Lol @ the end were tank commander and the spotter both poke their heads out to start shouting at him for being a little shit blocking their way out.
how do people even rationalize how the soldiers who apparently were just done killing 10,000 people not only let him stop the tanks but also climb up on the tank and talk to the soldiers? why wouldnt they shoot or arrest him right there when they came out of the tank?
Because that only happens in America. Or I wish it would, our tankman would be rushing out to thank the troops after he gets shot by them for their service.
I like to imagine the guy just had really bad vision and was waiting for his bus. That's why he motions for the tank to pull up beside him, and when he tries to board the tank, the gunner tells him "this is a tank, not a bus, your bus is over there"
How would you all approach a conversation about Tian'anmen with a lib?
There were protests in China for months leading up to the June 4th incident. The protests mirrored a power struggle over liberalization at the highest levels of the Chinese government. This fracture in society was amplified and exploited by the CIA to push for regime change. The agency ran guns into the country to arm the rebels, as they are so wont to do. The year 1989 was a big one for color revolutions across the globe because it was the height of the collapse of the Soviet Bloc.
After showing restraint in the face of a complete, weeks-long shutdown of the capital's central square, China tried to peacefully clear the square on June 2nd when they sent a battalion of unarmed troops into the capital. The battalion was lynched and firebombed before they could make it into the city's center. Soldiers were burned alive in their APCs.*
That's when the crackdown started. On June 4th, they sent in the real shit. Tanks. Guns. There were skirmishes with CIA-backed guerrillas. There were no battles inside Tiananmen Square itself, because there is no place to take cover. The square was filled with peaceful student protesters.
When the tanks rolled into the square, the commanders made a deal with the student protest leaders to vacate peacefully. In the face of overwhelming force, the students complied. The Chinese have video of the square emptying peacefully.
After being heavily involved with the operation for months and unsatisfied with its conclusion, the CIA embarked on a propaganda hoax to convince people that China had actually committed a mass slaughter of the unarmed people gathered in the square. The narrative began with a UK diplomatic cable which claimed that machine gun nests on the rooftops of surrounding buildings had gunned down ten thousand people. This is the origin of the "Tiananmen Square Massacre". The cable has been discredited by witnesses and WikiLeaks.
On June 5th, as the tanks were leaving, the famous tank man footage was captured. The tanks tried to go around him, but he continued to block their path. The tank driver never comes close to running him over before other protesters carry him away from the scene. The tank man image was decontextualized and heavily propagandized in the West to further the impression that a mass slaughter of helpless innocents had taken place.
The Chinese government claimed from the beginning that about two to three hundred people died on June 2nd to 4th in Beijing, including soldiers, guerrillas, and protesters. The Chinese version of events is the most accurate one according to US embassy staff (which we know thanks to WikiLeaks).
The June 4th incident is openly taught and discussed in today's China; it's only the hoax narrative that's censored, because all countries try to suppress foreign disinformation operations.
https://youtu.be/R6RT_s1T050
*Many of the graphic photos that you will find shared by people on reddit trying to convey the supposed brutality of the Chinese government are actually photographs of these lynched troops.
Thanks. I think the Wikileaks cable is probably the best sell in conversations about this. Also, the fact that several hundred people died in the fighting - it's easier for people to accept that the bloodshed was extremely exaggerated than fully fabricated.
"Have you ever actually seen the whole video of the guy? He actually doesn't get rolled over, but starts crawling all over it like a kindergartener on the monkey bars. Got a minute? Lets watch it."
I mean that actually I can get by (I actually remember some Mandela effect discourse around whether the guy got run over or pulled away by soldiers/protesters, so they're not all drinking the flavour-aid), but probably not the supposed events of the night before.
This vid also includes the random protesters dragging the dumbass away too
Pretty much. I was taught in high school that the tank literally ran him over, thousands of peaceful protestors were murdered in the square for simply wanting democracy, and that Communist China was evil and totalitarian because "they murder their own kids".
I have memories of seeing a picture where there was a dark colored stain about where the guy would have been standing if a tank rolled over him.
I'm, like, 99% sure this is not a real memory and some Mandela effect thing going on.
