Arn_Thor

Eh.. imperialism doesn’t end with the fascist, it just has to recalibrate. An inconvenience at worst.

The election was theirs to lose, and by God did they ever do what they’re best at.

Wolff has been like this for decades. He’s as craven as the rest of them. But he’s also very often right.

Did you do that on purpose? Illustrate the truth of the joke by no-true-Scotsmaning leftism, I mean? Because if so, bravo, and if not, lol

So we’re talking a bit past each other then. You have mentioned the cause of a divided Korea, which I largely agree with. (Although the US/UN were perhaps too quick on the trigger to hold elections only in the South, though it likely made no difference to the ultimate outcome) I was talking about the cause of the war. In my mind they are not the same thing, albeit two steps on the same dire path.

It’s not quite so straightforward.

If I recall my history correctly there were several opportunities for the North and South to work something out but to a large degree Syngman Rhee blocked it because he insisted on his own dictatorship rather than devolving any power to various labor-run initiatives around the country. (He was on the US/UN side and still turned out to be a maniac so those UN elections were mostly a symbol) That, and killing a bunch of unionizers of course.

It is true the Soviets had their own outcome they were angling for, but without US support Rhee would probably have been forced out and a compromise could have been reached.

Broadly speaking the Soviets were a lot less interested in securing outright puppet regimes than the US. History shows they were more reactive than proactive, so had the US backed off they might well have left it alone. Then again, this is of course a hypothetical.

It’s one of those things where yes, you can recognize that the US supported an inhumane regime in the south that was at least 50% the reason why Korea was pushed to civil war, simply for its own selfish geopolitical purposes… while also recognizing that there’s been a lot of water under the bridge since then. And while the South made good progress on its governance, the North went totally the opposite way.

But when your brain is fueled on “everything the US is against, I must support”, such considerations go out the window.

Or you’re listening to a podcast and space out a few seconds. Then you skip back to listen again and zone out again. Rinse and repeat until you don’t care anymore.

This is not a thousand year conflict. It’s modern imperialism

What a coincidence. I never knew this despite my penchant for useless trivia but just yesterday at an airport I overheard some high school kids asking each other trivial pursuit questions and this was one. The next day: this post. Uncanny.

Water is wet. More at 11

As a Norwegian: seconded. It’s tough to get real close and personal with Nordic people. We have smaller friend groups and don’t swap out friends often, but that is largely because we are quite loyal. So when you’re in, you’re in to stay.