• RiikkaTheIcePrincess
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      5710 months ago

      America Also Bad!

      Seems like they usually leave out the “also” because apparently two things can’t be bad at the same time. Wouldn’t it be great to live in a world where only one thing is bad? I expect it’d be simpler, at least.

    • JustEnoughDucks
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      10 months ago

      I mean, China fucking sucks and is a shit authoritarian statist government but let’s not pretend America hasn’t done similar things.

      Ever heard the stories of how America won the right to unions?

      • Columbine Mine Massacre

      • Ludlow Massacre

      • Thibodaux Massacre

      • Battle of Blair Mountain

      • Herrin Massacre

      Hundreds of people killed in total because they were protesting.

      The difference in outcome is that back then the technology was more of a level playing field.

      • @shadowspirit@lemmy.world
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        10 months ago

        Can always rely on there being at least one person … “but the USA did XYZ.” Doesn’t change what happened in 1989.

        • JustEnoughDucks
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          10 months ago

          No it doesn’t. But the same people who whine and cry about people using whataboutism in favor of China do the EXACT same thing in favor of the US.

          They are both shit. Everyone is tired of each side pretending that only one side is shit.

          • @Syrc@lemmy.world
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            10 months ago

            Except they’re nowhere nearly comparable. The US is pretty bad but China is an authoritarian state with internet censorship and state-controlled companies.

            The “America also bad” argument feels like a mass murderer saying “well you stabbed a guy 10 years ago, you’re no different!”.

            • @diffaldo@lemm.ee
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              310 months ago

              Do u know banana republics, thats a rad story. i think u should look up what usa have done to south american contries.

          • @PersnickityPenguin@lemm.ee
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            210 months ago

            Go look up to see what China did during the great leap forward and cultural revolution. They killed about 30 million of their own people. I would like you to post a source proving that the United States murdered 30 million of its own people within the past 150 years, as well as persecuting tens of millions of people and sending millions of children from cities to be reeducated with forced labor on camps after being separated from their parents. Hundreds of thousands of intellectuals were murdered for being… Intellectuals.

            The only thing that comes close was slavery and the Japanese internment during world War II. However, slavery was abolished over 150 years ago, and during the Japanese internment families were generally kept together and they were not forcibly reeducated.

            • JustEnoughDucks
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              10 months ago

              “Please tell me a time when.this country did terrible things b-b-but only in this certain half of the country’s existence!! Otherwise it’s cheating!!1!”

              Conveniently chose a time right where you can ignore the Slavery and the Trail of Tears (% population wise that was just as bad). Not to mention the mass Native American “reeducation” and ripping them away from their families to get a “proper white education”

              https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trail_of_Tears

              https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Indian_boarding_schools

              Every government has done terrible things. The US, China, and Russia are among the worst. We can argue about what is “worse.” But that is completely subjective. China literally just did much of what the US did, but on a larger scale 150 years later and with different technology.

              Arguably Russia was the worst of them all, but literally all 3 are bad. America pulled itself out of that era and into corporate indetured servitude era of corporations committing genocides and coups in other countries. Personally I think that China is worse than the US and Russia dwarfs both of them, but just because one is maybe marginally worse doesn’t mean the other wasn’t/isn’t bad.

        • utopianrevolt
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          1110 months ago

          it doesn’t, but for sure dispels the myth that the US isn’t evil.

        • archomrade [he/him]
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          1110 months ago

          Weird how I only ever hear one of those events used to dismiss an entire system of economic organization though

          • @originalfrozenbanana@lemm.ee
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            710 months ago

            I guess you’re not listening then because “capitalism fucking sucks and is responsible for countless atrocities” is a pretty common tale these days.

          • @socsa@lemmy.ml
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            510 months ago

            Imagine thinking that people are opposed to post-scarcity economics, and not the whole “let’s kill everyone who disagrees with us until we achieve such conditions”

          • @Jonna@lemmy.world
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            510 months ago

            I use those events in the US (and many more) to condem capitalism. I also use Tianamen (and others) to condem state capitalism.

      • Nakedmole
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        2510 months ago

        but let’s not pretend America hasn’t done similar things.

        Only total fools would do so and I see no comments here that would suggest such nonsense …

        • @atx_aquarian@lemmy.world
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          310 months ago

          The one they replied to may have been criticizing “whataboutism”, but it could also be (mis)interpreted as implying the USA has not had similar problems.

