Indigenous tribes are continuing to disappear from the landscape. The old ways are dying off. The elders, all preparing to take their final breaths, taking the languages, cultures, and knowledge of the last remaining various groups to be gone in a generation. Virtually no more children are learning the native language of their fathers—essentially it is dead already. Every two weeks another heritage goes extinct as the last elder dies. What’s left is a monochromatic disaster of the big five religions. Variety is dead. Long live Christianity—Disgusting.
Assimilation is nearly complete. 150,000 years of tradition, language, knowledge, beliefs, shaman—gone in 300 years of western industrialists. People that lived amazing lives, literally in tune with Mother Earth in a way few can comprehend. Please, please take a moment to watch Nat Geo’s ethnographer Wade Davis show you what we have done in the name of monotheism and industrialism. What we have destroyed. How can anyone want this?—EnterReligion
There is a text version included with the TED if you prefer, Nan.
TheCommonAtheist 
It’s been fun watching you and your occasional raised eyebrow while I do my traditional stuff. Knowing the difference between old, useful knowledge and doing things automatically without understanding is key.
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There are others that follow here to that I respect immensely as well. I know some have deeper intuitions in various ways that are difficult to describe at times. These ancient ways are special. I don’t understand it all, but but after working on this idea the past couple of days, we, us, our uniqueness and variety as a whole is beautiful.
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Agreed. Variety is beautiful for sure. It is when people impose their beliefs that they become the cancer which destroys all the knowledge, variety and tradition. I can’t imagine the meadows of the world with just one type of flower. Everyone has gifts to share.
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Cuales son algunas costumbres diferentes de tu cultura que haces?
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Yo ni me doy cuenta porque es natural para mí y hago las cosas sin pensar las. Jim podría decir mejor. El me llama la atención.
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Everything is connected. Like most Panamanians, and I know a bunch, everything is intertwined into superstition. It’s quite interesting. It’s also steeped in Catholicism of course, which makes it even stranger. My wife is not catholic though, but the influences were strong. All our neighbors there are Catholic, and also practice some form of Santeria, Wicca related things, although Wicca itself is much newer, voodoo or a combination. There’s a spell and a tincture for nearly everything. My wife likes to protect the property with herbs and minerals. Our house is protected from the evil eye as well 🙂
She rolls here eyes at the neighbors when they pay the witch doctor, because like any form of organized religion it gets tainted. Some have forgotten the old ways, so they rely on a pro.
One thing that interests me very much, all the people in our area of the jungle are apothecarial experts. Literally every plant has a use, from HTN to diabetes, infections and so on. They rely heavily on this knowledge and it’s quite impressive.
At one with the earth and their surroundings. It’s pretty cool.
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Great post
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Tragic. But thank you. I asked Loy the other day, what is it you want? He didn’t answer, but this is what we’ve got. This is the end game, whether intensional it not—welcome to the monotheistic landscape.
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As Agent Smith once remarked: ”It is the sound of inevitability.”
As we do grow as a species – though at times it might not seem like it – I reckon we will come out the other end in one piece; better, fitter, more understanding and compassionate.
Yeah, we might well destroy a lot in our path, but as my mum would say: ”It’ll all come right in the wash.”
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Is life better than it was? Maybe, in some ways. There are some secrets about the world we are erasing. Many have lost it, the Mayan, the Egyptian, now life is different and we’ll never know what they knew. Is that any better? Probably not but that’s what we got
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Better /worse? Bit of each I should think.
But for all our faults and weirdness as a species -Mel and Branyan included – if you put any stock in such things as Maslow’s Hierarchy triangle, (and yes, I know it’s supposed to be outmoded these days) and evolution , of course, we will eventually sort ourselves out.
They don’t make shows like Star Trek for nothing, you know?
🙂
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I get you, but mostly we impose our “better” life on someone that is happier than we. The Hopi, here in the states went from thousands of years self sufficient desert life to living in cinderblock houses with running water because some do-gooders couldn’t see the beauty in something they didn’t understand.
Now the Hopi are in ruins, obese, cable tv, and welfare. Much better, right? At least they have the gospel.
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Agreed. But this has happens whenever a more advanced technological – but not necessarily socially advanced – race gets involved with one less sophisticated.
