Or to put it another way, do you expect our enlisted men and women to uphold the high moral virtues of honor, self sacrifice, and protection of innocents?
After seeing what horrors American soldiers are capable of, I’m not holding my breath.
This is it. The real economic usecase for AI.
Anyone from Tulsi Gabbard to United Healthcare to the Israeli Occupying Force can add in a layer of AI to their operation and poof there goes the responsibility and accountability.
That may be true, but it doesn’t excuse the list at all.
My country is responsible for the majority of international violence since WWII. I find that morally unacceptable.
I make posts like this because I want my country to do better. But the sad reality is we have yet to learn our lesson. We have been aiding and abetting an ongoing Holocaust for almost two years now.
My best guess is that the Chinese government will admit fault long into the future, when most of the accountability and backlash has already faded into history.
Which is no different than how the US has handled many of the atrocities I mentioned.
When will the US acknowledge and release info on the 100s of Yemeni and Pakistani civilian targets that were destroyed by drone strike? When will the US release the warcrimes reports from the War on Terror? Does the US even still have these warcrimes reports, or were they destroyed (as whistleblowers and Amnesty International have suggested they were)?
If you can’t answer questions like these without resorting to cries of “Whataboutism”, then fuck off hypocrite.
Your comment ignores the context that the US is doing anti-Chinese propaganda here, and there is no parity.
Imagine if the shoe was on the other foot, and China was releasing PR statements on every anniversary of every US atrocity. They would still be issuing multiple statements every day.
The “pressure on the cultural zeitgeist” you speak of is just “shoot, then cry”. The victims are forgotten.
Yep that’s exactly my point, the US is doing Whataboutism when it issues these PR stunts to condemn Chinese atrocities.
I agree that declassification is a great thing, but it is not so black and white. Not all info becomes declassified eventually, so much is covered up and destroyed.
For example, much is known about the My Lai massacre in the Vietnam War. Most of this information is known due to declassified documents. But these declassified documents also mention that there were over 100 My Lai-level massacres that occured, most of which we know nothing about. Army Chief of Staff Westmoreland was quoted saying we do a “My Lai each month”.
One of the largest, codenamed Speedy Express, reportedly killed 11,000 people, and was covered up at the highest levels.
It is not my intention to give other countries a pass. Indonesia is guilty of genocide in the case of East Timor; the US is guilty as well.
The genocide in East Timor is analogous to the ongoing genocide in Palestine.
Both genocides are not conducted by US personnel, but the majority of arms are supplied by the US. The US gives international legitimacy to the genocidal party, while running defense for it’s atrocities. The genocide in East Timor was ended by a phone call from the US president, and I am of the firm belief that the genocide in Gaza could be ended by a similar call. Previous Israeli atrocities were ended by calls from Reagan and Bush Sr.
As an American I think it’s helpful to put this into some sort of perspective.
Things the US won’t forget:
Things the US will forget:
Korean War (3mil civilian dead)
Vietnam War (2mil civilian dead)
Iraqi War (1mil civilian dead)
Violent overthrow of East Timor (widely considered a genocide)
Violent overthrow of Afghanistan (twice, over 1 mil dead)
Violent overthrow of Nicaragua
Violent overthrow of Grenada
Violent overthrow of Panama
Violent overthrow of Libya
Coup d’etat of Guatemala
Coup d’etat of Iran
Failed Coup d’etat of Syria
Failed Coup d’etat of Indonesia
Many failed Coup d’etat attempts on Cuba
Coup d’etat of Congo
Coup d’etat of Laos
Coup d’etat of the Dominican Republic
Coup d’etat of Iraq
Coup d’etat of Brazil
Successful Coup d’etat of Indonesia (1 mil dead)
Coup d’etat of Chile
Multiple Coup d’etat of Bolivia
Coup d’etat of Haiti
Multiple Coup d’etat attempts on Venezuela
Coup d’etat of Palestine
Mass civilian casualties, destabilization of many governments, people subject to a lifetime of torture without a trial, all under the War on Terror
This list could be so much longer, but I gotta get to work.
Under lots of pressure, Bono recently released his most forceful statement on the subject
“Hamas, release the hostages. Stop the war. Israel, be released from Benjamin Netanyahu and far-right fundamentalists that twist your sacred texts"
This statement perpetuates two Israeli propaganda lies: 1) Hamas is able to end the war by releasing hostages, and 2) The genocidal project is the sole responsibility of Netanyahu and Likud, and not the greater Jewish supremacist movement that has controlled Israel since it’s inception.
And to be clear, this is Bono’s best statement on the subject. You can Google his earlier statements to find more genocide denial and Hasbara propaganda.
He doesn’t have to be an activist for every issue, but it is a giant stain on his legacy of activism when he runs cover for an ongoing Holocaust.
Most activists are motivated by humanist ideals, but the issue of Gaza makes it obvious that Bono is not an ethical humanist, so his activism must be motivated by other desires.
“Great activist” Bono has been mostly silent on the ongoing genocide in Gaza for the past 20 months.
The “great activist” has been releasing tepid statements running cover for genocidal Israel as he continues his strong financial ties with the country doing ethnic cleansing in broad daylight.
And when Kamala had the entire DNC establishment behind her, what was stopping her from distancing herself from Biden? What was she afraid of?
Even if Biden came out to publically criticize Kamala, that would have mixed results at best. A large chunk of Kamala’s base was still thinking about how Biden’s brain malfunctioned at the debate, another chunk was calling him Genocide Joe.
She chose to stick with Biden’s legacy instead of developing her own policy platform for the American people, and it directly gave us President Trump.
He used the world’s strongest military to illegally invade, occupy, and slaughter some of the poorest people on the planet.
He played a leading role in multiple coups against democratically elected governments, replacing them with brutal violent dictators.
Millions died due to his war crimes, and he was proud of his work.
But to become a leading capitalist you must exploit hundreds of thousands of people.
This process strips you of most of your humanity and empathy, thus you will likely no longer care about “protecting nature”.
If someone deserves punishment, celebrating that punishment is basically just hatred.
Yes, I hate the man who spent my tax dollars to bomb children living in tent cities.
I hate the man who failed so spectacularly as a candidate that he gave us president Trump.
I hate Genocide Joe.
When a genocidal war criminal gets a horrific terminal cancer, it is certainly cause for celebration.
Aiding and abetting a genocide is depraved.
Going on national TV and lying about seeing “pictures of 40 beheaded babies” is depraved.
Celebrating when a war criminal gets prostate cancer? Not depraved at all in my opinion. He deserves much worse.
It seems we are in agreement then, the troops are self-interested rational actors; all of the supposed virtues are propaganda.
But I think there is a moral imperative that says “do not obey immoral orders”, and that imperative does not come with a clause that says “unless there is a pending court case”.