Looking forward to some great insights from the Ayn Rand Institute

    • keepcarrot [she/her]@hexbear.net
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      8 months ago

      " [Native Americans] didn’t have any rights to the land, and there was no reason for anyone to grant them rights which they had not conceived and were not using. What was it that they were fighting for, when they opposed white men on this continent? For their wish to continue a primitive existence, their ‘right’ to keep part of the earth untouched, unused and not even as property, but just keep everybody out so that you will live practically like an animal, or a few caves above it. Any white person who brings the element of civilization has the right to take over this continent." - Ayn Rand, West Point lecture 1974

      To be clear, Indigenous peoples did have property rights in their own legal codes and did work the land, so she’s even wrong on the basics here, and even if they didn’t would not justify genocide.

      • the_kid [he/him]@hexbear.net
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        8 months ago

        “The memorandum noted that the Arabs had done nothing for centuries to develop the land and thus had forfeited their rights to the Jews, who, with their skill, energy and resources, had already demonstrated their capacity for developing Palestine and making it prosper. Moreover, it was asserted that the Arabs of Palestine were not ready for self-government in view of widespread illiteracy and lack of education. German interests and aims in Palestine were defined as primarily economic in nature; the Jews, not the Arabs, were considered most capable of creating conditions in Palestine conducive to those interests and aims.”

        many such cases

      • UlyssesT [he/him]@hexbear.net
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        8 months ago

        Whenever Gil Scott-Heron’s “Whitey On The Moon” poem was posted on Youtube, there was a very good chance in the comments that some cryptofascist would declare that black people would “still be living in mud huts” if they hadn’t received the blessing of enslavement and tied that to more recent history as a wailing terror that magical space futures will be denied if social justice isn’t wiped out as a concept. mlk-yes porky-point

      • Barabas [he/him]@hexbear.net
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        8 months ago

        I’ve seen plenty of takes that are just this from zionists the last couple of weeks. It is just the same shit over and over with settler colonialists.

      • CrushKillDestroySwag@hexbear.net
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        8 months ago

        Even if they didn’t, that argument would only hold up until the very first treaty signed between colonizers and indigenous peoples. 99% of the story of colonization isn’t people showing up to uncontacted tribes, it’s settlers breaking their agreements with contacted ones.