[OFF TOPIC] Politics Thread

[Agger 1,663]

17 minutes ago, Monzanator said:

@Agger  The Nobel Prizes are political for some time, dare I say awarding Obama one stands out as a complete nonsense and obviously left-wing writers are pretty much favored to win one for literature as well.

 

Where am I saying that there aren't political selections? (the peace prize has been part of political discussions for most of its existence).

[Olympian1010 7,977]

3 hours ago, Agger said:

 

Excuse me? What do they have to do with anything? The Nobel Prize is not awarded by the government!

Yes, it's terribly saddening that someone with Handke's views can get this attention, but as said it's a litterature prize (though there are some controversial things in there as well).

 

And growing denial? Are you so sure about that? It's getting more visible and it's getting more and more important to make it clear that they are wrong, but I'm really not that certain about it.

The Royal family of Sweden awards the Nobel Prize (in the ceremony). A figurehead is still part of the government. Most of his controversial views are on full display in his literature. Look at the titles of the some of his works, and then look up some famous viewpoints he takes in them. 

[Olympian1010 7,977]

Just be on the record about this. Yes, the US has committed multiple genocides itself. We killed nearly all of our native population, and have run campaigns that looked to destroy Italian and Irish immigrants in the past. We also dropped an atomic bomb (2 in fact) on people who didn’t not deserve, and we killed people in Vietnam. All those events are absolutely wrong, and 100% factual. I’ve been to a Japanese Internment camp, it was a very emotional experience. I’ve been to the Holocaust Remberance Museum, again a life changing experience. However, never once have I felt the need to deny that any of these events happened simply to make my country look better internationally. 

[heywoodu 15,145]

5 minutes ago, Olympian1010 said:

Just be on the record about this. Yes, the US has committed multiple genocides itself. We killed nearly all of our native population, and have run campaigns that looked to destroy Italian and Irish immigrants in the past. We also dropped an atomic bomb (2 in fact) on people who didn’t not deserve, and we killed people in Vietnam. All those events are absolutely wrong, and 100% factual. I’ve been to a Japanese Internment camp, it was a very emotional experience. I’ve been to the Holocaust Remberance Museum, again a life changing experience. However, never once have I felt the need to deny that any of these events happened simply to make my country look better internationally. 

 

 

Not every situation where way, way too many people die is a genocide though. I have no doubt for example a scary amount of native Americans were killed because that's what they were, but there's also huge numbers who died because of illnesses the Europeans brought and they had zero defense against. The atomic bombs on Japan for example were definitely not genocide, horrible as it was.

[Agger 1,663]

1 minute ago, heywoodu said:

 

 

Not every situation where way, way too many people die is a genocide though. I have no doubt for example a scary amount of native Americans were killed because that's what they were, but there's also huge numbers who died because of illnesses the Europeans brought and they had zero defense against. The atomic bombs on Japan for example were definitely not genocide, horrible as it was.

 

Not genocide, no. But still a war crime (and actually the A-bombs weren't really worse than the fire bombing that had been going on for some time.

[Olympian1010 7,977]

4 minutes ago, heywoodu said:

 

 

Not every situation where way, way too many people die is a genocide though. I have no doubt for example a scary amount of native Americans were killed because that's what they were, but there's also huge numbers who died because of illnesses the Europeans brought and they had zero defense against. The atomic bombs on Japan for example were definitely not genocide, horrible as it was.

Right, but I was just saying that I acknowledge those events took place, and had an impact on millions of people.

[Olympian1010 7,977]

1 minute ago, Agger said:

 

Not genocide, no. But still a war crime (and actually the A-bombs weren't really worse than the fire bombing that had been going on for some time.

True, the Japanese biggest weakness was their wooden cities. Unfortunately civilian bombing was pretty common in all places where WW2 took place.

[Agger 1,663]

1 minute ago, Olympian1010 said:

True, the Japanese biggest weakness was their wooden cities. Unfortunately civilian bombing was pretty common in all places where WW2 took place.

 

Sure. It is one of a few offences that happened systematically on all fronts. Doesn't make it less of a crime.

[heywoodu 15,145]

5 minutes ago, Agger said:

 

Not genocide, no. But still a war crime (and actually the A-bombs weren't really worse than the fire bombing that had been going on for some time.

 

Oh yes, I was talking about the use of the term 'genocide' only.

[Monzanator 4,503]

10 minutes ago, heywoodu said:

 

 

Not every situation where way, way too many people die is a genocide though. I have no doubt for example a scary amount of native Americans were killed because that's what they were, but there's also huge numbers who died because of illnesses the Europeans brought and they had zero defense against. The atomic bombs on Japan for example were definitely not genocide, horrible as it was.

 

USA has awarded Medals of Honor for the Wounded Knee massacre. That's the ultimate kick in the teeth when it comes to "gallantry & life risk above the call of duty"