this post was submitted on 04 Sep 2023
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Happy Fake Labor Day to the Americans, because their government wants to hide real labor day from their citizens so they don't have to educate them about the Haymarket Affair.
Labor Day being in September is absolutely about erasing labor history. If more people knew labor history, more people would understand why All Cops Are Bastards.
According to others in the thread, you should have known your whole life about the Wikipedia article on it! Duh! /s
I sort of knew about this but not the details. Reading that article shows just how far America has failed to come in 50 years.
Interesting stuff
May day! May day! We've got socialism over here!
I see what you did there.
You are correct, the American website Wikipedia definitely does not have an article on Haymarket
The average American has a seventh grade reading level (with 54% of the population with less than a sixth grade reading level), and you expect them to be educated enough to 1. know what it is and 2. look for a Wikipedia article on it?
Jesus, half this fucking country doesn't even live in reality anymore. Somehow, they're supposed to just know that it's on Wikipedia.
So you want like some mandatory Ludovico Technique for this piece of information, or what? There's literally a library of Congress article. It has been part of AP US history for as long as I can remember. I'm not even sure what point you are trying to make. That there are tons of wilfully ignorant people in the US (true)? Or that this piece of history has been censored (objectively false)?
Erasure is different than censorship, and I think you're intelligent enough to know that. I took that AP history class, and it was super biased against the workers, so that's kind of a joke to reference.
Also, if we're talking about a country with a seventh grade average reading level, we're mostly talking about people who have never taken an AP fucking US history class.
Choosing the September date is part and parcel to why more people don't know about it, because it's not generally part of the public consciousness or conversation. That's called erasure, not censorship.
If it was an AP class, that shits not getting to the ears of who really needs it most.
I would argue that it's completely erased in most States
I mean we're talking about a country that is literally in the process of redefining the history of slavery and running with "but the slaves learned valuable skills!" Yeah, I'm trying to meet these people at their level, but it's clear that in huge swaths of the country, it isn't talked about, period.
More that the US has successfully managed to censor entire swaths of history by limiting education (especially in red states) and ensuring that critical thought is not taught or enforced in any meaningful capacity. This is all totally intentional and verifiable. The information is there, but people are literally not ever taught (in academia) to think critically and seek answers to things they are unsure of. It's mostly just memorization until you get the churned to the next year of memorization and if you do dare question any of it you get shit on by peers and teachers alike for being a know it all. It's rare that you find people willing to foster curiosity in children which ultimately blooms into people eating up whatever they're told as truth.
I had a great public education and this one of the very few things that wasn't mentioned.
Mentioning America on a post that has nothing to do with America specifically? Yeah, this type of thing is ripped straight off of Reddit.
You mean when some rioters tried to kill people with a bomb?
It was reasonable at the time to separate celebration of labor from Haymarket massacre, where an anarchist through a bomb into otherwise peaceful labor rally killing both the police and the civilian with many workers being injured and triggering the riot. The labor leaders in US then decided to make labor day to be not associated with these bloody events, which have little relationship with the labor movement itself. Not sure why you refer here to ACAB, the policemen were victims here.
But sure, the cops who were told not to show up, and then showed up when they were angry that people were pissed that they murdered workers, they deservedly got a bomb in their faces. Cops are always a bunch of authoritarian pieces of shit who can't stand being criticized for being the violent fucking thugs they are.
Such blanket statements about all the cops is intellectual dishonesty at best. While there are shitty people working in all professions, and having some police officers shitty means very bad things can happen, the majority of the force is not that, as I am sure you aware. Yes, structural changes are needed, but this is not the same as calling all of them as bunch of authoritarian pieces of shit. There is crime in this country, and police does have its function and is needed by society.
Just admit you were wrong. Just say "Actually, you're right, the cops were committing violence against striking workers first." It's not that hard.
No need to split hairs or change the subject.
Not on May 4. And I did not change the subject - you did with the ACAB statement.
To the topic: The bomber was anarchist. Labor was not behind this attack and wanted to distant itself from it. Thus they selected the September.
You're really dedicated here to handwaving away the violence committed by the police before the bombing and also handwaving away that the cops were asked by the Mayor to not interfere. Maybe, just maybe, if the pigs hadn't fucking showed up, it would have never happened.
It's also handwaving away that only 2 of the 8 men put to death for the bombing were actually at the Haymarket event, and it was never conclusively proven that any of them built the bomb. They also never proved conclusively who threw it, but they put 8 men to death over it.
Also, it's handwaving away the brutal crackdown on union organizers afterwards. Maybe, just maybe, the reason the labor organizations acquiesced and distanced themselves is because all the businesses, property owners, newspapers, and government were busy vilifying them. How much choice did the labor movement actually have in the date?
So the labor movement is Grover Cleveland? And so it's pretty clear it was because they wanted to prevent socialists from strengthening their numbers. Give me a break. Stop trying to rewrite history and get that boot out of your slobbery mouth.
Also, finally, stop repeating "anarchist" like it's supposed to be an insult. "Not on May 4th" is the definition of splitting hairs, chucklefuck.
ACAB
Look, I kind of agree with your sentiment, but the historical event in question did involve what the commenter you're replying to insists happened. I that instance, all the cops involved were assholes. In that era, law enforcement was tied to power by necessity, since only the powerful (read: rich) could start townships and such and afford to pay for law enforcers.
But now? Things are a little complex. This is on purpose, as the powerful class has continually meddled in police affairs through lobbying and unions (ironically the police union is hilariously well funded due to rich interests wanting am army to keep the poors in line), and we're (in the US) trending back towards police basically being an official branch of Pinkertons.
Still, I've met good cops. Genuinely good people. Last year, I had a flat (entirely my fault. In CA) tire and a passing motorcycle cop stopped to help. He not only helped me replace it with a spare, he offered to call and pay for a tow truck for me. Truly a kind man, and believed in his social position perhaps more than the average.
But yeah, that's not how it is in most places. Even in CA you have sheriff gangs, prison guard gangs, corruption, you name it. Like I said, the US as a whole is generally trending backwards as of late.
Anyways we need nuance. But we're increasingly approaching a world where nuance is shunned or laughed at as missing the point, or being needlessly picky. Not only that, people seem even more desperate to feed into tribal groupings. Even on lemmy, you're either pro US or pro China/Russia. It's like people think they need to pick a side.
Sorry, just needed to rant I guess. I just hope we manage to keep the planet alive while we figure our bullshit out.
Cheers mate, thanks for the nuanced take.
I don't think most folks like me reject the idea that good cops could exist, it's more that we're so aware of how many bad cops exist (at least in the US), it's one of those situations where good cops are run off the force (or worse, targeted and murdered before they can testify) or put up with so much bad behavior themselves that over time, they've become a bad cop, because they're not stopping other bad cops. Even if they're nice to citizens, if they're covering for crimes of their fellow cops, they're a bad cop. The fact that more cops aren't standing up against things like qualified immunity when it's painfully being abused or civil forfeiture when it's abused shows exactly how little they care for the public and how much they care for their right to abuse the public without recourse.
Unfortunately, that leaves most cops in the USA falling under the umbrella of ACAB.
Oh, and the whole 40% of cops self-reported as beating their spouses. On top of the whole "Killology" mess that trains them to be an occupying force in their own cities. It's really hard to make excuses for them at this point.
You're a good human. I don't get to say this enough, please never change.