          But who hasn’t killed their citizens in a simple misunderstanding? Or, if that doesn’t work, America Also Bad! \s

    • Well, the citizens they killed were literally firing on them and killed around 150 soldiers. Meanwhile the military for the most part did not have guns. Not saying it is justified even then to use military force on striking workers, but a hell of a lot more justified than western media claims. Oh yeah, and literally no college students died that day, as well as nobody within a mile of Tianenmen Square.

        • @Noughmad@programming.dev
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          10 months ago

          The Solidarity movement, started in 1980 as a series of labor strikes, formed into a large trade union and then a political movement demanding workers’ rights, actual worker control over means of production, and similar socialist policies. It finally forced and won a public election in 1989 (on the very same day of the Tiananmen square crackdown) which in turn led to the end of communist (and Russian) rule in Poland.

      • Kes
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        710 months ago

        Given that they defederated from Lemmy.world (at least Hexbear did, idk about lemmygrad), probably not

  • bdesk
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    7510 months ago

    Bro China is not real, it’s just the back of Taiwan.

      • @Hubi@feddit.de
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        6110 months ago

        I don’t see any reason to care about that as long as they aren’t forcing their opinions on anyone tbh.

        • @persolb@lemmy.ml
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          3010 months ago

          This. Unless your use/purchase directly supports something you disagree with, people shouldn’t be worried so much. Companies and organizations are huge. They are all going to contain shitty people.

          If you are on the internet, you have no choice but to indirectly supporting shitty people.

          If you are worried about that do actual politics, not this ‘you eat ChikFilA you monster’ type shit.0

          • @AlexWIWA@lemmy.ml
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            210 months ago

            Yup. And they literally gave us the tools to take our toys and go home to make our own fun if we don’t like the way they run Lemmy.ml.

      • @gravitas_deficiency@sh.itjust.works
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        3210 months ago

        Oh I know all about that. It’s one of the reasons I enjoy clowning on tankies on lemmy.ml so hard.

        Fun fact: the .ml TLD is officially designated as belonging to Mali; the lemmy devs chose it as an acronym for “Marxist-Leninist”. This caused problems very recently when Mali suddenly re-exerted control of their TLD, where previously they did not take an active hand in its management.

        I’ll copy the top comment there, because it’s actually kind of important if you’re at all into web infra or self-hosting:

        Using ccTLDs when you have no relationship with the country is just asking for trouble. Comes across as naive and unprofessional, although I’ve seen many serious infrastructure built upon .co and .io names.

      • @ImFresh3x@sh.itjust.works
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        2110 months ago

        I don’t see why I should care, as long as their not assholes, not breaking their own rules, and not abusing their powers as devs.

      • @a1_15@lemmy.world
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        10 months ago

        hexbear alt spotted!! this is the most popular comment that those fascits/bigots/neo-terrorists post in any thread that makes them salty!

    • @NotSpez@lemm.ee
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      2210 months ago

      .ml readers interpretation: Tanks (fighting for democracy) brutally killed students

      • @socsa@lemmy.ml
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        610 months ago

        Don’t lump us all in with those naive authoritarian children. Some of us believe the internet deserves a better class of communist.

  • Catasaur
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    1810 months ago

    I wonder what actual Chinese people think, anyone originally from China able to weigh in?

    • @DragonTypeWyvern@literature.cafe
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      1910 months ago

      According to my aunt, whose parents fled the Cultural Revolution when she was a teenager:

      It’s like if Chinese people kept trying to give you shit about the Kent State massacre and not Vietnam itself.

    • @zanzo@lemmy.world
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      1610 months ago

      From my conversations with mainland Chinese, they often tout the line that the US was somehow involved, so it was partly an excusable defense of the homeland against dangerously co-opted students. That said, most acknowledge that it was pretty bad. But these are also well-educated Chinese working abroad, so I assume the majority of Chinese don’t know much.

      One story I heard retold by an English teacher working in Nanjing that I used to know was about the experience of one of the people involved in the protests…or at least they were an academic in Beijing at the time of the massacre. They were really depressed 20 years later and felt that nobody around them, particularly their students, knew anything.

    • @socsa@lemmy.ml
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      10 months ago

      The people I have spoken to in China understand something happened, and most of them know that it was the suppression of a student protest movement. From there the knowledge diverges as to what kind of protest movement and how violent was the suppression and whether it was justified. My family will kind of halfheartedly repeat some version of the party line but acknowledge it was a fucked up situation, and they also understand that the censorship surrounding it is awkward and unnecessary.

      Generally the Chinese I have spoken to are mostly aware of and opposed to the CCP’s censorship, but they also don’t really like to talk about it for obvious reasons.

