Oppression of Euro-Animism

How has the colonization of knowledge come about? Whiteness implies imposing modernity on euro-descendants.

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[lilykatmoon]

I’m a middle aged white lady who just found out in the last few years that my ancestors (German, Scandinavian, and British isles) even had an animist past. I was always fascinated by the animist world view and identify as such now. However, I studied Native American cultures in college, and also Eastern and Indian religions all to feed my pull towards this world view. When I first discovered the modern witchcraft movement, I of course, found all the Wicca and other polytheistic new age perspectives. It never really felt any more true than Christianity did either. I discovered a couple really good channels here on YouTube that cover true Old Norse and Germanic ways who have also taught about our ancestors animist worldview, and have doing all the reading I can. Thanks for offering all this Knowles and understanding. It gives me hope for the future.

[caoimhingibson]

As a Euro Descended Canadian I spent most of my life searching for ways to live in the way you describe. In 2017 I was able to finally adopt a meaningful spiritual walk that draws from the knowledge of my ancestors. Your videos are hugely important and I will be advocating and spreading knowledge of your channel. Thank you

[Wethervane]

Fantastic video! As an anthropologist, I agree we absolutely need a 'concrete turn' in the social sciences. These fields and their conceptual toolkits are perfectly positioned to not only criticize, but also map out some of the new social possibilities we need so badly to avert catastrophe. Right now we are fantastic at the former, but there's still too far little of the latter. Keep it up

[erictheded]

Every video you make teaches and inspires me Rune! You are so knowledgeable and well spoken, and your content is so important for us today, especially Americans. We must shed this mantle of "whiteness" and connect with our cultural heritage, we are Germans, Norwegians, Irish, etc, NOT JUST WHITE! I think a major issue that we, myself included, face is the total separation and isolation from one another. It is so hard to connect these days, especially with like-minded allies. That is a challenge we will need to mantle in the future, thank you again Rune.

[aidancartwright]

Good video Rune. I was reading through the comments and notice a lot of people who seem to get tripped up on "woke" wordplay. I'm sure this is more prevalent here in North America where there is an increasing divide between people aligning themselves with politically right or left leaning groups and centrist positions are quickly decreasing. There's become an attitude that "woke" = antiwhite = anti euro descendants and so many people who may otherwise relate with your message and ideas get turned off by what they interpret as being "woke" buzzwords. The point that "whiteness" does not have to equate with "euro descendants" is missed. I have friends who agree with all you say but find themselves unable to get past what they perceive to be "woke" language. I'm not sure how to best reach these potential audiences....you remind me of a wyrd being attempting to build bridges between gods and giants in the days prior to ragnarok when all they want to do is fight with eachother....this is a larger topic I find difficult to articulate in a comment post and I'm sure its one that's also come to your attention. I guess I just want to say that I hope they don't get you down...keep sharing your thoughts and ideas, many understand the good you are trying to do and hopefully those put off by "woke" language can get past their triggers and find a way to pick up what you're putting down as I think it's valuable.

[spudboy]

20:27 the massive irony with this guy and image is that he was dressed up as a "viking" with "Viking" tattoos and still gave a prayer to the Christian God in the capital

[jeffape]

Perhaps the folks using the word 'whiteness', and that unfortunately includes Dr Rasmussen, would get a better reception of their ideas were it labelled differently. It is a racially charged term, especially here in USA, and I would think Europeans would have learned to not import American ideas of culture and politics ie Hitler found his inspiration for how to solve his 'problem' here in the USA in how the Native Americans were dealt with and how enslaved peoples were dealt with.
If you mean the subjugation and colonization of peoples due to Christians wanting to spread their religion, like Charlemagne conquering northern Europe and killing and enslaving millions of the non-Christians there, conquering others was not a uniquely 'white' aka European thing to do, so why label it 'white'? Do folks imagine that the Mongols spread peacefully across nearly the entirety of Asia, the Middle East, and a large swath of Europe without murder, rape, and enslaving going on? Timur's conquests murdering about 5% of the then WORLD's population? The world wars did not kill 5% of the world's population. Do people think critically before they accept bs like that? There has been plenty of evil performed by non-Europeans, I just named a couple impromptu.
However, this conquering of other peoples and forcing your religion upon them at the point of a sword or under duress, or else be enslaved, seems to be a common attribute of the Abrahamic religions. I'm not aware of pagan religions doing that. Perhaps the term should be Abrahamic religious colonization.
However, perhaps the intent of the folks who decided the term for the bad behavior of Abrahamic religionists is 'whiteness' is exactly to divide us and get us to bickering about whether or not we're white supremacists. Divide and conquer. I'm not aware that pagan peoples thought that way. I am aware that pagans, both African and European, were oppressed, conquered and enslaved by the religious benefactors, Christian and Muslim, conquering them.

