Brickbat: Origin Stories

New inclusivity guidelines for the University of New South Wales, a public university in Australia, warns teachers not to make any references to aboriginal peoples coming to Australia about 40,000  years ago. The document warns this may offend aboriginal people because it conflicts with their oral traditions that they have always lived in Australia. The guidelines suggest lecturers instead say aboriginal peoples have been in Australia "since the beginning of the Dreaming/s" to conform to aboriginal belief.

Comments

[Eddy]

This, in a country which actually has a city named after Charles Darwin.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Darwin#1800s

[Longtobefree]

So they evolved in Australia. How does that impact the fact they have always been there?

[Vernon Depner]

The science says that they were already fully modern humans when the arrived in Australia, not that they evolved there.

[NashTiger]

Wait til they learn they have significant percentage of Denisovan DNA, as well as some trace Neanderthal

[Vernon Depner]

Genetic science is a tool of white supremacy.

[NashTiger]

The fcvkin whackjobs that were with the pretend Vietnam Vet that got in the face of the Covington Kids were spouting off about Science being wrong (Bering Land Bridge) and they evolved independently millions of years ago in the Western Hemisphere

[Vernon Depner]

And that has real consequences. Native American fundamentalist creationism has brought physical anthropology in North America almost to a halt. Scientists can't study early human sites or remains without begging for permission from whatever Native Americans happen to live nearby.

[NashTiger]

Yes, Kennowick Man being one of the earliest and best known examples.
We will probably never get to really test the Solutrean Hypothesis because the "party of Science", as per usual, cowtows to the most anti-Science mobs

[Vernon Depner]

Ironically, the prolonged battle the scientists involved waged against the Indian fundamentalists over the Kennowick Man bought them enough time to do the research that showed the remains WERE ancestral to the Pacific Northwest Indians.

[Jerryskids]

warns teachers not to make any references to aboriginal peoples coming to Australia about 40,000 years ago

Obviously a sop to the Christian fundamentalists who believe the Earth is only 6,000 years old. Or at least that's the narrative to push if you want these educated-beyond-their-capacity-for-learning retards to stop pushing this shit.

[SQRLSY One]

Well yes, I was wondering how long it will be till the educrats will tippy-toe around Christian creationist-fun-dumb-mentalist "creation stories", so as to not offend them... Well, I guess that is happening in many places already... THE FACTS ARE WHATEVER YOU BELIEVE THEM TO BE!!! Evidence is optional, and not allowed when offensive!

[Azathoth!!]

Well yes, I was wondering how long it will be till the educrats will tippy-toe around Christian creationist-fun-dumb-mentalist “creation stories”, so as to not offend them… Well, I guess that is happening in many places already

No--it actually isn't. When Christians try to pull shit like this they get jumped on and dragged into court.

Muslims, otoh, don't. They get prayer rooms and foot-washing stations, and LGBT free classes. This crap is all over the news, how could you think otherwi----oh....

THE FACTS ARE WHATEVER YOU BELIEVE THEM TO BE!!! Evidence is optional, and not allowed when offensive!

[Longtobefree]

Uh, not allowed when conceivably possibly maybe potentially offensive to someone somewhere - - - - Actual offense not required.
As long as that someone is appropriately woke.

[Radioactive]

two wrongs don't make a right...but they do make for some damn good entertainment...let me get some popcorn for the always been here vs the 6K year old earth showdown

[NashTiger]

Or just get Trump to endorse it
"these aboriginues, they were here first, let me tell ya, they were the best at evolving, or being created, or wnatever, the very best"

[Fist of Etiquette]

Aborigin Story.

[AlmightyJB]

Science

[Still Curmudgeoned (Nunya)]

It's settled.

[Longtobefree]

Sort of - - - -
Give AOC a chance, will you?

[Jerry B.]

My family history says that we originally owned all the gold in North America, long before Europeans got here. The small fact that DNA testing shows I am 100% European-descended should have no bearing on the government giving me all it’s gold.

[Longtobefree]

Gold? What gold?
- the government

[Don't look at me!]

Why do you think nobody is allowed into Fort Knox?
(It’s empty).

[Sometimes a Great Notion]

You're thinking of this place all wrong. As if I had the money back in a safe. The money's not here. Your money's in Joe's house...right next to yours.

[Cyto]

Does anyone watch that movie any more? It used to be ubiquitous between Thanksgiving and Christmas, but I have not seen it in years. Maybe that explains what is wrong with the kids these days....

[Inigo Montoya]

It seems there are a number of Native American tribes who also reject the “out of Africa” theory of human evolution, believing they were created where they are.

I’m all for letting people believe whatever they want (and snickering a bit when it’s a silly belief), but it has to be egalitarian. It’s no fair to tell Christian fundies to grow the hell up but not say that to Navaho or Zunis, or even to Muslims who believe Mohammad’s horse flew up right into the sky from the top of the Temple Mount.

[Cyto]

It is pretty easy to see where those beliefs might arise... 40,000 years or 20,000 years is a really, really long time.

Just within my lifetime we have gone from celebrating the enlightenment ethos of our country's founding to systematically forgetting everything about that rugged individualism. And that isn't even 1% of those indigenous timelines.

I'm sure that the first aboriginals to make a life in Australia celebrated and remembered the leaders who brought them there and even had tales of their impressive seamanship. But even if they kept that knowledge alive for longer than the arc of western civilization, it still would be long lost millennia before the agricultural revolution or the advent of the city-state.

In human terms, 40,000 years is near-as-makes-no-difference forever.

That being said, anyone at an academic institution who would pen that memo or sign on to its policies should be immediately fired. There is no place for that sort of mentality in an institution of higher learning, any more than a klansman having a job at the NAACP.

[Quo Usque Tandem]

And we thought the creationists were bad.

[Vernon Depner]

But these people ARE creationists. Just not Christian.

[Radioactive]

could they really be cartoonists (just with bad dyslexia?)

[GroundTruth]

And yet climate skeptics are guilty of denying a scientifically proven model?

[Radioactive]

just cause you can make up data, doesn't make you correct.

[NashTiger]

approximately 0% of climate models are proven scientifcally. We have a 30 year track record of models to look back on, and a 0% accuracy rate in their ability to predict the future (the present)

[inoyu]

I watch Public Television to understand that stone age people were natural and good vs modern people (especially Americans) who are un-natural and bad.

[Vernon Depner]

Yes, they were all peaceful feminists with perfect teeth who had three sexes and lived in perfect harmony with nature.