This is not a SFW instance. NSFW communities will be tagged, and efforts will be made to keep SFW communities clean, but proceed at your own comfort level.
The cold war was indeed a global struggle to contain totalitarianism, and while the US certainly had a bunch of illicit, criminal side quests, by and large it worked quite well. Most of the evil in the world was festered by the russian colonial empire disguising as a “transnational” entity
US certainly had a bunch of illicit, criminal side quests
Lmao. Every bad thing that the US did was just a “side quest” that deviates from the overall pure and good intentions. Every bad thing the USSR did shows that they were inherently evil.
Mohammad Mossadegh was the progressive, peaceful, prime minister of Iran, who had zero alignment with the Soviets and only tried to assert Iran’s autonomy over its natural resources against the British colonizers who had built their entire empire off of stealing Iranian oil - deposed by the CIA in the name of “anti-communism,” and replaced by a literal monarch that spent decades hunting down and annihilating the Iranian left with secret police. But of course, that’s just a “side quest.”
Operation Condor, in which the US engaged in widespread election interference across South America, promoting right wing authoritarians and setting up “banana republics” to keep the cheap goods coming, that whole continent was just a little “side quest.”
Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, where the US dropped massive amounts of chemical weapons on poor rice farmers trying to assert control of their own land and resources. Indonesia, the mass killings of hundreds of thousands of activists, teachers, ethnic minorities, etc, by the US-backed Suharto regime, once again, a regrettable little “side quest.”
Exactly how many countries do you have to do “side quests” of terror and looting in the name of “stopping totalitarianism” before they count as the “main quest?”
Very little you said here is controversial on Lemmy. Its more the glazing of sociopathic authoritarians that winds people up. Just because they pretend to be socialist while building their power through capitalistic oligarchy.
But if you just want to critisize western imperialism, I think you’ll nearly always find common ground.
I disagree with that. If I criticize western imperialism, it’s often assumed, regardless of what I actually say, that I’m supporting US geopolitical rivals. This has pretty much always been the case throughout history. Call for peace, say, after 9/11, and you’d be accused of supporting Bin Laden. Since the enemy is always painted as the more evil and aggressive party, it means that those who oppose war and imperialism will always get labelled as being the most aggressive and imperialistic. Historically, this was even the cause of the breakdown of the Second International, the split between social democrats and Marxist-Leninists. MLs opposed WWI while social democratic parties across Europe supported it.
And naturally, part of opposing war means refuting blatant misinformation about the enemy, because if the hawks can say whatever they want about them they can naturally make it look like war is an obvious choice. But the moment you start refuting misinformation, for example, the story about everyone in North Korea having to get the same haircut, you are now “defending” or “glazing” North Korea, regardless of any other, more grounded criticisms you might have of it.
For generations, the Western left has allowed such misinformation to run rampant, in order to avoid being associated with states like the USSR, and the result have been disastrous. Historically, unions expelled communists and radicals and did everything they could to appease the US government, and they were gutted anyway. Now, things have gone so far that even conservative liberals like Biden get painted as “communists.” What I said before, criticizing US imperialism, is more than enough for people to label me a communist, a tankie, whatever. Maybe you wouldn’t, but others would. The comment I responded to was specifically looking to “ragebait tankies” by glazing US imperialism.
In my view, we should speak the truth regardless of whatever labels are assigned to us, communist, socialist, red, tankie, pinko, they can accuse us of what they will. Wear whatever label with pride, and you can at least have a chance to define it for ourselves.
Sure, and you are the most sane person I’ve seen from .ml. Most of them act like Putin and Xi Jinping are humanitarians with rainbows shooting out of their asses and that any criticism of their authoritarianism is propaganda.
Thank you. There are some types like that, who overcorrect or take things too far. That Jank4life guy isn’t exactly the best representative of our instance with his low effort bait, and I have a lot of disagreements with Geneva_Convenience as well. But I have a lot of respect for Cowbee and Diva, for example.
Personally, I would like it if there was a place on the fediverse that was for more formal, academic level discussions, where personal attacks and accusations were strictly moderated on all sides. I think that people act more defensive and rude when they expect the other side to, and it creates a vicious cycle, which can also lead to people adopting “maximalist” positions. I’ve thought about creating a comm like that myself, but I doubt people would actually participate or accept me as an impartial moderator.
I don’t understand why y’all think it’s some kind of challenge to “bait” us. Really, the easiest way to trigger us is to just drop some racial slurs. But glazing imperialism or making insipid, ignorant comments about history works just as well.
Important thing to note, though, and why I don’t block individuals anymore (instead I tag them):
Blocking a user doesn’t prevent them from interacting or replying to your posts. It just hides everything they post or comment from you, as well as any replies afterward. It’s a reverse shadow ban, because it makes it so you are the only person who can’t see what they post.
I personally recommend just tagging them in red and feeling smug in your ability to ignore what they have to say.
There’s a butt load of tankies here. They are incredibly hostile to anyone who doesn’t agree with them. You’ll just have to block them one by one.
