# I Pit Martin Hyde **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [June 16, 2021, 4:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-martin-hyde/944407 "2021-06-16T16:18:26Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 1\ **Showing post:** 261
**Author:** ![Banquet\_Bear](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/banquet_bear/32/373_2.png) [@Banquet\_Bear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Banquet_Bear)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2021, 1:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-martin-hyde/944407/261 "2021-07-16T01:24:50Z")
> [@Measure\_for\_Measure](#): > > If you think genocide is important, _and it is_ , then it’s also important to engage with people who have ordinary median American sentiments, if only to familiarize yourself with what people know, what they don’t know, and what they believe. Right-wing gimmickry matters comparatively less. So Martin’s POV is useful; shouting it down as genocide minimization is unhelpful and counterproductive. …nope. We don’t need to engage with people who have ordinary median American sentiments (AKA white people). We can tell them to fuck the fuck right off and that’s perfectly fine. And if someone like Martin is peddling outright genocide denial then “shouting it down as genocide minimization” is the _very least_ I would expect from genuine allies. I’m an indigenous person that isn’t even allowed to post in the thread about the death of thousands of indigenous children and you are here passionately posting in defence of the free speech of _that guy?_ You can fuck the fuck right off as well. Civility is a tool of white supremacy. And Martin wields it so effectively here that you can’t even see what he has been doing. This was his first post in the original thread. > [@Many hundreds of unmarked graves of Indigenous children discovered at Canadian residential schools](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/many-hundreds-of-unmarked-graves-of-indigenous-children-discovered-at-canadian-residential-schools/943674/93): > > So **being deeply unfamiliar** with the history of these Canadian residential schools, what is exactly being brought to attention here? I’ve seen cursory reporting on this, **always in ominous terms.** Is there any **actual substance to allegations** that these children were murdered or etc? Or is it more the case that they died of natural causes and were just buried in unmarked graves? > > From the rhetoric in the thread, it sounds like the residential schools were awful. But it likewise sounds like people have known the specific ways in which they were awful for a very long time, even if it wasn’t “talked about a lot” in polite society. Is the discovery of the mass graves more seen as a good starting point for a larger dialogue about the schools? If that is the case, it makes sense to me the attention it is getting. > > **But if it’s just outrage at the mass graves, it seems like it may lack historic context.** I think most people died and were buried in unmarked graves before modern times, and maybe even in present times outside of North America. I also do not believe it was ever common before modern times to ship bodies long distance at all. There are specific instances in which wealthier or figures of state had their bodies shipped, or the infamous stories of famous sea captains dying and being brought home inside a cask of liquor and such, **but most people historically were buried very close to where they died.** In some cases the family might erect a small memorial at home in remembrance of them. Martin posted on a subject he conceded he was deeply unfamiliar with. He talked about how the limited reporting he saw made it sound ominous but cast doubt there was substance to the allegations. He thinks that this thing that he admits he **knows nothing about** sounds awful. Then proceeds to write word-after-word concocting fantasy scenarios that are at odds with all the evidence he hasn’t bothered to read. Saying that this is being dismissive of genocide is being **polite**. Because after that Martin doubled down, then tripled down in thread-after-thread, and then finally took the mask off in **this** thread. This isn’t Martin being ignorant of the facts. **He knows exactly what he is doing.** He masks it by writing lots of words and caveats and being polite. It is **counter-productive** to engage with Martin on his own terms. It is **unhelpful** for indigenous people to be told by people like you that it is “important to engage with people who have ordinary median American sentiments.” As if we haven’t been trying to do that for fucking ever. Get some fucking perspective for fucks sakes. --- _[View the full topic](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-martin-hyde/944407)._