Every indigenous race/tribe has suffered in a similar manner.
The Romans exterminated the Druids for example.
But we will eventually rise above all such nonsense.
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Some believe western religion and industrialisation are behind the great changes in the world that we often call progress , but behind all that is the human desire to want more and our ability to quickly get used to having more. I should not think the new three hundred million middle class Chinese citizens are to worried about who’s running China or how they are doing it , they are just pleased to be cresting the wave.
I remember my dad on cold frosty mornings chopping wood on a concrete slab in the back yard. Dad was laying two coal fires ; rolled up newspaper , chopped sticks and then carefully placed coals. He had an old piece of hardboard that he used to draw the fire , listening carefully as it began to roar for oxygen. The fog was thick in London then , nothing moved , you could hear the coughs before you saw the person.
Times have changed beyond all recognition.
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Modernity is an inexorable and irresistible force — and you’re blaming that on Christianity? There’s a switch for you. It will come as news to the Chinese, among others.
There’s nothing more racist than romanticizing other people’s misery while enjoying all the comforts and benefits of modernity yourself.
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There are ways to modernize and get people a better quality of life AND help them preserve their own traditions… Christianity seeks to impose a new worldview, not just aid the needy. It’s charity but with the expectation of new converts not simply good will and benevolence.
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I am looking for the blaming Christianity part. You seem to be accepting of the homogenization as inevitable, maybe that is the problem. ‘It’s ok cuz we likes it.’ Then you point your finger and call hypocrisy and racism because someone made a point. “Romanticizing misery?” In the TED talk or the blog post? Or do you feel guilty because you are part of the problem and need to place your guilt upon the one who diagnosed the problem in the first place? There are things more racist!
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@Loy. I blame the system of Christianity and their majority. They want to be the body of Christ on one hand, then dissect themselves from the body when it suits them. The industrial revolution is spearheaded by the body of Christ. It’s politicians, it’s businessmen, it’s military, everything is run by people that are supposedly enlightened with Christ, but rule their lives and everyone else’s with greed. 90% of our politicians are Christians!! Sounds too close to the faith to excuse them from it in any way!
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I live as sustainable life as allowed Loy. The Chinese have nothing to do with Christianity in remote areas converting heathers to monochrome life
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@jim – Just in our lifetimes, hundreds of millions of Chinese have quite voluntarily abandoned traditional ways in remote areas in order to secure the comforts and benefits of “monochrome” life. For better or worse, Christianity had nothing to do with it (unless you want to assign “blame” to consumers in developed countries who happily bought what Chinese workers happily produced). That story is repeated in any number of other modernizing countries, most of them non-Christian.
Yes, the industrial revolution, like the scientific revolution, the Enlightenment, democratic self-rule and other aspects of modernity originated in the Judeo-Christian West, but they are now global phenomena because they’re powerful tools to improve people’s material (though not spiritual) well-being. (They’re far more powerful than the traditional religious practice of alsmgiving. If we’re going to criticize organized religion in this area, it should be to say that religious entities have not done nearly enough to embrace and support globalization, and to ameliorate its spiritual and cultural effects.)
You know the conversation has taken a weird turn when you’re blaming modernity on religion and I’m echoing Steven Pinker.
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Never read pinker. The Chinese have to do this to keep up or starve in a western system that has been forced upon them until they have reached the point they no longer know better. Keep up or die, is that the advances you cherish? Improved way of life? Hah! Longevity is not improvement when you have to live in a barren landscape cesspool for a few extra years of sterility.
Have you ever held the life of a fern in your hands and shook the dew off to make a remedy that one can only buy in the store with half the efficacy? Have you ever made a tool to build your own little heaven with your own hands? Have you connected at all outside of philosophical jargon to make you feel better, while you sit in your sick piety, thinking you have something special? Have you ever lived off the land, alone in a wilderness more than a day hike? This is the real world Loy, and we’ve traded it for plastic toys and its quite disgusting.
Chinese workers gladly abandoning their way of life to work for $2 a day and live in dorms? Yes! You are so right!
