General Discussion

poster to the Guardian about " never repaired for its original sins of genocide and enslavement". The truth of the founding of our country is not that of the romanticized version of a bunch of put upon colonists rebelling for freedom and liberty for all against their unfair ruler and subsequently nobly expanding across the continent.

They were people who saw liberty and freedom for white men. They were not about freedom for women and they were not, at that time about ending slavery and including their former slaves as having freedom and liberty as well. They took what they wanted by force or "purchase" of colonial claims by other countries on other portions of the land of the indigenous people. Those purchases were for land never legitimately "owned" by the seller in the first place.

The indigenous peoples weren't just "tenants" who were becoming "unruly" on someone else's property and so warranted eviction. The claims to land by the French and Spanish were illegitimate to begin with. But the US government took over the claims and treated them as righteous and legal because they had paid money etc.

So the expansion of the US was very much like if I went to someone's house, walked around their yard and planted stakes, then claimed it as mine and sold it to someone. Then that purchaser comes and demands the people move who live there and kills them if they don't.

The colonists came here to land that was not theirs and eventually slaughtered and dispossessed nearly everyone who was already here. The article is spot on for putting our past as foundational to our present. The hypocrisy of the US in lecturing others about genocide, crimes against humanity, moral conduct etc. is so galling to others around the world because of our own conduct, failure to address it to this day and continuing to shortchange treaties and agreements we made with the few indigenous people we left alive.

Put simply it was always someone else's land and we took it by imposition of force, subterfuge, false promises, and purchase of the illegitimate claims of others. There is nothing noble about it or to be celebrated. The bill for the genocide is not only the lives extinguished and the lies told about it all. The bill is with us today in terms of how we are viewed around the world. We arrogantly go around the world with our military and spies telling others about what is moral or right while living in the largest glass house the world has ever known. Don't think for one minute that other countries don't see how worthless the word of the US is in treaties and agreements when the gross violations of treaties with indigenous people in the past and currently are so evident.

This is the history the fascists now want to erase and pretend never existed. One need look no further than the Black Hills case to see the hypocrisy of the right wing fanatics who control the US government and Supreme Court. They claim "defense of religion" as their highest calling and yet rather than return the sacred Black Hills they attempt to use money to "buy" a peoples sacred things from them.

Look at the way the fascists in the US now treat our European allies. That is not just based on leaning toward Russia or money it is also very much based in racism and we see it with the constant condemnation about refugees coming into European countries and the racist fear-mongering. It is well known the fascist network is global and has been at work for a long time now. I have little doubt that Suella Braverman and Kristi Noem are pleasantly satisfied and smiling inside when they receive news about refugees and migrants dying on their way during their struggle to reach safety. In the land of the free and the land from whence we sprung.