4 ms·

The pot and the kettle can both be black - no amount of "whataboutism" makes this less terrible.

pastProlog 10y ago
The article itself is whataboutism. Prescient today is black men being murdered in the US by US police, the bloodshed happening in Honduras due to US military aid and such. Also if this so-called "genocide" is so "terrible" as you say, why did the US force Taiwan out of the UNSC in the 1970s and the PRC onto it? It's a strange dynamic to shake hands with someone, empower them, then decades later shake your head in moral indignation because of some propaganda that you had been announcing before the big handshake. The US is built on a land stolen from a people killed by genocide, it's a laugh to see Americans raised their hand and calling a crop failure in China a genocide (yet not calling previous crop failures in China genocides, pre-PRC, not calling famines in Ireland or India under English rule genocides etc.)
- mattnewton 10y ago
  Whataboutism refers to an appeal to hypocrisy, which this article is not. Your comments are pretty much the textbook example "And you are lynching Blacks!" that used to be the Soviet retort to American criticism of their society, which don't change the truth about those criticisms. America being terrible does not factor into the equation of whether or not this was genocide. Basically, I think you may be right, and there is a lot to criticize from both societies, and the important thing is to keep doing it, and keep calling a spade a spade. To require critics themselves to be blameless distracts us from the issue.
- themartorana 10y ago
  I wasn't aware 40-70 million black people had died by police brutality in the US. I mean listen, it's a problem, but are you actually trying to stretch that far?
  - douche 10y ago
    It'd be pretty tough for that to have happened, since there aren't 40 million black people in the US, according to the last census... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Historical_racial_and_ethnic_demographics_of_the_United_States https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Historical_racial_and_ethnic_d...
- khuey 10y ago
  The United States voted against General Assembly Resolution 2758. In what alternate universe "did the US force [the Republic of China] out of the UNSC"?

The article itself is whataboutism. Prescient today is black men being murdered in the US by US police, the bloodshed happening in Honduras due to US military aid and such. Also if this so-called "genocide" is so "terrible" as you say, why did the US force Taiwan out of the UNSC in the 1970s and the PRC onto it? It's a strange dynamic to shake hands with someone, empower them, then decades later shake your head in moral indignation because of some propaganda that you had been announcing before the big handshake. The US is built on a land stolen from a people killed by genocide, it's a laugh to see Americans raised their hand and calling a crop failure in China a genocide (yet not calling previous crop failures in China genocides, pre-PRC, not calling famines in Ireland or India under English rule genocides etc.)

mattnewton 10y ago
Whataboutism refers to an appeal to hypocrisy, which this article is not. Your comments are pretty much the textbook example "And you are lynching Blacks!" that used to be the Soviet retort to American criticism of their society, which don't change the truth about those criticisms. America being terrible does not factor into the equation of whether or not this was genocide. Basically, I think you may be right, and there is a lot to criticize from both societies, and the important thing is to keep doing it, and keep calling a spade a spade. To require critics themselves to be blameless distracts us from the issue.
themartorana 10y ago
I wasn't aware 40-70 million black people had died by police brutality in the US. I mean listen, it's a problem, but are you actually trying to stretch that far?
- douche 10y ago
  It'd be pretty tough for that to have happened, since there aren't 40 million black people in the US, according to the last census... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Historical_racial_and_ethnic_demographics_of_the_United_States https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Historical_racial_and_ethnic_d...
khuey 10y ago
The United States voted against General Assembly Resolution 2758. In what alternate universe "did the US force [the Republic of China] out of the UNSC"?