The Progressive Hellscape, Part 203
Frances Widdowson on the “indigenised” Canadian university, where pretending is everything:
In 2018, one of the co-directors at my university’s Office of Academic Indigenisation invited an Indigenous elder to give a presentation on “Western Medicine vs. Traditional Healing Medicine.” A member of the audience asked the elder what he recommended for the “gut problems” afflicting her child. In response, the elder stated that the parent should “rub corn pollen on his feet and do a sunrise ceremony.” A number of professors in the Faculty of Science and Technology attending the session acknowledged afterwards that this example of “traditional healing medicine” was completely inconsistent with evidence-based scientific medical techniques (as seems obvious, even to those of us who aren’t doctors). But they remained silent at the event, as did everyone else, out of “respect.”
Not quite the right word, I think.
Readers will note that the beneficiary of this “respect” is the peddler of primitive woo, the one being deferred to as a quasi-magical being, some kind of leprechaun. Not the mother whose child was in need of medical attention. I am, of course, assuming that gastro-intestinal ailments won’t actually be cured by rubbing corn pollen on your feet. But such are progressive priorities. There’s much more to chew, and some noteworthy contortions are performed, so do peruse the whole thing. It does rather convey the unhinged, neurotic atmosphere of woke academia. There are also other gifts of aboriginal piety and “indigenous knowledge.” For instance,
[A]t the University of Winnipeg in 2015… presiding Indigenous elders declared that it was in keeping with their traditions that women in attendance should wear long skirts. (Two years earlier, at the University of Saskatchewan, a poster promoting a similar event instructed women to skip the ceremony if they were menstruating.)
And,
[W]hen I attended an “Empowering Indigenisation Symposium” a few months later, an elder said that his “knowledge” included the belief that trees come out of dormancy in the spring because birds sing to them.
Please update your files and lifestyles accordingly.
Somewhat related: Guardian columnist denounces Western medicine as “outdated,” champions use of bush dung.
Via Nikw211.
And I suppose we mustn’t forget this little gem.
But they remained silent at the event, as did everyone else, out of “respect.”
When you start lying it’s hard to stop.
As noted in the post linked above:
Or to see just how neurotic and dishonest they can be made to be.
When you start lying it’s hard to stop.
Not entirely unrelated.
And also, this.
Again, wokeness is stupefying. It corrodes a sense of realism.
When you start lying it’s hard to stop.
…to see just how neurotic and dishonest they can be made to be.
Fear is a hell of a drug.
The problem with providing (free) post-secondary education to Indians is that they take their arts degree or their watered-down law degree and immediately go to work in the ‘Federal Indian industry’ where they can lobby for more FREE Indian stuff and more vilification of the white man.
Everyone must assimilate or there will never be a true Canadian culture. Everyone needs culture. It is communists who are devoid of culture. A country can only have one culture is that country values peace.
That reminded me of a time I walked into a voodoo shop in New Orleans. The fellow behind the counter spotted the camera I was holding and lectured me sternly that I could not take any pictures because it would anger the spirits and cause bad mojo, most of which would follow me and cause calamity in my life. I nodded and as much of the shop was not within his visual line of sight at the counter, where he was comfortably ensconced with his lunch and graphic novel, proceeded to take pictures regardless.
I’m still waiting for the promised woo to catch up with me. I hope that mother is not still waiting on the corn pollen to work.
Readers will note that the beneficiary of this “respect” is the peddler of primitive woo, the one being deferred to as a quasi-magical being, some kind of leprechaun. Not the mother whose child was in need of medical attention
That.
That.
Well, it is, I think, rather symbolic of progressive attitudes more generally. In that, attendees seem to have been much more concerned with appearance, with seeming – and with not being denounced by their peers as low-status racists – than with suggesting anything that might actually help. In this case, might help a child in need of medical attention, and presumably in pain.
I’m still waiting for the promised woo to catch up with me.
You ended up here. Just sayin’.
It’s simple, really – you’re all using an outdated woo.
Us “indigenous” folk are on ver 6.3.
The Desperately Woke will eat this stuff up like granola, and come away thinking they’re terribly enlightened and open minded.
But when diagnosed with cancer, they’ll be on time for every single appointment at the oncology clinic.
the elder stated that the parent should “rub corn pollen on his feet and do a sunrise ceremony.”
If it doesn’t work it isn’t ‘medicine’ or ‘knowledge’.
When I was a younger man I hated the idea of the world continuing without me and hoped it would end when I did.
