Transcript
A threads post saying "There has never been another nation ever that has existed much beyond 250 years. Not a single one. America's 250th year is 2025. The next 4 years are gonna be pretty interesting considering everything that's already been said." It has a reply saying "My local pub is older than your country".
It is wild to me how Americans forget that they built their "nation" upon the genocide of earlier (first) nations, which were there for thousands of years.
Not really. The logic is attempting to draw a distinction between nations, kingdoms, and tribes, among other things, with emphasis on continuity in governance. So France isn't the same nation between the Revolution and the Napoleonic Empire, or after a dynasty change.
The interjection is pointless towards their argument because it doesn't understand the "logic" and is wrong in its own way.
His problem is that, as a truly stupid person, he isn't aware that the point he is trying to make is one reserved specifically for democracies, not nations, and is still wrong. The Roman Republic lasted for 482 years, just to start with the most famous "democratic" example, and Japan's government could be argued to have lasted 2,600 years depending on how much credit you want to give the mythological founding of their imperial family.
Further, the modern form of the United Kingdom government was founded in 1707. There have been changes, obviously, especially in the power balance between Lords and Commons, but the Acts of Union created what is indisputably a modern concept of nation and government.
Confederations of indigenous tribes qualify as nations by any reasonable definition. Most were democracies. Some still exist as sovereign democratic nations today.
Yeah I considered bringing that up but it's also not accurate to paint all the regional groups in that way. In hindsight I probably should have mentioned the Five/Six Nations at least.
Just takes one to disprove the original point that no nation is older than 250 years.
The UK was founded in 1707. The British crown family is even older than that.
Yeah, I just added that funnily enough.
"british" crown family.
Genocide has been a frequent practice for thousands of years, ever since the standard social unit was the tribe and one tribe would massacre another. Whole populations have been "put to the sword". The Americas are probably the largest single area, but if you really knew your history it would seem just as wild that Europeans and others around the world have forgotten about this.
Not as frequent as you claim. Many empires conquered foreign lands without genocide.
Interesting - I said "frequently" without any specific numbers, but apparently your non-numbers are lower. My bad.
Americans were straight up humane in their genocide vs. historical examples. Hell, I'd say Israel is doing worse today, not even pretending to make treaties, move people about, nothing.
"Straight up humane?" Dude in the 1800s there were times when people shot natives from passing trains for amusement. It's not a contest about who did it more nicely.
All I'm saying is that human history is full of far worse genocides than the Americans pulled on Native Americans.
Sure... Gaza is worse off that Hiroshima and Nagasaki!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vietnam_War_casualties
The Israel-Hamas war has less than 0.003% of the casualties the US inflicted on Vietnam. That's not to say the Israel-Hamas War isn't a bad thing (all wars are) but just trying to snap you back from historical revisionism.
Vietnam had 16 times the population of Gaza at the time. So your 1.4 million ends up being 87,500 if you keep the ratio and that's over 20 years. Israel has passed 50,000 in less then 2 years.
Also, the fact that you can compare the current situation to what happened in Vietnam and Japan should give you a hint that you are defending the wrong party. This is far from the win you think it is. Defending those things would be unimaginable, you should think about what that means.
It's not the Israel-Hamas War, it's the genocide of the Palestinian people by a vile warmongering apartheid state.
I wouldn't say casualties really matter when it comes to genocide, what matters is the intent. The US were quite happy to wipe out the Native Americans and didn't exactly cry any tears as they did it, to the point where wiping out the Native Americans was such a sticking point to them that Britain demanding they not expand into Native American territory was actually a contributing factor to the Revolutionary War.
The Israelis pretend they aren't interested in wiping out the Palestinians, but they aren't exactly stopping the settlements driving out the remaining Palestinians and they're certainly pretty keen on ensuring no Palestinian returns to Gaza when they inevitably annex the place. The intent is there, it's just obfuscated.
I'd say they're pretty similar, at least in terms of intent. Both nations want to expand because they believe it's their god-given right to have that land, and the natives to that land need to either accept it or be 'removed'.
I'm on your side, 95% of the way but I don't think it's fair to the victims in Japan, Vietnam, Palestine etc to be part of a ranking. Just like there are bigger and smaller infinities, there are larger and smaller amounts of casualties. But in comparison to large and small infinities, those numbers do not show the hurt these people went true. In Japan for example, some died in an instant where others went through decades of physical decay because of the damage radiation did. How can that be put in numbers and compared to what happened to people in Vietnam for example.
You can leave out a comparison with a 'sure...you must have forgotten Hiroshima, Nagasaki and the 1.4 million civilian casualties in South Vietnam because of the war, including 415,000 deaths' for example.
He is arguing in bad faith. His only goal is to make the actions of the state of Israel seem less extreme. That's why he fails to mention the population differences and keeps using the term "Israel-Hamas war".
If you check the modlog you find gems like:
Thanks for checking that out
Thanks, noted.
0 fucks given for actual people living there indeed. Wow.