As much as other European colonialists have fucked up Africa over the years, I don't think any one person can have more blame for that than Leopold II of Belgium. Just ran the place like his own personal genocidal fiefdom.
this post was submitted on 02 Dec 2024
210 points (97.7% liked)
World News
39385 readers
2265 users here now
A community for discussing events around the World
Rules:
-
Rule 1: posts have the following requirements:
- Post news articles only
- Video links are NOT articles and will be removed.
- Title must match the article headline
- Not United States Internal News
- Recent (Past 30 Days)
- Screenshots/links to other social media sites (Twitter/X/Facebook/Youtube/reddit, etc.) are explicitly forbidden, as are link shorteners.
-
Rule 2: Do not copy the entire article into your post. The key points in 1-2 paragraphs is allowed (even encouraged!), but large segments of articles posted in the body will result in the post being removed. If you have to stop and think "Is this fair use?", it probably isn't. Archive links, especially the ones created on link submission, are absolutely allowed but those that avoid paywalls are not.
-
Rule 3: Opinions articles, or Articles based on misinformation/propaganda may be removed. Sources that have a Low or Very Low factual reporting rating or MBFC Credibility Rating may be removed.
-
Rule 4: Posts or comments that are homophobic, transphobic, racist, sexist, anti-religious, or ableist will be removed. “Ironic” prejudice is just prejudiced.
-
Posts and comments must abide by the lemmy.world terms of service UPDATED AS OF 10/19
-
Rule 5: Keep it civil. It's OK to say the subject of an article is behaving like a (pejorative, pejorative). It's NOT OK to say another USER is (pejorative). Strong language is fine, just not directed at other members. Engage in good-faith and with respect! This includes accusing another user of being a bot or paid actor. Trolling is uncivil and is grounds for removal and/or a community ban.
Similarly, if you see posts along these lines, do not engage. Report them, block them, and live a happier life than they do. We see too many slapfights that boil down to "Mom! He's bugging me!" and "I'm not touching you!" Going forward, slapfights will result in removed comments and temp bans to cool off.
-
Rule 6: Memes, spam, other low effort posting, reposts, misinformation, advocating violence, off-topic, trolling, offensive, regarding the moderators or meta in content may be removed at any time.
-
Rule 7: We didn't USED to need a rule about how many posts one could make in a day, then someone posted NINETEEN articles in a single day. Not comments, FULL ARTICLES. If you're posting more than say, 10 or so, consider going outside and touching grass. We reserve the right to limit over-posting so a single user does not dominate the front page.
We ask that the users report any comment or post that violate the rules, to use critical thinking when reading, posting or commenting. Users that post off-topic spam, advocate violence, have multiple comments or posts removed, weaponize reports or violate the code of conduct will be banned.
All posts and comments will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis. This means that some content that violates the rules may be allowed, while other content that does not violate the rules may be removed. The moderators retain the right to remove any content and ban users.
Lemmy World Partners
News !news@lemmy.world
Politics !politics@lemmy.world
World Politics !globalpolitics@lemmy.world
Recommendations
For Firefox users, there is media bias / propaganda / fact check plugin.
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/media-bias-fact-check/
- Consider including the article’s mediabiasfactcheck.com/ link
founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
Dude was one of the biggest scumbags in human history, but not many people know about him.
Behind the Bastards did a multiple episodes on him. Yeah, fuck that guy.
I know about him from "We Didn't Start the Fire"
Billy Joel was a boomer, and he's right. It was always burning since the world's been turning.
I know about him! He's the hot dude who married Kate after making all the Otis elevators stop. And then he jumped through timelines with burn-victim Van Wilder.
It literally was his own personal fiefdom because he directly owned it. It wasn't until all the bad press came out that the Belgian government forced him to hand it over to Belgium proper. The Belgian government then proceeded to do a light form of Leopold's system: forced labor via imprisonment but without the incentive to chop off limbs.
The court ordered the state to pay the women €50,000 in damages each for the suffering caused by breaking their ties to their mothers, home environments and loss of identity. It also said the government must pay “more than €1m” in legal costs.
The women had limited damages they sought to €50,000, because if they had lost they would be liable to pay the state compensation based on the original claim.
Ok that's crazy. They sued the government due to their forced removal from their families, but if they lost the court case (which they did the first time), they would have to pay the Belgium government the amount they sued it for? That sounds exceedingly fucked.
It probably shouldn't apply to suing the Government, but I think it's a good idea.
Stops the stupid sue-happy culture the US loves so much.
The litigousness of the US is greatly exaggerated. Largely by big companies, trying to close off the one resource common folk have in dealing with them if they ever screw us over. Meanwhile, large conpanies file roughly 4 times as many suits than individuals, and are reprimanded for frivolous suits far more often.
Not the full cost but a percentage. I still think it's dumb
Justice is slow
If ever for many.
Is it justice if those guilty never see consequences?