These days I’m not sure I’ll live that long…
These days I’m not sure I’ll live that long…
I do like to leave readers feeling warm and fluffy inside.
Instead of “readers,” I almost wrote “my regulars,” but that had… unhappy connotations.
And they can have ceremonies in which they can burn grass in a no smoking government building. My buddy promptly whipped out some sacred tobacco and lit one up and got in deep doo doo. Respect!
When you start
lyingclapping it’sharddangerous to stopFixed that for you.
I should probably note that the actual Indians in the Indian industry in Canada are fully aware that what they’re spouting is complete bollocks. It’s all just part of the game by which they extort money and concessions from the government.
*
Reg: “All right, but apart from the sanitation, medicine, education, wine, public order, irrigation, roads, the fresh water system and public health, what have the Romans ever done for us?”
Attendee: “Brought peace?”
Reg: “Oh, peace – shut up!”
*
Somewhat related: Guardian columnist denounces Western medicine as “outdated,” champions use of bush dung.
We all know western medicine sucks, like everything, Chinese is much better.
These professors deserve to lie awake contemplating the suffering of that child every night for the rest of eternity. Though I’d bet they sleep like babes. Fucking sociopaths.
by which they extort money and concessions from the government.
*contemplates moving to Canada. Looks at temperatures. Nope….
Hey, how about a casino!*
Isn’t utopianism just another form of magical thinking?
a poster promoting a similar event instructed women to skip the ceremony if they were menstruating.
No feminist meltdown?
feeling warm and fluffy inside.
Hmm. Aren’t we supposed to skin rabbits before cooking and eating?
Not sure he was talking about rabbits. sideeyes sausage roll, which seems to’ve edged closer
FWIW, said pollen tripe is nothing new…
“Deacon Paula Hansen, a native Navajo and deacon in the Episcopal Church, led us in prayer and the traditional corn pollen blessing”
https://diocese-oregon.org/navajo-corn-pollen-blessing-at-sunrise/
they remained silent at the event, as did everyone else, out of “respect.”
Somehow I believe if invitee had been Gwyneth Paltrow and she talked about the health benefits of a warm jade egg up the vagina, respect isn’t the word that would be in use here.
she talked about the health benefits of a warm jade egg up the vagina
The script for Mulan III just writes itself, huh?
If it doesn’t work it isn’t ‘medicine’ or ‘knowledge’.
But I’ve been told political correctness is just about being polite. /sarcasm
The script for Mulan III just writes itself, huh?
You owe me a new monitor.
just about being polite.
Sarcasm aside, I understand the reluctance to be impolite, and there have been any number of situations in which I’ve bitten my tongue to avoid causing a scene or derailing a social gathering. (Shockingly, tragically, my interactions with other people aren’t always about me.) But when this inclination is combined with condescension and an obligation to flatter, and then wrought as institutional policy, resulting in a Designated Victim Group whose protected status hinges on a display of arrested development… well… dishonesty and farce are hard to avoid.
Feminists want every excuse to skip that ceremony, just like real people.
But they remained silent at the event, as did everyone else, out of “respect.”
At a talk in college given by an authentic Buddhist monk, I sighed and rolled my eyes along with most of the room when one audience member, a representative of a student Christian group, insisted on dragging the discussion from the lovely warm bath of generic Eastern Wisdom into difficult theological concepts, and further spoiled the empathetic vibe of the night by suggesting that the Buddhist notions that we’re all really One and that suffering is an illusion might make Buddhist people and cultures more and not less callous than Christian people and cultures.
Like a lot of the student audience, I was attached to an idea of myself as a smartass and skeptic. I was inclined to nitpick teachers and think highly of myself for doing so. If the talk had been by a Christian monk our ignorance of theology wouldn’t have made us too embarrassed to ask impertinent questions. We were in an institution dedicated to Reason as the way of cutting through the weeds of tradition and adjudicating claims by competing authorities in a complex world. But all of that was left at the door when we went into the domain of exotic indigenous wisdom.
