Suppose (inspired by recent Trumpery) that Canada, Mexico, and the United States were going to merge. One of the three existing Federal governments would incorporate the other countries states or provinces. The other two governments would be unwound. Which government would you favor to govern the combined territory?
@interfluidity anyone voting canada doesn't realize how bleak canadian politics is
@lunch but my Mexican friend says “not Mexico!” and as an American, i can’t at the moment recommend our state…
@interfluidity @lunch What does your mexican friend say about "least amount of concentration camp-like structures"? Something i missed?
@admitsWrongIfProven @lunch things aren’t always golden for migrants there (some trying to transit to the US) either. but i don’t think that’s my friend’s main source of dissatisfaction with the Mexican state.
@interfluidity @lunch Migrants are not exactly what i had in mind.
Canada and the US are not treating the native people well, and for both i rather regularly get news that the problems don't stop. Canada more with clearing their habitations for infrastructure, US more about denying them water.
But i never heard of anything similar in Mexico, while the main problem i do hear about (drug mafia fights) seems strongly connected to US action.
@admitsWrongIfProven @lunch lots to discuss about indigenous affairs in both the US and Canada, but nothing remotely resembling concentration camps for them in either place. there are unwelcome correlations of socioeconomic status, and disputes that emerge from the strange netherworld of working to maintain distinct nations within nations. (so things like water rights, heavily contested across the West, carry a more sinister valence.)
@interfluidity @lunch I do admit i overextended the word here, but there does seem death and suffering involved. I find "reservation" to be no less misleading, rather more so.
Interestingly, the news about canada seem a lot more grim than the US lately.
@interfluidity @lunch Yes, it is a different beast. I'm sorry for my bad word choice.
@interfluidity @lunch Ah, another thing where the technology is lacking a bit. My instance doesn't have an edit function, i would have to delete and retoot. Which would leave the whole thread dangling.
Think it is bad enough that i should do that?
@admitsWrongIfProven @lunch no. i suspect the awkwardness of the word reservation tempts that interpretation, so it’s fine to have a dialogue that clarifies it.
@admitsWrongIfProven @lunch “reservation” is an artifact of that awkward nation-within-a-nation status. it is not a location of confinement. it reflects a continuing aspiration, in theory backed by legal force, to a degree of self determination and autonomy that is often bitterly unmet in practice. nevertheless, no individual is detained on a reservation. only a desire to maintain + live among a distinct community, or the pull of history and family, might bind a person there.