You can repeat "US imperialism bad" as much as you want but learning the play by play is just absolutely mind blowing. Its always so much worse than you could initially imagine.

  • Assian_Candor [comrade/them]
    ·
    edit-2
    2 years ago

    Blowback is a treasure. All three seasons merit multiple listens.

    As to S3 If people in the us realized that we bombed North Korea to an extent that people were reduced to living in caves they might be a little more introspective on why they view us the way they do. Hence why Korea is the “forgotten war”

    Also, Chairman Mao man. What a heart.

    • Shinji_Ikari [he/him]
      hexagon
      ·
      2 years ago

      That's what I've been telling folks, like it makes sense why no one talks about the korean war, because there's almost no way to white wash it past "NK crossed the line".

      • Beaver [he/him]
        ·
        edit-2
        2 years ago

        Americans have such an easygoing ignorance of the absolutely massive scale of anti-communist massacres that were going on in their zone of military occupation (me included prior to listening to S3). That's a critical piece of missing information that confuses their understanding of the motivations behind the invasion of the southern occupation zone.

        What's less forgivable is the weird fetishization about the inviobility lines on a map. To the point of being willing to grind an entire people into dust to ensure that the line is respected.

        • Frank [he/him, he/him]
          ·
          2 years ago

          weird fetishization about the inviobility lines on a map.

          The way people genuinely believe that "War" is something that only happens if you drive a tank across a survey line is infuriating. Just an absolute failure to even consider the possibility of realpolitik, of unconventional warfare, economic warfare. Like bruh if someone is pointing a nuclear gun at your head you do not have to wait for him to pull the trigger before you're allowed to respond.

          Doubly so because so many people will excuse or outright endorse America's various campaigns of mass murder and desolation.

          • Beaver [he/him]
            ·
            2 years ago

            One of the most effective American propaganda campaigns have been to convince Americans and Europeans that "war" is very specifically when you drive tanks across lines on a map.

            Things that are definitely not war include:

            • Economic blockades
            • Airstrikes against life sustaining infrastructure
            • Airstrikes against civillians
            • Actual boots on the ground in the form of special forces
            • Actual full scale invasions of countries, as long as you sign the form that says "this is not a war"
            • Frank [he/him, he/him]
              ·
              2 years ago

              "Police action" is the 20th century's "Lethal aid"

              You know it's funny that libs want to sue gun companies for firearms murders, but don't seem to have the same energy for acknowledging that we're responsible for arming and training the Ukrainian armed forces.

      • Assian_Candor [comrade/them]
        ·
        edit-2
        2 years ago

        More bombs were dropped on Korea than were dropped in the entirety of the WW2 pacific theater is a mind blowing stat. That shit doesn’t go away either. I’m sure they’re still dealing with soil poisoning, uxo, etc

        Edit: yep

      • GVAGUY3 [he/him]
        ·
        2 years ago

        As soon as you learn what was going on in the South before the war started, it begins to make people think stuff like "Maybe they were justified in crossing the line"

    • supermangoman [he/him, they/them]
      ·
      2 years ago

      And even after the US blew up literally all of their infrastructure, it still wasn't enough. McArthur wanted to nuke the DPRK and China. It's insane.

      • Frank [he/him, he/him]
        ·
        2 years ago

        It's an unbelievable miracle that the SAC and the insane Army generals were somehow kept in check and prevented from slinging nukes around. People have no idea how totally psychotically bloodthirsty they were.

        • culpritus [any]
          ·
          2 years ago

          Dr. Strangelove is only partially fictional.

    • Ericthescruffy [he/him]
      ·
      2 years ago

      Absolutely. Honestly I am genuinely embarrassed and will plead the fifth to some of my perspectives on North Korea prior to my leftward shift a decade back or so.

      Even if the caricatured image of their country the western media presented was entirely accurate...Jesus fuck...just pause and take a look at what 9/11 did to the American psyche and culture and ponder what it would look like if we'd suffered even half of what we inflicted on North Korea.

  • GVAGUY3 [he/him]
    ·
    2 years ago

    My Dad is going through it right now. He told me DPRK was justified going in.

      • GVAGUY3 [he/him]
        ·
        2 years ago

        His Grandpa was in charge of some military police or something in the war and he is legit just like "Holy shit, my Grandpa was evil".

        • Carmine2 [none/use name]
          ·
          2 years ago

          that takes a lot of introspection, frankly most people are ego driven to the point where they can't actually make that assertion

          dad is cooler by the minute

          • GVAGUY3 [he/him]
            ·
            2 years ago

            It kinda helps he never met his Grandpa because it is from a side of the family we only met a few years ago (long story), but has heard good stories from Family members. He also from the Deep South so he is used bad relatives.

  • boardbyboard [comrade/them]
    ·
    2 years ago

    i think even though we're getting further away from the events every day that the details are still lurid enough and present IRL that even a podcast as well made and sourced as this still actives peoples' i-heard-a-terrible-thing-brain-shutdown mechanism.

