Can women decolonize the University of Minnesota?

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Women and Decolonization

Why is extreme anti-Israel activism dominated by wild-eyed young women?

Remember that Charles Manson wanted to start a race war:

During the Tate-La Bianca trials, Charlie Manson's followers attempted to disrupt the legal procedures by erratic behavior. In a display of female camaraderie, they shaved their heads, drew X's on their foreheads, walked hand in hand into the courtroom and sat on the sidewalk. Before his arrest, the cult leader used them as honey traps for men. They might have killed a heavily pregnant woman in cold blood, but boy were they tender with each other.

The pro-Palestinian cult exhibits similar intragroup dynamics. They back the most genocidal anti-zionist cults, but their sisterhood is on display . . . representing Gaza in the halls of the U.S. Congress, Rashida Tlaib broke into sobs and had to be comforted by her colleague, Representative Ilhan Omar.

Young women today grow up with dreams of leadership. We've socialized them this way. Kara Jesella argues in Quillette that the ideal feminist persona evolved from the midcentury ideal of female self-actualization to "the queer Palestinian terrorist." Our culture no longer tells girls to be all that they can be - - in fact, we are afraid to tell them that they are girls. They have been taught that to perform outrageous political stunts is the highest spiritual value - - and they are acting accordingly.

There is a hole in the American female psyche. The theater of the political absurd has supplanted meaning, reason, and human relationships. Young women yearn for the violent and the mysterious. As with their sisters who ran away from home ten years ago to become "ISIS brides," these women have embraced a radical vision of political, emotional, and spiritual revolution. Let's hope they figure out the dead end journey they are on before they go past the point of safe return.

The University of Minnesota is already partly decolonized.

Time to finish the job?

On Tuesday, Ace posted this: U. of Minnesota "Professor" Praises the Terrorism of 10/7, Calls for Violent "Decolonization" of America

. . . Earlier this month, University of Minnesota liberal arts professor Melanie Yazzie took the stage with several other speakers as part of the anti-capitalist Native American advocacy group the Red Nation's "teach-in" on the Israel-Hamas war.

During the pro-Palestinian event, Yazzie made several controversial comments, including early on when she said she wanted a takeaway from the event to be that "we're all indigenous people who come from nations who are under occupation by the United States government." . . .

Yazzie said that she and her comrades "want [the] U.S. out of everywhere," including "Palestine" and "Turtle Island" - - a name used by some Native American tribes to describe North America.

"And that the goal is to dismantle the settler project that is the United States for the freedom and the future of all life on this planet," Yazzie said. "It very much depends on that."

All life on the planet!

There was some interesting discussion in the comments about the topics taught by Professor Yazzie. Perhaps even outside the university. (Don't comment on old threads). Most of the topics she teaches are, predictably, favorites among the post-modernist crowd. Native Americans are made to fit into the larger far left narrative.

"the U.S. is the greatest predator empire that has ever existed."

Many of the points covered in Ace's post are included in this two-minute video segment of the teach-in.

Yazzie states, "I seek to dismantle the United States. I hope you seek to dismantle the United States."

Yazzie goes on to argue that you shouldn't question Indigenous Women because they are "the most oppressed ass people in Turtle Island."

"Palestine is the alternative path."

Trust indigenous women when they tell you that the victories of Hamas and Palestine will provide a guide out of their suffering under the heteropatriarchy.

Don't question the rape and torture part, especially.

Somehow, she doesn't look to me like she is ready to dismantle the United States. Her rhetoric is predictable, but extreme. Yet she does not much resemble the violent, wild-eyed women who seem to dominate extreme anti-Israel activism. If she grew up around more traditional Navajos, this would be expected, since in their culture, it is a bad thing to even look someone in the eye. People might get the idea that you were trying to give them the evil eye.

So, pay attention to her wild words, not her demeanor. She does fit the profile of "the queer Palestinian terrorist" in a more quiet way than we sometimes see on the street.

She has been doing work for The Red Nation for a long time. I don't think she could decolonize all of North America (Turtle Island), but maybe she can decolonize her place of employment - get rid of all that nasty influence of the federal government . . .

