this post was submitted on 15 Aug 2023
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[–] Antikythera@lemmy.ml 20 points 1 year ago (5 children)

You're not wrong, but just because the USA and UK got away with it doesn't mean we should continue to let others get away with it. We can't go back in time and fix it but we've got to start somewhere.

[–] GarbageShoot@hexbear.net 71 points 1 year ago (10 children)

Can you even manage in a fever dream to think that this would set a precedent that would result in the US ever getting punished?

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[–] StalinwasaGryffindor@hexbear.net 41 points 1 year ago (3 children)

Why are we letting the people responsible for Iraq and Afghanistans current state get away with it? Like if the US wants to arrest a war criminal Bush and Cheney are right there. Same for Blair, or Harper, or any of the other architects of the invasions.

[–] radiofreeval@hexbear.net 40 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Because bourgeoisie law does three things. Firstly it protects capital against individuals. Secondly it protects itself against individuals so it can maintain "order". Finally, it prevents capital against itself, to prevent it devouring itself in competition or sucking hard enough to create a revolutionary populace. Protecting individuals against each other or against capital is not the purpose of law enforcement, much less protecting people from war criminals. (Btw if anyone can find the parenti lecture this was based off, please tell me because i forget)

[–] Antikythera@lemmy.ml 7 points 1 year ago (3 children)

I'm not saying they should get away with it, I'm just saying that we shouldn't let Russia get away with it because the United States and the UK got away with it. It's like the Boomer argument that it's not fair to them for student loans to be forgiven because they had to pay.

[–] GarbageShoot@hexbear.net 43 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Would you support a policy of student loan forgiveness for only white people?

[–] 5redie8@sh.itjust.works 9 points 1 year ago (2 children)

What kind of stupid ass comment is this?

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[–] Antikythera@lemmy.ml 5 points 1 year ago (1 children)

What the fuck is wrong with you?

[–] GarbageShoot@hexbear.net 46 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Do you not understand why I said that? I would not support student loan forgiveness only for white people because, while I like student loan forgiveness, I can recognize that such a program would ultimately just be in the interest of white supremacy. I wouldn't pull the disingenuous liberal line of "you've gotta start somewhere" as though the policy was tethered to some imaginary future state that it is nominally more similar to but practically much further from.

Likewise, saying "well, at least by holding Belarus to account some countries will be held to account, which gets us closer to all countries being held to account!" is absurd. It promotes western dominance, not the abstract idea of "holding countries to account". Striking only one side saying that it's closer to both sides being struck than striking zero sides would be is sophistry.

[–] StalinwasaGryffindor@hexbear.net 26 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I’m not sure where in the world you live, but for myself, I’m in a western country. It would be far more easy for my country to hold the architects of the Afghanistan invasion to account than Putin. The fact that my government doesn’t indicates that all the talk of punishing Russia has nothing to do with punishing aggression, it’s just about punishing a rival

[–] Apollo@sh.itjust.works 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

It's actually far easier to hold putin to account than western leaders - the western hegemony is hardly going to turn on itself, but it can easily send arms to Ukraine.

That this arming of ukraine is for completely self interested reasons doesn't mean it also has the side effect of helping a country fight tyranny. A good thing done for bad reasons can still be a good thing.

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[–] Aria@lemmygrad.ml 6 points 1 year ago

You're trying to say by implication that the ship has sailed on Bush and Obama, but they're still alive. The USA Olympics team is still around. Even if you should've banned them in 1890 doesn't mean you still can't. They haven't apologised, paid reparations, or ceased any of their human rights violating projects.

[–] PerCarita@discuss.tchncs.de 2 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Why are we letting China get away with it? Why are we letting Saudi Arabia get away with it? The IOC is a toaster and it's like you're asking it to make you a whole roast dinner. It can't even make toast properly...

[–] StalinwasaGryffindor@hexbear.net 12 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I’m not asking for anything, I’m just pointing out the hypocrisy in calling for punishing Russia for war crimes when in every respect the US and her vassals have committed and are committing orders of magnitude more violence in the last couple decades

[–] PerCarita@discuss.tchncs.de 1 points 1 year ago

*his. Come on, the US is not a motherland, it's a fatherland.

This is spiraling into whataboutism and I'm disengaging. Have a nice day!

[–] Historical_General@lemm.ee 1 points 1 year ago

You realise by targetting an official enemy state of the most powerful of the lot, we're essentially rewarding them? And making them more powerful on the world stage? So a fixation on CN and RU is inherently going to become counter-productive to goals of stability and human development etc.

[–] ShimmeringKoi@hexbear.net 17 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

"Just because we let the world's most prolific serial killer get away with it doesnt mean he shouldnt be allowed to keep murdering if he pinky swears his victims really deserve it this time."

We can't go back in time and fix it but we've got to start somewhere.

We are in total agreement here, and we can start by seizing the levers of power, purging the government of capitalists, withdrawing all troops from everywhere and using them for reforestation work, dismantling the IMF, paying reparations to every country we've victimized, and putting every fossil fuel executive and lobbyist against the wall for their omnicidal crimes against all terrestrial life.

[–] FaeDrifter@midwest.social 2 points 1 year ago

Damn this sounds great to me. When do we start?

[–] space_comrade@hexbear.net 4 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

but we've got to start somewhere.

Somehow we always seem to be starting with US geopolitical enemies, never the US itself, despite literal centuries of heinous crimes.

Curious how that works.