No big surprise here – the Canadian government and the Indian industry has been playing games for decades, at the root of it all is how much money can the Indian industry squeeze from the government or other institutions – such as universities. Results (as in improving the lives of indigenous people) is irrelevant. I think I have a solution, but it will never happen. The Canadian government spends annually about $15 billion on indian programs – housing education, health, social services, etc. etc. etc. While Canadians have a responsibility to ensure indigenous people have a good life, that doesn’t mean it has to be a bunch of expensive programs that never have any results. My solution is to double the amount annually that goes to indigenous people BUT the catch is that it is given directly to individuals, band councils, tribal councils whatever – the only government involvement is 4 or 5 people who write the cheques every April. The indigenous community can decide how they want to split up the money (give them a year to come up with a formula). The other catch is that it is entirely up to them on how they spend it. BUT if they run out of money before April 1 each year, that is sad, but don’t come back to us. If the indigenous authority getting the money decides to spend it on housing – go at it; decides to spend it on education – go at it; decides to spend it on traditional knowledge medicine – go at it; if they decide to spend it on spending everyone to Mexico for 7 months each year – go at it. I’m 65 – at one time I used to care – I NO LONGER CARE. The Indian industry has told white people for decades that only they know how to deliver services to indians and they could do a better job. This approach allows you do that – have at it. But if it all goes tits up, don’t blame me and I don’t care.
But all of that was left at the door when we went into the domain of exotic indigenous wisdom.
I’ve mentioned before a supposedly serious astronomy documentary that opened with a fawning audience with a group of aboriginal Australians. The blathering was inane and utterly devoid of both scientific content and discernible relevance, and yet there was a hush of profundity. It was absurdly indulgent, as if These Magical Brown People were privy to the very secrets of creation. We, the audience, were presumably supposed to ignore the inanity of it, the air of condescension, and the sudden, quite dramatic, drop in standards.
Canadians have a responsibility to ensure indigenous people have a good life
While Canadians are free to impose that responsibility on themselves, let’s not pretend it’s universal. The opportunity to create a good life for themselves, just as other citizens have? Most definitely. But one cannot ensure that other people have a good life. It’s simply impossible.
You owe me a new monitor.
*bows, then heads for exit while eyeing henchlesbians…*
While Canadians are free to impose that responsibility on themselves, let’s not pretend it’s universal.
Canadians are obligated by treaty to make provisions for Indians (the word is used in treaties and government acts) whether that obiligation includes “have a good life” is debateable not to mention how that phrase translates from an 18th and 19th century perspective to today.
The opportunity to create a good life for themselves, just as other citizens have?
Indians are not Canadian citizens in the way non-indigenous Canadians are citizens. They are essentially wards of the Crown (today the government). Turdeau the First offered to scrap the Indian Act and make Indians full-fledged Canadians with all the inherent rights and responsibilies. They turned it down.
I blame England.
[ Looks east across the Atlantic. Shakes fist. ]
Reminds me of Attenborough’s excruciatingly embarassing pandering effort in his recent Great Barrier Reef documentary (see here for the blow-by-blow account https://subsaga.com/bbc/documentaries/science/great-barrier-reef-with-david-attenborough/episode-1.srt – scroll down to about 245). In which we learn that the reef was in fact formed by a stingray angered by being speared, and that we must be incredibly grateful that this vital knowledge is available to us via aboriginal song and dance.
I have to admit that every time I hear some official M.C.-type at any public event repeat the “We acknowledge we are on the shared land of the Mississauga tribe” or similar platitude, I find it harder and harder to resist jumping to my feet, grabbing the microphone, and just demanding of the audience, “Is a single person here prepared to sell their home at far below market price to an indigenous Native person and move all their family back to Europe? No? Then SHUT UP. You want to apologize for the crimes of previous generations without making actual restitution, be my guest, but STOP MAKING THE REST OF US SIT THROUGH IT.”
Unfortunately I am far too Canadianly polite (read: cowardly) to ruin everybody else’s evening with this kind of stunt.
“Is a single person here prepared to sell their home at far below market price to an indigenous Native person…”
Oddly enough the Indians were prepared to do just that. After the Crown purchased land from the Mississaugas and granted its use to Six Nations the first thing Joseph Brant tried to do was sell prime plots to white settlers.
[ Looks east across the Atlantic. Shakes fist. ]
[ Peers through enormous atomic binoculars, squints. ]
Oh, there’s someone waving. That’s nice.
[ Waves back. ]
Attenborough’s descent into blubbering fool has been sad, as watching his older stuff with my parents are treasured memories.
Ditto Jeremy Clarkson, while we’re on the subject of be-jowled goofs who’ve become twattish self-parodies.
When does “traditional healing medicine” become folk remedies and old wives tales.
