But they were able to call on agents of the state, the police, to deal with protestors and make arrests. “Corporations don’t care who they fuck over” is one of those truths that only holds in a vaccuum. Real-world testing shows that capitol really does care who they fuck over, because they want to fuck over…
SciFriedMyBrain
SciFriedMyBrain
I don’t have Dylan’s entire catalogue memorized, but I would rather hear Joan Baez sing basically any of his songs.
Spot on. I would add too how amenable a Native community is to having burials studied does vary a lot by culture, but also by how good of a relationship a community builds with particular archaeologists. It takes time to build a relationship and trust.
Most of the work is going to be on our side. Trust is built on patterns of honesty and fair dealing, and we need to start by being honest about our own history as bad-faith actors. Shit like what this oil company is pulling with destroying a burial site because they know paying the resulting fine will be faster and…
I’ll first say I am not personally of a religious nature, I prefer that science and history inform my decisions and worldview. I also accept that there is much we don’t know about science and history, that we have yet to find out and/or may never know.
Yeah. Also “it’s better to beg forgiveness than ask permission”, and I’m sure a couple million for probable fines have already been set aside in the budget.
The only difference is which god? In this case, the Dollar Almighty.
I think it’s called a ‘fait accompli’, which pretty much translates to, “Woops, already did it, sorry, here’s a little $$, we might as well just keep going.”
That’s because the “corporate ambivalence about negative externalities to their profit seeking decisions” on display here is little more than religious extremism in the service of Mammon. We just call it capitalism now.
Oh, yes, of course, and you articulated that really well! I just wanted to point out that the protestors are being referred to as “land and water defenders” and a part of this story is definitely environmental in nature. The threads can’t be disentangled entirely. I’m actually wondering if in the cold dead hearts of…
It’s complex, but yes. There definitely have been concerns over water quality and part of the protest action is about defending the tribe’s rights to clean water (something many feel will be threatened by the pipeline). But the other side of it, practically speaking, was the concern over the sacred sites. The tribe…
It’s funny how religious extremism and corporate ambivalence about negative externalities to their profit seeking decisions can look surprisingly similar.
So, in a lot of ways, these people are no better than ISIS. Destroying cultural heritage sites is despicable and unforgivable.
What’s especially upsetting about this is that these types of things are very preventable. People try to represent the Natives as being stubborn and not wanting to give up a piece of land. However, the primary concern of many tribes is not the land itself, but the remains and artifacts that are there. What they were…
The idea is to force a lawsuit. Then they can just pay out a few million dollars and get on with the project. The fine is a rounding error compared with the overall programme budget, it’s the delay which is a problem. Construction works like that.
When people are discussing artists they’ve seen in concert, I always make sure to add that I saw Elton John “pre-Lion King.”
I always loved this quote from Arlo Guthrie (he’s actually got a few variants on it, but they all amount to the same thing):
I feel this way about Biggie and Tupac. They would have sold out just like the rest of the “old” rapper have, but they died before they could.
I have a mental list I refer to as “The Aerosmith All-Stars”, which is full of all those musical acts who, by managing to survive their youth, lived long enough to become awful. The aforementioned Aerosmith, Rod Stewart, Elton John; sure, on a basic human level, I’m glad they had the opportunity to have long lives and…