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Comment by majormajor | Hacker News Reader

> From a certain perspective, all of human history can be summed up as an endless series of blood feuds.

Is it so bad that people think we should try to do better?

In my history classes I learned about Europe - itself very much in flux as you mention through the past thousand years - being "invaded" and America being "settled." Things need to be properly acknowledged before they can be moved past. And some of these things that are painted as "revisionism" when they aren't glossed over have lingering harmful effects even today.

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>Europe - itself very much in flux as you mention through the past thousand years - being "invaded" and America being "settled."

Sometimes, so-called invasions are really migrations. Its no longer correct to talk about aryan invasions, now its the indo-european migrations. On the other hand, the term invasion can be justified. The mongols were not migrants or settlers - they were invading conquerors true as history.

> Things need to be properly acknowledged before they can be moved past.

What acknowledgement would right the wrongs of history? What is the appropriate amount of reparations to be paid?

Is "None" the answer that would satisfy you? You seem to be implying a slippery slope, but you come off as saying "what's non-trivial shouldn't be attempted."

If you're actually interested in answering that very big question–which, I suspect, you might not be, only ornery and combative–you would do well to read what scholars have written on it. You might even Google the simplest component of the subject.

Here is a start: "US approves $4.5 billion in reparations to Indians, black farmers"[0]

0. http://www.digitaljournal.com/article/301242

Answers along the lines of "here's a start" are unsatisfying, because the question is where the end is. It's like asking what the ingredients for a loaf of bread are and hearing "well a tablespoon of flour is a start".

I'm not aware of any scholar who's said "after we do X, Y, Z, the wrongs of history will be righted and we won't need any further efforts to make it up to Native Americans". (If you know someone who did, I'd be excited to see what they have to say!)

Some ideas are best conveyed through richer media. Don't hesitate to read Indigenous People's History of the United States, and stop demanding bread recipes on fortune cookie slips.

I'm sure you understand why this sounds suspiciously like a claim that there is no end.

Truly? I do not. Of course there is an end; equity and the abolition of continuing systems of oppression.

I am honestly blown away that there exists in your mind some set of beliefs which, paired with what I've said, imply I suggest there is no end. Please, what are they?

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