    You can repeat “US imperialism bad” as much as you want but learning the play by play is just absolutely mind blowing. Its always so much worse than you could initially imagine.

    it's barbaric. Nearly beyond description

    • Shinji_Ikari [he/him]
      hexagon
      ·
      2 years ago

      I read Jakarta Method a couple years ago and talking about any single part of the book to people had them shutdown almost immediately.

      Its just so fucking heavy. All I can do is drop a bit here or there, "The airforce bombed the north so completely they ran out of targets", "MacArthur had to have his command of nukes taken away in secret because Eisenhower thought he'd nuke china first if he got wind of them being taken away". Small facts sometimes get through but string more than one together and they cant handle it.

        • constellation [none/use name]
          ·
          2 years ago

          America needed a hero so the media manufactured one.

          The more you learn about MacArthur, the more you learn what a piece of shit he was.

        • ProxyTheAwesome [comrade/them]
          ·
          2 years ago

          Half of the country was fully MacArthur-pilled during the Cold War. They were installing Nazis into a bunch of positions of power. There was a reactionary mind virus infecting a big chunk of the populace

          • Thordros [he/him, comrade/them]
            ·
            2 years ago

            There was a reactionary mind virus infecting a big chunk of the populace

            Unrelated fact: This was the time period when the use of leaded gasoline peaked. It began to be phased out in 1973.

            Unrelated to the prior unrelated fact: The Vietnam War ended in 1975.

            • UlyssesT [he/him]
              ·
              2 years ago

              Unrelated fact: This was the time period when the use of leaded gasoline peaked. It began to be phased out in 1973.

              The birthdates and childhoods of the biggest :frothingfash: I know line up with that.

        • Shinji_Ikari [he/him]
          hexagon
          ·
          2 years ago

          He was basically a wildly popular rogue agent. If they locked down too fast or hard, there would have been extreme hog backlash. It's amazing they could even get him to heel at all.

      • GVAGUY3 [he/him]
        ·
        2 years ago

        The whole chapter on the extermination was one of the most chilling things I have ever read.

  • artificialset [she/her, fae/faer]
    ·
    2 years ago

    Yeah it's a brutal listen. I always think my hatred of :amerikkka: has hit it's peak, but then I find there's room for more

    • GVAGUY3 [he/him]
      ·
      2 years ago

      Next season is Afghanistan. I feel like that season will piss me off.

    • Frank [he/him, he/him]
      ·
      2 years ago

      Something I have observed about studying history is that there is no bottom to the horror. You will never find the ultimate crime, the ultimate act of violence and sadism. There's always something worse lurking on the next page.

  • supermangoman [he/him, they/them]
    ·
    2 years ago

    Honestly listening to blowback is a big part of the reason that I'm a ML now. It's just one outrageously evil decision after another made by the American government. I realized how propagandized I still am - how have I never heard of this stuff before?

    We need to tear this empire down.

  • GenderIsOpSec [she/her]
    ·
    2 years ago

    It's an easy thing to meme about, but after listening to Season 3 I'm fully behind this next sentence:

    Uncritical support for the DPRK in its heroic struggle to liberate occupied Korea from the genocidal American empire.

  • BeamBrain [he/him]
    ·
    2 years ago

    And you can tell libs all of this and they'll just shrug and say "Yeah, well, that's what happens during war. The North started it anyway, so what happened to them was their fault."

    Source: personal experience

    • ProxyTheAwesome [comrade/them]
      ·
      edit-2
      2 years ago

      Can’t wait until this happens to AmeriKKKa after they start their 216th war and I can just shrug and say, maybe shouldn’t have started so many wars?

      • BeamBrain [he/him]
        ·
        2 years ago

        To see any positive change in westoid libs, we must first render them impotent and irrelevant

  • tripartitegraph [comrade/them]
    ·
    2 years ago

    Nearly brought me to tears on a few occasions. I like the more humorous style of Season 1, but I think I appreciate more the seriousness that they've developed.

  • Flinch [he/him]
    ·
    2 years ago

    For any comrade here who hasn't heard the US's crimes against the Korean people laid bare,

    https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1WSE-G3x7QBc9ZFmh20AFGn5Nq7oBsJYN

    Here’s a google drive with all of season 3 of Blowback, including the bonus episodes. Enjoy, spread it around, and most of all, uncritical support to the DPRK in it’s heroic struggle to rid occupied Korea of the genocidal US Empire :kim-salute:

  • Trustmeitsnotabailou [none/use name]
    ·
    2 years ago

    When you listen to this you also realize that the people that did this. They don't exist any more. They where extremely smart, evil operators who had long term plans.

    Now America is just fail sons that can't plan a week ahead

  • UmbraVivi [he/him, she/her]
    ·
    2 years ago

    Part of me is interested, another part of me wants to preserve what little joy there is left in me.

    • ItsPequod [he/him]
      ·
      2 years ago

      I find myself swapping between S3 and S2 when learning about the Korean war gets me too down I listen to how our comrades in Cuba won the day.

    • Shinji_Ikari [he/him]
      hexagon
      ·
      2 years ago

      It fills me with love for the NK people. Their strength against the US and persistence is inspiring in a way.