Professor Yazzie was not the only radical on the stage.

The video at the link above is part of a series of short video segments (with short written summaries) taken from the teach-in: From Minnesota to Palestine

Red Nation hosted From Minnesota to Palestine: Teach In and Panel Discussion on December 3rd.

This Teach-In showed the ties and need for solidarity amongst the AIM, BLM, Stop Cop City, and other movements. Two University of Minnesota Twin Cities professors led this teach-in. 🧵 pic.twitter.com/dgaUR5dXlR

— Stu (@thestustustudio) December 13, 2023

You should also unconditionally support the burning of police precincts in Minneapolis.

Here is a video of the entire 2 hour "teach-in". Remember that they don't want you to ask any hard questions about their interpretation of history or anything.

In spite of all the intricate post-modernist topics touched on in the "Minnesota to Palestine" teach-in, James Lindsay has put together a detailed thread fisking the sponsoring organization as primarily old-fashioned revolutionary Marxism:

Let's do a little homework on the group, Red Nation, platformed here at the University of Minnesota. "Revolutionary socialism is the primary political ideology of the Red Nation."

This is not an organization of Indian tribes. This is a small organization of mostly academic radicals.

"I firmly believe that the philosophy of my ancestors lines up quite tidily with the philosophy of communism. I make no apology for my principles."

Looks like they're explicitly Marxist and openly seditious.

They're even more tedious in writing than on stage. But they really hate the United States.

"Marxism is not European. Socialism is Indigenous.

"Marxism is founded on the expropriated knowledges of non-capitalist Indigenous societies." . .

"Even for Indigenous peoples in the Americas, the concepts and theories of decolonization explicitly derive from Marxist revolutionary movements."

Well, there you have it. . .

"Like our ancestors we must be forward-thinking. . . , not to make Indigenous traditions relevant to Marxism or socialism but to make socialism and Marxism relevant to our struggle as Indigenous peoples."

There is MUCH more at the link. Much more verbiage, that is. Not much more wisdom. See the dumbest paragraph he's ever read.

More Decolonization in Minnesota

Powerline often reports news from Minnesota. From 2022, Subversion of the Medical School:

Last month Anthony Gockowski reported for Alpha News on the oath to "promote a culture of anti-racism" taken by incoming University of Minnesota Medical School students at their white-coat ceremony on August 19:

White coats, the students said, are themselves a "symbol of power, prestige, and dominance." Therefore, students will "strive to reclaim their identity as a symbol of responsibility, humility, and loving kindness."

"We commit to uprooting the legacy and perpetuation of structural violence deeply embedded within the health care system," the students said, according to a video of the ceremony.

Dr. Robert Englander, associate dean for undergraduate medical education, led students in reciting the oath, which he described as "beautiful." He said the class oath was written by the students in consultation with their faculty advisors.

"We recognize inequities built by past and present traumas rooted in white supremacy, colonialism, the gender binary, ableism, and all forms of oppression," the students said in their oath.

Anthony's story includes links to the underlying materials. Perhaps most notable are the mindlessness, falsity, and Maoist self-abasement of the oath, although I am undoubtedly missing a few other elements that should be mentioned. . .

Chris Rufo picked up on this:

Medical students at the University of Minnesota must now take an oath to "honor all Indigenous ways of healing that have been historically marginalized by Western medicine" and fight "white supremacy, colonialism, [and] the gender binary."

In the part of the oath he included in his tweet, there are also references to "health equity", "healing the planet" and other leftist themes.

So, having given up the Hippocratic Oath, maybe they should sign up to teach in the same department as Professor Yazzie, rather than becoming doctors.

Of course, Comrade Nick, at about 10 minute in the video of the Minnesota to Palestine teach-in, doesn't put too much stock in these soft words.

He wants CONTROL. How about shipping out all that Western technology and making the medical school into a world-famous example of indigenous medicine?

TIME TO DECOLONIZE THE UNIVERSITY!

