Comment on Imperialism, authoritarianism and oppression is bad all around m'kay
hark@lemmy.world 1 week ago
The US is the biggest source of imperialism in the world. We don’t have to always follow that up with “butwhatabout” to distract from that, which is what the US media machine does by running stories all the time to manufacture consent for its own imperialism.
People that are being literally killed, tortured, displaced, bombed, denied their identity, starved, raped, genocided right now by China/Russia/North Korea, looking for any support, any help from anyone willing to give it
A Leftist American: US is the biggest source of imperialism in the world and you’re not being oppressed by the US, so you’re not real. Have a good day. takes a privileged slurp from the huge cup of Starbucks and closes his Macbook
Nice caricature, but it has nothing to do with my post. Pointing out that the US is the biggest source of imperialism doesn’t mean no one else is imperialist, but thanks for proving my point. Fuck Starbucks and Apple, by the way.
The whole point of the OP is that being against US imperialism doesn’t mean you have to be very purposefully silent about yhe atrocities committed by the US geopolitical rivals because they are US enemies therefore good.
It’s a very prevalent thing about US lefties, if you’re not aware, I’m telling it to you, as a Ukrainian lefty myself. I agree, fuck Apple and Starbucks (never had one and heard feom friends it’s shit). Also fuck Russia for killing a bunch of my friends and fuck those US “leftists” like Chomsky, who suck Russian dicks.
One problem I see is that people feel like they have to work in absolutes or match their opinions 100% with everything within a group. How the grouping forms is not always clear, but apparently if one is associated with that grouping, they feel the need to defend everything in that grouping and attacking everything that isn’t.
There is some discussion to be had in the role of the US using proxies to undermine global rivals, but that does not justify Russia invading Ukraine, nothing does. Absolutely, fuck Russia.
Someone had their Chomsky-o’s for breakfast this morning.
Whataboutusm is a russian invention and is 9 times out of ten usad to excuse russia agressions.
Trying to change the subject was not invented by anyone in particular, but the US likes to slap that label onto everything that directs criticism at them. For example, the US has the highest prison population per capita but will scream about enemy countries imprisoning people preemptively with countless stories in the media. Calling out the hypocrisy is countered with accusations of “whataboutism” but that’s not whataboutism, it’s simply pointing out hypocrisy since it’s the same subject.
splonglo@lemmy.world 1 week ago
I’d say that Russia is the biggest source of suffering caused by imperialism in the world right now ( just going by the death toll of the Ukraine war ) . Is saying that a ‘distraction’ from American imperialism?
BrainInABox@lemmy.ml 1 week ago
Gaza absolutely dwarfs Ukraine in terms of suffering caused by imperialism.
Honestly, this is why I increasingly believe that people who say things like the OP don’t actually believe American Imperialism is bad, they’re just doing whataboutism to defend it.
splonglo@lemmy.world 5 days ago
The data for Ukraine is so contested that it’s hard to put a number on it, but it’s probably higher than the Israel Palestine conflict, and at least comparable.
en.wikipedia.org/…/Israeli–Palestinian_conflict en.wikipedia.org/…/Russian_invasion_of_Ukraine#Ca…
BrainInABox@lemmy.ml 5 days ago
If you’re going to try to cite a claim, please don’t just drop the Wikipedia pages on the subjects. In fact, don’t cite Wikipedia at all.
Excrubulent@slrpnk.net 1 week ago
Gaza is happening because of US imperialism. Biden said that’s what Israel does in the region very clearly.
Joe Biden’s long history of pro-Israel statements