this post was submitted on 03 Sep 2023
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chapotraphouse
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Ok, is that the only broken treaty you were taught about?
it wasn't "american politicians". it was americans. even if the government helped, it was common americans, poor and rich, who murdered and repressed natives every day until the land was solidly occupied. and while everyone in the country can be perfectly able to recognize the shitty things they've done, they're absolutely incapable of admitting the terrible things they're supporting and doing today. they live in a constant cycle of "oh we've done a baddie" into "no i'm not doing anything bad this time" into "oh i guess that was bad as well sorry" into "no i'm sure i'm not doing anything wrong this time"
the average american was evil back then and remains evil as fuck to this day, because that's what not being an anti-imperialist leftist tends to mean if you live right in the middle of the imperial core
Even so, there have been Americans who opposed what their country and countrypeople were doing, and fought to oppose it. Were they in the minority? At times, sure, but the American political system has always given disproportionate power, first to landowning Anglo-Saxon Christian men and now to (still predominantly the same group tbh) rich people and the people they get to follow them.
If you view everyone who isn't actively radicalized as evil then I think you're losing touch with some of the very people that need to also be radicalised. The "average American", when polled time and time again routinely profess to have viewpoints waaaaaay to the left of mainstream discourse. Is it not our job as socialists to get to the see the full extent of what it means to really believe in equality and justice?
for domestic issues, sure, especially because most of those would favor them in the end
but when it comes to the expansion and maintenance of the empire (in territorial, military or even ideological terms, as in believing and/or helping spread the belief that these actions are commendable or in any way fair, deserved or justifiable) i have never seen this
i only see them that way if they live in the 1st world
and i do believe evil people can become good or even just, i don't know, better, but i can't see them as anything but evil until they realize how the modern western mindset - their mindset - is built upon a supremacist worldview. how is a person whose worldview is built off supremacism not evil? until they start dialing back on that shit, which i can't see happening before radicalization, i can't think of them as good