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I like that there are many cultures with thier own unique view of the world. I love studying especially how others in different cultures can literally have a different perception of the world, such as some viewing time as cyclical for instance. Or having a different concept for a word than we do such as the ancient Hebrew conception of the verb to create was more bringing order to chaos, not an ex nihilo creation thought of in modern Christianity. There’s even work out there about how preliterate societies think of the world versus literate ones like ours.
That’s all so cool and the world would be dull if all the same! My only issue is when a culture’s values are detrimental and unchallenged such as the 3rd world theocracies and their intolerance for others unlike them!
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Indeed it happens, even on a micro level within this country and during my lifetime. I have seen what my wife calls ‘the homogenization of America’ as the languages, cultures, and other trappings (food, clothing, architecture) of immigrants have been displaced. It is one reason I like New York City so much. Due to ethnic resiliency there is so much to see. But like the Everly Bros. song groans, ‘problems, problems, problems all day long.’ Interesting (if guilt-ridden) post.
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Now with the interstates you can drive form coast to coast and not see anything at all, then when you get there it’s all the same stuff you have at home. Bland
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Right. Maybe it was in ‘A Walk in the Woods,’ or some book by Bill Bryson where he complained about all the pointless and unnecessary roads in the wilderness.
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Recently reread the tracker by Tom Brown. I’ve been teaching my daughter the old ways in the woods everyday on our adventures. It’s amazing how much Tom learned from a chance meeting, then 9 years with a tribal elder. There are things I can never learn on my own, and even as a teenager when I first discovered the way, those ways were nearly impossible to find. Even though we love the idea and learn all we can about the plants and trees, we’ll never have the apothocarial knowledge that once was. Developed over millennia—gone in three or four generations.
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Another superb post. I’ll give the video a look in a moment.
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The scope of what has been destroyed is a telling tale of the conditions we face for our planet.
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Very true, and very sad. And scary.
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Europeans, Christians, capitalists, democracies, everyone wants othets to be like us to prove we are the best. If we aren’t the best, no one would want to be like us, right? But it is all facade. Others want to be like us because they think we live better lives. Television and the internet seldom show the people living in poverty, or the total lack of meaning in western life. Our advertising is not honest. Our news programs are not honest. Nothing we do is honest. It is all for show…
Married people want all their single friends to be married, not because married prople are happier, but to make those already married look like they are happier. It is all a numbers game. The more people doing something, the happier it must be! For shame. The more people doing the same thing is equal to more people living the same lie.
The strongest number in tne world of humanity is not 7.2 billion. The strongest number in the world is 1, one person doing what they want to have a happy life. Happiness is different for everyone, but we are all taught that happiness is what everyone wants it to be. We are fooling ourselves! And thus we are fooling others! Be different. Be 1. Be yourself.
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So many join in the system only because they don’t know any better, or they are forced to. The moment they get enough they find a way to downsize, drop out, find some peace and quiet and get out of the system as far as they can comfortably do so. Great comment raw. Good to see you.
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You feed me images,I feed you ideas, and back and forth we go.
Here’s to hoping you a humanist election tomorrow.
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Every two weeks another heritage goes extinct as the last elder dies. What’s left is a monochromatic disaster of the big five religions. Variety is dead. Long live Christianity—Disgusting.
I agree with everything, except the comment about the big five religions representing a lack of diversity. Lack of diversity implies some kind of sameness, but there are huge differences in ideas and practices between the three Abrahamic religions, let alone when you add Buddhism and Hinduism to the mix. Also, we might call them the Big 5, but technically speaking there are less practitioners or members of Judaism than the “primal-indigenous” religions, Chinese traditional religion, and even Sikhism. So even the Big 5 is a little bit of a misnomer.
Religions by number of Adherents
Also, these big 5 come from all different parts of the planet and represent very different cultures.
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Fair enough. In influence, I believe Judaism is on par with the rest. Initially the post was more of a combination of industrialization supported by the spread of religion, and the lack of regard for the natural world, but my mind does wander now and then. I’m hamstringed by this one minute info blog thing. I need to talk with the producers. Hehe. Thank you for the comment. I can always expect you to steer it in a realistic direction.
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Are you trying to say that Islam and Judaism (and all other religions like Mormon, LDS, etc) aren’t as horrible as Christianity is?
Christianity is not worse than any other major religion so I fail to see the point of this post.
