John Muir is Canceled. Whos's Next?

[gam197]

Cancel Culture: John Muir Is Latest Victim -- Who's Next? | National Review

The Sierra Club is “celebrating” the event in an unusual way. It is dumping any association with John Muir, the “father of the national parks” who founded the Sierra Club back in 1892.

 

[ThinkingSapien]

It’s an interesting twist to call their disassociation with that person a celebratory act. Also, Muir died 116 years ago. The original post from last month can be found here.

https://www.sierraclub.org/michael-brune/2020/07/john-muir-early-history-sierra-club

Sierra Club:

The most monumental figure in the Sierra Club’s past is John Muir. Beloved by many of our members, his writings taught generations of people to see the sacredness of nature. But Muir maintained friendships with people like Henry Fairfield Osborn, who worked for both the conservation of nature and the conservation of the white race. Head of the New York Zoological Society and the board of trustees of the American Museum of Natural History, Osborn also helped found the American Eugenics Society in the years after Muir’s death.

And Muir was not immune to the racism peddled by many in the early conservation movement. He made derogatory comments about Black people and Indigenous peoples that drew on deeply harmful racist stereotypes, though his views evolved later in his life. As the most iconic figure in Sierra Club history, Muir’s words and actions carry an especially heavy weight. They continue to hurt and alienate Indigenous people and people of color who come into contact with the Sierra Club.

Other early Sierra Club members and leaders – like Joseph LeConte and David Starr Jordan – were vocal advocates for white supremacy and its pseudo-scientific arm, eugenics. Jordan, for example, served on the board of directors during Muir’s presidency. A “kingpin” of the eugenics movement, he pushed for forced-sterilization laws and programs that deprived tens of thousands of women of their right to bear children – mostly Black, Latinx, Indigenous, and poor women, and those living with disabilities and mental illness. He cofounded the Human Betterment Foundation, whose research and model laws were used to create Nazi Germany’s eugenics legislation.
[…]
In subsequent posts in this series, we’ll talk in much more depth about the steps we’re taking to rebuild the Sierra Club on a basis of racial and social justice and to try to repair the harm we’ve caused. I know that the steps I’ve outlined above are only the beginnings of what will be a years-long process to reckon with our history, regain trust from the communities we have harmed, and create a diverse and equitable Sierra Club for the 21st century.

 

[gam197]

though his views evolved later in his life,” Brune wrote in a statement on the Sierra Club’s website.

Indeed, Muir later lived among various Native American tribes. “He grew to respect and honor their beliefs, actions, and lifestyles,” wrote scholar Richard Fleck, in the journal American Indian Quarterly . “He, too, would evolve and change from his somewhat ambivalent stance toward various Indian cultures to a positive admiration.”

In an interview with the California Sun , Donald Worster, a professor and noted biographer of Muir, says the attack on Muir is completely devoid of context:

He saw the effects of white immigration and the diseases that came along, wiping out whole populations; the presence of alcohol and its effect; trade relations that were not good for the Indians. He wrote a diatribe against the white invasion. He said this is something the government should be up here doing: taking care of and protecting these people from being exploited, from being hurt and dying from all this. . . . It wasn’t just the Indians who got him saying unflattering things. The white population, the people who were invading — the frontier types, the miners — he thought they were uncouth, savage, brutal, dirty, given over to alcohol. His writings are full of those descriptions. Nobody gets upset about that.

The debate over John Muir is only the beginning of a purge sweeping the environmental community. In Crosscut magazine, Glenn Nelson wrote a piece last month headlined “Toppling John Muir from Sierra Club Is Not Enough.”

Nelson called for dramatic efforts to “overcome a violent history of exclusion” by environmental groups. He said the next focus should be on the National Audubon Society, whose namesake, artist John James Audubon, “was an enslaver who opposed the intermingling of races.” The fact that Audubon may have himself been born to a black Creole woman in Haiti is less important than the fact the Audubon Society “has not reconciled its association with a man who, like Muir, embraced racist ideas and activities.”

If we are to expunge from their place of honor all the historical figures who changed their views later in life or who held views that were common in their time, where will it stop?

By these standards, Martin Luther King would be canceled for his attitude on gays. A teen asked about being gay and Martin Luther’s response was.

In order to do this I would suggest that you see a good psychiatrist who can assist you in bringing to the forefront of conscience all of those experiences and circumstances that lead to the habit. You are already on the right road toward a solution, since you honestly recognize the problem and have a desire to solve it.

John F Kennedy should also be purged from history.

Kennedy once said of a donor who hadn’t backed his campaign but still wanted to be an ambassador: “I’m going to f*** him. I’m going to send him to one of those boogie republics in Central Africa.”

 

[Nepperhan]

The Sierra Club is “celebrating” the event in an unusual way. It is dumping any association with John Muir, the “father of the national parks” who founded the Sierra Club back in 1892.

Please tell this to those on this forum who continually flail about the name of Margaret Sanger. She is currently receiving similar treatment.

 

[ThinkingSapien]

By these standards, Martin Luther King would be canceled for his attitude on gays.

Since the usage of “cancelled” appears to be evolving to any type of disassociation by any group, I don’t think that is saying much.

John F Kennedy should also be purged from history.

I’ve got no clue where “purged from history” is coming from. But okay.

 

[gam197]

gam197:

The Sierra Club is “celebrating” the event in an unusual way. It is dumping any association with John Muir, the “father of the national parks” who founded the Sierra Club back in 1892.

Please tell this to those on this forum who continually flail about the name of Margaret Sanger. She is currently receiving similar treatment.

