All purpose news and politics thread part VI: This Is Not The Time For Posing

[Amadeus Arkham]

CNN Drops Rick Santorum After Racist Comments About Native Americans

[Kid Devil]

I think they didn't interpret what he said right. If America was never colonized and left as grounds for tribes to fight each other we would have never had this successful experiment with freedom that millions of people are trying to become a part of. Also, look at how rapid technology increased after the USA was founded. Without that we'd all be living like people from hundreds of years ago without the internet, modern medicine, and this cite.

[shooshoomanjoe]

I think they didn't interpret what he said right. If America was never colonized and left as grounds for tribes to fight each other we would have never had this successful experiment with freedom that millions of people are trying to become a part of. Also, look at how rapid technology increased after the USA was founded. Without that we'd all be living like people from hundreds of years ago without the internet, modern medicine, and this cite.

Other countries have contributed plenty to modern society. I like living in the US but we are hardly on the top.

[Kid Devil]

If you mean European countries and others like Japan or South Korea they are only free and doing well because of the USA's first hard push hundreds of year ago. The USA gave hope and power to the people of Europe to overthrow their monarchs and give the power to the people. For Japan we significantly helped them modernize after WW2 so they wouldn't become something like Germany post WW1. Then South Korea is not taken over with communism or a dictatorship because the USA defended them in war and still is.

[The Cool Thatguy]

I think they didn't interpret what he said right. If America was never colonized and left as grounds for tribes to fight each other we would have never had this successful experiment with freedom that millions of people are trying to become a part of. Also, look at how rapid technology increased after the USA was founded. Without that we'd all be living like people from hundreds of years ago without the internet, modern medicine, and this cite.

As much as I love my country, that doesn't justify ignoring our sins writ large, especially given the damage we've done along the way.

I love me my laptop and ability to write. It's awesome. But we've kinda torn the environment to hell to do it. I'd say that's not a great trade off.

[Kid Devil]

As much as I love my country, that doesn't justify ignoring our sins writ large, especially given the damage we've done along the way.

I love me my laptop and ability to write. It's awesome. But we've kinda torn the environment to hell to do it. I'd say that's not a great trade off.

I understand the need to look at the bad past. However, the biggest sins I hear of are slavery and concurring the land from the native people. Every country founded before had those two things also. Slavery was bad however it was done all over the world, and every country took land from someone. The USA was the first to abolish slavery which led to others doing the same. Personally, I think that it's more important to abolish slavery than an environmental impact from a laptop.

[shooshoomanjoe]

I understand the need to look at the bad past. However, the biggest sins I hear of are slavery and concurring the land from the native people. Every country founded before had those two things also. Slavery was bad however it was done all over the world, and every country took land from someone. The USA was the first to abolish slavery which led to others doing the same. Personally, I think that it's more important to abolish slavery than an environmental impact from a laptop.

We were not the first to abolish slavery but the US as a lot sins. We've devastated several countries in Latin America, South East Asia and the Middle East.

[CSTowle]

I think they didn't interpret what he said right. If America was never colonized and left as grounds for tribes to fight each other we would have never had this successful experiment with freedom that millions of people are trying to become a part of. Also, look at how rapid technology increased after the USA was founded. Without that we'd all be living like people from hundreds of years ago without the internet, modern medicine, and this cite.

If you mean European countries and others like Japan or South Korea they are only free and doing well because of the USA's first hard push hundreds of year ago. The USA gave hope and power to the people of Europe to overthrow their monarchs and give the power to the people. For Japan we significantly helped them modernize after WW2 so they wouldn't become something like Germany post WW1. Then South Korea is not taken over with communism or a dictatorship because the USA defended them in war and still is.

I'm going to give the benefit of the doubt that you're not familiar with much history outside of what's taught in US schoolbooks but I'd like to point out a few mistakes here. 1. Our "experiment with freedom" is based upon a foundation of thousands of years of Western European traditions. Everything from Greek philosophers to the Magna Carta. We didn't just come up with it one day because we were sick of taxes on tea. Freedom is also not a solely European/Western idea, many cultures from the Mongols (after they'd conquered you, of course) to ancient Islamic cultures to even those dismissed Native American cultures had more progressive ideas about everything from religious freedom to gender equality.

2. Technology has been improving since we crawled out of the caves. Sometimes we'd have periods where it didn't progress very far, or even slid back a bit in certain parts of the world, but over time it always has improved. Europe had a growing population and different cultures and languages everywhere you turned, which led to a lot of conflict and warfare. Sadly, necessity being the mother of invention, a lot of technological improvements came about because it led to more efficient ways to kill people. If you lived in the US a thousand years ago, or sub-Saharan Africa, and didn't have to compete for land or resources there wasn't the drive for technology and less of a need for trade or even written language (which, combined with permanent settlements and the establishment of institutions like universities, really pushed technological advancements) you didn't need technology to advance much. Even then Europe/the West were hardly alone in advancing their technology. China/East Asia and the Middle East were more advanced in some ways than the West. And would have continued on the same timeline of advancement had we never existed. Europe would not be stuck in the same level of technology as they were in 1700, under any circumstances. Though feel free to share why you believe that to be the case.

