Mastodawn

lethe ☭Mar 15

Dear USA,

Donald Trump is exactly who you are.

Donald Trump is simply the #noFilter USA the rest of the world was forced to become intimately familiar with long ago; one dropped bomb and one lost family member at a time. The same USA Native Americans and African Americans have always known.

Until you fully grasp that and start learning about, accepting responsibility for, and atoning for how your country came to be and for your crimes throughout history both at home and abroad, this is what you will remain.

“This is not who we are.”

Bullshit.

This is exactly who you are and who you’ve always been.

You want to change?

Start by accepting that.

🇩🇪 🇺🇦 🇨🇦

@[email protected] might try another speech if you want to break the log jam. Americans have heard yours for decades and as you yourself point out, it hasn't worked, thus far.

Aral Balkan Mar 14

@ManyRoads If I tell you about gravity and you decide to walk out a second storey window anyway, the blame doesn’t lie with my choice of oratorical device.

🇩🇪 🇺🇦 🇨🇦

@aral Such is freedom. You have done your due diligence. When they walk out the window--- oh well. Wish them a pleasant trip.

Jan Ulrich Hasecke Mar 14

@aral Yes, Trump is the most American President ever.

bouriquet Mar 14

@juh Make that “most ugly American” President

Lulu 🍉 לולו Mar 14

There's a similar rhetoric coming from the zionist settlers in Palestine rhapsodizing over some imaginary democracy that their illegitimate colony once had. Even if we set aside everything else, there was a "Military Governance" over the Palestinian citizens until 1 December 1966 and a brutal illegal occupation that started in June 1967 to this day. You could at most speak of 6 months in which this illegitimate entity didn't have an outright military dictatorship.

The same is true for the USA. The genocides, slavery, segregation, war crimes and crimes against humanity all over the world. I fail to see the point at which there was anything good about that monstrous empire.

🇩🇪 🇺🇦 🇨🇦

@lulu @aral Right but remember those places (like many others) were stolen fair & square. 😜

Giamedin Mar 14

@[email protected] @lulu @aral

Joking about genocide. Real classy.

Oyu F'ka Mar 14

@Giamedin @lulu @aral I suspect that was sarcasm?

Giamedin Mar 14

@Oyu_Fka @lulu @aral

Yes I’m sure it was a very pithy comment.

For me it was my older aunts and uncles abducted, beaten, and raped into submission. It was my older uncle coming back and teaching “gods love” to my mom, just like the priest taught him in his room at night. It was generations of broken people raising kids that suffered the residual damage that was inflicted on their parents.

But please, explain it me again like I don’t understand.

Richard Rathe Mar 14

Tough words, but fair I think. We have to start somewhere.

François @Jura Mar 14

Well, where do people think these politicians come from? They don't fall out of the sky. They don't pass through a membrane from another reality. They come from American parents and American families, American homes, American schools, American churches, American businesses and American universities, and they are elected by American citizens. This is the best we can do folks. This is what we have to offer. It's what our system produces: Garbage in, garbage out.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=07w9K2XR3f0&pp=ygUSY2FybGluIHBvbGl0aWNpYW5z

George Carlin Politicians

YouTube

Aral Balkan Mar 14

@FrancoisPrague Carlin was a legend.

François @Jura Mar 15

@aral yes, and so was Carl Sagan. Most of what they said 20-30 years ago is still relevant today.

@iveyline Mar 15

@FrancoisPrague So much garbage.

@aral read up on 'The Grande Derangement'. No nation is without villainous moments

Coleen Walter Mar 14

@aral I understand your point and share your outrage and frustration. I do feel some of your comments include the fallacy of division. There are many, at great personal and financial cost, fighting book bans, protesting, investigative journalism, standing up for themselves and other vulnerable people. I don’t know whether we are a plutocracy or an oligarchy but individuals are trying to act like sea wall to push back against relentless money and power.

Aral Balkan Mar 14

@coleenwalter And none of those listed people will take offence at what I wrote because it doesn’t pertain to them but rather to those they are struggling against.

Coleen Walter Mar 14

@aral I really appreciate that. Except for one slightly rebellious teacher in Highschool, I was taught a more sanitized version of history. I’ve had to play catch up over the decades with my own reading. From The Capital Order to Cobalt Red and other writings, I’m trying to put together a clearer picture of our history, economic theories and the consequences to others in the wider world. It’s hard to push back against things we don’t understand.