The governor might go along with this. Recent news, from Powerline again:

In 1862, Dakota Indians went on a mass murder spree, butchering more than 600 innocent whites, mostly women and children. . .

If that narrative sounds familiar, it should. What the Dakota did in 1862 was remarkably similar to what Gazans did on October 7. And the reaction, too, was similar. Surviving whites were righteously infuriated, just like today's Israelis. A militia was quickly organized and sent to the Minnesota River valley, where the assault took place. The federal government, which was losing the Civil War at the time, sent such troops as it could spare. A brief war followed-the Indians did not fare as well against armed civilians and soldiers as they did against unsuspecting women and children-and the uprising was put down.

Several thousand Indians were captured and many were tried by a military court. Initially, several hundred were sentenced to death. If the local whites had their way, they all would have been hanged. But President Lincoln intervened. He ordered that the trial transcripts should be carefully reviewed, and only those against whom there was clear evidence of either murder (not killing in battle) or rape could be executed. The others must be let free. When the local military commander objected that if he freed the Indians the settlers would kill them, Lincoln replied that it was his job to keep the Indians safe.
In the end, there was clear enough evidence of murder or rape to convict 38 Dakota. No doubt many more deserved to hang. But there were no survivors left alive to testify after some attacks, while in other cases, the survivors were unable to identify individual perpetrators. Also, some of those who deserved to hang must have been killed in battle. But no doubt many murderers and rapists got off scot-free.

Scott and I reviewed the transcripts of the Dakota trials at the Minnesota Historical Society years ago, and wrote an op-ed in the Star Tribune debunking the pro-Indian myths that had developed over the years. But that didn't stop liberals from continuing to rewrite history. . .

. . . when did facts ever matter to liberals? They continue to lionize the Dakota who murdered and raped white children and women. Like, for example, Minnesota's far-left Governor Tim Walz

In addition to memorializing the terrorist Dakota warriors of the past, Walz could free the Dakota rebels on the University of Minnesota campus from state and federal aid and interference. See how that goes . . .

The governor could maybe put a wall around the university to keep the bison in.

During the teach-in, mention was made of the importance of sheep both to Palestinians and to Indians of the American Southwest. Maybe the gyms at the University of Minnesota could shelter Southwestern sheep during the winter.

Of course, these kinds of ideas would be up to the socialists of the Red Nation to fine-tune and implement.

Quotes

Hot take:

Major institutions in Country X should not be guided by people who want to destroy Country X.

If the West ever does lose to the East, or for that matter rising India or West Africa, a REAL genocide of "BLM, Free Palestine" types would happen inside two years.

That is in NO WAY darkly funny.

An underrated factor in the "propaganda war" is the exoticization of the Palestinians, who are framed like first contact indigenous American tribes instead of feudal tenant farmers who had been dealing with a property system very similar to that of Europe's for centuries. . .

. . they were not living in a world where the concept of private property was some alien import by the wicked "settlers".

Their objections were identitarian in nature ("how dare JOOS buy up land"), not about collective land rights ("how dare ANYONE buy our land").

Weekend Reading

Do you have a hard time believing what is happening in our universities?

Helen Dale provides a droll introduction to Lorenzo Warby's analysis of Franz Fanon's The Wretched of the Earth in Our postcolonial trash needs taking out. He is currently writing a book on what he calls "post-Enlightenment progressivism".

A few excerpts from his deep critique:

After Hamazis gleefully killed a stack of Jews - - one of the largest terrorist killings ever; per capita, the most murderous terror killing ever; the largest slaughter of Jews since the Holocaust - - within hours, various academics told us how it exemplified decolonisation.

When you look into the history, this turns out to be literally true.

The "lesson" of decolonisation was that if you terrorise settlers - - if you kill entire families - - they leave. You terrorise French settlers in Algeria, they leave. You terrorise English settlers in Kenya, they leave.

So, the logic of "decolonisation" goes, if you terrorise Jewish "settlers" in Israel-Palestine, they will leave. The PLO was founded in 1964 on the model of Algeria's FLN and adopted the FLN's "terrorise the settler" tactics, repeating local patterns that stretched back to 1920.