3. A few of your other points, like Japan needing us to modernize them (the reason an island nation was able to nearly conquer East Asia was because they were always early adopters of technology from the West, including railroads, weaponry, and aircraft and didn't need a Marshall Plan to do it) or Korea becoming a communist state without our help (it's possible, but just as likely they would have successfully ceased hostilities and separated as they did even without our help) also seem to be on shaky ground. Europe would have continued to be free, aside from the occasional times when they flirt with fascism or communism.

It's possible if we hadn't "discovered" (as if land that was being occupied by human beings could be discovered thousands of years after being settled) the Americas until a century or two later they'd be a Native run and occupied land that had treaties which were actually honored by foreign nations who traded with and immigrated to them, rather than one occupied and stolen after a centuries-long campaign of genocide. Slavery also would have ended much sooner, avoiding another genocide. We can't know exactly what would have happened, but the idea that the world would be a much better place if the West hadn't discovered (and looted, and slaughtered, and conquered) the Americas until much later isn't as far-fetched as some believe.

[worstblogever]

I think they didn't interpret what he said right.

They did. It's not a one-off of Santorum's white nationalist revisionist history. He used Birther lies about Obama being a secret Muslim, he once said, "”I don’t want to make black people’s lives better by giving them somebody else’s money; I want to give them the opportunity to go out and earn the money.“ while campaigning for president in Iowa in 2012, he supports xenophobic, unconstitutional "English only" laws and Trump's border wall. He has had private dinners with noteworthy white nationalists.

Rick Santorum meant what he said. And f*** him for being a bigot, through and through.

[Amadeus Arkham]

Texas GOP Passes Bill To Stop Teachers From Talking About Racism


lol Texas.

[Kirby101]

Slavery has been around as long as civilization, BUT American brand slavery, with slaves as only property, tearing families apart, selling children off, even those fathered by the slave owner, was perhaps the cruelest form of slavery the world had seen. And we were one of the last countries to abolish slavery.
The genocide of the Native Americans was also more severe than most conquerors. An estimated 10 to 60 million were killed. AND unlike most other conquered places, the natives were never integrated into society but kept in a permanent apartheid. You would have to go to the Belgium Congo to see something as bad.

[Mister Mets]

Texas GOP Passes Bill To Stop Teachers From Talking About Racism


lol Texas.

The controversial suggestions seem that teachers can't be compelled to discuss current events or public policy controversies, and that they can't advocate for the belief that “one race or sex is inherently superior to another race or sex.”

According to the legislation, the transcript of the first Lincoln-Douglas debate is considered a founding document of the United States, so it's pretty hard to discuss without discussing racism and slavery.

[Malvolio]

Slavery has been around as long as civilization, BUT American brand slavery, with slaves as only property, tearing families apart, selling children off, even those fathered by the slave owner, was perhaps the cruelest form of slavery the world had seen. And we were one of the last countries to abolish slavery.
The genocide of the Native Americans was also more severe than most conquerors. An estimated 10 to 60 million were killed. AND unlike most other conquered places, the natives were never integrated into society but kept in a permanent apartheid. You would have to go to the Belgium Congo to see something as bad.

In many other societies, a slave could eventually buy his way out of slavery. Not so in the US. In fact, the various state Constitutions of the states that made up the Confederacy specified the absolute right of the White man to enslave the Black man. Mississippi still had those laws on the books until 2004!

[Tendrin]

The controversial suggestions seem that teachers can't be compelled to discuss current events or public policy controversies, and that they can't advocate for the belief that “one race or sex is inherently superior to another race or sex.”

According to the legislation, the transcript of the first Lincoln-Douglas debate is considered a founding document of the United States, so it's pretty hard to discuss without discussing racism and slavery.

We both know the kinds of conversations about race and racism that this law will be used to shut down and which ones it won't.

[Tami]

US journalist Barrett Brown arrested in the UK on incitement offences

The American journalist Barrett Brown has been arrested and detained in the UK for allegedly overstaying his visa and for alleged public order and incitement offences relating to his role in holding a protest banner which said: “Kill Cops.”

Police arrested Brown on Monday at a canal boat moored in east London, where he had been living for several months with a British woman. He was interviewed and released on bail the following day, but immediately detained by immigration authorities.

Brown told the Guardian he intended to claim asylum in the UK.

Once seen as spokesperson for the Anonymous hacking movement – a characterisation he disputed – Brown played a key role in breaking a series of stories about the expanding roles of private intelligence contractors, with articles in outlets including the Guardian and Vanity Fair.

In 2012, as the FBI investigated a hack targeting one such firm, Stratfor, Brown’s home in Texas was raided and he was arrested and indicted on 12 federal charges.

He was denied bail and in 2015 was sentenced to 63 months in federal prison, on charges including threatening an FBI agent. He was released in late 2016.

He and his supporters have maintained that he was targeted because of his journalistic work. In 2014, Reporters Without Borders gave Brown’s prosecution as a reason for the US dropping 13 places in press freedom rankings.