Aral Balkan Mar 14

@coleenwalter 💕

@coleenwalter @aral A book that could curl your hair. The Half Has Never Been Told: Slavery and the Making of American Capitalism https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Half_Has_Never_Been_Told:_Slavery_and_the_Making_of_American_Capitalism

The Half Has Never Been Told: Slavery and the Making of American Capitalism - Wikipedia

Coleen Walter Mar 14

@xaxat @aral I think I’ll look for that one. Thank you for the recommendation

Oyu F'ka Mar 14

@coleenwalter @aral Same here in the uk - the white washed image of britain's 'adventures abroad', taught to us in the 50's and 60's, was pretty much a complete reversal of the truth.

It's been an on-going re-education for me, and at 73 I'm still finding shocking facts about my country's ruling class and their use and abuse of all people, at home *and* away.

Not so 'great' britain in reality 😔.

Aral Balkan Mar 14

@Oyu_Fka @coleenwalter 💕

Hegelian Princess Mar 14

@aral @coleenwalter it's the I Hate Men rule, it's not literally about all men but it is about all the men who get upset

Aral Balkan Mar 14

@julieofthespirits @coleenwalter This.

Violet Madder Mar 14

@aral @julieofthespirits @coleenwalter

There's a tricky tipping point, almost invisible.

Somewhere between, "Things are bad but a lot of us are trying to fix this!", which is true, and "Things are basically okay, bad guys aren't normal!" which is the dangerous delusion of enablers.

Bad IS normal and nobody is okay. This is the norm. Look, the planet is burning. ENOUGH of us are like this, and holding enough positions of power, to mean our overall trajectory is dropping fast in the Trump direction. Even when we're dutifully trying to do the whole Dem incremental harm reduction thing, we're still headed for the SAME evils just a bit more slowly and dressed up with a few more comforting lies. Abusers don't just get away with abuse, abuse is propped up and rewarded as good go-getter business sense, and we go along with it if we think it'll score us a few extra treats to ride an abuser's coattails and not rock the boat. I know he's bad but I'm doing the best I can from inside his office, okay so I'm carrying water for a fascist but I'm still a good guy.

The "moderate" liberal gets to pretend they're not part of the problem if they set the bad guys way out at some freakish distance they are not responsible for. They get to pretend that real estate flipping is a perfectly wholesome reasonable vocation, and that calling the cops on that nasty annoying homeless camp is a perfectly wholesome way to protect the neighborhood-- with zero awareness that they're
doing shit like, say, casually talking over the women in the room, singing along to songs about rape, voting for people participating in crimes against humanity, benefitting from exploitative settler colonialism, and upholding capitalism.

Aral Balkan Mar 15

@violetmadder @julieofthespirits @coleenwalter Beautifully put, thank you 💕

mahadevank Mar 15

@violetmadder @aral @julieofthespirits @coleenwalter i so agree. I dropped out of corporate because I realized this.

There's this horrible sense that the guys on top mean well and have the best of humanity at heart, but they just don't have a choice given the circumstances they are in.

No, the guys on top don't mean well, and anybody aligning with them is a disaster for the human race.

We should be panicking and revolting like our lives depended on it.

Gamal Sherif Mar 14

@coleenwalter @aral And jazz, for which I lovingly thank my Irish and African folk.

Shall we blanket-vilify Germans for nazi Germany, British for empire, Portuguese for enslaving and trading people? Israelis for ethnocide?

Supremacy culture is a global phenomenon that hypes [anti-] nationalist accusations - as well as racist, classist, sexist instabilities - to keep us separated.

It’s a global oligarchy that colludes at the expense of peoples’ lives.

Solidarity, on the other hand, is a more nuanced antidote to sleepiness of binary thinking. #onelove .

Aral Balkan Mar 14

@gdsherif @coleenwalter > Shall we blanket-vilify Germans for nazi Germany, British for empire, Portuguese for enslaving and trading people? Israelis for ethnocide?

The ones who do not acknowledge, fail to atone for, continue to benefit from, and continue to inflict such damage?

Yes.

The others? They’re rarely the ones offended by criticism of nations.

Juan A. Zamarripa [E.]Mar 14

@aral, et.al.

Adding some more "nuance" to this issue, specifically within the #USofA, via this extensive #Wikipedia entry:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Racism_in_the_United_States

It's clear that the concept of "other/s" was/is defined from the initial colonizers fluid definition of what "we" or "us" is, which includes the integration of some/select "others" into the "us" tribe, i.e. so-called "white" people.

