6 ms·

I'm no bleeding heart SJW, but holy hell do the native people deserve some type of representation in our govt. The atrocities committed against them were uncons

I'm no bleeding heart SJW, but holy hell do the native people deserve some type of representation in our govt. The atrocities committed against them were unconscionable.

rjkennedy98 7y ago
Yeah, I'm all for it. If anyone can out-victimize our entitled political factions, its the Native Americans.
- danharaj 7y ago
  Which factions do you have in mind?
  - jlawson 7y ago
    You'd probably start with 'healthy young university-educated white women' and work your way out from there.
    - arcticbull 7y ago
      Not everything that is the way it is, is right or just. We can work to better ourselves, we can have multiple problems, and we can work on all of them in parallel.
      - deleted 7y ago
        [deleted]
chadlavi 7y ago
I don't think this comment needs any qualification
tathougies 7y ago
Actually, we need to do one of two things: (1) Treat the natives like any other citizen, so no special land reservations etc, or (2) Grant them completely separate sovereign nation status and end this ridiculous quasi-sovereign state of affairs we find ourselves in. No person deserves special rights or recognition because their grandfather (or grandmother) was of a certain race. That is antithetical to a free society. The easy solution here is to cede all land back to them, and establish proper international relations. Understandably, natives want their own land. That's great, but they can't get that if there's another government in their way. Understandably, states want full sovereignty over their own land, but they can't get that if there exist quasi-nations in the way. The obvious solution is to allow them actual self governance.
- bdamm 7y ago
  That viewpoint is needlessly absolutist. There's obviously no way that native nations could even afford to negotiate with the US Federal Government. That was true 184 years ago, and it's still true now. At the same time these people do deserve special treatment, being the subjects of systemic oppression that continues to this very day. If we really believe that native Americans are valuable as native Americans (and I think that they are) then we need to provide governance structure that can work for them. It's yet more evidence, as if more was needed, that the idea of a "melting pot" is fundamentally the wrong way to think about multiculturalism.
  - tathougies 7y ago
    > If we really believe that native Americans are valuable as native Americans (and I think that they are) then we need to provide governance structure that can work for them. An individual who is a native american is valuable because they are a human. Their race does not factor into their worth, thank goodness. We need to provide governance capable of working for the 300(400?) million people that call the United States home. None of those people should get outsized consideration, and especially none for their race. No nation can actually afford to negotiate with the US federal government as equals. Perhaps China and Russia are two exceptions. My proposed nations would nevertheless enjoy the same sovereignty that many other nations enjoy. If they would like US help, they can ask for protectorate status (like the Mariana islands), and the US should comply, because we should be friends with our neighboring countries, especially what would functionally be ex-colonies. The US needs to wash its hands of this kind of colonialism now, or it will fester and get much much worse.
mcdramamean 7y ago
And yet....MOST Americans are against reparations for Slavery....

I'm no bleeding heart SJW, but holy hell do the native people deserve some type of representation in our govt. The atrocities committed against them were unconscionable.

rjkennedy98 7y ago

Yeah, I'm all for it. If anyone can out-victimize our entitled political factions, its the Native Americans.

danharaj 7y ago
Which factions do you have in mind?
- jlawson 7y ago
  You'd probably start with 'healthy young university-educated white women' and work your way out from there.
  - arcticbull 7y ago
    Not everything that is the way it is, is right or just. We can work to better ourselves, we can have multiple problems, and we can work on all of them in parallel.
    - deleted 7y ago
      [deleted]

chadlavi 7y ago

I don't think this comment needs any qualification

tathougies 7y ago

Actually, we need to do one of two things: (1) Treat the natives like any other citizen, so no special land reservations etc, or (2) Grant them completely separate sovereign nation status and end this ridiculous quasi-sovereign state of affairs we find ourselves in. No person deserves special rights or recognition because their grandfather (or grandmother) was of a certain race. That is antithetical to a free society. The easy solution here is to cede all land back to them, and establish proper international relations. Understandably, natives want their own land. That's great, but they can't get that if there's another government in their way. Understandably, states want full sovereignty over their own land, but they can't get that if there exist quasi-nations in the way. The obvious solution is to allow them actual self governance.

bdamm 7y ago
That viewpoint is needlessly absolutist. There's obviously no way that native nations could even afford to negotiate with the US Federal Government. That was true 184 years ago, and it's still true now. At the same time these people do deserve special treatment, being the subjects of systemic oppression that continues to this very day. If we really believe that native Americans are valuable as native Americans (and I think that they are) then we need to provide governance structure that can work for them. It's yet more evidence, as if more was needed, that the idea of a "melting pot" is fundamentally the wrong way to think about multiculturalism.
- tathougies 7y ago
  > If we really believe that native Americans are valuable as native Americans (and I think that they are) then we need to provide governance structure that can work for them. An individual who is a native american is valuable because they are a human. Their race does not factor into their worth, thank goodness. We need to provide governance capable of working for the 300(400?) million people that call the United States home. None of those people should get outsized consideration, and especially none for their race. No nation can actually afford to negotiate with the US federal government as equals. Perhaps China and Russia are two exceptions. My proposed nations would nevertheless enjoy the same sovereignty that many other nations enjoy. If they would like US help, they can ask for protectorate status (like the Mariana islands), and the US should comply, because we should be friends with our neighboring countries, especially what would functionally be ex-colonies. The US needs to wash its hands of this kind of colonialism now, or it will fester and get much much worse.

mcdramamean 7y ago

And yet....MOST Americans are against reparations for Slavery....