Mormons Undoubtedly In The Top 5 Worst Things The United States Has Ever Invented Which Is Really Saying

mormons undoubtedly in the top 5 worst things the united states has ever invented which is really saying something

More Posts from Mysticofmuelenburg and Others

mysticofmuelenburg

1 year ago

What I was taught growing up: Wild edible plants and animals were just so naturally abundant that the indigenous people of my area, namely western Washington state, didn't have to develop agriculture and could just easily forage/hunt for all their needs.

The first pebble in what would become a landslide: Native peoples practiced intentional fire, which kept the trees from growing over the camas praire.

The next: PNW native peoples intentionally planted and cultivated forest gardens, and we can still see the increase in biodiversity where these gardens were today.

The next: We have an oak prairie savanna ecosystem that was intentionally maintained via intentional fire (which they were banned from doing for like, 100 years and we're just now starting to do again), and this ecosystem is disappearing as Douglas firs spread, invasive species take over, and land is turned into European-style agricultural systems.

The Land Slide: Actually, the native peoples had a complex agricultural and food processing system that allowed them to meet all their needs throughout the year, including storing food for the long, wet, dark winter. They collected a wide variety of plant foods (along with the salmon, deer, and other animals they hunted), from seaweeds to roots to berries, and they also managed these food systems via not only burning, but pruning, weeding, planting, digging/tilling, selectively harvesting root crops so that smaller ones were left behind to grow and the biggest were left to reseed, and careful harvesting at particular times for each species that both ensured their perennial (!) crops would continue thriving and that harvest occurred at the best time for the best quality food. American settlers were willfully ignorant of the complex agricultural system, because being thus allowed them to claim the land wasn't being used. Native peoples were actively managing the ecosystem to produce their food, in a sustainable manner that increased biodiversity, thus benefiting not only themselves but other species as well.

So that's cool. If you want to read more, I suggest "Ancient Pathways, Ancestral Knowledge: Ethnobotany and Ecological Wisdom of Indigenous Peoples of Northwestern North America" by Nancy J. Turner

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mysticofmuelenburg

5 months ago

I thought today - the TV show I'd really like to see is one about a medieval monastery.

You could have all kinds of characters: the pious guy who joined because he wanted to serve God, the son born out of wedlock sent there to cover up his parents' shame, the geek who wanted to study Latin but couldn't afford to go into university, the former knight sick of violence and afraid for his soul... Plus monasteries were centres of pilgrimage and places where criminals could take refuge, so we can have a lot of characters who crop up for a few episodes and leave.

Some plotlines I thought of:

Our relics aren't bringing in the pilgrims the way they used to - what do we do?

A women fleeing an abusive marriage has taken shelter in the monastery - how will the brothers respond to having a women in their midst?

One of the monks wants to leave - will the abbot accept or not?

A murderer has taken refuge in the abbey, and the abbot decides to try and save his soul - what will happen?

People are coming to the monastery for food during the famine, but the monastery is itself short of food - how will this be dealt with?

War has broken out between two local lords, and the monks attempt to broker a treaty - will it work?

I've already mentioned some reasons why I think this setting would lend itself to television, but I'd also love to make it for two other reasons:

Get people to understand how weird medieval religion could get, but also that, within its own frame of reference, it was a reasonable and consistent belief system.

Show people that the Middle Ages consisted of more than just muddy people stabbing each other and burning scientists at the stake.

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mysticofmuelenburg

1 year ago

"goddess" "matriarchy" "female wisdom" girl your civic rights

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mysticofmuelenburg

1 year ago

What always gets me about learning about settler colonialism is how once you learn about it you cannot unsee the violence to the land itself. My home state was previously nearly 100% wetlands, apart of the wider Ohio river valley whose biodiversity supported such large populations of hundreds of different species that many contemporary source from settlers describe it as like the garden of Eden.

The Indigenous people who farmed and hunted here (and still farm and hunt in what land they have been able to keep and reclaim) were able to grow miles of upon miles of crops with multiple harvests a year, encouraging this biodiversity by creating forest gardens with incredible amounts of food from staples like corn and squash to local fruits like pawpaws to European imports like apples alongside controlled burns which allowed fields and buffalo ranges to expand.

Nowadays my state is known almost exclusively for its fields of nothing but corn and soy beans. Driving through in between the comparatively small cities you'll see nothing but fields where the plethora of different trees and plants were chopped down mile by mile, the remaining wetlands drained and flattened, and the rich black soils robbed of their nutrients through decades upon decades of monocrop agriculture now preserved through the life blood of petrochemical fertilizers which destroy the surrounding environment.

This process was done mile by mile as the tens of thousands of Indigenous people were killed and displaced by settlers and the US army, the land measured and sold acre by acre to white settlers who raped the land as described, filling the pockets of wealthy land speculators (like George Washington and Thomas Jefferson) who bought the land directly from the government in schemes so corrupt historians have dedicated entire careers to mapping out their dramas.

It's like learning about commodity fetishism and suddenly seeing hundreds of strangers in the products that surround you. Once you learn how the land was destroyed for profit you'll never look at the miles of fields or the cracks in the concrete of buildings built on wetlands or the stench of now obsolete canals built solely for a once boat-dependent economy with no care for the environment the same.

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mysticofmuelenburg

11 months ago

Ryan Gainer was a 15 year old Autistic Black boy who was shot and killed by police in California.

Ryan seemed to have been having a meltdown, he was holding a gardening tool, police were called to the house but they are refusing to release any body cam footage of the shooting and refusing to state how many times Ryan was shot, they failed to help him before the paramedics arrived.

After shooting him Ryan's family was then forced out of their home while the police rummaged through their house looking for any justifiable cause for shooting Ryan.

This is hardly the first time the San Bernardino police department has attacked or killed people having a mental health crisis.

Ryan Gainer Was A 15 Year Old Autistic Black Boy Who Was Shot And Killed By Police In California.

Rest in Power Ryan.

the Guardian

California officer shoots and kills boy, 15, holding gardening tool

Civil rights advocates call for release of police bodycam video after Ryan Gainer killed on Saturday by deputy responding to 911 call

STOP CALLING THE POLICE ON DISABLED AND MENTALLY ILL PEOPLE!

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mysticofmuelenburg

5 months ago

HRC

Fatal Violence Against the Transgender and Gender-Expansive Community…

The Human Rights Campaign is both saddened and infuriated by the deaths of at least thirty transgender and gender-expansive people whose liv

Fatal Violence Against Transgender, Gender-nonconforming, And Nonbinary Americans Continues At An Alarming

Advocate.com

Here are the 30 transgender Americans lost to violence so far this year

The epidemic of fatal violence against trans people in the U.S. continues.

Fatal violence against transgender, gender-nonconforming, and nonbinary Americans continues at an alarming rate. While the number of reported deaths has come down somewhat since 2021’s record of 57, it should be noted that this number is almost always an undercount. In any given year, the majority of those who’ve died by violence are trans women of color, Black women in particular.

Looking at this list, these statistics, how a lot of the women who aren't Black are still woc (and thus not included in the above statistic), and what comes to mind is this quote from Hood Feminism: Notes From the Women a Movement Forgot by Mikki Kendall:

"Trans women of color, who are among the most likely targets of violence, see statistics that reflect their reality co-opted to bolster the idea that all women are facing the same level of danger."

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mysticofmuelenburg

2 months ago