Life is both more and less than I thought it was

I grew up in the west, thinking that Man had a destiny to tame the wilderness.  My heroes were cowboys and trappers.  My middle school was named after Jim Bridger, and my hometown boasted the the start of all three major westward expansions.

I was limited in my understanding of how these things affected other cultures.  I was restricted in the education that I received and I was lied to when I asked questions.  Some of the people who lied were telling the truth as they knew it, but it was a lie anyway.

That is a fundamental flaw in how we view the world, I think.  Everyone does what they think is best, all the time.  And they then say it like it is an excuse for doing the wrong thing.  They don't understand the math, they think it is not their choice.  They don't see they chose to do the default action when they refused to ponder the circumstances under which they lived.

And they will see the restrictions in world views, the things that literally shape reality, and they blame the victims.  They will blame the oppressed for feeling they are oppressed and they will say, "just get over it".

The idea that people choose to live as oppressed or 'othered' is perpetrated by people who think they chose to be born rich white people, or at least white Christians.  Like the Muslims we bombed on accident or revenge would have been anything other than Christians had they been born white in America.  As Joe said, if I had that dolphins DNA and that dolphins life, I would be that dolphin.

That's just good science right there.  It is.  You think I just, but I do not.