Hundreds of years have passed, and it has been so long that the colonial white population of North America rarely even thinks about the fact that the continent is stolen from indigenous peoples, if they even realize it at all. The parts of the world that were less destroyed by colonialism have already gotten their independence, and some even continue to exist with white minorities but with indigenous people gaining some degree of self determination. Obviously self determination does not mean the indigenous people of a country oppress everyone else in a role-reversal of the colonial relationship, and this scenario only exists in the minds of settlers who think that other groups of people are just as bad as them.

People may think they are progressive or not problematic, but then they will want to go and display an American flag somewhere. They think that they are so inclusive and socially aware, only to celebrate holidays such as the fourth of july or thanksgiving which are especially problematic since the United States can only exist over the dead bodies of the indigenous people of turtle island. People may think it’s radical to invalidate the existence of the United States, but it’s even more radical to turn your nose up to the genocide of an entire continent just so you can maintain allegiance to the war machine and not have cognitive dissonance over western imperialism being the basis of your nation’s existence.

I can already hear the responses I would get. “In some other countries things are worse” or “In Native American communities LGBT are not accepted” or other half-cooked arguments based on liberalism and idealism that also completely obscure the reasons the world is the way it is. Indigenous people did not live in a unified society but without Christianity or European social structures the ways of life would not be similar to anything we have now, and they were historically forced into boarding schools where their culture was systematically destroyed and they were forced to assimilate into American ideology. Colonial states did not allow Native societies to develop on their own so pointing to modern reservations and saying “Look, they still have issues” is unfair and colonial logic that only serves to justify continued injustices. It gives the same energy as when liberals point to Palestine and say “Hey, these people haven’t built a gay utopia!” It’s the kind of discourse we should be laughing off but somehow gets listened to by those following liberal ideology, so I have to actually explain why that’s not convincing.

Regardless of the indigenous people of Turtle Island not living up to the imaginary standards of the liberals, the anti-colonial struggle is anti-revolutionary. An Israeli gay marriage taking place in the ruins of gaza is not progress. A drone strike commanded by BIPOC on third world villages is not progressing. Female landowners stealing the land from Native people the same way a man would is not progress. Even trans women contributing to western imperialist interests in the Ukraine war is not progress. The modern way of thinking given to us by Liberalism is that minorities being allowed to contribute to the imperialist war machine is progress and helps the advancement of their communities. If you truly wish to contribute to the freedom of marginalized people, you need to remove yourself from the thought process of a colonizer. The Native people continue to have their lands taken from them to this day.

On this Fourth of July, think about what you are actually celebrating.