This is not a post about whether the protests are right or wrong. Our opinions may all differ on such a subjective topic of right or wrongness.
Over the past three years people have been talking about how /r/Canada is being flooded by right-wing nutjobs. I didn't see it often enough to consider it overrun, particularly as I am closer to centre than to the true left (I think). I saw the occasional racist remark get a few upvotes but get buried at the bottom, and anything absurd was downvoted into inconspicuousness, though never removed by mods. I did notice that any time I mentioned injustices at First Peoples (imposed governments, unfair treaty negotiation, residential schools), while I was voted positive, I would get an abundance of comments ranging from "they deserve(d) it" to "it wasn't actually that bad" to "it never happened, that's liberal propaganda."
That has changed over the last month with the rail blockades. The floodgates are open. Every new and rising post over at the friendly "real" Canadian sub is an opinion piece from a rigjt-wing publication on how police are sympathizing with protesters, how indigenous peoples should put up with being conquered, how oil and gas is the only economic future for Canada, how Eastern Canada is apparently suffering from massive economic collapse due to these blockades, and how all indigenous people want the pipeline built. I don't care what your views on the pipeline are, or on the protests, but the fact is that the views being presented as Canadian on that subreddit are anything but. They are not civil. They feel more like someone from the Carolinas complaining about how certain statues are being taken down. It feels like a bunch of oil-industry propaganda. What on earth is going on?
How did a sub that was previously right-leaning begin absolutely smothering anyone trying to have a discussion and share viewpoints that weren't aligned with "jail everyone involved and send in armed police."
I am an anarchist. But this is a question that stumps me. If we advocate for self-determination for all peoples, how do we square critique of Israel with advocacy for indigenous land reparations? Israel is an apartheid state, perhaps even an ethnostate. But wouldn't "giving land back" to native peoples also constitute creating some sort of ethnostate? And how do we square "giving land back" with being anti-borders? History is a litany of groups of people taking land from other groups, invasions and injustices. Borders constantly shift. Nothing truly "belongs" to anyone; I have no claim on Ireland because my great grandparents lived there, I have no claim on African land because humans originated there. So why does Israel not get to have a claim on "ancestral lands" while indigenous people of the Americas do? Is it simply because Israel is an oppressive state or is there a deeper reasoning I'm missing?
Any recommended reading for this topic? Thanks.
