gastown

Can you provide a specific example of this?

What are your thoughts on the Debt Collective?

Forgive me, I should have been more specific myself by asking you to cite an example. “Small groups of activists in the USA” isn’t very specific, and what you describe I have personally never heard anyone say. I am not saying no one has said it, I’m saying I haven’t heard it and you haven’t provided a specific example.

I have read Numbers 14:18 which says:

The Lord is slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love, forgiving iniquity and transgression, but he will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children, to the third and the fourth generation.

(emphasis mine)

Whether or not you believe the bible (which I don’t), I cite it because it shows this idea of generational guilt is an old, common idea in many cultures (and one perhaps we all secretly hold when we think of cultures who aren’t our own?).

When I’ve heard people say anything remotely close to what you’ve described, it’s generally in the context of a discussion about reparations.

I’m white. I make good money. I don’t love the idea of giving any of it up for someone I don’t know.

My family moved to Canada 2 and 3 generations ago and I’m fairly certain none of the individuals of my family had any direct, personal impact on how Indigenous people have been treated in Canada. Of the few Indigenous people I know, I’ve always tried to be nothing but respectful and friendly.

But what about the culture my family and I came out of? Is it innocent? Have I benefitted, even if only indirectly, from evil actions people who came from the same place as me committed?

Do I believe I’m personally responsible for the actions of people who came from the same place my family did? I don’t. I don’t feel guilty for something I haven’t done (I’ve got plenty of my own mistakes to feel bad about).

Do I believe the government who represents me and my family have a responsibility to pay penance for the sins of our fathers? Not as a rule.

Do I believe the Canadian government should go above and beyond to help the First Nations with whom we share a common land? It doesn’t take much to know that what they want primarily is sovereignty over themselves and their families, just as you and I do even if it looks a little different. And perhaps my government has financial resources which came from a lack of respecting the sovereignty of First Nations for which they are owed.

Why shouldn’t small groups of people have loud voices? Should scientists working on a vaccine for COVID-19 be silenced because there’s not many of them? Should nurses not be able to share their concerns because there are less of them than there are of us? What about poor children who are going hungry? Not many of them. Better tell them to shut up.

Who has the right to determine which small group should be listened to? Why not listen to everyone and when something is said you disagree with, befriend those people and ask them respectful questions?

I thought that was the whole idea behind free speech?

So that even in a system where majority rules, the little one would still have a voice.