My eastern european grandmother had a bag of traditional healing medicine that was just as goofy as the corn pollen cure. My favourite was her cure for warts which included rubbing said wart with luncheon meat (my grandmother preferred bologna) and then burying the meat in a secret place in the backyard. Of course, it had to be done at night and the moon had to be full. I’ve never had a wart so I haven’t been able to test it.
So, who’s wooing who.
David, it would appear that, if my fist shaking did anything, it freed me from the dreaded mark of Hal. I like this blue avatar.
“My favourite was her cure for warts which included rubbing said wart with luncheon meat…”
“Aha! Talk about trying to cure warts with spunk-water such a blame fool way as that! Why, that ain’t a going to do any good. You got to go all by yourself, to the middle of the woods, where you know there’s a spunk-water stump, and just as it’s midnight you back up against the stump and jam your hand in and say:
‘Barley-corn, Barley-corn, injun-meal shorts,
Spunk water, spunk water, Swallow these warts.’
and then walk away quick, eleven steps, with your eyes shut, and then turn around three times and walk home without speaking to anybody. Because if you speak the charm’s busted.”
–From The Adventures of Tom Sawyer
Ditto Jeremy Clarkson, while we’re on the subject of be-jowled goofs who’ve become twattish self-parodies.
How many years back must I go to find the fun Jeremy Clarkson? I’ve seen only a few excerpts from Top Gear, but my local library has DVD’s of most of the seasons.
vital knowledge is available to us via aboriginal song and dance.
One of my desperate routines to chill and get to sleep is to read moderately interesting, yet not quite too interesting, items on Wiki. I try to avoid the overtly controversial. The other night I somehow meandered to Tasmania and eventually this page on Aboriginal Australians in which I learned “Aborigines and Papuans diverged from each other genetically earlier, about 37,000 years BP, possibly because the remaining land bridge was impassable, and it was this isolation which makes it the world’s oldest civilisation.”. Now this was news to me. As I understand it, a civilization is “the stage of cultural development at which writing and the keeping of written records is attained”. Now you (or more correctly, David Attenborough) tell me this knowledge is available by song and dance? Is there nothing written down? No written “record”, shall we say, of this momentous event and/or myth?
“My favourite was her cure for warts which included rubbing said wart with luncheon meat…”
In my day it was a potato. You would cut a potato in half, rub it on the wart, then bury that half of the potato in the back yard. Oddly, that didn’t work either. Don’t ask me how I know.
Per Critical Drinker, The Boys S2 was enjoyable but jumbled with woke messaging threatening to derail the series. Drinker can be a bit sensitive to these things but overall we share the same tastes.
Per Robot Head, manbaby neckbeards should man up and not be lone shooters and people in general should see this brilliant show as the cutting satire that it is. Besides, Nazi’s were integral to early American spaceflight so it’s not woke. Or something. Not his best video though he’s a great reviewer.
I don’t trust Amazon with, well, anything past Season 1 so I was going to skip it per usual. Thoughts?
Thoughts?
Had a few, a while ago.
…rubbing said wart with luncheon meat (my grandmother preferred bologna) and then burying the meat in a secret place in the backyard.
Your grandmother couldn’t think of a simpler way to engage in secret bologna snacking.
…suggesting that the Buddhist notions that we’re all really One and that suffering is an illusion might make Buddhist people and cultures more and not less callous than Christian people and cultures.
It is unimaginable how anyone could have come to such a conclusion. Callousness? In my East Asia!
Had a few, a while ago.
Ah…I see the usual suspects also weighed in.
[ dons Hat of Shame ]
Instincts are useful things. In [current year] you will not be wrong by being too cynical.
Indians are not Canadian citizens in the way non-indigenous Canadians are citizens. They are essentially wards of the Crown
Canada is an apartheid state. That’s not hyperbole or sarcasm; we are literally an apartheid state by any definition.
I find it harder and harder to resist jumping to my feet
I routinely shout out “but you’re not going to give it back, are you?” at this point. At first there were shocked gasps, and there are certain theaters I am no longer allowed to patronize. Of late I have been noticing less shocked gasping and more snickering and suppressed chuckling. So I suspect people are starting to get fed up with the hypocrisy.
Thoughts
The deconstruction of superheroes has been going on since long before Marvel movies became popular, and it’s just as tedious and juvenile as “Man of Steel, Woman of Kleenex” or Farmer’s deconstruction of Tarzan. Deconstructionists hold their audience in contempt; they honestly believe that the rubes think this stuff is real, like late night infomercials and professional wrestling, and need to have their illusions shattered for their own good.
