by Jogadora
Elfik2018 wrote:
tmod wrote:
Elfik2018 wrote:
Jacky Blue Note wrote:
Elfik2018 wrote:
or the return of stolen lands that neither current owners nor any of the current generation had a hand in stealing.
Just because we might not have had a hand in stealing lands or comparable resources doesn't mean we don't continue to benefit from them having been stolen, whilst others continue to be adversely effected by that theft.
My point is that return "stolen" lands usually involves a series of thefts itself (or worse, terrorism). Often, the peoples whose lands were taken have themselves committed land theft via war and/or genocidal means in the past. Some want to give back the entirety of Israel/Palestine to Palestinians, but then, what about the land/property the Jews had in Europe and Soviet Russia that was taken from them prior to and during WWII, or the Jews that lived in Palestine during the time of King David (who were later killed/enslaved by Assyrians and Babylonians)? I know the left uses identity politics to try and justify some of these things, but I also find that illogical.
And given that Spirit Island has a card named "Inspire the Release of Stolen Lands", its pretty clear that there's a left-wing bias going on. I still fully enjoy the game, but I disagree that it's completely apolitical. As a Canadian I'm not too familiar with MAGA or how it has to do with anti-colonialism, but I certainly don't see any hint of that in SI.
Irredentism has very little to do with decolonialism. This game has nothing to do with decolonialism as a political position (either right-wing or left-wing), though you could argue it is informed by a post-colonial discourse.
Any native tribe would oppose colonialists invading, but not because they are leftists. That's because they defend their lands! In fact, most traditional societies would be much more accurately described as conservative. Spirit Island tells about the story about the natives (Dahan) and their gods (the Spirits) defending against invading colonialist during the early age of colonialism. This has nothing to do with former colonies struggling to become independent and rebuild their cultural identity (decolonialism).
You are correct, and this is definitely a subjective thing. I think the response I quoted above shows how prevalent decolonialism is (it's embedded in the modern woke mainstream ideology), and my mind is reminded of that position by SI content. In contrast, I see very little correlation to modern day centre or right positions in SI content. In context, of course SI is a historical-ish fantasy so there shouldn't be any one-to-one correlations with the modern day, but as a modern day player, I can't help but find connections as I suspect others do too. I've yet to be convinced of someone who actually reads modern conservative views into the SI content, although there was that thread complaining about the Abrams tank in the rulebook. But again, that had decolonialist/woke written all over it, and it was another reason I felt I had to speak up.
The Israel/Palestine conflict has also been on my mind because of pro-terrorist protesters locally here in Canada. People in my city don't generally protest a lot, and for people to protest in support of terrorism hurts me as a Canadian on a deep level, and I don't even have Jewish relatives. I sought to uncover how people could rationalize this kind of movement, and it's a deep dark web of ideology including but not limited to decolonialism.
I don't understand half the terms you're using. Like woke. What does woke mean?
I do see there is some conflation on the one hand between Jewish people and Isreal and on the other hand with the Palestinian people and terrorism. That latter is quite frankly, out of place, but the former is just as wrong. I have many Jewish people close to my heart that form a part of my chosen family and all of them are appalled, distressed and outraged by the Israeli governments actions (I'm leaving the term neutral because any word I pick you will dispute, I reckon). But we have strayed way too far from Spirit Island I think now. Perahps we can stick to the type of settler colonialism more closely related to this game for this conversation?