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Mormon and LDS are the same religion. I haven’t t excused anyone. The industrialization and reckless abuse of the world is led by American christian industrialist. You want me to list every other religion ok. The point of the post, in case you’ve had too much wine, the disregard for the old ways, their language and culture is disgusting. Now you can go coast to coast with no variety at all but a few landmarks. Not sure how this
Is hard to grasp other than the fact that you are argumentative with everyone. When that happens, you are the problem. That’s why I quit following you.
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Wow that was unexpectedly hostile.
Can you give some specific examples of why you think industrialization and reckless abuse is led by American Christian industrialist, and explain what exactly you mean by reckless abuse?
I’m not denying that Christianity itself is harmful, but WHO specifically do you think is “disregarding” WHO’S language and which culture specifically? And how is “disregarding” a culture a moral wrongdoing (its no one’s responsibility to promote any culture they don’t agree with or see as positive)?
Also what action do you think they should take instead?
The thing is, modern day fundamental Muslims marry and rape children and cut their clitoris’ off, like those are regular every things in most Islamic states – Christian nations do not have the same fundamental religious problem because all Christian nations are secular and relatively free (extremely free compared to Islamic countries).
So that’s kind of where my question came from.
Theology is so fascinating to me and I really love talking about it so please try to take my questions as genuine conversational interest rather than a personal attack.
Argumentative is good when the people involved know their stuff. I assume you know your stuff (since you publicly started a dialogue about it), so my alleged argumentative nature shouldn’t be a problem here.
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This post, in case you missed it it about the destruction of indigenous language and customs. I do keep my posts short as most people don’t have time to delve into a book every day. I have covered Muslim and Hindu issues in the past. This is a case where business and religion are all majority Christian ( the body of christ) but they choose to separate themselves from liability, but since nearly all the industrialists and politicians are Christian here in the west, they should’ve known better than to destroy everything in their path to make money. The video doesn’t mention this, but I alone made this stunning connection.
If gods love was universal, it’s funny how it typically favors white Christians over melanin. You draw your own conclusions.
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Ok so you’re saying that industrialists and politicians are unethical in practice and that’s completely or at least in part because they are mostly Christian?
American capitalism is a value that stands on its own apart from Christianity, and industry and politics stand alone as issues and entities apart from religion, so can you delve deeper on that?
We all know that correlation does not imply causation so that’s where my confusion is from (I wish it was wine).
The skin color thing is just going to have to have some specific examples/explanation if I’m going to respond to it. Because I dont see your speedy connection between christianity-leaders-race issues. That part just sounds like flaming liberal hysterics if I may so without sounding too argumentative or offensive to anyone’s feelings.
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Well, I’m not liberal. I have no political affiliations nor do I interest myself in it. You can separate Christianity from Christians but I won’t. As far as indigenous customs and people disregarded by these same people since the 1500’s, how is that a liberal observation?
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Well you don’t have to be affiliated with a party to hold a view that is of that party’s philosophy. Race baiting is liberal philosophy. But that’s neither here nor there.
Could you give some of the examples and explanations I asked for in the last 2 comments? I think it would clear up a lot of my questions to your position.
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I’ll address one at a time. I am not in favor of capitalism or socialism. One of the great tricks is we’re always given two choices, and they’re both wrong. Sorry if that doesn’t work for you, but it’s were I am. Just like religion, we’re given a couple of choices, and they’re both wrong. Catholic or Protestant, Shia or Sunni. I don’t play the game of, well, one is not as bad as the other, so I vote for the lesser. If I had to classify I would govern conservatively and stay out of everyone’s personal business, but that is not an option on any ticket.
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Wait what do you mean given two choices, those aren’t the only choices? We happen to have chosen and stuck with a capitalist state because it puts our economy and individual opportunity in the best positions (unless you know something I don’t?).
I’m really curious as to why you’re against capitalist philosophy and what you think is a better system for a welfare state like the US has?
In addition to my remaining questions
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Puts the economy as the only priority. Look at the Harvard MBA program. Very predictable. Very ruthless, money is the only thing that drives it. Consumerism calculated marketers to sell sell sell at any cost, even the beauty of our world. I won’t support it.
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What is your suggestion instead of capitalism?
