At least 347 and up to 504 civilians, almost all women, children and elderly men, were murdered by U.S. Army soldiers. Some of the women were gang-raped and their bodies mutilated, and some soldiers mutilated and raped children as young as 12.
only Lieutenant William Calley Jr., the leader of 1st Platoon in C Company, was convicted. He was found guilty of murdering 22 villagers and originally given a life sentence, but served three-and-a-half years under house arrest after his sentence was commuted.
Research has highlighted that the My Lai Massacre was not an isolated war crime. Nick Turse places it within a larger pattern of American atrocities enabled by deliberate policies from commanders, such as “free-fire zones” and “body counts”, as well as widespread racism amongst American military personnel. Many other atrocities were also covered up by commanders.
We aren’t the ones deciding to go to war and cause a generation of men to have their psychological well-being put through a wood chipper. We don’t produce the propaganda that make men willing. We don’t make poverty rampant so men get desperate enough to enlist.
It doesn’t matter if we learn, plenty of us already know and it doesn’t change anything. People like Trump, like Putin, like Netanyahoo, don’t care about us or whoever ends up a victim of their ambitions. Putin and Netanyahoo know what their troops do and don’t give a fuck, they might even use it to their advantage.
The problem isn’t learning from the past, it’s that psychopaths are good at gaining power. They know and simply don’t care. If voters weren’t such ignorant imbeciles, maybe they wouldn’t vote for ppl like Trump, but they are, so here we are. If customers weren’t such ignorant, weak willed cowards incapable of not buying the new toys, we wouldn’t fund the people stealing all the property and making us poorer every generation. We are all victims of the decision-making prowess of the average voter, the average consumer.
I understand how you feel, but we actually do have the power to change our world. We need to first recognize that something needs to be done, build a popular consensus, network and build connections with like-minded people, and start a real movement for change.
Electoralism has not solved our problems in the past, and it won’t do so in the future. At best, it is harm prevention, and at worst, it’s a distraction from more effective efforts. I encourage people to vote for the candidates they feel best, but to be aware that it’s not a real, long term solution. It’s always just the best of two terrible candidates, both of whom ultimately serve the ruling class.
The problems we have did not start and will not end with Trump, they are in the fundamental roots of our society, and the road to change our society is a long and difficult one, but it is a journey we have to undertake. We are going to have to act if we want to live in a better world. Simply giving in to nihlism is not an option.
The people have never been roused to action simply because of a good idea, or a wise course of action. They are incapable of even identifying a good idea. Any individual that gains traction changing power structures is targetted and sometimes killed for it. We are all in a cage built by the wealthy and anything that’s effective is demonized through propaganda or made illegal and dealt with violence. We are also now on precipice of the greatest surveillance and propaganda system humanity has ever endured and people still don’t notice and stop supporting it. We are at the precipice of autonomous drone technology capable of killing that will be used for violence against the prisoners. All because the general population refuse to see the cage or the technologies that have built it, instead helping build their own system of subjugation. The average person is a threat and a traitor to their own interests.
Of course they have, all of human history is a story of ideas that have changed the world. Revolution is possible. You already see the problems, but you are so deep in the despair of the situation to see that a path out of it is possible. Don’t give up, help me instead.
the American revolution didn’t actually start until Lexington and Concord. it was then further fueled by vile acts of aggression against American colonists.
the threat of the spread of communism allowed the US to enter into the Korean war.
the threat of terror attacks on the American public allowed the US to invade Iraq and even overthrow the leader the CIA put into power.
People don’t react to stories. people react to stimulus. fear, hunger, sex, pain, greed. these are the things that motivate us to take action. because, why would we risk what we have unless we’re motivated to do so.
Stories make people feel things, like anger. Anger gives people lots of energy and motivation to act.
The LA riots for example were sparked by the lack of justice after the police’s brutal assault on Rodney King.
stories are based on acts. nobody gives a shit how little jenny was raped. all they react to is the act of rape.
nobody gives a shit if Trump raped children because it’s all a part of the story now.
you heard the story a hundred thousand times by now. you’re sick of it, and don’t want to hear about it anymore.
this is what mainstream media is used for.
stories are used to satiate the masses.
Speak for yourself.
Look, you can disagree all you want, that’s fine, but let’s try to be a bit more constructive. What would you propose instead, to try and fight against the Epstein class?
capture actual footage of the culprits attempting to circumvent justice in a way that commoners can understand.
get video footage of Trump gloating about how stupid MAGA is and how he’s just using them to build his kingdom of filth.
record backroom deals with CEOs that are killing people for greed.
and release them on multiple platforms for the general public to see and react.
it’s not a story if it’s plain as day that these people want you dead, it’s just a fact.