By Esme Saad, special to the Observer
And the gaslighting continues on Arsia Mons. The Dominion continues to stir up fear and agitate the diminished and exploited populations of the outposts with its mere presence.
The Dominion will tell you that its physical monitoring stations and frequent drone patrols at the once pristine glacier are all to the benefit of pioneers and more recent outposters. Perhaps managers and leaders within the Dominion sincerely believe this to be true, but the people of the outlands have spoken clearly through their voices and yes, through their fury, which can sometimes be destructive of Dominion property.
How else can a diminished people respond to the forces responsible for the destruction of their very environment and everything that surrounds them.
The Dominion asks for trust that it is acting in the best interest of its employees, their families and the people it sees as dregs left behind from its own laughably lazy and short-sided terraforming efforts. But the time for trust is long gone, washed away in the floodwaters on Olympus Mons and also on Arsia Mons.
Other columnists in these channels will parrot the Dominion company line and paint the Outpost resistance as wack-nut conspiracy mongers. This, of course, neglects the reality that the Dominion has --and continues -- to conspire to exploit the outland regions for the benefit of the rich beneath the bubble. Some conspiracy theories eventually lose the label, after all, when enough people simply face a certain reality and what were once theories become an undeniable part of history.
We are at that crossroads today, and it runs through Arsia Mons, where an exploited class is finally standing up to what amounts to an abusive spouse. For too long the outlanders have endured a nasty marriage to the Dominion. Now, with voices and yes, even a few rocks and blasters, raised, the people have at last summoned the courage to kick that oppressive spouse out for good.
Esme Saad is outreach lead for Unite Mars, a compatriot group of UnityCosmos, which advocates for intra and inter-planetary justice throughout the solar system.