I had this realization yesterday, and not like this is some big insight but it was a new thought to me:
Most Americans have zero conception of “anti-imperialism” or “anti-colonialism”.
It’s not that most Americans knowingly approve of imperialism or colonialism. Or that they have a warped idea of what these terms mean. It’s that they have no idea what these concepts are or how they exist in history up to the present.
I like to think my parents are pretty good examples of the “median” (white) American. If you asked them what “colonies” were, they would say something like “well, in the past countries like Britain and France owned parts of Africa and Asia, but now they don’t anymore”. That’s it, that’s all they would able to explain. They have no idea that there was an anti-colonial struggle across many countries. They think Vietnam was just “the communists were trying to take over the world”, where “the communists” are not even specifically Vietnamese or Russian or Chinese, just a sort of blob of anthropomorphized ideology.
This bleeds into their present-day understanding of what’s happening in Gaza. Palestinians or really any brown people are just naturally violent for reasons unknown, so they get branded with the “terrorist” label and they don’t think any deeper than that. The conflict then becomes not an anti-colonial struggle or a people striving for liberation, but the bad “terrorists” who just want to do violence to the white people who look like they do and have democracy and capitalism and speak English so they must be good. This gets reinforced by the media which has now spent over 20 years pushing hard stories of Muslim or Arab “terrorists” who want to set off a nuke in an American shopping mall or whatever crap they watch of NCIS / CSI / JAG / Homeland / FBI (yes, there’s now a show that’s just called “FBI”).
The struggles that Mexico has had to endure are completely unknown to most Americans, so when AMLO or Sheinbaum get labeled as “autocrats”, (white) Americans will just accept it because of their own lack of knowledge plus inherent racism.
(Just to clarify, I’ve worked on my parents so they no longer think the above
Oh for sure, complete political illiteracy is very prevalent in the US. You're completely right that it's not that people support imperialism, but rather they're not even aware that it's happening.
Just to clarify, I’ve worked on my parents so they no longer think the above
You actually succeeded‽
It's definitely possible lmao. Over the last 20ish years, my mom went from reluctantly voting for her first democrat to now sending me openly communist media and praising China.
I mean, they’re not exactly chanting “from the river to the sea” at rallies but they think the Israelis and Palestinians should each have their own state because “that’s fair”. They understand the Palestinian state has been under military occupation since they were little kids and that’s about as far as I’ve gotten.
Lol i remember literally consuming all of NCIS, CSI (all series), the law and order, Criminal minds, etc... and i am here!
By David Frum
No thanks.
David Frum is just a less-successful, shittier Julius Streicher. One among many.
For his 25 years of speaking, writing and preaching hatred of the Jews, Streicher was widely known as 'Jew-Baiter Number One.' In his speeches and articles, week after week, month after month, he infected the German mind with the virus of anti-Semitism, and incited the German people to active persecution. ... Streicher's incitement to murder and extermination at the time when Jews in the East were being killed under the most horrible conditions clearly constitutes persecution on political and racial grounds in connection with war crimes, as defined by the Charter, and constitutes a crime against humanity.
From the judgement against him. Now replace "Jews" with "Muslims" or "Iraqis" or "Afghans" and replace applicable words to fit the American context.
Imagine how many of these little-Hitlers would go "bye-bye!" if we applied the WOKE standards Streicher was held to at Nuremberg.
David Frum directly aided, knowingly, in frothing up libs to allow two genocides to happen during two major wars that left two countries totally crippled. He's already complicit in the deaths of at least two million people between Iraq and Afghanistan, and that number will surely only rise in time.
It is funny to see all the right wingers crying about "woke" when their techno-daddy Elon would've been hanged if be were around in the 1930s/40s to run Nazi Twitter. If woke means hanging a few Nazis, I guess I'm wide awake, lids peeled back style. Go more woke! Hang more!
I saw recently that the total number of deaths due to the “war on terror” is up to 4.5 million.
Yeah I don't doubt that. I just say 2M because it's the generally agreed upon starting place. After that people try to parse out what "counts" for the numbers. Like people don't want to count deaths due to chemical exposure, radiation, starvation after direct occupation ended, etc. even though that all very clearly is the fault of the US and allies. The ongoing political strife and any assassinations or purges that occur are also directly on the US. There's also the number of casualties which I don't even know the numbers on... probably 10x based on other conflicts. Someone that didn't die but still got blinded or lost limbs. Or children born with birth defects due to environmental contamination caused by the US. All the stuff doctors and experts all know exactly where to place blame for it, and yet the western media will essentially NEVER mention deaths and casualties except to mention the whatever number of US soldiers that died or were wounded. Just blatant dehumanization. Victim blaming, etc. Frum is just an especially gross little worm but only one of thousands like him. It's why I find it incredibly hard to muster much sympathy when they whine about Trump saying he's gonna do whatever to them. Trump found the right thing for the wrong reasons to at least some of the weasels... meh, I'd take it.
Americans be having an election with openly genocidal ghouls and have the nerve to talk about other countries elected officials.
You'd be right!
https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2019/11/bolivias-protests-outcome/602644/
"Women can be autocrats too" - yeah just look at your beloved
, Atlantic.Independence of the judiciary? Gone, abolished by the last major legislation of his presidency. Judges will now be elected by partisan ballots. Independent election administration? Crippled. Nonpartisan enforcement of government-transparency rules, nonpartisan antitrust enforcement, nonpartisan telecommunications regulation, nonpartisan energy regulation? Abolished, abolished, abolished, and abolished. Only the central bank, after a long struggle, will retain its autonomy from direct presidential control.
*It has links to these claims that I won't bother to replicate
Notice how a lot of what they are talking about are offices being put up for election, and sometimes they even say as much, but then at the end they say "Only the central bank . . . will retain its autonomy from direct presidential control." even though that is not at all what they established was being taken from the other offices.
Lololol the central bank is next on the list if they keep their criminal 11% interest rates
I look all those things he described, and just like, a lot of states are just like that in the US too lol. Look in a fucking mirror god damn.
Authoritarianism against capital - especially USAmerican - is why your tears Mr David a-million-Iraqis-murdered Frum are nourishing.
There's a relevant quote that sometimes shows up on the main page
Well I for one am glad that they got ahead of this story before it can be proven to be complete dogshit. Who am I kidding? It's fucking dogshit!
Canadians are the sniveling little freak character from The Green Mile of imperialism. More specifically David Frum.
Edit, it would be a dream come true if Frum fell into a wood chipper dick first.