[ernamoller]

Thank you Rune for this only saw it today, so rather late than sorry. Thank you for reminding us and reviving traditional animist knowledge.

[endskeleton]

As an American and an Anishinaabe and Nordic descendant, and being that I'm light skinned, I take the 7 fires prophecy fairly seriously. And the 7th fire prophecy messengers believe we are in living in the time of the 7th fire. When I seen this prophecy talked about in your book that's when I felt like I was heading down the right road, looking back, trying to decolonize and reincorporate the ways of my ancestors of Native Americans, and Nordic tribes into my family's traditions. None of my siblings are Christian just as I am, and let's be honest, Christianity is the reason Natives were oppressed, and assimilated. It wasn't the first time nor was it the last. Though the Church isn't our main enemy, I believe our enemy are the top officials of governments. I could literally write an essay on this, but what we believe doesn't jive with their agenda.

[rowenhenning]

OMGs!!!....this is just fabulously 100% spot-fucking-on! I mean have so many people to share this with.
Gosh....your last key point...."the oppression of colonized people is linked to or perhaps even predicated on the oppression of the traditional knowledge (or indigenous knowledge) of majority populations"....is very akin to what I and my Pagan/Heathen/Animst cohorts have been the trauma/intergenerational trauma exacted on Euro-descendants' European ancestors is a direct causal factor in the trauma/intergenerational trauma enacted on colonize people and their descendants. As the saying goes, "traumatized people tend to traumatize people" unless they actively and dedicatedly work on ways to heal themselves so that they don't. (Personally, I think the work you are doing and the presentations you are offering easily qualify as a piece of that healing work.)

I have to admit my head got a bit overwhelmed between 15 and 20 minutes during the references to representations expressions of fascism? Simply put, do you perhaps mean expressions of what might be called pseudo-animism as expressions of fascist ideology?

Are there links to Hedningen, heksen og hyldemor and other shows that offer English subtitles?

[ghostqueen]

I am so glad I stumbled across your channel; as Indo-European Animism is what I am and what is missing in Europe today <3

[Velvet_Intrigue]

This was an excellent video. You're doing important work brother. Thank you.

[kudjoeadkins-battle]

Dude I’ve been saying what you were saying in the beginning for a while!!! Thank you this is awesome.

[cynthiadollar]

You took things I've been saying my whole life and put them in a short video. Thank you!

[PaulinaMeyer-yfcm]

Even from a scientific standpoint, the idea of a "dead world" in which only the human perspective is "alive" sounds absolutely wild! We're (some might say quite invasive) animals, we are part of an ecosystem and we cannot be apart from nature because we are a part of nature. Well, at least that's the world view that i formed while studying biology in the early 2000s; but i'm definitely not alone with this perspective. It's honestly the first time i hear of this definition of modernity, thats super interesting! And people call me extreme when i tell them that i don't see any moral difference between killing an animal for food and killing a plant for food...

[marykayryan]

Because Irish "Catholicism" maintained many of its pagan traditions it was targeted by the British Protestant rulers in exactly the same way you are describing, as superstitious, childish and evidence of cultural inferiority. The Irish (while starving to death during the socalled famine-actually a genocide that resulted in the deaths of millions of Irish people) were characterized as an "inferior race akin to Africans." Drawing appeared in public forums showing the fictive physical similarities between these peoples. And the mass deaths in Ireland were said to be "natural selection against an inferior 'race'." So the twin pronged oppression of which you speak- economic/political on the one hand and cultural/spiritual on the other-- was not merely ideological, but was actually part of a genocidal agenda against the Irish people. Just more data to support your point. This oppression of animism has absolutely gone on in Europe, sometimes to catastrophic results.

[km]

Thank you very much for what you’re doing here

[catherineprater]

I get what you are saying. To have any discussion to solve the issues of racism/colonialism/etc. without the 30% considered ‘white’ will not move society forward. Whites - meaning European descended persons - need to look at our own ancient ancestry to see what needs to be corrected on their part. And yes, I am white. I am seeking to turn the typical white attitude to a more universal acceptance of all nationalities throughout the world and an acceptance of living in tune with nature as a part of it and not the ruler of it. Thanks Rune.

[singam]

At some point when watching this video, the title of a manifesto by a late Indian author titled "Hindutva or Hind Swaraj" came to mind. In a sense, after independence you also see the construction of Indianess as a form of whiteness for brown people. At least (small victories) tradition wasn't erased to the same extent due to various complex factors about Indian history. I am now strongly rooting for your efforts to bear fruit

[mareenique]

I'm so glad that I found your channel! Thank you for this video!