from Hacker News

Missionaries using secret audio devices to evangelise Brazil's isolated peoples

by axiologist on 7/27/25, 11:43 AM with 8 comments

• by forinti on 7/27/25, 1:01 PM

  I've recently read up on the Pirahã tribe and their unique language: apparently it doesn't have recursion. They also don't have words for colours or numbers.

  A missionary called Daniel Everett tried to convert them to Christianity but ended up becoming an atheist and linguist.

  Conversion certainly didn't go as expected in this case.

  This is a nice documentary about them: https://youtu.be/9tKbVBePxyU

• by axiologist on 7/27/25, 11:43 AM

  Evangelical hubris in action, using tech to commit spiritual poisoning of defenseless people.

• by yawpitch on 7/27/25, 12:43 PM

  Cause converting the heathen has, historically, gone so well.

  Also kind of funny how you’d need to know both English and the cultural iconography of late 20th century America to have any hope of accidentally using that device for its intended purpose… including the version that’s ostensibly in Portuguese and Spanish.

• by hunglee2 on 7/27/25, 12:35 PM

  cultural genocide of the native population, who should be left alone from the apocalyptic fantasies of the evangelicals. Hope the Brazilian comes down hard on these churches