this post was submitted on 08 Nov 2023
746 points (90.5% liked)

politics

18898 readers
3780 users here now

Welcome to the discussion of US Politics!

Rules:

  1. Post only links to articles, Title must fairly describe link contents. If your title differs from the site’s, it should only be to add context or be more descriptive. Do not post entire articles in the body or in the comments.
  2. Articles must be relevant to politics. Links must be to quality and original content. Articles should be worth reading. Clickbait, stub articles, and rehosted or stolen content are not allowed. Check your source for Reliability and Bias here.
  3. Be civil, No violations of TOS. It’s OK to say the subject of an article is behaving like a (pejorative, pejorative). It’s NOT OK to say another USER is (pejorative). Strong language is fine, just not directed at other members. Engage in good-faith and with respect! This includes accusing another user of being a bot or paid actor. Trolling is uncivil and is grounds for removal and/or a community ban.
  4. No memes, trolling, or low-effort comments. Reposts, misinformation, off-topic, trolling, or offensive.
  5. Vote based on comment quality, not agreement. This community aims to foster discussion; please reward people for putting effort into articulating their viewpoint, even if you disagree with it.
  6. No hate speech, slurs, celebrating death, advocating violence, or abusive language. This will result in a ban. Usernames containing racist, or inappropriate slurs will be banned without warning

We ask that the users report any comment or post that violate the rules, to use critical thinking when reading, posting or commenting. Users that post off-topic spam, advocate violence, have multiple comments or posts removed, weaponize reports or violate the code of conduct will be banned.

All posts and comments will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis. This means that some content that violates the rules may be allowed, while other content that does not violate the rules may be removed. The moderators retain the right to remove any content and ban users.

That's all the rules!

Civic Links

Register To Vote

Citizenship Resource Center

Congressional Awards Program

Federal Government Agencies

Library of Congress Legislative Resources

The White House

U.S. House of Representatives

U.S. Senate

Partnered Communities:

News

World News

Business News

Political Discussion

Ask Politics

Military News

Global Politics

Moderate Politics

Progressive Politics

UK Politics

Canadian Politics

Australian Politics

New Zealand Politics

founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] masquenox@lemmy.world 26 points 10 months ago (4 children)

Maybe a politicker who brags about being mentored by Henry Kissinger, a war-criminal whose record matches that of Heinrich Himmler himself, shouldn't be referencing Hitler.

[–] letsgocrazy@lemm.ee 52 points 10 months ago (2 children)

"matches that of Heinrich Himmler", you mean the head of the SS and one of the main people behind the holocaust?

Have you ever considered that your life, and life in general would be better if you didn't have such absurd and shrill opinions?

[–] masquenox@lemmy.world 10 points 10 months ago (3 children)

There is one way in which Himmler and Kissinger differs... Himmler at least had the backbone to go and witness the results of his policies in person - specifically, the Babi Yar massacre in Ukraine. Kissinger never did go see for himself the gargantuan atrocities he had "achieved" in Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam, Bangladesh, Timor, and Chile.

Oh, I forgot the other way Kissinger and Himmler differs... Himmler was hanged - Kissinger got off scott-free. So there's that.

[–] orrk@lemmy.world 0 points 10 months ago (1 children)

so you really REALLY do not understand the brutality of the Holocaust then, and less so the history of the sub-chinease peninsula, and Pinochet couldn't hold a candle to what Himmler did

[–] masquenox@lemmy.world 3 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Trying to hide your hero's crimes behind the Holocaust, are we? Just like your fascist friends over in occupied Palestine?

Try harder.

[–] Caradoc879@lemmy.world 1 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Jesus christ dude. Calm down.

[–] masquenox@lemmy.world 1 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Did you see me at any point not being calm?

[–] Caradoc879@lemmy.world -1 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Yeah when you start throwing accusations of fascism at random posters, that's pretty riled up behavior. Nobody but you is talking about Isreal vs Palestine in this thread. Not a single person you responded to said kissinger was a good guy. You can compare atrocities and acknowledge they're all atrocities.

[–] masquenox@lemmy.world 2 points 10 months ago

that’s pretty riled up behavior.