  • @bouh@lemmy.world
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    910 months ago

    So the west is still hunting communists to this day? Easier than fixing climate or providing healthcare I guess.

    • @Syrc@lemmy.world
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      2110 months ago

      Care to explain what was communist in the event except the name of the party that enacted the massacre and maybe some of the people who died?

      • @bouh@lemmy.world
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        210 months ago

        I wonder why an event that happened almost before I was born is so important to some people here. Why aren’t we showcasing how monstrous Hitler was burning people for racism then? That’s far more fitting to the situation of most western countries that are all leaning on fascism and racism. Some western countries like France are not far from crushing protestors with tanks btw.

        But I guess the cold war world of 40 years ago is more comfortable. There was this nice black and white taint where capitalists were the good guys against evil communists. And we must now bring back all the sins of China and USSR to never forget what they did, so can be blind to what’s happening now I guess.

        People throwing “tankies” everywhere are worth no more than any Russian troll honestly.

        • @Syrc@lemmy.world
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          1910 months ago

          You didn’t answer my question.

          To answer yours, maybe it’s because Germany has literal museums dedicated to education about the horrors of its past while China tries to hide them and has that same party in power. That’s slightly different.

          Also don’t fool yourself. The Cold War was capitalists against capitalists that called themselves communists. Real communism never existed for more than a week in any country in the world.

          • @bouh@lemmy.world
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            110 months ago

            He. If you want to criticise China you should talk about ouïghours or Hong Kong. Tiananmen is irrelevant. It’s as relevant as slavery in the US. Aren’t you busy killing black people these days btw?

            • @Syrc@lemmy.world
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              210 months ago

              Definitely not as relevant since you can talk about slavery and it’s widely condemned (by the ruling party, at least).

              I’m also not American, but nice try.

              • @bouh@lemmy.world
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                110 months ago

                I don’t care where you live. You’re not Chinese yet you care about tiananmen apparently. But you don’t care about slavery in the US apparently. Nor about fascism eventhough it’s making a comeback in all western countries.

                Which proves my point: tiananmen is not about China. It’s a symbol of communist oppression. And a Godwin point to end any discussion about communism. And a liberal fuck you to all leftists and communists of lemmy. There’s a reason I’ve never read “tankie” before I read lemmy.

                • @Syrc@lemmy.world
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                  210 months ago

                  I care about slavery and I care about fascism. Am I not allowed to care about those things and at the same time about the fact that the second-most populated country in the world is a literal dictatorship?

                  Again, there was nothing communist about Tiananmen, nor there is anything communist about the current CCP. It’s just fascism under a different name. Invent a time machine and bring back Marx to see this shit, he definitely wouldn’t be happy about it.

          • @bouh@lemmy.world
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            110 months ago

            Forbidden? Hahaha that’s so funny!

            That’s pure anti-china propaganda. Anti-left propaganda even. It’s a Godwin point.

            There’s a saying in French : it’s easier to see the straw on the neighbor nose than the beam you have in the eye.

            If you want to criticised China you should talk about the current, these days genocide they’re doing. Or about Hong Kong. Tiananmen is a Godwin point, in my generation you’d only know about it if you’re exposed to liberal propaganda. Because as a historical event it is irrelevant.

    • @vzq
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      10 months ago

      The real shit is always in the comments.

  • @Savvy95@lemmy.world
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    910 months ago

    For those not around when that happened, i remember it this way, after 20 years of booze, weed & hookers:

    The student protest was extremely peaceful and organized. There were student delegations that would report up to student representatives, educatio delegation, housing delegation, for example. The representatives were negotiating with Party people. It was unclear at the time if the Party people were indicative of the top brass. But there was a worldwide feeling something good and right might be changing in China. If I recall correctly this went on for weeks, so the implications were setting in.

    Then it all changed when the Fire Nation attacked.

    What the video & still represent is not 1 man facing a line of tanks. It a culmination of a generation of students frustrated enough but clever enough to find a way to negotiate a change and when the Army came in they knew they failed. The world knew they failed. The question was how badly that failure was. There were a few days when nothing happened after this video. Then it happened all at once. And the rest as they say is History – repression, violence, killing, abductions, lost family members, and rewriting history.

    Like the Velvet Revolutions of the Middle East, it was a short time of hope for a better future, for the students & for their nation.

    That feeling stays & that feeling is what China wants their populace to forget - and you forget by meming this historic picture without context.

    P.S I don’t know if the man was ever found out, but I hope he stays anonymous.