this post was submitted on 22 Nov 2023
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What genocide is this dude even talking about?
Well this instance of lemmy is very USA centric, so it's definitions of Right Leaning would be a spectrum of Fiscal Conservative to Conservative Religious. That means notable right leaning genocides of the past would include:
15th to 19th Century Indigenous Genocides most recent large scale eradications being the wars against the Cheyenne, Apache, Cherokee, Navajo, and Sioux. While some survivors remain, of the 245 well known original languages there are only fluent speakers in 105 remaining, indicating there are no living members of at least half of the cultures.
35 Million people were brought to the Americas via the African Atlantic Slave Trade, and it's estimated about 20% of them died in transit, which in itself qualifies as a massacre if not genocide.
A lot of genocidal acts took place during the civil war including Fort Pillow Massacre, Lawrence Massacre, Baxter Springs Massacre, etc.
The 1919 Elain Massacre of African Americans in Arkansas.
The 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre is yet another example of racially motivated genocide, it was a hot topic recently as yet another Mass Grave was discovered even while many right leaning individuals refute the existence of the event.
The Phillippine America War saw roughly 220,000 dead natives compared to the 4,200 American deaths.
WWII was basically the only time that an atomic bomb has ever been dropped on a populated city in the world's history, causing an immediate 214,000 deaths, mostly civilian.
In 1995 the Oklahoma City Bombing was instigated by, you'll never guess it, white supremacists. This was the deadliest terrorist attack in modern US history until 9/11.
There were a lot of others both foreign and at home, but for conciseness moving on to Current Examples:
US Right Wing, for example Donald Trump and Desantis, seems to support a Single State Solution of Israel, which is to say complete annihilation of Palestine. In fact, Desantis also wants to defund the United Nations, of all things...
The US owned and operated company Facebook actually facilitated the Rohingya Genocide in Myanmar, something even the state department recognizes as a genocide which is rare.
Many US Right Wing groups want not only a complete isolation from the southern neighbors in Mexico, but an actual military attack on that nation, such as US Senator John Kennedy calling for military intervention.
Some dictatorships created by the USA in the past now still struggle as powerful groups hold very right wing radical opinions and racial prejudices such as Bolivia and Argentina, the former suffering frequent arson and a coup attempt while the latter narrowly electing a far right leader.
Gosh it's actually getting kind of late for me, can somebody else tag in for a while?
Sounds like an America problem, regardless of party
I think the problem is the society-wide mindset of Might Makes Right coupled with National Exceptionalism, and that's hardly a problem in only the US.
And your answer is an america-wide mindset of "well, we aren't that bad. Others did it too" when they didn't on such a huge scale
I don't know that that's the right lesson to take away. Our history, hell our current actions, aren't the best. It's incredibly disappointing to learn about how much fucked up shit we've had domestically or caused internationally. Especially things that were against our professed values.
But this shouldn't be viewed as something Americans are uniquely capable of. It's the same thing as branding all the nazis as inhuman monsters -- its important to recognize that they were ordinary humans, so that we remain acutely aware of what humanity is capable of. At any given time.
There's plenty of ongoing genocides throughout the world that aren't being perpetrated by the US. History is filled with horrible crimes by other countries, some who were adversaries to the US. It's entirely likely that any successor the US will repeat many of the same mistakes. You can see this already in action with China in the South China Sea, claiming international waters as their own to the detriment of fishermen in neighboring countries.
I think at the end of the day, here's the distinction to keep in mind -- the US has caused bad things to happen on an unparalleled scale, but the only thing unique about the US is the resources they have to do it. Any other country in the same position could and has done the same and worse.
Not buying it. Two things can be equally awful.
No that's my exact point. Most places would be equally awful given the same resources and capabilities. That doesn't mean we can't criticize the US for scale, but we should be wary that it's only the availability of resources causing that scale, nothing else.
Not all countries would genocide more than 99% of the land's unhabitants
Never think "that could never happen here"
Is that take not the same as you thinking your nation or some other nation is superior or an exception to the lesser human condition?
When the exception is basically just the USA I doubt there's really any "superior countries", just not that bad ones
Really? You cannot think of a single other nation than the USA with a long history of war, colonialism, and genocide? Nothing comes to mind?
Again, not on USA's scale
It's very clearly skewed heavily towards Conservatives.
The conservatives that both parties really are
There might be assholes on both sides but some assholes erected Confederate General Statues and the other assholes passed the civil rights act in the same year, so think what you want but the divide is clear.
You really shouldn't talk about the civil wars to say the democrats are superior
Lmao, you're the only person to ever use the word Democrat in this whole thread. I said Conservatives were bad, and before and even during most of the 1960s that included the Democrats.