainable wildcrafting as it is portrayed in hipster IG accounts and stores! The scale of white sage commercial trade on the Internet and demand in China is alarming” (Leopold).

“I was invited by the owner of a white sage company to meet at the Etiwanda Preserve in March of 2019; he wanted to show his sustainable harvesting methods. I quickly pulled out my phone to show him that it was against the law to do so, and that recent arrests had been made. He carried on as if that was not the case” (Leopold).

The current elemental status of white sage is G4, which means ‘apparently secure.’ This rating has not been reviewed since June nineteenth, 2002. The lack of updated information on the plants range and occurrences have kept it off multiple endangered species lists.

The article referencing a book by Ramirez and Small, published in spring of 2020, evaluate that 50% of white sage has been eradicated due to urbanization.

I am not native, I can’t speak for any native people. All of what I have stated here is a summary or quotation of the words of indigenous activists, ethnobotanists, and conservationists. My hope here is to give a factual overview of the situation and provide direction to people more knowledgeable than myself.

Sources below

-News from Native California, Spring 2020 By Rose Ramirez and Deborah Small

[spot-the-antisemitism]

I am baffled by utterly insane definitions of Zionism people plaster around. Then I stumbled onto wikipedia's definition. And yeah, no wonder there are so many crazy definitions floating around here.

Zionism is an ethnic or ethno-cultural nationalist movement that emerged in Europe in the late 19th century and aimed for the establishment of a Jewish state through the colonization of a land outside of Europe, with an eventual focus on the establishment of a Jewish homeland in Palestine, a region corresponding to the Land of Israel in Jewish tradition, and an area of central importance in Jewish history and religion. Following the establishment of the State of Israel in 1948, Zionism became the ideology supporting the protection and development of Israel as a Jewish state, in particular, a state with a Jewish demographic majority, and has been described as Israel's national or state ideology.

Where to even begin. Way it describes Ancient Israel, almost as if it was some kind of myth. Like the Jews looked at the map of Middle East and said: it was around here somewhere. It's not like there are tons of archeological or literary evidence that it was a Jewish homeland.

Which of course is done to imply that Jews are not indigenous to Israel. And usual canard of calling Zionism colonialist movement.

And cherry on top is that they imply goal of Zionism is creation of Jewish ethnostate.

Differences within the mainstream Zionist groups lie primarily in their presentation and ethos, having adopted similar strategies to achieve their political goals, in particular in the use of violence and compulsory transfer to deal with the presence of the local Palestinian, non-Jewish population.

Which is followed by implication that every branch of Zionism is violent and wants to ethnically cleanse all non Jews. Yup, according to wikipedia, every Zionist is Kahanist.

Proponents of Zionism do not necessarily reject the characterization of Zionism as settler-colonial or exceptionalist.

Akchually Juus know and admit they are racists and colonialists

It was particularly important in early nation building in Israel, because Jews in Israel are ethnically diverse and the origins of Ashkenazi Jews the original founders of Zionism, are "highly debated and enigmatic".

Is this Khazar dog whistle?

And thing is, I've checked other major language wikis (and my native language one) and I've found that for the most part they give straightforward definition to Zionism. They define it as a movement to establish Jewish homeland in their ancestral land. English wikipedia feels like someone copy pasted talking points of Arab wikipedia and rephrased them to be more subtle.

Dear anon,

Tankie wiki editors like baltimore have been trying to cut out ALL references of indigenity to be more secular and anti-thiest

and yes this IS Khazar theory at work here

Idk if this from Arab wikipedia or if Islamisism and antisemitic talking points from English media made their way into English wiki but it's definitely the same ideas other way

please write again

Cecil

[beardedmrbean]

Hey I been thinking like how the Native Americans had slaves (okay not all), how black peoples are shocked to have slave owner ancestry, or how in Canada, they were surprised that a tribe who got their land back decided to make condos on it

Wait did they check the economic backgrounds? I sure hope the leftists don’t think that the natives never had any form of economy/ holy shit

Dear god ac3 and prey 2020 represented native Americans better leftists mindset?