Who’s “only priority” is the economy? I can’t think of one person or group.
The failed Clinton era and then the failed Obama era have left the American economy in utter desperate need for attention, so I don’t see the issue with prioritizing it at the top.
Do you not think the economy is of utmost importance in the US?
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You’re being a troll. If you can’t see there needs to be some middle ground you’re crazy. This is not a political forum to blow your steam. I won’t engage. Your wrong in many levels.
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Um what ?
Why don’t you want to discuss the piece you wrote ?
Blowing off steam? What ??
If you’re so confident in your knowledge of the matter then why can’t you just easily answer my questions and explain how I’ve got it wrong?
Like if I’m wrong don’t you think I want to know ? That’s the point here.
You will never catch me telling anyone with valid legitimate comments/questions that I “won’t engage” because I find it a copout.
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You really are a lock step republican. Don’t you see a problem with that? I am not defined by anyone, and it just seems a little off to me to get in to it with someone confined to the box. You can’t make a single connection outside of your indoctrinated politics. You’d make a fine Christian. Looks like you found your religion…The Republican Party. True story.
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Remember when you said you aren’t liberal and I accepted that with the notion that you can have liberal views without being one?
I’m gonna say this once, I am not Republican.
Personal attacks aside, my questions regarding the topic still remain.
Not sure what I did to deserve the hostile intolerance when I’ve just asked some questions related to your piece & stated some related views/ideas. The politically fueled toxicity in society is really evident here.
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You just conveniently bash two democrat presidents and give the others a pass, and we’re all supposed to think you’re independent? Lol. I’ve read your other posts. You have a funny way of showing it. A hard core conservative vegetarian who’s always right about everything. I’ve never seen you budge an inch, and sometimes your quite off the mark.
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I gave the others a pass on the ECONOMY because that’s what I thought we were talking about. How philosophy impacts policy & economic status..?
I am not a vegetarian and regardless this is not about me personally !!!
This is about ideas and views.
What the fuck does you thinking I’m a conservative vegetarian have dick to do with this piece you wrote or the specifics of my commentary on it ?
GIVE ME A REASON TO BUDGE A MILE AND I WILL. You have to make a valid point or explanation beyond “You’re a Republican!” though in order for me to be able to budge from my position of having unanswered questions/unclarity on your view.
I think the point with me is that the person who is the most “right” always prevails, and if you’re going to make public statements and garner commentary on them then why not also step up and explain/defend/or retract them when they are slightly challenged?
If we’re honest I don’t think I’ve been harsh at all in my inquiry here.
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You have failed to understand the point of the post. You are the ONLY one. This isn’t my problem. Connect a few dots please. From what I gather by your statements is your in favor of decimating indigenous culture in the name of progress. I’m not. Why are you?
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I guess I’m just a dumb racist Nazi bigot and you shouldn’t be expected to engage me as a legitimate commenter when I say or ask things you disagree with or find difficult to elaborate on.
Insightful chat.
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You ask five long ass questions in one paragraph and keep firing on all cylinders. How about one thing at a time? I know a few others that have had trouble having dialog with you. When whole posts are written about your attitude, there’s a problem. Myself included on your blog. I’ve done 300 posts, and never had a problem with clarity until tonight. Do you think it’s ok to displace indigenous people over “progress”?
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“RACIST!!!!!! FASCIST NAZI WHITE SCUM WHO ASKS TOO MANY INTIMIDATING QUESTIONS!!!”
People who want their a culture to live on, should create a culture successful and most importantly necessary enough to live on without society having to intentionally baby and protect it.
Especially since we’re talking about silly little things like foods and fashion that no one has or should have the responsibility of promoting.
People dying off and subsequently taking their culture with them is not the big bad white Christians forcing brown “indigenous” people’s culture to die.
It’s so bizarre to me that there are people who want to eradicate capitalism for the sake of attempting to preserve some little languages and foods and clothing items that are irrelevant to the vast majority, what a way to preserve a “culture”.
America has it’s own culture, and the American people expect assimilation into this culture the we love so much. How about that?
Or are people from Western/Christian/wealthy/white countries not allowed to love their culture just as much as people with brown skin are?
Did we forget that the United States was settled (created) by European settlers ? But fuck them and that whole culture, because they’re Christian & white, right?
