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What time are you talking about? In the 40s they had concentration camps inside the US for japanese people. In the 50s they experimented on some towns/US citize
by Findeton 8y ago
What time are you talking about? In the 40s they had concentration camps inside the US for japanese people. In the 50s they experimented on some towns/US citizens with different diseases, and in the 70s and 80s they created coups all over South and Central America against democratic governments.
- cabalamat 8y agoYes, and in all those time periods they had a far better record than their main adversaries. C'mon people, is it really that hard to get that the West (1) has a flawed human rights record, and at the same time (2) has a better record than the main other countries?
- coldtea 8y agoThe main other countries being? Even USSR didn't have 2/3rds of the world's population enslaved and their countries occupied. Western colonial powers did. This is just Africa for example [1], add Asia (including at times China and Japan, and Latin America, plus parts of Europe (e.g. Cyprus, a British colony). Heck, the 2 world wars weren't started by those "other countries" either. European countries started it too. [1] https://i.kinja-img.com/gawker-media/image/upload/s--SDNKBhke--/c_scale,f_auto,fl_progressive,q_80,w_800/1250557424428648110.jpg https://i.kinja-img.com/gawker-media/image/upload/s--SDNKBhk...
- zarkov99 8y agoThat is more a matter of competence than morals. Asia and Africa had no better moral instincts, any look at what they did within shows that, they just lacked the competence to conquer beyond their geography.
- coldtea 8y agoThis idea is the most disgusting part of western morals... The inability to understand that, with their faults and all, not all cultures are equally power-grubbing like theirs. And that who did what to whom matters... At least they could say they're sorry, instead of "I only fucked you over because you didn't have the power to fuck me".
- danso 8y agoSorry, but how are Western and non-Western morality systems different when it comes to justifying power-grubbing or hostile action?
- zarkov99 8y agoI don't see how that is a Western moral, in fact modern Western mores are incredibly self-loathing about imperialism, in sharp contrast with say Japanese attitudes, just as a recent example. You suggest that non-Western cultures are less power grubbing. Which ones exactly? The Aztecs? The Mongols? The Japanese? The Zulu? The Arabs? The Persians? The Chinese? Power grubing is as universally human as speech.
- i_am_nomad 8y ago“2/3rds of the world's population enslaved and their countries occupied” At this point, even Howard Zinn would be placing a hand on your shoulder and warning, “Bring it down a notch, kid.”
- coldtea 8y agoYeah, if Zinn hadn't read much history, he might have done that. Because who gives a fuck about Africa, Latin America, or Asia, right? If anything, perhaps the white people did them a favor and civilized them...
- Findeton 8y agoI agree with you. But that is not what the parent stated, he said that "United States used to at least credibly pretend that it cared about human rights". I don't think the US ever credibly pretended it cared. Yes, as far as empires go, the US is not that bad. I actually wonder what's going to happen if China becomes the next superpower/empire, given that they are a dictatorship. And they may even use that fact to say they are more efficient, because a dictator can swiftly take decisions while parliaments are quite messy. Will China achieve 100% renewable energy before Europe/US? It definitely can, and they'd sell their dictatorship pretty easily on that achievement.
- coldtea 8y agoThey also supported and funded Pinochet, Suharto, Saddam, overthrown the democratically elected president of Iran (Mossadeq), meddled in sovereign countries like Korea and Vietnam, and so on. Heck, they divided Europe into zones of influence between themselves and USSR too.