Using minorities as progressive pawns

Although Native America has a valid and proper wish to retain its cultures (as there are more than 600 tribes in North America), there are limits to giving a subculture such clout that it takes precedence over the whole culture. Yet this is a tactic consistently used by progressives to subvert the whole of free American society under the thumb of micro-populations such as LGBT, atheist, black and illegal immigrant militants, “green” advocates, small socio-political groups such as radical Islamists, and, yes, some Indians. The erroneous assumption of these and other subcultures is that their ideals and heritage will vanish within American culture. All one need do is look into the many cultures that make up America – Italian, Irish, German, Japanese, Polynesian, Mexican, ad infinitum – to see how families and communities retain a connection to their forebears without segregating themselves from the larger social order. What separates the United States of America from other nations is that its conglomerate culture is one of individual Freedom that can be expressed without fear of oppression or retribution by a “greater” culture. What has occurred in recent decades, and has been exacerbated over the last eight years under an Obama administration, is an intolerance for the tolerant nature of America. Subcultures have been encouraged to pressure all Americans to accept and even become subservient to their individual customs or, in some cases, peccadillos.

Miseducation and disinformation are favorite methods of influencing groups to take up a banner (and weapons) that, many times, does the exact opposite of benefiting them. As in this situation in North Dakota, the Indians from the Standing Rock Reservation believe that the builders of the North Dakota Access Pipeline are hell-bent on disturbing and destroying Lakota artifacts. This is what the U.S. District Court ruled in Standing Rock Sioux Tribe v. Army Corps of Engineers:

“The Tribe fears that construction of the pipeline, which runs within half a mile of its reservation in North and South Dakota, will destroy sites of cultural and historical significance. It has now filed a Motion for Preliminary Injunction, asserting principally that the Corps flouted its duty to engage in tribal consultations under the National Historic Preservation Act (NHPA) and that irreparable harm will ensue. After digging through a substantial record on an expedited basis, the Court cannot concur. It concludes that the Corps has likely complied with the NHPA and that the Tribe has not shown it will suffer injury that would be prevented by any injunction the Court could issue.” (Bold italics mine. Keep that highlighted word in mind as you read on.)

As in any construction project there are obstacles, but the Midwest Alliance for Infrastructure Now is interested in transporting product from the oil fields to market in as safe and efficient a fashion as possible. Anything else is self-defeating. No serious business is out to damage their own profits by taking dangerous shortcuts that ensure the possibility of oil spills or other mishaps, and that includes running roughshod over culturally sensitive areas that are sure to create a firestorm.

However, in this day and age, with the progressive soup that’s served up in all public schools including those on the reservations, every interest group is assured that it is being threatened with oppression or extinction. American culture is painted as the most hateful of national social structures when, in fact, it is the exact opposite despite some historical policy mistakes. The outcome is graduates who believe themselves tyrannized even while receiving every kind of government benefit. The truth is that those benefits are an inadequate replacement for self-starting entrepreneurism. But the education system teaches that free markets are repressive and entitlements are liberating. Nothing could be farther from the truth yet subcultures accept the rhetoric and react out of misplaced fear, which is precisely what has occurred in North Dakota, and other sincere but ill-informed subculture supporters jump on a mob-based bandwagon. The real misapplication of force is that employed by the vociferous crowd of protesters, whose ginned up anger spilled over into violence last week, just as the BLM group has turned to bloodshed to gain media mileage, not caring if it was good, bad or ugly. The divisiveness that underlies these protests is based wholly on a fear of subjugation that, by engaging in protests turned to riots, brings about what they most fear. How? By pressuring government to place more and more repressive regulations on everyone, not just a few whom some micro-groups consider “evil.” In the end, every person, no matter what subculture or social group they represent, loses freedom under the guise of catering to “civil rights.” It completely backfires rather than protecting a people who have suffered injustice in the past. In the final analysis, by proscribing free enterprise in favor of a slim, and unproven, risk to possible artifacts not directly in the path of the pipeline, the Indians themselves are hamstrung by higher energy costs. And it is energy that powers economic growth, not mounds of governmental regulations. Those restrict everyone’s freedom to pursue wealth and security, binding them to a continual cycle of insufficiency, poverty and dependence.