Americans will post a meme about Tianimen Square while eating a Chiquita banana.
Comment on Absolutely nothing happened June 1989
selokichtli@lemmy.ml 1 week ago
Well, to be perfectly clear, here in Mexico was a students massacre in the Three Cultures square in 1968. The CIA was involved.
Dragonstaff@leminal.space 1 week ago
Jiggle_Physics@lemmy.world 1 week ago
Americans can, and will, openly discuss this stuff, and think badly of their government for it, and won’t get in trouble with the government for doing so publicly.
YourShadowDani@lemm.ee 1 week ago
Tell that to the college anti-war protestors getting beat by police for literally using their first amendment right to protest and speak, and NOT blocking movement to classes at all.
Jiggle_Physics@lemmy.world 1 week ago
Yes, I was going to say that Kent state would be a more apt comparison. But this isn’t the issue at hand. If I go into a thread discussing Kent, the US over throw of Guatemala, etc. I am just saying I choose the evils of the US, and am here to whatabout China as a deflection. You can tell me all this stuff, that I am already keenly aware of, and it still does nothing, but miss the point.
Lucidlethargy@sh.itjust.works 1 week ago
Let’s never forget that Jerry Seinfeld paid counter protesters over the genocide protest at UCLA.
Dragonstaff@leminal.space 1 week ago
Tell that to Chelsea Manning.
Sure, the US is mostly freer with information than a country that is unabashedly authoritarian. But ask Ron DeSantis what he was doing at Guantanamo, or the CIA what they did in Latin America. If you don’t think the US hides plenty from its citizens, you haven’t been paying attention.
Our Tianimen Square was Kent State, or maybe the MOVE Bombing, or all of the documented police violence against protesters and marginalized people. Fat lot of good it does that we can talk about them when nothing changes.
I think it makes more sense to hold our government to account than point out the flaws of people we don’t like.
Jiggle_Physics@lemmy.world 1 week ago
Yes, I was actually going to say that a more apt comparison would have been Kent state.
If the subject is Kent state, or the US para-military manipulation of south America, and all you do is come into the comments whatabouting China’s bullshit, you are there because you sided with the US, over China. This is what is happening here, in reverse. You can tell me all the long history of shit, that I already am keenly aware of, that the US have done. You are still missing the point.
Maeve@midwest.social 1 week ago
I don’t recall Kent State protesters killing anyone.
Lucidlethargy@sh.itjust.works 1 week ago
Many of us pretty much do this every day. And we have massive protests about it as well. We’re often not empowered to change much, though. We do what we can, when we can.
Jiggle_Physics@lemmy.world 1 week ago
Yes, that is the unfortunate state of reality. I am worried we a getting to that impasse where all diplomatic avenues for change have been shut down. This leaves violence as the option at hand.
T00l_shed@lemmy.world 1 week ago
Well, sort of.
InternetCitizen2@lemmy.world 1 week ago
Unless they are whistle blowing something important
Jiggle_Physics@lemmy.world 1 week ago
That is not the same as as the subject at hand, I have already addressed this, multiple times, down further. A more apt comparison would have been Kent State. Which was something that was immediately put on the news.
Maeve@midwest.social 1 week ago
And making Dole pineapple upside-down cake with Imperial Sugar.
problematicPanther@lemmy.world 1 week ago
maybe you should post it as a separate meme since people are crying about whataboutism. I hadn’t heard of this one actually.
selokichtli@lemmy.ml 1 week ago
I don’t think I can do memes of crimes against humanity, but thank you for the suggestion. Getting people to know, or be more aware, about the hideous activities of entities like the CIA is enough for me.
problematicPanther@lemmy.world 1 week ago
fair
UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world 1 week ago
24 downvotes telling me actually this never happened.
Also, nobody talk about Grenada in 1983. Or Iran Air Flight 655. Or the MOVE bombing in 1985. Or the police response to the LA Riots. Or the police response to the Iraq War protests. Or the police response to OWS protests. Or the police response to BLM protests. Or the police response to the campus protests in defense of Palestine.
That’s Whataboutism.
You can’t just talk about ACAB or discuss the broad problems of a heavily armed carceral state looking for heads to crack. Only Foreign Countries are Bad.
hungryphrog@lemmy.blahaj.zone 1 week ago
Nice whataboutism. How hard can it be to understand that China having a shitty government does not mean that the US is perfect?
selokichtli@lemmy.ml 1 week ago
Whatabwhat? Do you think that’s what I don’t understand? No, I get it. It’s just that, if you are an US American defending your government, I couldn’t care less about your opinion on matters of other nations.
hungryphrog@lemmy.blahaj.zone 1 week ago
I am not a Yank, and I sure as hell aren’t defending them.
selokichtli@lemmy.ml 1 week ago
You sure react in favor of the USA government. I mentioned a case of a massacre of hundreds of students in a public square in a completely different country because it is related to the OP. The treatment of this case was the same: “nothing happened here, nothing to see”. The USA, through the CIA, got involved in the whole thing. Your reaction? You accuse me of “whataboutism”, overlooking the fact of the massacre. You do not even mention anything about it with your “nice whataboutism”. Well, it was not nice at all, but it happened. My intention was to show another horrible and similar case of deadly authoritarianism against students. I’m expecting people can hold two or more similar crimes against humanity in their brains for a while.