A viral protest has emerged against construction of one of the largest and most expensive telescopes ever made. The conflict centers around the location the developers want to construct the telescope. The top of a volcano called Mauna Kea, on the Big Island of Hawaii is considered an ideal place to view space. The site is sacred to Native Hawaiians and there is a long history of tension over various projects in the area.

This conflict is one of many recent situations that highlights the continuing tension between the morals of western philosophy such as universalism and equality and the realities of on-going colonialism in the Americas.