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The real "break with tradition" was America and the CIA ousting Prince Sihanouk, who had been fighting militant communists, but was in dialog with the non-milit

The real "break with tradition" was America and the CIA ousting Prince Sihanouk, who had been fighting militant communists, but was in dialog with the non-militant Cambodian left. A puppet Lon Nol was put at the helm, and the US then invaded eastern Cambodia (and shot Kent State students protesting that invasion) and carpet bombed the Cambodian countryside. This is what began the destabilization of Cambodia. Prince Sihanouk in exile allied with anyone against Lon Nol, which included the communists, and he supported the Cambodian People's National Liberation Armed Forces, which liberated Phnom Penh in the spring of 1975, right around the same time Saigon was liberated from western colonialism.

SiVal 5y ago
The implementation of the leftist utopian visions that torture and murder and silence and "re-educate" millions and send millions more desperate refugees fleeing out to die at sea in little, overloaded boats trying to escape is not usually described as "liberation" by those, such as my family and many friends, who managed to survive these visionaries.
- bencollier49 5y ago
  What do you make of the current state of culture in the West?
  - CRConrad 5y ago
    > What do you make of the current state of culture in the West? One can't help but be reminded — perhaps that was your intention? — of the classic quip attributed to Gandhi: Journalist: “What do you think of Western civilization?” Gandhi: “I think it would be a good idea.” (Though Quote Investigator concludes at least the attribution is probably apocryphal: https://quoteinvestigator.com/2013/04/23/good-idea/ https://quoteinvestigator.com/2013/04/23/good-idea/ )
  - deleted 5y ago
    [deleted]
  - SiVal 5y ago
    Deeply disturbing. Some people in China have enjoyed a bit of schadenfreude. (This isn't a literal quote, just a merger of assorted accusations that in most cases were not meant in a friendly way--it was a matter of national pride--but which ironically I agreed with, and it answers your question.): "You Americans [sometimes directed at me] are so arrogant, talking about our violent Cultural Revolution and Red Guards as if they couldn't happen in an enlightened, open, free culture like yours, just a primitive society like ours. But Red Guards weren't ordered to act that way by Party leaders. They were like religious fanatics inspired by propaganda to do evil enthusiastically while being told they were heroes, enjoying the feeling of power. And now that same Red Guard religion controls your universities. Your baizuo [white leftist] campus Red Guards decide what can and can't be spoken and enforce it on campus with threats of violence just like ours then spread out and take over the media, Hollywood, and [Big Tech] enforcing it on everyone else. [I would add K-12 schools, but the Chinese never seem to know about that part. Maybe with what has been in the news in Virginia, now I'll hear about that, too.] They use their power to decide what information needs to be hidden and who needs to be silenced so that the promoted stories can convince people that they are heroes and to give them more power to control their enemies. And lots of those who hear only the promoted stories become Red Guards and riot and burn and beat people in the streets, while the officials stand back and watch."
    - SuoDuanDao 5y ago
      Baizuo is such a great insult. Do you think your Chinese friends would mind if I appropriate it?
- DeathArrow 5y ago
  If we look at how the things are evolving, the left might be planning another "liberation".
robotresearcher 5y ago
> liberated Phnom Penh in the spring of 1975 you neglected to mention the subsequent execution of 1.3m and the starvation of another million or so of these liberated people. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Killing_Fields https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Killing_Fields

SiVal 5y ago

The implementation of the leftist utopian visions that torture and murder and silence and "re-educate" millions and send millions more desperate refugees fleeing out to die at sea in little, overloaded boats trying to escape is not usually described as "liberation" by those, such as my family and many friends, who managed to survive these visionaries.

bencollier49 5y ago
What do you make of the current state of culture in the West?
- CRConrad 5y ago
  > What do you make of the current state of culture in the West? One can't help but be reminded — perhaps that was your intention? — of the classic quip attributed to Gandhi: Journalist: “What do you think of Western civilization?” Gandhi: “I think it would be a good idea.” (Though Quote Investigator concludes at least the attribution is probably apocryphal: https://quoteinvestigator.com/2013/04/23/good-idea/ https://quoteinvestigator.com/2013/04/23/good-idea/ )
- deleted 5y ago
  [deleted]
- SiVal 5y ago
  Deeply disturbing. Some people in China have enjoyed a bit of schadenfreude. (This isn't a literal quote, just a merger of assorted accusations that in most cases were not meant in a friendly way--it was a matter of national pride--but which ironically I agreed with, and it answers your question.): "You Americans [sometimes directed at me] are so arrogant, talking about our violent Cultural Revolution and Red Guards as if they couldn't happen in an enlightened, open, free culture like yours, just a primitive society like ours. But Red Guards weren't ordered to act that way by Party leaders. They were like religious fanatics inspired by propaganda to do evil enthusiastically while being told they were heroes, enjoying the feeling of power. And now that same Red Guard religion controls your universities. Your baizuo [white leftist] campus Red Guards decide what can and can't be spoken and enforce it on campus with threats of violence just like ours then spread out and take over the media, Hollywood, and [Big Tech] enforcing it on everyone else. [I would add K-12 schools, but the Chinese never seem to know about that part. Maybe with what has been in the news in Virginia, now I'll hear about that, too.] They use their power to decide what information needs to be hidden and who needs to be silenced so that the promoted stories can convince people that they are heroes and to give them more power to control their enemies. And lots of those who hear only the promoted stories become Red Guards and riot and burn and beat people in the streets, while the officials stand back and watch."
  - SuoDuanDao 5y ago
    Baizuo is such a great insult. Do you think your Chinese friends would mind if I appropriate it?
DeathArrow 5y ago
If we look at how the things are evolving, the left might be planning another "liberation".

robotresearcher 5y ago

> liberated Phnom Penh in the spring of 1975 you neglected to mention the subsequent execution of 1.3m and the starvation of another million or so of these liberated people. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Killing_Fields https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Killing_Fields