OurToothbrush

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[–] OurToothbrush@lemmy.ml 7 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago) (4 children)

Capitalism has a foothold there but the British no longer rule there. Justifying imperialism with imperialism also doesn’t magically make it okay

No they just installed a friendly neocolonial government. Jesus Christ do some basic investigation. If the British invaded part of your hometown and installed a puppet government, would you call it imperialism for it to be taken back by your town?

[–] OurToothbrush@lemmy.ml 17 points 4 days ago

You do understand the whole fascism thing relied on getting new colonies, right? They even did the whole manifest destiny thing.

And the point was it doesn’t matter in relation to other attrocities.

The point is that they're in the same bucket as other colonial atrocities

Russia was also a colonial power, and one of the last which is still one, ask a Yakut guy or someone from the northern Caucasus. So it should be also added there?

Weren't you the one complaining about whataboutism? Also yes, we can view the Russian empire and the Russian federation as imperialist projects.

[–] OurToothbrush@lemmy.ml 9 points 4 days ago (8 children)

Imperialism much?

It is imperialism to let proxy governments for the UK and US maintain a colonial foothold in China actually.

[–] OurToothbrush@lemmy.ml 18 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago) (2 children)

Whataboutism is only sometimes tu quoque.

And you are using it again. Because the term was coined by English oppressors, than it shouldn’t true…

Christ- this is deeply unserious. Do you understand how the British used it to deflect from the idea that IRA violence and British colonialism were connected? The British were saying "it is a logical fallacy to talk about our violence that creates the resistance, we are talkng about how the resistance is using violence and how that means they're bad"

Always the same answer to everything, my beloved dictator/political system/whatever is not really terrible, because I can point to something even worse

Do you see all violence as divorced from other violence?

Let’s see, “colonials are not as terrible, because what the Nazis did, and Jews were white people” Same as your reasoning.

The Nazis were a colonial power, Jesus Christ, Mary, and Joseph, did you learn nothing about fascism in school?

[–] OurToothbrush@lemmy.ml 22 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago) (4 children)

Oh, i liked this section

According to lexicographer Ben Zimmer,[13] the term originated in Northern Ireland in the 1970s. Zimmer cites a 1974 letter by history teacher Sean O'Conaill which was published in The Irish Times where he complained about "the Whatabouts", people who defended the IRA by pointing out supposed wrongdoings of their enemy:

I would not suggest such a thing were it not for the Whatabouts. These are the people who answer every condemnation of the Provisional I.R.A. with an argument to prove the greater immorality of the "enemy", and therefore the justice of the Provisionals' cause: "What about Bloody Sunday, internment, torture, force-feeding, army intimidation?". Every call to stop is answered in the same way: "What about the Treaty of Limerick; the Anglo-Irish treaty of 1921; Lenadoon?". Neither is the Church immune: "The Catholic Church has never supported the national cause. What about Papal sanction for the Norman invasion; condemnation of the Fenians by Moriarty; Parnell?"

— Sean O'Conaill, "Letter to Editor", The Irish Times, 30 Jan 1974

Good example of how claims of whataboutism are used to try to remove actual important context from a discussion.

[–] OurToothbrush@lemmy.ml 11 points 4 days ago (1 children)

Sorry, I often fail at snark perception

[–] OurToothbrush@lemmy.ml 14 points 4 days ago (2 children)

Staying ignorant is cool, you heard it here first folks.

[–] OurToothbrush@lemmy.ml 17 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago)

I actually support the side which is magnitudes less violent. And there is a difference between killing fascists like the Soviets did and killing anti-colonial freedom fighters but mostly civilians like the colonial powers did.

You can only oppose everyone if your opposition doesn't actually do anything. If you're actually affecting things your opposition of one will strengthen the other. You have to be against the US empire and for multipolarity or against multipolarity and for the US empire. There isn't a third option.

[–] OurToothbrush@lemmy.ml 26 points 4 days ago (7 children)

"Both sides" is when you equivocate two things which are not equal, you're looking for "whataboutism" which is not an actual fallacy, claiming "you're doing whataboutism" was a PR tactic first used by British colonizers when Irish people brought up British violence in response to anti-IRA propaganda.

[–] OurToothbrush@lemmy.ml 2 points 1 week ago (4 children)

The acquisition and accumulation of wealth

There is the problem, you don't even know how to define capitalism. I would suggest reading "wage labor and capital" and "value price and profit"

[–] OurToothbrush@lemmy.ml 2 points 1 week ago (9 children)

Just so you know you can't defeat fascism without defeating capitalism. I recommend reading "the economy and class structure of german fascism" and "fascism and social revolution".

In general individual action doesn't really help address social problems.

Politics isn’t gonna fix what is being undermined and dissassembled in our Democracy right now.

I dont think electoral politics will work but you have to expand your definition of politics if you think electoral politics is all that politics is.

[–] OurToothbrush@lemmy.ml 3 points 1 week ago

He didn't though, Jill stein got like 40 percent, Harris and Trump got 20 each.

Honestly this simplification comes off as disingenuous and attempting to play Arab voters are more conservative and backwards.

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