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You’re a jackass. You don’t intimidate me, it’s just your style of ranting bullshit that ran off all your followers. You never answered the question, but I see how you feel. Is it ok to continue to displace indigenous people in the name of money and “progress”? You just are a cold and lifeless colonial puppet. I believe there is room for all if we’d just work it out. There’s always a better way except for the cold blooded people like you that put money ahead of everything, including civility. Go take a Valium. Not because you’re Christian and white, but because you’re wrong and a bitch.
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“RACIST FASCIST BITCH!!!!”
“WHERE ARE YOUR EMOTIONS??? DON’T YOU KNOW THAT’S ALL WE USE HERE?!”
Lol don’t worry my correspondence with you and your blog is done.
I also love how the race baiter randomly says I’m white lol what a fucking cuck.
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You’ve got some issues going on I can help diagnose, but Im sure there are crisis lines available in your area. If you need help or feel like you’re a danger to yourself or others, please call 911. I think you should just go ahead and call. Good luck sweetie.
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Spoken like a true libcuck.
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You have a problem with everyone. That makes you the problem. I’ve had over 10,000 comments on this blog this year, and you’re the first one I wished I’d blocked. You should take a break from the news and get yourself grounded as a human being. Pretty sure you’re all show, cause if this is the real you in public. Wow! What a gem.
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Another broader question that I have, what specifically are you referring to when you say “customs” and “culture”?
Also, why do you (seem to) think that preserving all cultures/languages/customs is necessary or important?
More specifically, how is it the job of everyone in leadership positions to ensure that all or any cultures are preserved or even upheld in any society?
Like, what SPECIFICALLY do you think are the repercussions/negative societal implications of letting the “cultures” of little groups of people die off along with them?
And how SPECIFICALLY does Christianity feed into the alleged harmful dissolution of smaller, random cultures?
Take your time responding if you need, not answering something will only leave more questions.
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Are you related to Gish Gallup? Jeez. Did you watch the video? My family is directly affected by this and yes, I do think the monochrome world where no variety in culture and food and style is all mass produced, mass marketed, and mass money is the only important goal. To hell with other cultures? Where is your compassion? I don’t care what party you’re in. That’s disgusting. Where is the end game? Who want to live like that? You like the herd that much? Go coast to coast. Same shops, restaurants , clothes, life is certainly changing and more convenient, but life is not better.
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Wait, this is about food and style ?
What does variety in the free market have to do with cultures being upheld ?
(Not to mention demonizing people who are wealthier than you for not caring about those foods/styles)
You realize you can have not massed produced things without preserving fading cultures, right ??
The “compassion” thing is another liberal point in the way of the real discussion – Why does it have to be about a compassion/feelings thing? This is an issue that you’re claiming matters and then when someone questions the blame you’re fixing on people without drawing any clear line between them, they’re just immoral or unethical or lack compassion for not being able to see it from your view.
Just explain yourself, don’t ask where my compassion is. I dont think with my feelings over reason, I put reason over feelings. So that’s where my compassion is, under all my critical thinking.
The leaders who you’re blaming yet refuse to name do not have a “Christian” agenda to oppress brown people, so I’m hoping that’s not what you’re trying to say?
Please draw a clear line between Christianity in industry/politics and race issues/racism?
Please, if you answer nothing else I’ve asked, please clarify that for me so I can sleep tonight.
Because the “Christian leaders push racism against brown people” really needs some explaining.
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Hello Jim. Thanks for directing my attention to your post. I enjoyed the video and what the person had to share. I have read the comments and found some of them enlightening, others frightening. I never knew a different culture growing up. I lived in a very small New England town, with more cattle than people. When I went to California for my first ship assignment in the Navy I was dumbstruck. I had never seen such things. Huge buildings, more concrete than I ever imagined, foods I never heard of. I quickly fell in love with trying to see all of it.
I left the Navy and joined the Army. I was sent to Germany. Had I not been exposed to San Diego I think I would have freaked out. Again it was wonderful. So much to see, and to learn, and to do. I think I grew up in those four years in Germany in ways I can not explain.
