The Antisocial Socialist

The thing with reading anything about indigenous news or history is that the second it's viewed objectively (as opposed to through the lens of the colonizer), it becomes laughably absurd. And yet.

For example, if you asked a white Canadian if it's okay to kidnap people to be abused and tortured, I think most would say that it is not okay to kidnap people to be abused and tortured. If you asked if it's okay to kidnap children to be abused and tortured, the answer would probably stay the same. Probably anyone who answered in the affirmative is a sociopath.

And yet. Fact: The Canadian state kidnapped 16,000 children to be abused, tortured, and in many cases, raped. The survivors are suing. Now a court has ruled that they have to pay their own legal costs. Absurd, right?

Or this story, out of Attawapiskat. Let's say you own a house. Someone goes digging around in your backyard and finds a diamond mine. They get rich off of it—toss you the odd coin, to be fair, but dude, that diamond mine is in your backyard, and they already have shit-tons of money. Meanwhile, your house is falling apart, the water and heat have been shut off, and you're about to be evicted onto the street. We already knew De Beers was evil, but they're reaping tremendous profits off the backs of indigenous people.

(Don't read the comments.)

Lest I be accused of singling out Canada (I live here, okay?) Aboriginal activists in Australia have cost the Prime Minister a shoe. Heh. The Australian state owes a lot more than that.