Much vituperative nonsense afflicts First Nations, most of it stoked by ignorance and intellectual laziness.

One example appeared Wednesday as a letter to the Nanaimo Daily News. It triggered an instant Internet furor.

In less than an hour, a protest was organized. By midnight, Facebook and Twitter posts numbered in the thousands. By Thursday, a major advertiser was reportedly yanking ads. The newspaper stripped the letter from its website and followed with an apology of sorts.

Both letter and reaction were fascinating. First, every statement in the letter was demonstrably wrong – I’ll address that later. Second, the reaction demonstrates the power of social media, a wake-up for those who dismiss the Idle No More movement.

If to remain silent signals consent, it seems clear that many people don’t consent to bigoted claptrap. On the other hand, are we better off silencing bigotry, or publicly refuting it?

Silencing unpleasant voices drives them underground and removes opportunities to publicly confront falsehoods. And while the letter was ugly, it did assert opinions more prevalent than we like to admit.

So, let’s confront the offending letter.

Headlined “Educate First Nations to be modern citizens,” it cites 12,000 years of underachievement which failed to discover the wheel, devise written language, discover astronomy, science, mathematics, medicine, music beyond drums and rattles, metallurgy, sailing (they “only” had canoes), mechanical devices or just about anything else worthy of note.

This was presented as proof that First Nations can’t look after themselves or the billions taxpayers “give” them. The only solution is to educate their children in modern ways and assimilate them as taxpayers no different from any other Canadian.

There are many examples of First Nations’ competence. And educational assimilation resulted in the dismal horrors of residential schools. Leaving that irony aside, let’s address the list of assertions.

The wheel – It was here before Christopher Columbus. Why was it used for toys, not chariots? Good question. Why did the Chinese use gunpowder for fireworks instead of cannons?

Written language – Complex written languages characterized Central American civilizations; the Cherokee devised their own written syllabary.

Astronomy – Mayans practised astronomy at an advanced level. First Nations used the heavens to navigate the Great Plains, Arctic wastes and the Northwest Coast.

Science – From the chemistry of tanning hides to knowledge of infectious agents, indigenous technologies were informed by the same methods of trial, error and observation upon which modern science relies.

Mathematics – Central American civilizations used complex mathematics built on a number base of 20 rather than the number base of 10 used by our math. Base 20 may be different from what we teach in elementary school, but so is the binary math of computer technology.

Medicine – Cree women showed Jacques Cartier how a medicinal infusion prevented scurvy 200 years before the British “discovered” a cure. Plains peoples were renowned for bone-setting skills. Brain surgery was used from the Northwest Coast to Central America, where ancient surgical tools have been found. Antibiotics and anti-virals were used.