Zdzisław Beksiński. Untitled, 1973
Certain strains of accelerationist anarchism, particularly those you find online, are just celebrating the oppression and death of minorities with a tacky veneer of “for the greater good” smeared over, change my mind.
If you’re trapped in a slaughterhouse, the best you can hope for is that the giant death machine breaks before it gets to you. Even then, you don’t have any more control over the situation than your fellow cows who consider getting turned into hamburger some kind of necessary evil.
At some point, maybe a country that exists as a colossal intercontinental war machine would be better off in ashes. Certainly, the US exodus from Vietnam and the end of Apartheid in South Africa and the collapse of fascism in Europe was better for the world than the alternatives, even if the immediate aftermath was ugly.
But getting mad at someone for hoping these industrial scale death machines fall apart is absurd. What the hell is someone’s fucking wishful thinking doing to change actual policy or social function? Are you going to kick in Anne Frank’s door and wag your finger at her because she doesn’t realize how bad Dresden is going to be for the Germans? Are you going to shake your fist at Ayn Rand for daring to think the end of the USSR would make the world a better place?
Maybe my view is obscured by my own privileges, but I don’t think we’re in the slaughterhouse. The fact that you can write this long post calling for the potential end of America proves it. Do you think this type of rhetoric would be acceptable in Russia, the Soviet Union, or the Nazi Reich?
We talk as though we live in an outright fascist dictatorship. We live in a Republic in decline.
I’m not mad at anyone. I’m just posing a cautionary warning to not throw out the baby with the bath water.
Lemmy exists because of the large scale capture and bulk censorship of social media. Hell, just ask what happened to Aaron Swartz.
Republicanism does not preclude fascist policy. Just ask the Russians or the Indians or the Columbians or the Israelis.
What we’re doing domestically, and on an international scale, is fascist in all but name.
But you can make these statements on Facebook, X, and Reddit too. You also don’t need a VPN to access this information.
Also, I can openly discuss US massacres against indigenous populations. Can Chinese citizens openly discuss the Chinese genocide of the Uyghurs? Can Russians post pictures making fun of Putin? Russians can’t even be gay.
My point is that, while America isn’t great, it’s not as bad as some of the fire eaters make it sound.
Maybe. Unless a LibsOfTikTok account comes by, flags it, and unleashes a legion of flying monkeys to report hysterically until it’s taken down.
What you’re describing isn’t free speech… It’s security through obscurity.
Firstly, no you can’t. “Woke” academics, teachers, and journalists routinely lose their jobs and platforms for openly discussing US genocide. From Donahue to Katy Halper, we’ve got a decades long history of people getting sacked for questioning our police state at home and wars abroad.
Secondly, yes they do. Unfortunately, it is very hard to get Chinese national news and social media via American search tools because it is routinely censored. The best I can give you on short notice is Al Jazeera coverage of Chinese coverage.. But the idea that people in China just don’t know anything is happening in Xinjiang is about as absurd as claiming Americans don’t know what’s happening in Palestine.
Same with Russia. They get round the clock news coverage of Ukraine, both through domestic and international press. They are well aware what Americans accuse them of, in the same way we’re aware of what Iran and Syria accuse us of.
It’s not so bad, because we’re not the ones getting the business end of a military crusade.
All valid points. I’ll admit, I just don’t have the bandwidth to stay up to date on Chinese media, so no doubt some of my view is colored by US propaganda.
Regardless, you should know that I really like your username.
Honestly, I was just shooting from the hip. But I’m glad you like it.