But do leftists think that history is like a Disney cartoon?

Like we must abolish the electoral college because it was created during the time of slavery

Because leftists never show how out of they are

You probably seen it, but people say we should treat shit like DoorDash like vaccines….

Would like a slice of Antonine cake?(yes I know that propaganda) no wait the nobles would treat me better that these Americans aristocrats

Also this https://x.com/fuckkoroks/status/1773690311341986038?s=46

So as you know Shogun take place in the Tokugawa era. And funny enough, I suspect the reason why Yasuke will help unify Japan so the Japanese won’t be at the mercy of the growing European colonial empires in ac red

I’m just wondering how many college educated people have the mentality that they learned the bad stuff white people did in middle school?

But dear white people I don’t hate you…probably because of my dysfunctional white stepfamily and the trainwreck of my stepmom

But this tweet https://x.com/thestrxggler/status/1773497095774974416?s=46

Okay I grew up in the 00’s and 10’s and fortunate to have a black family that value academics

But when you say liking sci-fi, fantasy, speaking proper English, like animation, or preferring to have good grades is talking/acting “white”

You doomed yourselves trying to put me into tribalism bullshit.

Hey I been thinking like how the Native Americans had slaves (okay not all), how black peoples are shocked to have slave owner ancestry, or how in Canada, they were surprised that a tribe who got their land back decided to make condos on it

One of if not the first person to gain lifetime bondage of another human being in the land that would become the United States was a black man.

Not many cultures in the world that did not practice some form of slavery. You win a war you have your choice of, POW's which need to be fed and housed so now they need to earn their keep, crippling the opposing army like they did with the Bulgarian army when they blinded 99 out of every 100 men and the 1 only got to keep one eye, hostages which whatever counts as nobles or their family members, there's the mass slaughter method which was Vlad Tepes fav he was a hostage so he got 2 of those.

Because you ain't just going to let your defeated foes walk home, unless it's the US civil war, and they even got to keep their guns because 2A is for everyone USA USA USA.

But do leftists think that history is like a Disney cartoon?

Lord no, you should see what they say about Pocahontas, lol.

Like we must abolish the electoral college because it was created during the time of slavery

3/5 compromise, ya south wanted to inflate it's population with people it didn't consider human so, to put it crassly and bluntly, they fought for the right for their farm equipment to be counted as people, but just for the numbers to increase their representation.

Illegals being counted on the census accomplish the same end.

This'll go right up there next to Russia wasn't an empire because it shared land borders with the territories it conquered.

Maybe Jacobin would also like to discuss the Ainu and see how that works out in terms of colonization. Granted both groups have been there for so long there's not really much to say about colonization likely more just human migration to the same place.

So as you know Shogun take place in the Tokugawa era. And funny enough, I suspect the reason why Yasuke will help unify Japan so the Japanese won’t be at the mercy of the growing European colonial empires in ac red

Haven't seen the new one, love the one from the 80's one of the best ways to start to learn Japanese imho, since a fair chunk of the dialogue is in Japanese. 10 of 10 highly recommend watching the whole 8+ hours of it, fairly historically accurate even down to the pederasty being a thing.

I’m just wondering how many college educated people have the mentality that they learned the bad stuff white people did in middle school? But dear white people I don’t hate you…probably because of my dysfunctional white stepfamily and the trainwreck of my stepmom

Likely a fair number, as for the dear white people you have self awareness and can differentiate between a individual and a group

Oh that's gonna hurt some feelings, lol.

Be interesting to get the response to, stop acting white, to be a accusation of racism, especially when it's things like doing well in school and speaking in standard english.

Okay I grew up in the 00’s and 10’s and fortunate to have a black family that value academics But when you say liking sci-fi, fantasy, speaking proper English, like animation, or preferring to have good grades is talking/acting “white” You doomed yourselves trying to put me into tribalism bullshit.