Side by side, getting rid of the tankies !
Can I ragebait them?
Always 😄
Lmao. Every bad thing that the US did was just a “side quest” that deviates from the overall pure and good intentions. Every bad thing the USSR did shows that they were inherently evil.
Mohammad Mossadegh was the progressive, peaceful, prime minister of Iran, who had zero alignment with the Soviets and only tried to assert Iran’s autonomy over its natural resources against the British colonizers who had built their entire empire off of stealing Iranian oil - deposed by the CIA in the name of “anti-communism,” and replaced by a literal monarch that spent decades hunting down and annihilating the Iranian left with secret police. But of course, that’s just a “side quest.”
Operation Condor, in which the US engaged in widespread election interference across South America, promoting right wing authoritarians and setting up “banana republics” to keep the cheap goods coming, that whole continent was just a little “side quest.”
Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, where the US dropped massive amounts of chemical weapons on poor rice farmers trying to assert control of their own land and resources. Indonesia, the mass killings of hundreds of thousands of activists, teachers, ethnic minorities, etc, by the US-backed Suharto regime, once again, a regrettable little “side quest.”
Exactly how many countries do you have to do “side quests” of terror and looting in the name of “stopping totalitarianism” before they count as the “main quest?”
Very little you said here is controversial on Lemmy. Its more the glazing of sociopathic authoritarians that winds people up. Just because they pretend to be socialist while building their power through capitalistic oligarchy.
But if you just want to critisize western imperialism, I think you’ll nearly always find common ground.
I disagree with that. If I criticize western imperialism, it’s often assumed, regardless of what I actually say, that I’m supporting US geopolitical rivals. This has pretty much always been the case throughout history. Call for peace, say, after 9/11, and you’d be accused of supporting Bin Laden. Since the enemy is always painted as the more evil and aggressive party, it means that those who oppose war and imperialism will always get labelled as being the most aggressive and imperialistic. Historically, this was even the cause of the breakdown of the Second International, the split between social democrats and Marxist-Leninists. MLs opposed WWI while social democratic parties across Europe supported it.
And naturally, part of opposing war means refuting blatant misinformation about the enemy, because if the hawks can say whatever they want about them they can naturally make it look like war is an obvious choice. But the moment you start refuting misinformation, for example, the story about everyone in North Korea having to get the same haircut, you are now “defending” or “glazing” North Korea, regardless of any other, more grounded criticisms you might have of it.
For generations, the Western left has allowed such misinformation to run rampant, in order to avoid being associated with states like the USSR, and the result have been disastrous. Historically, unions expelled communists and radicals and did everything they could to appease the US government, and they were gutted anyway. Now, things have gone so far that even conservative liberals like Biden get painted as “communists.” What I said before, criticizing US imperialism, is more than enough for people to label me a communist, a tankie, whatever. Maybe you wouldn’t, but others would. The comment I responded to was specifically looking to “ragebait tankies” by glazing US imperialism.
In my view, we should speak the truth regardless of whatever labels are assigned to us, communist, socialist, red, tankie, pinko, they can accuse us of what they will. Wear whatever label with pride, and you can at least have a chance to define it for ourselves.
Sure, and you are the most sane person I’ve seen from .ml. Most of them act like Putin and Xi Jinping are humanitarians with rainbows shooting out of their asses and that any criticism of their authoritarianism is propaganda.
The propaganda issue goes all ways.
Thank you. There are some types like that, who overcorrect or take things too far. That Jank4life guy isn’t exactly the best representative of our instance with his low effort bait, and I have a lot of disagreements with Geneva_Convenience as well. But I have a lot of respect for Cowbee and Diva, for example.
Personally, I would like it if there was a place on the fediverse that was for more formal, academic level discussions, where personal attacks and accusations were strictly moderated on all sides. I think that people act more defensive and rude when they expect the other side to, and it creates a vicious cycle, which can also lead to people adopting “maximalist” positions. I’ve thought about creating a comm like that myself, but I doubt people would actually participate or accept me as an impartial moderator.
There is the changemyview sub but it didn’t really get the traction here that it had on reddit.
Hey you got one already!
I don’t understand why y’all think it’s some kind of challenge to “bait” us. Really, the easiest way to trigger us is to just drop some racial slurs. But glazing imperialism or making insipid, ignorant comments about history works just as well.
How about imperialism of the russian federation?
How about it?
Think on dbzer0 they’re already blocked, haven’t seen any
Ok, so, i’ll probably block them preventively.
Important thing to note, though, and why I don’t block individuals anymore (instead I tag them):
Blocking a user doesn’t prevent them from interacting or replying to your posts. It just hides everything they post or comment from you, as well as any replies afterward. It’s a reverse shadow ban, because it makes it so you are the only person who can’t see what they post.
I personally recommend just tagging them in red and feeling smug in your ability to ignore what they have to say.
Good call. If somebody comes at you with extreme hatred, just block them.
LOL, i love block parasites.