My land, your land, our land?

This is a charged discussion, one that I will try to stay as neutral and open minded about as I possibly can.

I have never hidden the fact that I support the rights of minorities and those who have been persecuted for being “different”. My family history has their ashes buried in Aushwitz death camp because they were considered different.

As a minnow I walk the fine line of perusing hateful literature on steemit and I occasionally have to bite my lip when I see veteran steemians support ideologies that to me are quiet frankly calling for my right to exist to cease. I have no voice because if I comment on my version of the truth I would in essence rebel against what was being said. We all know what happens to rebels.

For instance, if I see a steemian who has 300,000-500,000 Steem Power they can write whatever they like and receive huge rewards. It doesn’t matter what is written. The blog can be untrue (at least to me), demeaning (at least to me), and border hateful-revisionist history. I have commented on occasion in a respectful way, but it’s not like I will get an upvote if I disagree with the author. In fact the only ones to come to “my side” are generally new minnows who have no influence or who generally do not care about their experience level. I happen to care about these things because I see steemit as a process to grow. Steem Power is influence, and if you want to eventually change perspectives you need it.

It is true that history can be written by the victors, but would this not be a similar thing? Writing whatever you want because you have the power to do so with little fear of repercussion?

If you tell a lie over and over again that lie can become seen as truth.

So without further adue, here is something for
us to ponder. I would agree with the notion that imperialism is not a good thing when it comes to the invaded country. Here in North America we sit on quiete frankly other people’s land. I no longer see natives who once lived here. What I do constantly see are “freedom fighters” who take up the cause of other people without any regard of how they themselves got here. We would all agree war is a terrible thing. Most of the time soldiers die for someone else’s cause. Perhaps defensive wars are fair to be fought, but we have such short memories.

Take this for an example, two or three generations ago we invade a country. We then settle and either exile or destroy the previous people who resided in this land. Then suppose another invasion force wishes to take “our” new land we so “peacefully” reside in. Who is morally superior? Would it not seem in the eyes of the now natives that they are in the right? What if we used to live somewhere 1000s of years ago? Does that erase your land claims?

source: mohawknationnews.com

At the end of the day I believe humans are trying to survive. We are not much different than many other species fighting for their hill to live on. Perhaps we wish to see the lion lay down with the lamb, but this is not the epoch of time we live in.

I constantly see westerners fight for “injustice”, while taking nice walks in the beautiful nature around them. Yet that place they live used to belong to someone else. Does that not seem hypocritical? Take it from me, my people have been exiled for 1000s of years for being different. Learning to adapt and survive is anyone’s right. Being criticized for it comes with the game of survival.

When I have the influence I could be somewhat more direct. At the end of the day if we are not critical of at least our beliefs and perceptions, how can we fairly comment on something happening somewhere else in the world? What makes us so “morally” superior when we comfortably live on what was once conquered.

Our perceptions of reality are very warped. We lack understanding of history. We confidently walk in health and even “freedom” others do not have. Yes it can be argued our freedom is limited; but that is a different discussion. We must be more careful when chiming in on happenings from around the world without actually having factual imformation. It is true, there is a fog of war. It is true it’s hard to discern conspiracy from fact.

There is a thin red line between reality and falsehood. Sometimes we shouldn’t comment on things we don’t understand. But then what would be there to debate or discuss?