See comment above this section for my response,

and good timing finished just as I need to leave for Good Friday service.

[drelldreams]

Mars in Mass Effect: A series of headcanons

Mars is not one of the largest human colonies due to not having the best conditions to be terraformed. Still, despite those circumstances it maintains a relatively large population of 90,000.

Extra efforts were made to create good conditions on Mars due to humanity’s long dream to colonize Mars. The planet also being the first to be discovered to have signs of alien life played a large role in the amount of resources spend to make Mars inhabitable.

Unlike on other planets there is no natural animal life but through artificial means scientists were able to introduce microbial life to Mars.

Due to the large amounts of Prothean ruins to be found on Mars, a lot of people who live on Mars are researchers or scientists. Archaeologists, cryptologists and xenolinguists are incredibly common. Other common professions of Martians include civil and environmental engineers, geologists, biologists and technicians.

Children of scientists often grow up on research stations on Mars. Those are designed to be very family friendly.

Mars is known for its Prothean museum, which features many artifacts found by the asari archaeologist Liara T’Soni. A lot of historical information of humanity’s first contact with signs of alien life is to be found there. Museum curators will often go into depth about the effects of this revelation on human culture.

Crime rate is exceptionally low on Mars. Due to being located in the relatively safe Sol System, it is not commonly attacked by pirates and raiders like other planets with lots of Prothean ruins.

Mars’ capital city is called New Capetown, due to one of the most influental countries to work on the project of terraforming and colonizing Mars being South Africa.

There is no official language in New Capetown. Large parts of the population speak English as their first language, but Afrikaans, Zhulu and Xhosa are also common mother tongues.

Healthcare is universally free on Mars and one of the finest in the galaxy. Medical technology is quite advanced.

Despite not having as impressive scenery as more life friendly planets such as Eden Prime, Mars has become a planet humanity takes pride in. The whole idea behind the colonization of Mars was to create the utopia that humanity has dreamed of finding on Mars.

Students on Mars are multilingual. Due to large part of the population being native speakers of Afrikaans, this language is offered in every school on Mars. The idea behind this is cultural/linguistic preservation. Other languages that are found in all Martian schools are the most common human languages English, Chinese and Spanish.

Classes are taught in English, but it is possibly to take bilingual classes. For example, students who have learned Spanish for a few years to be fluent enough can take history courses in Spanish.

Mars is a good place for teachers of foreign language to earn a respectable salary due to it’s education systems focus on language preservation.

One of its most beautiful towns is Lillyfield, located in New Capetown and known for its unique aesthetic. Lillyfield is full of street artists and known for its colorful graffitis thematizing peace, the idea of an utopia, philosophy, and retrofuturism.

Lillyfield features a large shopping mall of retrofuturistic style, minicing the visions of Mars colonialization humanity had back in the 20th century.

Aside from offering many shopping opportunities, Lillyfield also offers a diversity of human foods from different cultures, a 20th century themed sci fi skating hall, polaroid photobooths and other means of entertainment and cultural enrichment.

[julietasgf]

do you think district 2 had any other languages besides English or whatever Panem's national language was? in some fics, writers headcanon that sejanus and his family can speak spanish or some variant of it since a good chunk of d2 seems to be located in what's the southwestern usa. it would be cool to have sejanus and other district citizens be multilingual, but idk if the capitol would allow multiple languages in panem for fear of rebels being able to plot a rebellion in a language most capitol citizens can't understand. the capitol seems like the type of gov to suppress other languages and have only one national language being taught and spoken.

