Eminent scholar Lawrence Krauss nicely critiques the fatuousness of indigenous land acknowledgments in a National Post piece, brief excerpts of which are posted below.
Indians good, White man bad. That is the vacuous and simplistic narrative being driven by our academic and political class in Canada today. Why? because it feeds a large and insatiable industy of grievance. There is a lot of power and money to be had if you align yourself with this narrative and you risk ostracicm and career suicide if you point out inconvenient historical facts. I used to think land acknowledgements were harmless virtue signalling, as they were generally pretty innocuous "we are on the traditional territory of the [name of tribe]" or something, but they have become more and more strident and less factual over time as you need to be increasingly extreme in your view of Canadian white supremacy in order to stand out as more virtuous, which means fully adopting the post truth mantra of feelings over facts. You can say anything in a land acknowledgement and no one will dare question it. This has lead to a substantial and growing backlash which the Grievance Industry leaders call "the far right". That's right- calling for truth and historical accuracy is now regarded as a far right position. A reset is badly needed.
People can acknowledge all they want, IMHO, because we are supposed to have the freedom of speech and expression and the freedom to not listen to BS.
But what these grifters are doing is dismissing our equal right not to be forced to listen to the drivel. We have to listen to this BS when we willingly attend events and visit institutions for an entirely unrelated purpose. We end up being guilty by association.
The fact that they have done this at Veteran's Day memorials proved to me that the people behind these hostage-takings are crass, unworthy individuals who should be marched right off the premises by those who are being held hostage. That includes the ass-kissing even organizers who do not respect the right of the invitees not to be forced to listen to misrepresentations and nonsense.
In my case, in Ottawa in 2025 at the Veteran's Day Memorial in my community, I stated openly to anyone who would listen that I will not leave the memorial just because frauds have decided I must particpate in their appropriation of the memorial for their own greedy agenda.
These self-appointed arbiters of what we must listen to have to be removed from all events and institutions, period.
Land acknowledgements are essentially CCP style public shaming sessions by the useful idiots of or participants in the grievance industry. Past SCOC rulings have raised expectations of indigenous ownership of Crown land which if taken literally means that there is no sovereignty in the Crown and the 95% of residents lacking in 1/16th or better indigenous DNA are homeless trespassers living on indigenous land under competing tribal "law" and territory. Ignoring the reality that without taxpayers, there would be no indigenous leadership nor means of survival for the vast majority, given the increasingly dysfunctional and corrupt dominion of Canada, that would be one way of negotiating a new relationship with some appeal but would very likely be lacking in civil norms. Unfortunately, I see little to no political honesty nor appetite to address and work to eliminate racial apartheid in Canada and the endless grift, grievance, and resource shakedown will continue while life on the reserves improves little if at all.
What an important article, its essential point: Those who call themselves indigenous “emigrated from the west…and were colonizers from what is now Asia.”
Concur. However the intent is to pound into everyone’s head that the FNs were here “first” and that whatever accrues to them because of that is deserved and that no one should raise the slightest objection. As long as we have that straight in our heads we shall be fine. Any variation from that will end up with a road blocked or some such…
A constructive article that brings to bear evidence--imagine!--in discussing indigenous history in Canada. Like other articles in this substack, it is soundly based, in contrast to most public discussion and media propaganda on this topic. If only others would base their constructions on evidence.
"Instead of perpetuating myths, he argues, we should celebrate our shared cultural diversity and recognize our interconnectedness as descendants of past colonizers and colonized groups."
But didn't Lawrence notice, we can do both? Indeed, we can't but do both. The perpetuation and the celebration are inextricably entwined. I understand he's a physicist, so this kind of thing I guess is a bit out of his domain of expertise.
Indians good, White man bad. That is the vacuous and simplistic narrative being driven by our academic and political class in Canada today. Why? because it feeds a large and insatiable industy of grievance. There is a lot of power and money to be had if you align yourself with this narrative and you risk ostracicm and career suicide if you point out inconvenient historical facts. I used to think land acknowledgements were harmless virtue signalling, as they were generally pretty innocuous "we are on the traditional territory of the [name of tribe]" or something, but they have become more and more strident and less factual over time as you need to be increasingly extreme in your view of Canadian white supremacy in order to stand out as more virtuous, which means fully adopting the post truth mantra of feelings over facts. You can say anything in a land acknowledgement and no one will dare question it. This has lead to a substantial and growing backlash which the Grievance Industry leaders call "the far right". That's right- calling for truth and historical accuracy is now regarded as a far right position. A reset is badly needed.
People can acknowledge all they want, IMHO, because we are supposed to have the freedom of speech and expression and the freedom to not listen to BS.
But what these grifters are doing is dismissing our equal right not to be forced to listen to the drivel. We have to listen to this BS when we willingly attend events and visit institutions for an entirely unrelated purpose. We end up being guilty by association.
The fact that they have done this at Veteran's Day memorials proved to me that the people behind these hostage-takings are crass, unworthy individuals who should be marched right off the premises by those who are being held hostage. That includes the ass-kissing even organizers who do not respect the right of the invitees not to be forced to listen to misrepresentations and nonsense.
In my case, in Ottawa in 2025 at the Veteran's Day Memorial in my community, I stated openly to anyone who would listen that I will not leave the memorial just because frauds have decided I must particpate in their appropriation of the memorial for their own greedy agenda.
These self-appointed arbiters of what we must listen to have to be removed from all events and institutions, period.
Many people agreed with me.
I plug my ears and shoot out my elbows until this BS Land Acknowledgment stops poisoning my brain.
Land acknowledgements are essentially CCP style public shaming sessions by the useful idiots of or participants in the grievance industry. Past SCOC rulings have raised expectations of indigenous ownership of Crown land which if taken literally means that there is no sovereignty in the Crown and the 95% of residents lacking in 1/16th or better indigenous DNA are homeless trespassers living on indigenous land under competing tribal "law" and territory. Ignoring the reality that without taxpayers, there would be no indigenous leadership nor means of survival for the vast majority, given the increasingly dysfunctional and corrupt dominion of Canada, that would be one way of negotiating a new relationship with some appeal but would very likely be lacking in civil norms. Unfortunately, I see little to no political honesty nor appetite to address and work to eliminate racial apartheid in Canada and the endless grift, grievance, and resource shakedown will continue while life on the reserves improves little if at all.
What an important article, its essential point: Those who call themselves indigenous “emigrated from the west…and were colonizers from what is now Asia.”
Concur. However the intent is to pound into everyone’s head that the FNs were here “first” and that whatever accrues to them because of that is deserved and that no one should raise the slightest objection. As long as we have that straight in our heads we shall be fine. Any variation from that will end up with a road blocked or some such…
A constructive article that brings to bear evidence--imagine!--in discussing indigenous history in Canada. Like other articles in this substack, it is soundly based, in contrast to most public discussion and media propaganda on this topic. If only others would base their constructions on evidence.
Without Canadian taxpayers there would be no survival of any special interest groups indigenous or otherwise!
"Instead of perpetuating myths, he argues, we should celebrate our shared cultural diversity and recognize our interconnectedness as descendants of past colonizers and colonized groups."
But didn't Lawrence notice, we can do both? Indeed, we can't but do both. The perpetuation and the celebration are inextricably entwined. I understand he's a physicist, so this kind of thing I guess is a bit out of his domain of expertise.