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It only counts when I say it does (thelemmy.club)
submitted 5 days ago by to c/politicalmemes@lemmy.world
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[–] 1 point 3 days ago (1 child)

Most wars have economic causes and impacts, but that alone does not imperialism make. There are "unprovoked punching down" as well as interventionist components that I don't think describe America's intentions or entries into either World War.

Either way, the argument I'm trying to refute is that me, as a Western Liberal, view any kind of modern war as imperialist, and thus dilute the definition of the term. I think I've demonstrated that while I don't adhere to Lenin's more strict definition, I don't want to use the term lightly, either.

I'm also not trying to make an argument that the USA isn't imperialist, in any strictness of the term. Western Liberals aren't a monolith, my bud.

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  • [–] 2 points 3 days ago (1 child)

    I don’t care about whatever argument you’re having. It’s extremely inaccurate to claim Americas entry into ww2 was diplomatically motivated when Japan was taking by military force islands that had been part of an extractive zone contested by them and America. It’s literally two imperial powers low key fighting over their periphery then one goes PISS NUKE INCOMING.

    Again, I do not care about whatever argument you’re having. If anything I want you to be able to integrate more information into your understanding of imperialism. It’s really hard for us as westerners to do that when so much of the groundwork of our historical understanding is jingoism and great man and it’s good you’re interrogating your own ideas.

    Also you should probably start with the Spanish American war as your American point of entry into imperialism (you say here “global interventionism” but idk wth that means.)

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  • [–] 1 point 3 days ago

    Right on, as I said, I'm here to learn too. And I agree that the education and milieu I got in Florida in the 80s is pretty poor. What recommendations would you make to find out about these subjects?

    BTW what I meant by "global interventionism" is how the US Government really ramped up manipulating the internal affairs of countries across all over the world, both depth and breadth. Twilight Struggle is one of my favorite board games, because of how much history I learned from it.

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