3 ms·

Everybody on HN should read the tales of General Butt Naked https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_Butt_Naked https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_Butt_Nak

by s5300 6y ago

Everybody on HN should read the tales of General Butt Naked https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_Butt_Naked https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_Butt_Naked

kikokikokiko 6y ago
This guy is the living proof of why the west is the best. Civilization is not something you should take for granted. "He said that the Krahn tribe selects leaders based upon physical prowess rather than birthright. The selection process takes place through an annual fight: The traditional fight was a no-holds-barred affair. The eventual victor was allowed to kill and maim to show his strength and bravery. The strongest or last man standing after the bloody contest will take over the birthright and the headship of the tribe."[8]" So Black Panther was right all along...
- andi999 6y ago
  The circle of liiiiive...
acephal 6y ago
Why am I not surprised this direction was taken in this thread when the article has much more interesting things to discuss?
- s5300 6y ago
  I'm sorry - why is Butt Naked not interesting? Seriously. Knowing about this shit is really important for broadening your understanding of the world we're a part of.
  - tomjakubowski 6y ago
    General Butt Naked is a contemporary figure. The featured article is about the founding of the Liberian state, which began almost 200 years ago. If your comment had connected the unusual General Butt Naked to that, it would have been interesting, but just linking to some crazy guy's Wikipedia article because he's from the same country isn't, really.
    - Apocryphon 6y ago
      It's like responding to an article about the Founding Fathers with a trailer for Tiger King.
      - edgyquant 6y ago
        No it’s like responding to an article about the founding fathers with an article discussing General Mattis. Not relevant but not that irrelevant plus an interesting piece of recent history.
        Apocryphon 6y ago
        Let's compromise and say it's like an article about Eddie Gallagher. Blahyi is a particularly sensationalistic and appalling character who gained infamy in the West thanks to one of VICE News' earliest documentaries. An interesting story, yes, but also tabloidized by VICE's characteristic edginess, and not really a major leader in the Liberian Civil War. Most Americans don't know much about Africa, let alone Liberia. Our perceptions about it are often only informed by Nicolas Cage's Lord of War and the aforementioned VICE documentary, the latter which has led General Butt Naked to become somewhat of a meme. Yet Liberia is a country that the U.S. specifically was involved in its founding and development. It's rather unfair to the country to have one of its worst villains from one of its most traumatic eras be Americans' only impression of it. An unrepresentative association that dishonors a nation.
      - bilbo0s 6y ago
        In fairness, no one else' comments are connected to what happened 200 years ago. We're all discussing contemporary Liberia. Some of us are not even discussing Liberia, but Africa in general. And Africa as a whole, is not like Liberia at all, it's extremely diverse and different from itself. Eswatini, Libya, Ethiopia, and Liberia couldn't be more different from each other. They're nothing alike.
tenaciousDaniel 6y ago
There's a great segment from Vice where some reporter hung out with General Butt Naked. It's wild: https://video.vice.com/en_us/video/the-cannibal-warlords-of-liberia/560a7cac7676b705187e64f7 https://video.vice.com/en_us/video/the-cannibal-warlords-of-...
deleted 6y ago
[deleted]
oh_sigh 6y ago
If this post were a link about the founding of America, would you tell people to read about Charles Manson?
- kikokikokiko 6y ago
  Only if Charles Manson was still roaming free around the US and it's neighbours like if nothing had ever happened and nobody cared that he was an insane sadistic psycopath. General Butt Naked's story is an amazing glimpse in to what is Liberia, and Africa as a whole to some extent, today. To me that is very interesting.
  - Apocryphon 6y ago
    Most countries have experienced strange miscarriages of justice, from Issei Sagawa in Japan, to any controversial figure from O.J. Simpson to George Zimmerman in the U.S., and if you want to get political, any number of elected, military, or intelligence leaders responsible for any number of violent conflicts in the past few decades.

by s5300 6y ago

Everybody on HN should read the tales of General Butt Naked https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_Butt_Naked https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_Butt_Naked

kikokikokiko 6y ago

This guy is the living proof of why the west is the best. Civilization is not something you should take for granted. "He said that the Krahn tribe selects leaders based upon physical prowess rather than birthright. The selection process takes place through an annual fight: The traditional fight was a no-holds-barred affair. The eventual victor was allowed to kill and maim to show his strength and bravery. The strongest or last man standing after the bloody contest will take over the birthright and the headship of the tribe."[8]" So Black Panther was right all along...

andi999 6y ago
The circle of liiiiive...

acephal 6y ago

Why am I not surprised this direction was taken in this thread when the article has much more interesting things to discuss?

s5300 6y ago
I'm sorry - why is Butt Naked not interesting? Seriously. Knowing about this shit is really important for broadening your understanding of the world we're a part of.
- tomjakubowski 6y ago
  General Butt Naked is a contemporary figure. The featured article is about the founding of the Liberian state, which began almost 200 years ago. If your comment had connected the unusual General Butt Naked to that, it would have been interesting, but just linking to some crazy guy's Wikipedia article because he's from the same country isn't, really.
  - Apocryphon 6y ago
    It's like responding to an article about the Founding Fathers with a trailer for Tiger King.
    - edgyquant 6y ago
      No it’s like responding to an article about the founding fathers with an article discussing General Mattis. Not relevant but not that irrelevant plus an interesting piece of recent history.
      - Apocryphon 6y ago
        Let's compromise and say it's like an article about Eddie Gallagher. Blahyi is a particularly sensationalistic and appalling character who gained infamy in the West thanks to one of VICE News' earliest documentaries. An interesting story, yes, but also tabloidized by VICE's characteristic edginess, and not really a major leader in the Liberian Civil War. Most Americans don't know much about Africa, let alone Liberia. Our perceptions about it are often only informed by Nicolas Cage's Lord of War and the aforementioned VICE documentary, the latter which has led General Butt Naked to become somewhat of a meme. Yet Liberia is a country that the U.S. specifically was involved in its founding and development. It's rather unfair to the country to have one of its worst villains from one of its most traumatic eras be Americans' only impression of it. An unrepresentative association that dishonors a nation.
    - bilbo0s 6y ago
      In fairness, no one else' comments are connected to what happened 200 years ago. We're all discussing contemporary Liberia. Some of us are not even discussing Liberia, but Africa in general. And Africa as a whole, is not like Liberia at all, it's extremely diverse and different from itself. Eswatini, Libya, Ethiopia, and Liberia couldn't be more different from each other. They're nothing alike.

tenaciousDaniel 6y ago

There's a great segment from Vice where some reporter hung out with General Butt Naked. It's wild: https://video.vice.com/en_us/video/the-cannibal-warlords-of-liberia/560a7cac7676b705187e64f7 https://video.vice.com/en_us/video/the-cannibal-warlords-of-...

deleted 6y ago

[deleted]

oh_sigh 6y ago

If this post were a link about the founding of America, would you tell people to read about Charles Manson?

kikokikokiko 6y ago
Only if Charles Manson was still roaming free around the US and it's neighbours like if nothing had ever happened and nobody cared that he was an insane sadistic psycopath. General Butt Naked's story is an amazing glimpse in to what is Liberia, and Africa as a whole to some extent, today. To me that is very interesting.
- Apocryphon 6y ago
  Most countries have experienced strange miscarriages of justice, from Issei Sagawa in Japan, to any controversial figure from O.J. Simpson to George Zimmerman in the U.S., and if you want to get political, any number of elected, military, or intelligence leaders responsible for any number of violent conflicts in the past few decades.