No, not really - considering how the situation in occupied Palestine has, once again, shown just how enthusiastically all these "liberals" start swallowing fascist justifications as soon as their fairy tale ideology is put to the test, I'd say it's most definitely not a case of "random posters".

Not a single person you responded to said kissinger was a good guy.

Go check the downvotes on my initial comment - there's a very big difference between "not saying Kissinger was a good guy" and acknowledging that he was one of the most vile and prolific war criminals the 20th century managed to produce.

[–] JustZ@lemmy.world 0 points 10 months ago (1 children)

What like to the front? Do you know of other secretaries of state who went to the front?

[–] masquenox@lemmy.world 1 points 10 months ago

Do you know of other secretaries of state who went to the front?

Yeah... they don't really like dirtying themselves with the mess they cause, do they?

[–] UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world 9 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (1 children)

Unfortunately, the American education system just kinda gives up teaching history after 1945. Otherwise, you might be more familiar with the US State Department sponsored coups and subsequent genocides in Latin America, the Middle East, Africa, and the Pacific Rim over the subsequent 40 years.

Kissinger absolutely was administering mass arrests and executions in US client states, from the overthrow of democracies in Iran and Egypt to the massacres of dissidents in Jakarta and Rio de Janeiro and Santiago to the arming of the Khmer Rouge and subsequent bombings in Laos and Cambodia. Say what you will about Himmler, but he only really had the reigns of a mid-sized European industrial power for a decade. Kissinger was instrumental in steering truly nightmarish foreign policies on an international scale for four times as long.

And when you look at how folks like Kerry and Clinton and Blinken consistently turn to the Kissinger playbook to advance US foreign policy in the modern day, he's got even more blood on his hands by proxy than that.

[–] JustZ@lemmy.world -2 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (1 children)

I don't know of anyone who thinks we can or should stop every genocide. Kissinger didn't lead these things you're talking about, or at least the things I I think you're talking about. And he wasn't unique in his views. Kissinger is not comparable to Himmler, this is a ridiculous post, shallow. .

I think Kissinger and everyone in the foreign service and executive branch who helped execute American foreign policy thought was that if two violent factions were going to kill each other, America might as well back the one it thinks it can work with to advance it's foreign policy goals. Kissinger wasn't a wizard. He couldn't make the north and south Vietnamese stop killing each other. You don't have to like it to pick a strategic interest and choose a side.

It's called realpolitik.

[–] Zehzin@lemmy.world 3 points 10 months ago

Jesus fucking Christ, you think supporting fascist coups on democratically elected governments is just pragmatism?

[–] Marin_Rider@aussie.zone 13 points 10 months ago (1 children)

kissinger lost his glasses in a toilet so he can't talk

[–] Narrrz@kbin.social 10 points 10 months ago (1 children)

probably couldn't see too well, after that, either.

[–] Honytawk@lemmy.zip 0 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

Probably couldn't see before too well either, hence the need for glasses.

[–] phoenixz@lemmy.ca -3 points 10 months ago (2 children)

I guess you're one of those people who day that Hamas is exactly the same as, and has been doing the exact same as Hitler?

Nuanced, very nuanced...

[–] masquenox@lemmy.world 3 points 10 months ago (1 children)

I guess you’re one of those people who day that ~~Hamas~~ Israel is exactly the same as, and has been doing the exact same as Hitler?

FTFY.

No, I'm not one of those people. Israel prefers Willy Pete to Zyklon-B, for instance - so there is a difference, I guess.

[–] phoenixz@lemmy.ca 0 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (1 children)

Calling Israel the same as hitler may be funny on an "I'm 15 and this is edgy" level, but it's ignorant as fuck to claim that. Yes, the Israeli has committed and continues to commit atrocious acts, but it's leagues away from what the Nazis did. It's not even in the same ballpark.

Same goes for Hamas. It's a horrible terror organization, it holds zero candles to hitler and his buddies

[–] masquenox@lemmy.world 2 points 10 months ago (1 children)

hitler may be funny on

No, Clyde - I don't find genocide a laughing matter whether it's nazis or zionists doing it.

It’s not even in the same ballpark.

