Wendigo
It’s an Algonquin cryptid / monster with an insatiable hunger for human flesh and a love of murder. Generally greedy and evil. Also known to smell bad.
Honors our native heritage and says something about our beloved country’s strength of character.
The more I read about it and learned about these stories as a kid from my parents and Elders … the more I realize that it is also a metaphor or life lesson about who we are as people and humanity as a whole.
Wendigo in many legends was originally just a man or woman like you or me or anyone. They are infected or affected by a mysterious force and changed to become a hunter of people. Many of the legends talk about how Wendigo is basically just out hunting, doing things like a hunter does, tracking, following, hiding, creeping towards their prey … but the prey are humans, people, families, children, etc. They are intelligent, speak, understand, communicate, can trick people but they can also be tricked, they can also be dumb, silly, wise or completely wild.
The metaphor is that we are all capable or prone to becoming infected with dark forces if we allow them and change us into beings that will take from others and even kill them to enrich ourselves or prolong our lives.
Many believe that Wendigos still live and prey on people all over the world … but instead of hunting and preying on people in the forests and wilderness … they live and work in corporations and governments.
Yeah, it’s definitely a powerful metaphor for greed. The image of something constantly starving, never satiated no matter how much it eats, miserable and ravenous and destructive is clearly not something to strive for. I was reading that in some legends Wendigo just grow in proportion to how much they consume, so they never feel less hungry, they just get bigger. Kinda reminds one of how corporations function, with a constant drive to acquire and grow, but they never reach a point of satisfaction, where they’re big enough. They just take and take as much as they’re capable of.
That’s the other difference with Windigo legends across North America. I’m Ojibway from northern Ontario and I grew up with my own variety of stories from my family about this creature. But I’ve heard of other variations from the prairies, from Hudson Bay, northern Quebec, the American midwest and around the Great Lakes region and all the stories are different and unique to their regions. Some similarities and common themes but all different. Then you mix in there the Hollywood marketing and imagery of deer skulls, loose flesh and all that scary stuff.
But I always enjoyed the core metaphoric message that this is a greedy, blood thirsty animal that was once a man and now wants to consume everything and everyone.
Dumbfuckistan
The United States Inc. since that’s all we are anyway…
North Mexico
Trade names with the Gulf and become the United States of Mexico.
United States of Gulf & Mexico America
A not-insignificant amount of the USA was Mexico, at one time.
Whatever the Cherokee word for “stolen land” is.
Turtle Island
Dumbfuckistan
Given the religious fervor throughout its history, how about naming it after an ancient biblical region?
Transjordan?
Wait. Shit, that won’t work, even Jordan’s gone woke. Maybe something else in the region?
OH! How about Gilead!?
Except Transjordan isn’t biblical. It’s the region of Palestine that became The Kingdom of Jordan. As opposed to Cisjordan, which is the region that became Israel and the present Palestine.
But I don’t think we’re allowed to say cis anymore. /s
Sodom. From the story of Sodom & Gommorah, but I would choose the name based on a passage from Ezekiel.
“This was the guilt of your sister Sodom: she and her daughters had pride, excess of food, and prosperous ease, but did not aid the poor and needy.”
Yep, in classical biblical literature it’s understood that the “sin of Sodom” was lack of social justice.
It’s the Christian interpretation that made it primarily a sex thing.
I grew up being taught that America was literally the “Whore of Babylon” from the Book of Revelation.
And upon her forehead was a name written, MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH. - Revelation 17:5
It was specifically said to be a prophecy about the United States and once you understood that, the rest of the story just clicked into place! I want to vomit just thinking back to that bullshit.
The incorporated states of Northern America ltd.
Staties McStatyface
Rename it to Mexico. Then the whole gulf of mexico situation is fixed.
A vast amount of it used to be Mexico.
Formally: Jeb!
Informally: Jebland
Dialectical variant of English: Jeblish
Collective name for the people of Jebland: JebaneseI’m kidding of course. We all know the process to rename the U.S. would be taken over by the wealthy and we’d wind up named HCH (Human Capital Holdings), LLC, a shell corporation/nation that is jointly owned by Blackrock, Vanguard, and State Street.
Jeb means “fuck” in some languages.
Even better
El Gabacho
Ozempia