I do think, and I LOVE when authors include D2 speaking spanish, not only because it's cool but because it also adds a lot to the story of what the hell happened to D2 between the 10th games and the 74th games for their mindset change so much.

from what we see in tbosas, the districts have a very much different culture fom the capitol, and different culture from each other because of how isolated they seemed from each other. we can see it in the big details (the xenophobia the plinths faced, for example, and the fact that coriolanus didn't know why sejanus was sprinkling bread over dead bodies) and we can see in small details (in thg, peeta talks about the different breads; and if you take the tbosas movie in account, I think the costume designs are GREAT to see the differences between each district and see a bit of their cultures in their clothing). we know a lot of panem comes from what survived from old usa (even some songs survived, like keep it on the sunny side), and I can totally see that before the rebellion, the districts were so isolated that the capitol didn't care enough about their culture to even know that they spoke another language (I can perfectly see D2, D5 and D10 speaking spanish, specifically).

but now comes the rebellion. and of course that the rebels would use that to their advantage.

after the rebellion, I think the gov started to suppress the districts' cultures to make them weaker and get them easier to control, specially the districts closer to the capitol geographically (D1, D2, D5, D9; I think they did it to the others too, but it took more time bc they weren't priority). language is culture. one of the first things colonizers do when oppressing native populations is to force them to adapt to their language and speak it. getting rid of the multilingual aspect of these districts not only serves as safety (rebels can no longer trick them like that), but serves as a way to oppress and control, to get these districts stripped from their indentity. I think it was a long work that took a long time, and a lot of propaganda, and for sure a lot of snow's work, but it seemed effective. I can see some older people from these districts still knowing to speak spanish, or tagalog, or french, but they're almost dead languages at that point with how violently the capitol suppressed the idea of them being multilingual.

tldr (because I speak too much, sorry): in tbosas, for sure people from the districts are still multilingual, and I can see alliances forming in the early games because of this (allies from D2 discussing their strategies in spanish, until the gamemakers make it explicitly forbidden, for example). in thg, I think coriolanus unfortunately was able to get rid of this almost completely :(

[matan4il]

Something amusing I have noticed re; Melissa Barrera is her defenders are rapidly screaming that it's impossible to find her statements antisemitic. Yet, if one of them repeats what she said, they get dogged on by their fellows because "we're not antisemitic, we're anti-Zionist, fuck off!". Make it make sense. Also, fuck James Janisse and Chelsea Rebecca (two horror influencers who jumped onto the bandwagon when Barrera got fired), they've been supporting "river to the sea" and allowing pro Hamas and vicious antisemitic content in their subreddit/twitter mentions. Been watching them for years but I hope their channel continues on its downward spiral it's been in recent times.

Hi Nonnie, thank you for this ask!

I'm gonna be honest, IDEK who she is (this goes double for those horror "influencers"). Again, people I don't think I'd be talking about if it weren't for their anti-Israel comments, proving the Hollywood saying that all publicity is good publicity, I guess? On top of many being mindless sheep, who get all of their "facts" from social media, without realizing just how highly biased against Israel it is.

And I'm gonna be honest, sometimes I'm extra sad that the people who should have been the most natural allies of Jews, and the biggest supporters of Zionists, are not. It's the work of antisemitic narratives, without a doubt, but it's still sad that they don't get that in their zeal to prove their anti-colonialism, they're actually attacking the natives of the Land of Israel. Or that by claiming that the Jews' native rights in Israel have an expiration date, they're giving colonialism a win. If that claim is true, than all colonizers need to do is run out the clock, you know? It makes the act of expelling natives and ethnically cleansing their lands very worthwhile if the colonizers can just keep the natives off their lands long enough. But of course people don't own up to this implication of their claim, because it's obvious in their minds, it only applies to Jews, not other native populations.

Anyway, I'm glad it's not all native populations that surscribe to this antisemitic view. Here's one Native population, New Zealand's Maori, who saw through the bullshit, and stood by Israel. I've seen more than one group performing the Haka in support of Israel and of the Jewish people. Love this and love them! <3

In any case, what you're describing with Barrera's defenders is hilarious. I guess, sometimes the camel accidentally calls out its own hump, ha?

But yeah, she directly employed Holocaust distortion. I'm also going to point out, once again, that while it is not antisemitic to criticize the Jewish state, it does matter that you criticize it for real things, and not for made up accusations. If you're gonna do the latter, and if you don't take the time to earn the facts when you're called out on it, then you're showing unacceptable disregard for Jews and their well being, especially with the current rise in antisemitism.

