If people like Obama and Kissinger can win a Nobel Peace Prize, the prize is meaningless.
Can a person who is a convicted felon/ rapist even get nominated for the Nobel Peace Price? Extra points if you can ELI5 that.
Submitted 2 weeks ago by Patnou@lemmy.world to nostupidquestions@lemmy.world
Comments
K1nsey6@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
P00ptart@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
Obama got it before the drone bombings. It was more of a hope kinda thing but the hope didn’t turn out that great. And really just indirectly led us to vaguely gesture around
sploosh@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
Obama not fighting for his Supreme Court appointment is a lot more than indirectly responsible for all of this. He abdicated his duty to execute the office and fucked us all in doing so.
null_dot@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 weeks ago
They can and do take prizes off laureates if they go bad later.
cerebralhawks@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 weeks ago
I lost what little faith I had in the Nobel Peace Prize when Obama won it — and I liked Barack Obama, I voted for him both times, but I didn’t think “up and coming politician”/“first Black president” really qualified him, and the general feeling around the time was “well we hope he does good for peace in the world.” So… you give him a prize that is probably better suited to someone else, hoping he does what you want in the future?
Regarding Trump being a felon, I’m more concerned that we don’t let felons vote, but we’ll let a felon be president. Make that make sense.
SlartyBartFast@sh.itjust.works 2 weeks ago
I remember he was president for like two weeks and then got the Nobel Peace Prize, I was a bit baffled
RedEyeFlightControl@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
NY didn’t let him vote, but florida did.
Fyrnyx@kbin.melroy.org 2 weeks ago
Once Trump learns that Obama got one, he's going to want one too. I thought for a moment that he was going to get it for getting involved between North and South Korea, trying to unify them and take credit for all of it.
ianhclark510@lemmy.blahaj.zone 2 weeks ago
of course they can, Nelson Mandela won one, and he was famous for his time in prison
SpookyLights@lemmy.ca 2 weeks ago
Nelson Mandela was imprisoned for opposing South Africa’s apartheid regime, which enforced racial segregation and discrimination.
Op asked “if someone who was a convicted felon/rapist could they be awarded the nobel peace prize?.”
These two are things are not the same, and just to make sure we’re both on the same page, they’re not the same because one of them went to prison as a form of protest against an unjust system. The other raped some people.
TheLeadenSea@sh.itjust.works 2 weeks ago
A felon just means someone who broke the law, akaik. Law != morality.
null_dot@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 weeks ago
I think the point you might have missed is, a conviction shouldn’t exclude you from receiving a prize, because you may have been convicted by a corrupt court.
I’m not saying Trump was wrongly convicted, just that a conviction shouldn’t exclude you in and of itself.
mic_check_one_two@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 weeks ago
These two are things are not the same
I think you missed the point. Both were illegal at the time. Both led to convictions. Hell, hiding Jews in Germany was illegal during the holocaust. What is moral and what is legal don’t always align.
ianhclark510@lemmy.blahaj.zone 2 weeks ago
Want to go take a deep breath, realign your chakras and reread OPs comment?
‘Cause I literally replied with a convicted felon (Nelson Mandela) that was awarded the Nobel peace prize
Would it be easier if I provided another example? Liu Xiaobo was in a jail cell when he was awarded the Nobel peace prize
HootinNHollerin@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 weeks ago
Fyrnyx@kbin.melroy.org 2 weeks ago
I think the Nobel Peace prize has lost a lot of merit over the years. It still finds a way to go to those who're deserving. But then we have people like Obama, Kissinger, Yasser Arafat and the EU in 2012 that wound up with that has put a dent in its legitimacy and legacy.
Frostbeard@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
Disagree about the EU. Europe has had sp many wars, and the EU managed to get the nations talking and trading. It has done lits for peace but its hard to measure wars that don’t happen.
starlinguk@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
It’s really hard to judge things that didn’t happen. See also vaccines.
db2@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
They’re supposed to not qualify for high office either so probably these days. Asking for a friend?
667@lemmy.radio 2 weeks ago
In the US at least, the constitutional requirements for being elected to the presidency do not prevent felons from being elected, and there are good arguments for this. A weaponized judicial system can be used to oust or prevent political opponents from gaining the presidency.
prole@lemmy.blahaj.zone 2 weeks ago
Yeah, we’re just supposed to have an informed populace and a functioning electoral college to prevent the actual bad criminals from taking control.
FreedomAdvocate@lemmy.net.au 2 weeks ago
A weaponized judicial system can be used to oust or prevent political opponents from gaining the presidency.
Literally what the last 4 years were all about for the Democrats lol.
