this post was submitted on 01 Aug 2023
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Viewers are divided over whether the film should have shown Japanese victims of the weapon created by physicist Robert Oppenheimer. Experts say it's complicated.

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[–] [email protected] 18 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (3 children)

I saw those pictures in school. We know that Truman signed off on dropping the bomb on two civilian cities and it was a horror that had never been seen in the world before or since.

Dude, we talk about our atrocities all the time. The current push to whitewash Native American genocide and slavery is actually getting a huge pushback, because we talk openly about this stuff in the US and it's only a minority that tries to silence it. We talk openly about the atrocities during the Vietnam War, and about the invasion of Iraq, and about prosecution for war crimes in Afghanistan and Iraq.

You can say a LOT about the US, and even the amount of denial we have about our standing in the world, but you can't call us in denial about stuff like that. We're in conflict within ourselves about it, but it's a well known and well discussed thing in the US.

And wait... are you from lemmygrad? The tankie server?

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I think terminally online people and their kids probably know mostly the truth (or closer to it) than the average American. The fact that one major political party in America is having pretty major success pushing whitewashed history or at least preventing they're history from being taught strongly undercuts your contention that "we talk about our atrocities all the time."

If it was some fringe group like the John Birch Society or some Ayn Rand cult, sure. But it's almost every Republican primary candidate.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

I suppose I am being too optimistic.

I also have a major problem whenever I get the sense a European is trashing the US for problems and a history that are absolutely being ignored in Europe. There's been a glut of that making me over-sensitive perhaps. My Brit-sense was tingling for the original comment, but it may be off.

[–] [email protected] -2 points 1 year ago (2 children)

We do not talk about our atrocities all the time. Politicians can almost never reference them. In the rare cases they allude to them, they never apologize and they never take material steps to repair the damage.

We allow private corporations to produce student text books for profit, and when the monopoly status of these corps causes the largest states to control the curriculum, everyone suffers. When you combine that with the Daughters of Confederacy movement to rewrite history in the text books, and Texas being one of the biggest markets for text books, you end up with over a century of white washing indoctrination in schools for 12 years, minimum, of almost 100% of children in the country.

I grew up in a liberal-ass state we still called the first settlers "pilgrims" and said their motivation was religious freedom. We celebrate Thanksgiving and Columbus and everyone who tries to speak out against it is literally risking their safety and the safety of their family because we have such a massive and deep-seated problem that random acts of terror are carried out without any coordination.

Lynchings never stopped, but no one except radicals talk about it. The police are literally an occupying military force, but no one except radicals talk about it.

No, we're not in conflict with ourselves about it. There is a very small radical group within the country that attempts to raise the level of discourse and nearly every single institution, every seat of power, every media company, every billionaire, every major land owner, every politician, nearly every educator, nearly every judge - everything is aligned against raising this discourse.

If you think we're earnestly and honestly struggling with this stuff as a nation, you are delusional.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I've been out of the country and we are lightyears ahead of other countries when it comes to reckoning with our past. No, we're not perfect, but we're a hell of a lot more open. You know how I know?

Because I was raised in Trumpland, PA and I joined the military and served in Mississippi, Texas, Oklahoma and Europe and I was able to learn about the Native American genocide, slavery, and Hiroshima and Nagasaki at school, and managed to absorb the rest through pop culture. We had a variety of differing assumptions when we talked, but we still talked. Yes, I heard that Lee was a gentleman but a trip to Gettysburg easily discarded that notion. My history teacher was quick to point out the founding fathers were opportunists.

There is stuff, like the bullshit we've been pulling in South America, that hasn't gotten discussed. That's true. But it's not just the radical minority that's aware the country is basically built on rivers of blood. The awareness is all over our pop culture.

You're not hearing what's good enough in your liberal state, but I have been knee deep in conservatism since birth and I've still managed to pick up on the horrors of our national history.

Now, just for comparison, go ask a Brit or a Frenchman about the Native American genocide and their country's role in it.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Ugh, look. I don't want to fight because clearly you are in a different environment and social circle and you're right that stuff like the practice of overthrowing governments in South America to benefit businesses and a large number of horrors are not discussed.

Hiroshima and Nagasaki are not among them. And when it comes to racism, we are actually talking about it unlike Europe. The most powerful people in the country want to kill this discourse, but they CAN'T except in pockets of the most brainwashed home-schooled isolated people in the country.

But I resent being called delusional. Because we are earnestly and honestly struggling with this stuff as a nation. It's just that we're struggling against all the powers you name, and the dark history of the United States is not hidden like it is in other countries. It's present and on most people's minds.