Really? You don't think there's any correlation between the nazis' genocidal concept of "lebensraum" and that which Israel is doing in Palestine?

it holds zero candles to hitler and his buddies

Funny you should mention that... it doesn't hold a candle to Israel when it comes to terrorism, either.

[–] phoenixz@lemmy.ca 1 points 10 months ago (1 children)

I don't think that, when comparing two large systems, it's okay to take two specific items that I "like" and compare only those two.

Israel and Nazi Germany are not comparable. Comparing them and then worse, finding them quite equal is just 15 years old levels of dumb and ignorance

[–] masquenox@lemmy.world 0 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Israel and Nazi Germany are not comparable.

Tell me you don't understand how right-wing ideology works without telling me you don't understand how right-wing ideology works.

Noting the differences between Israel and Nazi Germany displays just how similar they actually are - unlike Nazi Germany, Israel is utterly dependent on the west (and in particular the US) for literally it's day-to-day existence and therefore cannot pursue the policies it wants to pursue with zero constraints as Nazi Germany finally did when it launched it's genocidal colonialism project in 1941.

The incremental genocide Israel has been perpetrating since 1949 is purely a matter of geopolitical pragmatism - but the ideological drivers of said genocdie is no different to those that drove Nazi Germany.

[–] phoenixz@lemmy.ca 1 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Yeah, no.

You lost perspective. Badly. Israel is bad. Really bad. Everybody will agree with that.

However, comparing Israel with the industrialized mass murder of Nazi Germany is just bullshit. It shows that you don't understand Israel , Nazi Germany or (most likely) both.

Nazi Germany damn near exterminated Jews, gays, Romani, etc. Israel can't hold a candle to the horrors of nazi Germany.

Please go read a history book

[–] masquenox@lemmy.world 1 points 10 months ago

It shows that you don’t understand Israel , Nazi Germany or (most likely) both.

So, again... tell me you don’t understand how right-wing ideology works without telling me you don’t understand how right-wing ideology works.

And again... noting the differences between Israel and Nazi Germany displays just how similar they actually are - unlike Nazi Germany, Israel is utterly dependent on the west (and in particular the US) for literally it’s day-to-day existence and therefore cannot pursue the policies it wants to pursue with zero constraints as Nazi Germany finally did when it launched it’s genocidal colonialism project in 1941.

Please go read a history book

You have already demonstrated a disturbing lack of understanding when it comes to the ideology that underpins white supremacist genocidal regimes - perhaps it's best not to underscore it with comments like these?

[–] UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world -2 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (1 children)

Hamas is exactly the same as, and has been doing the exact same as Hitler?

A small paramilitary organization operating in occupied territory is doing the exact same as the Chancellor of a European industrial powerhouse?

I'm always a bit surprised when some terminally online guy tries to give people in Hamas this much credit.

[–] Caradoc879@lemmy.world 4 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Small paramilitary organization? Okay guys, we can call Isreal out for genocide while still acknowledging Hamas as a terrorist group that slaughtered 1,000 civilians, plus whatever else since then.

Hamas and Isreal both suck. The only people I care about are the civilians and dead kids.

[–] UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world -4 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

Okay guys, we can call Isreal out for genocide

Can we? I heard that was anti-semitism.

Hamas and Isreal both suck.

One is a paramilitary response to the suffocating violent occupation of the other. Might as well denounce the Vietcong, the Spanish Republicans, or Nate Turner Slave Revolt as Terrorists. You wouldn't be the first.

But to equate the two is to equate the symptom with the illness. Even the fucking Times of Israel acknowledges that the Hamas movement is the direct result of Netanyahu's domestic policies. The Palestinian Authority has been denuded of all legal agency in a territory they cannot govern thanks to Israeli sanctions. Gaza hasn't had an election since 2006. There is no way for anyone in the territory to survive, absent the black markets and smuggling corridors maintained by Hamas paramilitary.

This is a deliberate consequence of the stated policies of the Israeli government.

So both Hamas and the IDF are creatures of the Israeli government. The only way to resolve this conflict is to effect regime change in Israel.

The only people I care about are the civilians and dead kids.

The only way to achieve that is a ceasefire. And Israel will not implement a ceasefire until its leadership is removed.