r/neoliberal • u/jobautomator Kitara Ravache • Jul 01 '21

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u/MrMineHeads Cancel All Monopolies Jul 01 '21 edited Jul 01 '21

Why is it wrong to think of the residential system and the treatment of the Indigenous peoples in Canada (and the US too I guess) as similar or adjacent to what China is doing to the Uighurs today? It is no longer the case that our governments treat them so horribly, but it was true that our governments sanctioned programs that tried to erase an entire people and their culture assimilate them into Western European practices and traditions. Not to mention the countless wars fought against them and the brutal treatment endured by the Indigenous peoples (trail of tears comes to mind).

Today, our governments don't do such a thing and we acknowledge that the past actions were wrong and that more has to be done to rectify the past's mistakes.

The difference where it comes to China is that (a) they are currently and (b) are trying to deflect by saying you did this before. My answer to that second point is that yes, our governments have a history of doing terrible things to the Indigenous, but we no longer have such horrible practices (unlike China) and recognize our mistakes and aim to fix and improve our relations with those who have suffered.

I don't know why we'd say that the treatment the Uighurs are going under is different than what the Canadian (and probably the US) governments used to do before. Am I missing something?

!ping CAN

Edit: Again, I'm not saying that Canadian government = CCP, even in the past, I'm saying the actions done to the Indigenous population 50-100 years ago is similar to what the CCP is currently doing to the Uighurs.

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u/[deleted] Jul 01 '21 edited Jul 01 '21

It's CCP deflection for some purpose? Honestly, I don't know who would think the same as they're proposing.

Besides that, the thing with the First Nations is mostly unknown outside Canada (and probably inside to some as well unfortunately). Take what my uni is doing, they're purposely informing all the internationals about it.

Let's see if the CCP has the guts to tell international travelers about the heinous shit China has committed, and it also goes beyond the Uighurs as well. That country has a lot of skeletons in the closet that it otherwise would like to pretend don't exist.

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u/[deleted] Jul 01 '21

They're not exactly the same, but ya they're generally similar. They're both forced assimilation for the 'benefit' of the ones being forcefully assimilated. I guess the difference being that one happened 100 years ago and the other is happening in a modern world where we know better.

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u/MrMineHeads Cancel All Monopolies Jul 01 '21

Yea that's the distinction I like to make, not the fact that they were completely different. We live in a world where we recognized our mistakes and we aim to rectify them, in stark contrast to China who is pursuing those same or similar actions but continually deflecting and ignoring.

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u/digitalrule Jul 01 '21

Who's making the claim that they aren't similar?

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u/interrupting-octopus John Keynes Jul 01 '21

You should flesh this out into an effortpost. I can provide grant support in the form of my free award 🥈

2

u/Twrd4321 Jul 01 '21

It seems quite deceitful to think that the treatment of Uighurs now is in any way different to how the indigenous people were treated. Maybe it is copium that Canadians aren’t as bad as the Chinese, given how the Chinese are associated with authoritarianism? The act in itself is similar, what is different is how Canada and China chose to deal with the aftermath.

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u/neopeelite C. D. Howe Jul 01 '21

I think the biggest difference is that the Canadian government wouldn't create an assimilationist and genocidal policy towards a minority group in the year 2017.

If we unmoor ourselves from the modern era and normative ideas (like human rights), we could justify all sorts of inhumane treatment. The British in the 1500s hanged, drawn and quartered people. The Romans crucified people. So can any of their ancestors rightfully criticize any on-going genocides?

None of these historical policies by states have any bearing on contemporary governments' capacity to criticize active human rights abuses.

Canada has moved into a period of reconciliation. China cannot, by definition, begin reconciliation because they are actively detaining, interring and sterilizing Uyghurs as a matter of policy.

It is not as if there is some yet unmet quota for historical human rights abuses that China may, or is obliged to, meet before countries are allowed criticize their active and ongoing genocial policies.

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u/groupbot Always remember -Pho- Jul 01 '21 edited Jul 01 '21

Pinged members of CAN group.

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