The logic behind such terror has now been tried for over a century in Israel-Palestine and it never works. The Jews of Israel are overwhelmingly refugees or their descendants, rather than settlers. They have no France or England, no "home country", to go back to. They react to such terror acts as people with nowhere else to go.

So, how can folk not see the difference? Historically, local Muslims were often blind to the difference: Russian-speaking Jews were Russians, German-speaking Jews were Germans. They were all Franj, or possibly Rum. All kaffir. This blindness became far more willful as Jewish refugees from Muslim lands flooded into Israel. Postcolonial commentators in the West share a similar blindness.

Another large reason, however, is an outgrowth of Postcolonial Theory, which classes Israeli Jews as "settlers": they cannot be refugee populations. And at this point, the circle closes. Frantz Fanon's The Wretched of the Earth is the ur-text of Postcolonial Theory. The book was written while Fanon was resident in Algeria during the Algerian Revolution. He was an avid supporter.

That The Wretched of the Earth is the ur-text of Postcolonial Theory says very bad things about both Postcolonial Theory and academe. The Wretched of the Earth is mostly an angry rant that mistakes Theory for evidence and treats historical events as a pick 'n' mix to feed its narrative. . .

A remarkable amount of history concerning recurring patterns of imperialism and settlement (and other civilizational issues) follows, with an analysis of how Fanon fails to consider such important data. More educational than most of today's college courses.

Neither Freudian nor Marxist theory is up for the use Fanon wants to make of it. Much of the Marxist terminology is simply embarrassing, forcing framings on events and societies that simply do not work.

The Wretched of the Earth is an example of how Theory can work as a substitute for evidence, which explains some of its enduring appeal, particularly to the innumerate. . .

. . The state will be fine if run by correct folk with correct consciousness. That social progress comes from correct enlightenment is a recurring theme. One can see why Fanon appeals to the collective narcissism of academics. He licenses them to worship the splendour in their heads and assert a sense of moral superiority over everyone else in their societies.

Racialization is also a personal issue for Fanon, and the narratives of decolonization encourage this.

This nonsense builds on a refusal to see imperialism as overwhelmingly a state activity and unwillingness to note its normality throughout history. The achievements of Western civilisation are real, and have little to do with either imperialism or colonialism. This is how landlocked and empire-free Switzerland became richer than Portugal, despite the latter engaging in serious colonialism for centuries.

Some conclusions:

The Iranian ex-Muslim who argued that comparing Muslim indifference to Muslim suffering elsewhere with Muslim obsession over Israel shows that Palestinian sloganeering is really cover for Jew-hatred has a point. But there's more to the story. There's also Postcolonial Theory - - with its "settler colonialism" rhetoric. It's ur-text is Fanon's mythic rhetoric of rage. Hamas even rewrote its Charter (in 2017) to bring it into line with decolonial ideas.

When various supporters of decolonisation claimed that the Hamazi attacks of October 7 were decolonisation, they were correct. There's a direct line from terrorising settlers in Algeria to terrorising Israelis. Yet Postcolonial Theory is so analytically and morally bankrupt that it cannot parse the difference between colonial settlers--who could retreat back to a metropole where they were still citizens - - and a country full of refugees and their descendants who have nowhere else to go.

The Wretched of the Earth, with its dehumanising Manichaean moral binary, is a terror manual. . .

Postcolonial Theory exemplifies why activist scholarship is degraded scholarship. Understanding is sacrificed in favour of creating motivating myths. These myths are now used to fuel and excuse Jew-hatred.

This could be a good piece to share with bright kids in the demographic where "decolonization" is the current thing. Also, compare his observations with the rhetoric at the University of Minnesota "teach-in" above.

Music

Cultural appropriation:

RIP Tom Smothers

Hope you have something nice planned for this weekend.

This is the Thread before the Gardening Thread.

Last week's thread, December 23, Happy Christmas Weekend

Comments are closed so you won't ban yourself by trying to comment on a week-old thread. But don't try it anyway.

posted by K.T. at 11:08 AM

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