Facebook Follies of Friends and Families

[Grinning_Colossus]

Same person:

[The Brain]

Every summer I dismantle a little bit of my whiteness, but it reasserts itself.

[Razgovory]

Goddamn allies

Interesting thing about Standing Rock, The Sioux there drove out the people living there in early 19th century with the help of the US government.  The area that the pipeline is being built on was never held by the Sioux.  It was held by the Arikara, a Pawnee people who the Sioux waged genocidal war against.

[CountDeMoney]

Shut up, Sitting Meg.

[Grinning_Colossus]

That's an interesting bit of trivia, but the modern Sioux can hardly be held responsible for the genocidal actions of their ancestors. The past is past, and all the matters is the future.

[garbon]

That's an interesting bit of trivia, but the modern Sioux can hardly be held responsible for the genocidal actions of their ancestors. The past is past, and all the matters is the future.

Only white people can be judged by their ancestors crimes.

[grumbler]

I don't doubt it, but I am simply pointing out that its not like this is about Native American lands at all for most of these people.

They are a convenient tool. If the pipeline ran somewhere else, they would find some other reason to oppose it, or some other Indians to claim it is stepping on them.

I am skeptical of the entire thing, to be honest. The claims of the Native Americans seem pretty thin. They want to protect their water? Huh? There is zero evidence that the pipeline has some kind of risk to water supplies - there are several OTHER pipelines that already run under the Missouri River for example.

I do think the company did the typical corporate token respect for the laws around consultation, and tried to just slide this through without really talking to the people involved, and greasing the political wheels. So I don't actually have much sympathy for them anyway.

But I find the bulk of the  opposition to it to be basically dishonest. Their real position is just luddite - no oil! Don't build any pipeline, that way the oil won't get pumped because OIL IS BAD! It's silly. A pipeline is much safer than the alternatives.

The Sioux leadership is absolutely Luddite.  Their leader's stated goal here is to prevent this and any other pipelines, under any conditions, as part of their "Leave it in the Ground" campaign regarding oil and gas.

[Ed Anger]

I like being white. 

[CountDeMoney]

The Sioux leadership is absolutely Luddite.  Their leader's stated goal here is to prevent this and any other pipelines, under any conditions, as part of their "Leave it in the Ground" campaign regarding oil and gas.

Supporting dependence on foreign oil?  How un-American of the Sioux. 

[mongers]

The Sioux leadership is absolutely Luddite.  Their leader's stated goal here is to prevent this and any other pipelines, under any conditions, as part of their "Leave it in the Ground" campaign regarding oil and gas.

Supporting dependence on foreign oil?  How un-American of the Sioux. 

All I want to say is..... Oil pipelines are theworkofthedevil cool, I cycled past/along one today, you'd never know it was there.

I think the one time I had a conversation with a local about it, they thought there might be a water pipeline there. Even the few bits of infrastructure associated with it, like interceptor pits, are very innocuous, a small concrete pit 15x6x10ft surround by a chain-link fence, dog walkers pass all the time, never giving them a thought.

[Syt]

[LaCroix]

yeah, the protestors don't have a legitimate argument, except for their broad anger toward anything oil/perceivedly unfair towards the natives. but they've been mostly fine and non-violent. they've been protesting where I work a few times, and they seem like good folk. the locals' reaction and distrust/hate for them is standard rural people disliking foreigners, focusing on some isolated incidences of vandalism. will be interesting to see how many stay and for how long.

[Valmy]

I Don't get it. Those are the same people who were there 10+ years ago.

[garbon]

yeah, the protestors don't have a legitimate argument, except for their broad anger toward anything oil/perceivedly unfair towards the natives. but they've been mostly fine and non-violent. they've been protesting where I work a few times, and they seem like good folk. the locals' reaction and distrust/hate for them is standard rural people disliking foreigners, focusing on some isolated incidences of vandalism. will be interesting to see how many stay and for how long.

Well the pipeline is now going to be rerouted.

[Syt]