Nonnie, I salute you for sticking to the right principles, over content you enjoyed! That seems to be pretty rare these days. Thank you for not accepting the antisemitic, anti-Jewish slogan that those influencers are pushing (and the antisemitic, and pro-Hamas comments they're allowing). Just in case people didn't know, that chant is an English translation of the original Arabic, which states, "From water to water, Palestine [will be] Arab" (and this Arabic slogan has been in use since the 1960's).

Thank you again! Sending you lots of hugs and love! xoxox

(for all of my updates and ask replies regarding Israel, click here)

[imgabysama]

Brazilian ghouls ✨ Part 2

Mestiços, kagunes and Brazilian categorization

Let's start with the mestiços, there is no way to separate them as just half ghouls or half humans, they are mestiços (a Brazilian word which means one born of different nationalities, ethnicities)

Recapping part 1, the miscegenation between ghouls and humans begins before colonization, indigenous women discovered ways to make edible food using human body bases, and were able to have healthy pregnancies

The first born from these unions were strong and respected warriors

During colonization, ghouls, humans, natives or Africans were all enslaved together and relationships between these became increasingly common

With the growth of immigration of different peoples, miscegenation increased even more

Half-breeds are a large gray area, there is no way to define them between humans and ghouls, Thanks to indigenous knowledge, the mixture of ghoul and human genetics, many mestizos have no dietary restrictions, but there are still those who do, there are those who cannot eat cooked food, who do not handle too much seasoning, or who simply cannot consume human food.

And the kagune is also another matter, many have parents with different kagunes, or parents who already had hybrid kagunes, many mixed-race ghouls are born with several kakuhous to support so many different RC cells, but sometimes not everyone develops, or not equally

• In fact, Brazilian kakuhous cannot even be divided into subgroups like in Japan, there are many different types that have formed over the years

• The kagunes in Brazil are not as big and strong as the Japanese ones, many ghouls and mestiços do not use them as a predatory weapon, opting for guns or knives

• For a long time, there was no categorization for species in Brazilian society, but the IBGE (Brazilian Statistics Institute), in 2010, presented the official category

A quick explanation for better understanding, Brazilian miscegenation is so strong and deep-rooted that in fact, Brazilians do not have an exclusively Brazilian ethnicity or trait. Like in Japan, or in European countries, so I followed the logic implemented by the government for ethnic categorization Which is divided into white, pardos (I didn't find an equivalent in English, but it's the gray area for Brazilians, The word itself refers to the color of someone who is tanned, but anyone who does not identify with any of the other ethnicities is classified as pardo), black, indigenous and yellow people

Humans

It does not mean that the person is 100% human, since in Brazil it is very difficult to measure this, but they are people who meet the following criteria:

- They do not have direct ghoul ancestry in two generations

- They do not have kakugan, kakuhou and kagune

- No dietary restrictions on 80% of foods

- Has less than 1000 RC cells

- No need for human meat in diet

Ghouls

- Has no direct human descendants for two generations

- Has kakugan in both eyes, kagunes and kakuhou

- Has dietary restrictions on more than 95% of human foods

- It has more than 1000 RC cells

- Have foods made from human meat in diet

Mestiços

- Any individual who has hybrid descendants for at least two generations

This is an optional criterion, as some mestizos arise, inheriting genes from older generations

- Individuals who do not fully fit into either option

Culturally, there are several subdivisions, the most famous are:

Coffee with milk

Individuals that have characteristics of both species, but human characteristics stand out

Coffee with blood

Individuals that have characteristics of both species, but ghoul characteristics stand out

The statistical census carried out in 2010 was the first time that Brazilians were aware of the mixing of species, where 48% of the population was human, 43.6% mixed race and 7.4% ghoul

Previously, there was a document proving the species, but in 2021, when the identity card was updated, which already included other documents, the species also became available.