“Larry Elder, an African-American radio-talk-show host, recently noted that for years Martin Luther King Jr. wrote an advice column for Ebony , a monthly magazine for black Americans. A closeted gay teenager once asked him:”

My problem is different from the ones most people have. I am a boy, but I feel about boys the way I ought to feel about girls. I don’t want my parents to know about me. What can I do? Is there any place where I can go for help?

King answered:

Your problem is not at all an uncommon one. However, it does require careful attention. The type of feeling that you have toward boys is probably not an innate tendency, but something that has been culturally acquired. Your reasons for adopting this habit have now been consciously suppressed or unconsciously repressed. Therefore, it is necessary to deal with this problem by getting back to some of the experiences and circumstances that lead to the habit. In order to do this I would suggest that you see a good psychiatrist who can assist you in bringing to the forefront of conscience all of those experiences and circumstances that lead to the habit. You are already on the right road toward a solution, since you honestly recognize the problem and have a desire to solve it.

Shouldn’t Martin Luther King also be canceled for his views toward gays?

 

[Nepperhan]

“Larry Elder, an African-American radio-talk-show host, recently noted that for years Martin Luther King Jr. wrote an advice column for Ebony , a monthly magazine for black Americans. A closeted gay teenager once asked him:”

Exactly why are we going down memory lane here? Is there a larger point in all this?

 

[gam197]

gam197:

“Larry Elder, an African-American radio-talk-show host, recently noted that for years Martin Luther King Jr. wrote an advice column for Ebony , a monthly magazine for black Americans. A closeted gay teenager once asked him:”

Exactly why are we going down memory lane here? Is there a larger point in all this?

We can’t selectively go down memory lane. It is ok for Martin Luther King to say such things to gay teens, is that what you are suggesting?

 

[Zzyzx_Road]

My father once told me he quit the Sierra Club as a young man when he found out about the racism inherent in their environmental policies. He said the dirty secret over there was that as they crowed loudly to clean up something or other, they cared very little about the welfare of the minorities who were scrambling for a living in that venue and whose living was going to be cut off if the environmentalists succeeded. The Sierra Club’s general attitude was “they shouldn’t be doing that anyway”. Perhaps that attitude was Muir’s legacy.

 

[RidgeSprinter]

The Sierra Club is “celebrating” the event in an unusual way. It is dumping any association with John Muir, the “father of the national parks” who founded the Sierra Club back in 1892.

It is the prerogative of The Sierra Club.

Nothing Burger​

 

[Nepperhan]

We can’t selectively go down memory lane. It is ok for Martin Luther King to say such things to gay teens, is that what you suggesting?

I’m suggesting that there needs to be some applicability of what was said to current issues.

 

[gam197]

My father once told me he quit the Sierra Club as a young man when he found out about the racism inherent in their environmental policies. He said the dirty secret over there was that as they crowed loudly to clean up something or other, they cared very little about the welfare of the minorities who were scrambling for a living in that venue and whose living was going to be cut off if the environmentalists succeeded. The Sierra Club’s general attitude was “they shouldn’t be doing that anyway”. Perhaps that attitude was Muir’s legacy.

Then shouldn’t the whole Sierra club be closed down along with the Audubon Society if these groups had racist ideologies? John Muir was born in 1838.

 

[gam197]

gam197:

We can’t selectively go down memory lane. It is ok for Martin Luther King to say such things to gay teens, is that what you suggesting?

I’m suggesting that there needs to be some applicability of what was said to current issues.

No you are suggesting selective canceling. Martin Luther King and his history should also be taken out of the history books because he took a a very disgriminative view toward gays and it is well documented.

 

[Zzyzx_Road]

That’s the petard by which they should be hoisted; that’s one way to look at it.

On the other hand, I’m a believer in the First Amendment so they have a right to their existence as long as they can sustain themselves.

 

[Nepperhan]

No you are suggesting selective canceling. Martin Luther King and his history should also be taken out of the history books because he took a a very disgriminative view toward gays and it is well documented.

No, I didn’t suggest any cancelling. My question was an inquiry as to what point you are trying to make.

 

[Dr_Meinheimer]

Please tell this to those on this forum who continually flail about the name of Margaret Sanger. She is currently receiving similar treatment.

I’d say on a website focused on Catholicism, your pseudo-defense of Margaret Sanger is sad and pathetic. Of all the figures you could choose to make your point, you chose a racist eugenicist at the forefront of the modern birth control era. Come on.

 

[Nepperhan]

I’d say on a website focused on Catholicism, your pseudo-defense of Margaret Sanger is sad and pathetic.

I’m not psuedoing a thing so you don’t have to be sad. I’m pointing out that a name is swung around like a dead cat at every opportunity. If folks are going to discuss Muir then they should at least discuss what is being done about Sanger’s history, since the woman seems to merit mention so often.

 

[Dr_Meinheimer]

If folks are going to discuss Muir then they should at least discuss what is being done about Sanger’s history, since the woman seems to merit mention so often.

I don’t know enough about Muir to have an opinion on him being
cancelled". Sanger was a tragic, vile figure in history whose legacy is one of death and destruction for both individual lives and the family.

 

[Nepperhan]

I don’t know enough about Muir to have an opinion on him being
cancelled". Sanger was a tragic, vile figure in history whose legacy is one of death and destruction for both individual lives and the family.

And I don’t discuss either of them. Yet some want to make my statements into some kind of support.

 

[JonNC]

Please tell this to those on this forum who continually flail about the name of Margaret Sanger. She is currently receiving similar treatment.

“though his views evolved later in his life,” Brune wrote in a statement on the Sierra Club’s website.“

Did Sanger’s views evolve?
Sierra Club, AFAIK, doesn’t express racist views, but PP still executes soon to be born black human beings.