• Mandarbmax@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    Figure out a way to implement capitalism without creating genocides through imperialism and we can talk. Until then, that is a major problem requiring a solution, and ignoring it makes people look blind.

    • Candelestine@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      Who have we genocided in the past century? Any of us “western” countries would be an acceptable example that proves your point.

      • TurtleJoe@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        Did you specifically choose 100 years in order to not include the Great Famine in Ireland? Or what the East India company did in India? Lassez faire capitalism in action right there, baby.

        How about US funded right wing death squads in central and South America that eliminated whole peoples in the 70s and 80s? There are entire languages that are no longer spoken in countries like Guatemala because the people who spoke it were all murdered systematically with US taxpayer money.

        • TheBeege@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          Not a function of capitalism. Function of human greed. Communism doesn’t solve this. It just moves the greed from corporations and politicians to bueareacrats.

          It sounds like you’re arguing more against extreme materialism, where people believe that accumulation of physical goods holds more value than human life.

          Also, citing genocide due to use of US taxpayer money isn’t critiquing capitalism. It was taxpayer money, not market or investor money. That’s government corruption, which is independent from capitalism. You see this kind of corruption in both capitalist and communist systems.

          I think your main argument should be the prioritization of human dignity over anything else and an extreme vigilance for corruption in institutions of all sorts.

        • Candelestine@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          For your first paragraph, yes, I did choose just one century because I am aware that our behavior has changed over our history, many times.

          edit: Just to provide an example, we used to genocide our Native Americans and steal their wealth. Now we let them build casinos even though we usually prohibit ourselves from building them, and we gamble away our money to them. These are different things. This indicates a change in our behavior.

          For your second paragraph, can you provide a source for that?

      • Mandarbmax@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        How about Israel & Palestine and Saudi Arabia & Yemen? Or does it not count if the capitalism is in the middle east and it is just sparkling shitty economic systems then?

        If so then look no further than the USA in south east Asia with agent orange or does it not count because it was done during a totally justified and noble war?

        Then take a look at the 20,000 migrants who have died trying to cross the Mediterranean in the last decade or so while the European authorities turn a blind eye to mass drownings.

        • Candelestine@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          Genocide is a very, very specific word. Your examples do not qualify.

          Middle Eastern countries had their borders carved out by the west, yes. For how long do we stay responsible for their actions? When do they get their free will back?

          Vietnam was a loss, a disaster and a bad joke, all at American expense. One of the largest failures we’ve ever engaged in. It was not a genocide, we did not attempt to erase Vietnamese culture.

          Your migrants case is your best example due to the amount of hate flying around these days, but you do understand that genocide takes more than not helping people, right? We are not feeding the starving people of the world, is that genocide because we do not give them all food?

          • Pointtwogo@lemmy.ml
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            1 year ago

            Exactly. We, as people, espesically NATIONS, cannot tend to all issues at once. We simply can’t. You touch on a very important point that has to be made.

      • aggelalex@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        Have you seen the hold France and Russia keep in Africa?

        • The CFA Franc still exists in Africa, even though France uses the euro and is an EU country. France enjoys a de facto veto on the boards of two banks of the CFA Franc zone.
        • Those “Wagner” pieces of shit were doing business in Africa before they went to Ukraine.

        If that’s not imperialism, I don’t know what is.