Speaking of, I'll re-recommend this #Throughline episode about that:

https://www.npr.org/2023/02/08/1155489235/the-whiteness-myth

#Thanks4Sharing!

🖖!

Racism in the United States - Wikipedia

Sharp Cheddar Goblin Mar 14

@aral Painfully obvious if you pay any real attention to the history of the US. A long time ago I read Zinn's "A People's History of the United States" and that really changed how I thought about this shithole. But breaking through to folks here, indoctrinated from birth, is really hard.

Orca 🌻 | 🎀 | 🪁 | 🏴🏳️‍⚧️Mar 14

@aral
Same feeling when I saw people watching horrible atrocities being committed and says "they aren't human".
No, they are.😑

Andreas Frackowiak Mar 14

@aral I was surprised how much the idea of “American exceptionalism” was considered accurate by virtually all US politicians – and then used to justify, among other things, “double standards”.

Sean Hurley Mar 14

@aral Indeed. It's fascinating to watch US liberals get angry over Russia assisting Iran in defending itself against an aggressive war by two belligerents. Embedded in the outrage is the pretext that Iranians should simply accept their fate and die under American and Israeli bombs because they shouldn't be able to retaliate against those attacking them.

thomkennon Mar 14

@aral Hard plus ones here, comrade. Well-voiced.🖤✊

Dee Lux Fiat Mar 14

@aral Unfortunately, Exceptionalism is not going quietly.

Nu Modular Mar 14

@aral Yes, all 8 billion people are the-head-of-a-pin, as has been the countless humans before us.

Cookie?

Aral Balkan Mar 14

@aral Like the H. L. Mencken quote goes, (total racist dipshit though he was): "On some great and glorious day the plain folks of the land will reach their heart's desire at last, and the White House will be adorned by a downright moron."

🅱️eisbolCards Mar 14

another odd phrase I see often is "we're not a third world country", as if their privilege is meant to shield them from those bad things.

bellegraylane Mar 14

@aral the choir might be listening here in mastodon land, but the congregation is too busy owning libs on facebook to hear any bit of clear thinking about what the facts have to say.

thief_of_fire Mar 14

@aral shit homie, I know, I grew up with the people.

Rashunda Mar 14

@aral On the one hand, I *so* appreciate you saying this. On the other, as you said, we've been saying the same thing for hundreds of years. But because you're white-presenting, the message will have more gravitas - which is the exact problem you're pointing out. But again, I appreciate your words.

Aral Balkan Mar 15

@rashunda I hear you, Rashunda, and you’re entirely right.

💕

Paul_IPv6 Mar 14

the folks that need to learn reality say "this is not who we are", but hopefully more of them are realizing it's really "this who we like to think and claim we are". that is a step in the right direction of more accurate. if they can't acknowledge that, they won't be ready to make real change.

stony kark Mar 14

@aral nah, they had their chance to show the rest of the world they weren't a bunch of nazis who worship a pedophile. It's too late. This is who they want to be.

James Brooke Mar 14

@aral
NOPE
Republican Americans did this to the whole world. Did NATO stop Bush?
Level the blame where it belongs.
Ask every tourist if they believe in democracy or or are they a Republican…

Aral Balkan Mar 15

@jCarttarBrooke Can you tell me how many successive American regimes, both Democrat and Republican, continued to arm and support the settler colonialism, ethnic cleansing, apartheid, and genocide perpetrated by Israel?

Please also list the Democratic presidents who abolished ICE.

Blame is squarely where it belongs.

I’d recommend reading the original post as many time as necessary until it actually sinks in.

𐁂𐀑𐀐𐁐 Mar 14

@aral OR finish Sherman's work and eliminate the South.

Danny Boling ☮️Mar 14

Hold up now. Not all Southerners suck! 🥺 😉

(((Baslow)))Mar 14

I highly recommend the videos/substack/soon-to-be-published book of Tad Stoermer, resistance historian. Just as an example:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jmIpv3ftEVM

Breaking the Wheel: How American Mythology Kills American Resistance

YouTube

Moss da Bard 🇨🇦🇧🇧🇲🇽🇬🇱Mar 14

@aral
I'm 73 years old. What you are saying is not how I was raised. The people who hold the beliefs that you are outlining are in the 1%. Most of America is or tries to become what the myth is. We are fighting against our corporate overlords and always have been, since the first Pullman strike in Chicago.

Aral Balkan Mar 15

@bardmoss It’s fascinating that 1% of the population was able to win Trump the popular vote at the last election.