this post was submitted on 16 Aug 2023
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Even though we had a little bit of warning about federation, I think we're off to a rocky start. Maybe we should have compiled a list of things we think that may make other people very upset. That way they can quickly get to know what we're about and go hide in a social media bubble if it scares them.

I figure I'd start with a good one. America deserved 9/11. I'm burying the lede a bit with that one. I don't think random acts of violence really accomplish much and I don't think randos, albeit imperial core randos, should die. But this wasn't a random act of violence, was it?

There's a little something called Foucault's Boomerang. Basically it's the tools, means, and experiments carried out by imperial countries tend to make their way back home one way or another. Military gear gets tried out on the battlefield then next thing you know cops at home have the same equipment. It also works for cause and effect. America did 9/11 to itself.

After WWII America courted the monarchy of Saudi Arabia, who had some really "interesting" religious ideas at the time, to ensure a source of oil. Oil was very important to American manufacturing and the war effort. Our domestic reserves helped us get through WWII. We needed more. So the US decided to look the other way on Saudi foreign policy while they ensured us first dibs on the oil. The UK also made deals on building their infrastructure and finance needs, to which the US eventually pushed them of the back rooms where such deals were made. But that's another story.

The US also backed anti-Soviet/anti-Communist groups in the Middle-East as they had in other parts of the world. This meant giving aide and weapons and training to those groups. In exchange they would beat up all the communists and pro-soviet people in their country and keep the borders open for US trade.

Not to "yadda yadda yadda" through a lot of interesting history but the US made a lot of enemies and ruined former alliances in these places because we valued the exploitation of their resources more than the actual relationships formed. Once the Soviets were gone, we could just do what we wanted to them and there was nobody left to oppose us.

So our former (and some current) friends stabbed us in the back. The imperialism boomeranged back home and we got a terrorist attack on US soil.

The people who died didn't particularly deserve it but people die when an imperial power does imperialism. That's part of why it's bad. Imperialism will never benefit the common person, it will only hurt us in the end. You best believe all this funding, weapons, and shit going into Ukraine will come back on us too.

What are some other real-ass takes for our visitors who need disillusioning?

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[–] [email protected] 32 points 1 year ago

hasan-smash

We probably need big effortpost stickied somewhere, one about the Ukraine war and one about China. Like I know the news mega crew wrote some stuff pre-federation but it's buried at the bottom of an announcement post somewhere

[–] [email protected] 23 points 1 year ago

The United States is the single greatest threat to LGBT+ people in the world. Not only are many parts of the country actively trying to deny trans people life saving medicine, they are helping to fund draconian anti-LGBT+ laws in various African and South American countries. They also helped and are probably still helping Saudi Arabia displace the indigenous Islamic traditions in favor of their more inhumane version, leading to queer people in Islamic countries to be even more at risk.

On top of that, because the US kills so many people, both directly through military action, and through sanctions, that statistically more LGBT+ people are killed yearly by America than all of the countries with the death penalty for homosexuality combined.

[–] [email protected] 20 points 1 year ago

i don't have any Real Ass Takes to add bc a lot of good stuff has already been covered, but i just wanted to say i think this is a super valuable topic, not just for educating lemmy libs but for reference in general. im gonna use this to convince libs IRL that my insane-sounding opinions are actually decidedly sane

Death to America

[–] [email protected] 17 points 1 year ago (9 children)

I don’t recommend to anyone here to praise violence, not because we disagree with it, but because supporting violence draws bad attention to the site. But yeah, 9/11.

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