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TIL In 1975, the US overthrew the democratically elected leader of Australia for his opposition to the war on Vietnam. (www.greenleft.org.au)

submitted 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago) by dessalines@lemmy.ml to c/todayilearned@lemmy.ml

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[–] PowerCrazy@lemmy.ml 8 points 4 days ago (1 children)

when you realize racism is nothing but a distraction, you will understand the world better.

[–] shplane@lemmy.world 8 points 3 days ago (1 children)

I mean … racism is very real. Calling it nothing but a distraction tells me you are not a person of color.

[–] PowerCrazy@lemmy.ml 0 points 3 days ago

It exists, yes. But using its existence as having any shielding qualities against the desires of global Capitalism, or the police-state that enforces those desires is the worst kind of naivety. Racism is merely a tool, it can and will be discarded when convenient. When you are analyzing the actions of nation-states it is actually harmful to view those action through the lens of racism, the racial lens becomes thought-terminating, discouraging any further analysis. A distraction.

For example, assuming that the US only coups non-white countries, in addition to being an extremely racist notion in itself, leads to the following absurd world-views.

Why did the CIA overthrow an Australian Prime minister? Because the CIA is so racist that they don't see Australians as white. Why was America in Vietnam? America is just so racist that they wanted to kill a bunch of Vietnamese people for no other reason.