When people talk of those who come here as immigrants or refugees they often use the word “assimilation”. That those who come here must become just as those of us here. But what are those of us already but a collection of different ideas, cultures, foods, and ways of all those who came here before us. Tucker Carlson went on a rant the other day claiming that tacos were an entirely American food. When told it was a Mexican food brought here, he flew into a rage. He has taken in other cultures and doesn’t even realize it. To me in my humble opinion I have a lot to learn, and I enjoy seeing how others do things, how they live. There are ways to do things better than I know how to now, there are worse ways also. I am slowly transitioning away from eating meat, because I really don’t have to eat meat. This is just a new way for me and it is getting interesting.
I wish I could have seen the Native People and the ways they lived, the things they understood before our ancestors decided they were simply savages to be hunted, killed, stolen from, and then penned up. I feel we missed out on a lot. Best wishes. Hugs
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. . . yes. Dropping by in this post after reading your comment and watching the video. True, I stopped reading comments after the third or forth argument hit; I’ve pretty much heard the same one, somewhere else, before, I expect.
I’ve had some thoughts: In the video, I found the cause comments to be most compelling; and though it is a spectacle not easily unraveled conjunctively – it bears the doing so. I may speak of it later if able and allowed.
I’ve otherwise detected two misconceptions I’d speak on briefly at this time. You are free to interpret them as you will; though they are not meant, or intended to mean, anything other than exactly as spoken.
I was born into the Mormon faith. Though I haven’t practiced it since becoming of an age to choose for myself – this is not an broadhand indictment of the people. The people of this state (Utah) are exceptionally appreciative of the ways of nature and steward the environment most most meticulously – which is not to say they believe they own it. Also, their theologies are not exclusive of the dignity of the tribal people of that area – mostly Pauite and Navajo; but rather more often in consideration of it. The women practice their own form of natural healings and are adept at it. The men practice conservity of the natural world and have deep, abiding respect for it. The ranchers I have known – Montana, Utah – also have a deep, unproprietary understanding and respect for the natural world and the creatures in it. If I had to say, I’d say that these folks, not in exclusion of also the native tribal people of the area, have no intention of turning this natural creation over to the industrialists or reserving it only for themselves. They are exceedingly fierce and rigourous about it as a contingency. Again, not because they believe they own it but for the same reasons, it would appear, as we’ve briefly discussed and arrived at – for the sake of land itself. That it and it’s creature population not become subdued or subservient to the monetary designs of any capitalist form of exloitation and/or eventual destruction – that the land and it’s full bevy of inhabitants remain free, natural, and wild – for the sake of being free, natural, and wild.
We, of those areas, are of the dirt; the red dirt of the desert plateaus; of the cliffs and the canyons; of the tender green grasses; of the waters and the slow and beautiful clean winding rivers; of the loud proclamations of desert thunderstorms and their rains.
It is our privelege in humility to imagine ourselves as no more.
This last thing: I don’t accept that the old ways are over, or ever could I; and I stay where I’m at in appreciation of them. I have a little booklet and a tape – I intend to school myself in the Navajo language as time allows. I study natural cure and welcome any and all information on it. Should it occur; though, I say it will not – I accept we may go like the buffalo into the dreamworld of the rainbow until such time as we might return again.
Thankyou.
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I happy to see Utah turn it around. I lived there in the late 70’s and early 80’s. Between Geneva Steel and Bingham copper mine the place was a miasmic mess of pollution. You could hardly see the Wasatch Mountains. Then the plans to store nuclear waste for money (don’t know what happened there) but Utah is a beautiful place. For a time the Mormons were great polluters and spared no business for profit regardless of the mess. Happy to hear your side of it. I’ve been away quite a while other than a drive by now and then.
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It’s been argued that the UN declaration on human rights didn’t go far enough to protect languages, cultures and religions that were not of the proselytizing type for example those found in Africa
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This from AMAZON OUTREACH
—There are still 30,000 villages along the Amazon River who are unreached for the Gospel of Jesus Christ . Really, they know no real good.
Do we show compassion by leaving them alone, or do we show compassion by destroying one more way of life to join the monochrome world of abrahamic submission?
Can we help them without destroying what little variety is left in the world? I don’t think so
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Christians will not leave their souls to go to hell. And Muslims might want to introduce Mo
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