Lost_My_Mind@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
Funnily enough, he DOES qualify for a jail cell. 34 times actually.
aeternum@lemmy.blahaj.zone 2 weeks ago
If there were any justice in the world, it would be significantly higher than 34.
P00ptart@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
It’s almost a prerequisite now.
MehBlah@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
Considering the reason why the prize exist at all was to help Nobel with his guilt over the invention of dynamite. Pretty much anyone can get the prize.
RememberTheApollo_@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
Ao you’re saying if they feel guilty about rape they can get the prize?
MehBlah@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
No. Not at all. I’m saying you can be a complete piece of shit and get one. It was nobel who felt the guilt. I didn’t say anything about those who get them. Didn’t mention rape at all. Don’t reason in advance of your data.
foggy@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
Yes
It’s not very different from John bonomassa being named best guitarist by rolling stone
Who?
Exactly.
FriendOfDeSoto@startrek.website 2 weeks ago
Can? Sure. Should? No.
It’s worthwhile remembering though that the people who get it aren’t all saints. Although rape and sexual assault are particularly distasteful items to have on the resume, if the person repented and then contributed meaningfully to lasting world peace, they shouldn’t automatically be stricken off the list.
So those admittedly distastefully liberal guidelines should exclude any current resident of the White House then.
I think they should ignore any person who is so publicly thirsty for it. It’s a prize you get, not one you ask for.
It’s unnerving having to read that the US ally Norway feels like they need to prepare for retaliatory tariff action if the independent committee for the award, that only ended up in Oslo by a quirk of Scandinavian history, doesn’t award the prize to 47. Sad.
0_o7@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 weeks ago
The Nobel prize itself was created to downplay atrocities for fame, so yes, you can get it no matter what.
It’s fulfilling it’s goal.
rumschlumpel@feddit.org 2 weeks ago
Many past peace price winners were leaders in armed conflicts, and war is dirty business. So I assume the rules on crimes aren’t that strict.
aramis87@fedia.io 2 weeks ago
It's the reason a felon can take office in the government. Otherwise, it would be easy to "convict" someone you considered a threat.
xePBMg9@lemmynsfw.com 2 weeks ago
There are no qualifiers for the person being nominated. As long as someone who qualifies as a nominator nominates them. This is not a transparent process. The nominator will not be revealed until at least 50 years have passed.
neidu3@sh.itjust.works 2 weeks ago
They can, yes. It is worth noting that some recipients were convicted for various “crimes” in their home countries, such as the Chinese human rights activist who won it in 2010.
Plus, five words: Henry Fucking War Criminal Kissinger. 1973.
Kolanaki@pawb.social 2 weeks ago
Can someone please ELI5 the Kissinger hate? The only thing I know about the guy was from parodies of him in cartoons I saw growing up, and I always assumed he was like a Jewish Ghandi.
neidu3@sh.itjust.works 2 weeks ago
He was basically in charge of the Cambodian bombing campaign, calling out which targets were to be bombed without much of any intelligence indicating that it was a valid military target.
Also, he was closely tied to the Johnson administration and suddenly he was offered a position in the Nixon administration. While not proven there are a lot of suspicious indicators that he may have intentionally botched the peace negotiations in Vietnam in an effort to give Johnson poor standing before the election so that Nixon could be the one ending the war. In other words; If true he intentionally pr longed the war in return for a position in the Nixon cabinet.
Apepollo11@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
Maybe closer to the version of Gandhi from the Civilization games than the real one…
The views on him are mixed depending on exactly what lines you think can reasonably be crossed for the sake of protecting America’s interests.
In Kissinger’s tenure as Secretary of State, there were very few lines that he considered uncrossable - extending into tacit endorsement of actions that are accurately classed as war crimes.
The carpet-bombing of Cambodia, the peacetime kidnapping and murder of a Chilean general, actual military support for a genocide campaign in what is now Bangladesh - all this and more.
crank0271@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
You’ve already received some good answers, but Rolling Stone had something to say about him when he finally stopped committing atrocities: rollingstone.com/…/henry-kissinger-war-criminal-d…
njm1314@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
If there was a war crime that took place in the latter half of the 20th century he was basically involved in some way.
greedytacothief@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 weeks ago
Not an expert, but I believe he is part of the reason the Vietnam war continued. Lots of people died because the US has to win. I think he also okayed the indiscriminate bombing they did. Also he’s a slimy politician.
muix@lemmy.sdf.org 2 weeks ago
Behind the bastards on Kissinger
s38b35M5@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
The Elders tell of a young ball much like you. She bounced three meters in the air. Then she bounced 1.8 meters in the air. Then she bounced four meters in the air. Do I make myself clear?