Suffice it to say that after being inundated with gritty, shades-of-gray superhero deconstruction over the last couple of decades, I’m inclined to think ill of the whole genre.
“Western Medicine vs. Traditional Healing Medicine.”
Great. We should encourage traditional healing medicine. Sometimes Darwin needs a boost.
“Readers will note that the beneficiary of this “respect” is the peddler of primitive woo, the one being deferred to as a quasi-magical being, some kind of leprechaun. Not the mother whose child was in need of medical attention”
Should also note that the beneficiary of any “affirmative action” policy is never the bad-doctor’s patient, the bad-engineer’s bridge, the bad-lawyer’s client, the bad-teacher’s students, or the bad-government-workers subject.
It all becomes form over content. We used to do content. No more.
“Canadians have a responsibility to ensure indigenous people have a good life” – I probably should have clarified. The Canadian government has a treaty obligation to indigenous people (but we shouldn’t assume that should be a whole range of government run programs that do nothing). But I do want to see indigenous people have a good life with opportunities – just like I want to see anyone have a good life. But for indigenous people, the barrier is not the Canadian government or Canadians but their own leadership who demand that indigenous people don’t do anything on their own (and believe the silly mantra of traditional healing/medicine). My brother lived next to an indigenous family – husband was Cree from the Prairies and wife was from a west coast band – neither lived on their ‘reserve’ or depended on their band for anything. They pay homage to their culture and supported their aging parents, but as far as they were concerned the reserve politics was toxic and if they had stayed they would have become nothing instead of leaving and becoming a skilled in demand tradeperson and a nursing manager.
Ah…I see the usual suspects also weighed in.
Heh. As I said, I enjoyed season one. Not outstanding or anything, but entertaining enough. Season two less so, mainly because of pacing issues, thinness of plot, and the fact that nihilistic gore grows tiresome pretty quickly. It is, or was, fun, of a kind, but, like you, I don’t think of the series as “cutting satire.”
Still, it was more engaging than WandaVision.
I do want to see indigenous people have a good life with opportunities – just like I want to see anyone have a good life.
As do I. I have spent considerable time in volunteer efforts to help people help themselves. Yet every time these efforts eventually run up against people who don’t understand the basic socio-economic factors that make that happen. This desire to just give people stuff and think that that will solve the problem. It doesn’t work that way. It fails time and time and time again because it addresses the wrong problem. In a free society, Normal, healthy people are not materially poor because they lack material things. They are poor because of a poverty of hope, of reason, of soul. Yes, even the dumb ones. The number of “smart” people whom I have known who are failures out number the “dumb” ones I know who are moderately successful. I don’t think my experience is unusual.
The number of “smart” people whom I have known who are failures out number the “dumb” ones I know who are moderately successful. I don’t think my experience is unusual
Dr. Jordan Peterson’s popular books are not particularly clever, sophisticated, or even insightful, consisting mostly of common sense and experience. Native IQ will not substitute for hard-won life experience of the type that used to be passed on within the family.
In my personal experience, I’ve seen an awful lot of smart people torpedo their chances in life precisely because they think they’re smarter than the “common folk wisdom”.
Dr. Jordan Peterson’s popular books are not particularly clever, sophisticated, or even insightful, consisting mostly of common sense and experience.
Yes. His value lies in the fact that forthright common sense is now so rare and so hated:
“In a time of universal deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act.”
And that recalls an authentic comment Orwell made:
“The really frightening thing about totalitarianism is not that it commits ‘atrocities’ but that it attacks the concept of objective truth.”
“The really frightening thing about totalitarianism is not that it commits ‘atrocities’ but that it attacks the concept of objective truth.”
I know what Orwell was trying to say but too many people have no idea of the atrocities commited under totalitarian regimes. I’ve had conversations where I’ve talked about death toll under communism and people just stare at me doubtfully. Atrocities are the logical outcome when there is no objective truth and despite the evidence all around us too many people can’t see what happens when the authorities have to be infallible.
Oh no! I see in the preview screen my avatar is back to the mark of Hal. Me and my damned hubris.
In my day it was a potato. You would cut a potato in half, rub it on the wart, then bury that half of the potato in the back yard. Oddly, that didn’t work either. Don’t ask me how I know.
It does work. I was 17 and desperate.
One of my favorite Aba & Preach videos is them discovering their common-sense philosophy of not getting spun-up over stupid sh*t has a name.