As such blaming Amerikkkan fascist brainworms on "poor education" is really just apologia for Amerikkkan complicity in oppressive systems that benefit them.

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[–] stink@lemmygrad.ml 8 points 1 day ago* (last edited 15 hours ago) (2 children)

I wrote up a whole essay saying I agree with you BUT...

Then I hit discard because it was a jumbled mess 😅.

I will say that I know there is no classes except the working class, but there are significant differences between Americans living in poverty compared to the (dwindling) middle class and upper class.

If you don't have to work throughout high school, have private SAT tutoring starting your freshman year, and still have free time to doom scroll on social media, it kinda feels inexcusable to be so ignorant about the world around you.

I went to school in a pretty diverse area (economically speaking), there were kids who should have known better. You have access to the world's information at your fingertips and you still hold corrupted views about your own neighbors and loved ones based on their gender, race, or socioeconomic status.

I'm gonna say a hot take but I think americans should be treated the same way as 'israelis'. No need for coddling or excuses anymore, time and time again we have shown what america's culture is about. I've broken bread with literal war criminals who gloated about what they've done at the dinner table.

Our society is inexcusable, and should be treated as such.

EDIT: ALSO ON THIS, "PROGRESSIVE" CALIFORNIA LITERALLY VOTED TO KEEP SLAVERY LIKE THIS YEAR, THIS COUNTRY IS DISGUSTING!

[–] Chana@hexbear.net 8 points 1 day ago

Americans, certainly white Americans, are what Israelis would be if permitted all of their genocidal aims and then told myths for several more generations. Kids are the product of their social circumstances, it is the societies constructed around them that are at fault. But those kids grow up and then become the enforcers of that society or fight against it - and settlers tend to reinforce it.

"Should know better" is basically a question of agency and we always have to think about how we balance thinking of people as products of circumstance vs. moral agents, as the former can lead to sympathy for the oppressor that is counterrevolutionary. But we also do need to understand that it is not just people choosing to be demons, they are deeply propagandized and conditioned to accept and normalize a settler-specific as well as capitalist hosts of violences.

Being disgusted by ubiquitous war criminals is reasonable and on a personal level a righteous position. But if we live in a state with many, we have to formulate our (cynical) approach towards them and construct a political program that accounts for this. Not tailist, but not overlooking the situation nor becoming complacent by writing off every person, which can also happen if you start thinking about how many degrees removed any American is from the imperial war machine. We have to build something oppositional and practical, even if it means small orgs doing outsized direct action or building on and towards generational change, to make joining the war machine shameful and recruit the like-minded. If we hate current society we have to build towards what it could be and have sympathy for who people could have been without this society.

So I agree as well but just wanted to add an addendum that is sometimes missing.

[–] BanSwitch2Buyers@hexbear.net 4 points 21 hours ago

another post lost to the mods' share