[religion-is-a-mental-illness]

By: Aleks Phillips

Published: Jul 7, 2023

An Indigenous tribe descended from the Native American nation that originally controlled the land in Vermont the Ben & Jerry's headquarters is located on would be interested in taking it back, its chief has said, after the company publicly called for "stolen" lands to be returned.

Don Stevens, chief of the Nulhegan Band of The Coosuk Abenaki Nation—one of four descended from the Abenaki that are recognized in Vermont—told Newsweek it was "always interested in reclaiming the stewardship of our lands," but that the company had yet to approach them.

It comes after the ice cream company was questioned as to when it would give up its Burlington, Vermont, headquarters—which sits on a vast swathe of U.S. territory that was under the auspices of the Abenaki people before colonization.

"The U.S. was founded on stolen Indigenous land," the company said in a statement ahead of Independence Day. "This year, let's commit to returning it."

It added that the "land back" movement was about "ensuring that Indigenous people can again govern the land their communities called home for thousands of years," but focussed much of its statement on the taking of land from the Lakota in South Dakota.

The acknowledgment of historic tribal lands is a contentious subject, pitting the claims of Native Americans, whose ancestors were subject to violent persecution and displacement, against the status quo of a modern nation with entrenched borders.

While some say colonized ancestral lands should be at least partially returned, others say that it is impossible to decide which of the various groups to have claimed land throughout history it should be returned to.

Maps show that the Abenaki—a confederacy of several tribes who united against encroachment from a rival tribal confederacy—controlled an area that stretched from the northern border of Massachusetts in the south to New Brunswick, Canada, in the north, and from the St. Lawrence River in the west to the East Coast.

This would put Ben & Jerry's headquarters, located in a business park in southern Burlington, within the western portion of this historic territory—though it does not sit in any modern-day tribal lands.

"We are always interested in reclaiming the stewardship of our lands throughout our traditional territories and providing opportunities to uplift our communities," Stevens said when asked about whether the Nulhegan Abenaki Tribe would want to see the property handed over to Indigenous people.

While the chief said that the tribe "has not been approached in regards to any land back opportunities from Ben & Jerry's," he added: "If and when we are approached, many conversations and discussions will need to take place to determine the best path forward for all involved."

Ben & Jerry's has not yet publicly responded to calls to return the land its headquarters is situated on.

Newsweek contacted the company via email for comment on Friday.

A spokesperson for the Odanak Council of Abenakis, who now reside near Montreal, Canada, told Newsweek that the council would comment on the matter following their weekly meeting on Monday.

Newsweek also approached the Abenaki Nation of Missiquoi and the Elnu Abenaki Tribe—both recognized in Vermont—via email for comment on Thursday. Contact details for the other state-recognized tribe, the Koasek Traditional Band of the Koas Abenaki Nation, could not immediately be found.

According to historical records, the Abenaki initially traded with European settlers in the 16th century, but their population was afflicted by the spread of Old World diseases. The confederacy allied with French colonizers against English settlers in growing territorial disputes, before many fled to what is now Canada following a series of defeats at the hands of the English.

During the early part of the 20th century, a state-spon.sored eugenics program in Vermont saw some Abenaki sterilized. The Nulhegan Abenaki Tribe has described these acts as "ethnocide."

==

Checkmate.

They weren't stolen, they were conquered, as tribes have attacked, killed or driven out, and conquered each other's lands for thousands of years. Not just in North America, but worldwide. "Handing back" just gives it to the next most recent conquerors. Will they be racked by the inherited guilt of their own ancestors conquering the occupants who preceded them? Should they be? If not, why not?

Social media virtue signalling is cheap and easy. But walking the walk and talking the talk are two different things. High-priced CEOs, college presidents and other elites who espouse "antiracist" shibboleths such as "equity" rarely - although not never - act against their own self-interests by saying something like, "I'm a straight, white upper-middle class woman and I'm going to resign so that a disabled, fat, black, trans lesbian can take this position."

P.S. Community Notes are amazing.