shawn1122

@shawn1122@sh.itjust.works

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Happy 17th of March⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago⁩:

  You’re absolutely right, the scale of the transatlantic slave trade was greater than ever before seen in human history.

  Somewhere between 1 in 5 to 1 in 6 died on the journey alone.

  One needs to also be aware that slavery as practiced by modern Western colonial empires was even more cruel than how slavery was practiced traditionally even dating back to antiquity.

  In most of the world historically slavery was often contingent and there were several pathways to manumission (freedom). It was not an inherited status by default (partus sequiter ventrum).

  The Western colonial empires very much perceived the entire world according to a race based caste system where Europeans were the highest caste and those of African descent were the lowest. Complexion defined your worth as a person. They spread this worldview globally, which has poisoned so many minds, and the world is still recovering from it to this day.

  America adopted and upheld this race based caste system until the civil rights act passed in the 1960s (within the lifetimes of many of parents/grandparents). During the American era of slavery, slaves had no legal rights. They did not have personhood. Children of slaves were automatically also slaves from birth. Slaves could be grieviously injured or killed with impunity. They were seen as property, or livestock.

  This is not how slavery was practiced historically around the world.

  In fact, even ancient Greece and Rome (both of which thrived on slavery) had more legal protections and pathways to freedom. Slavery was not race based. In many cases, they had earnings and could eventually buy their freedom. In Rome they could be set free by an owner and become Roman citizens.

  None of this is taught in American history likely because the ruling class worries it would hurt the average person’s national pride and their ability to exert control over them. But the truth is no society can improve without honestly reflecting on their past so I hope there will be some that read this and learn.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Happy 17th of March⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago⁩:

  I don’t think anyone is arguing that on a global scale though colonial/Western powers did decimate Africa and continue to engage in neocolonialism there.

  But if we’re talking about American history we need to be transparent about the fact that this was a nation that was an apartheid state until about half a century ago and the consequences of that reverberate to the present day.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Trump’s counterrorism chief, whose own wife was killed by ISIS, quits over Iran War saying Tehran posed ‘no imminent threat’ to US⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago⁩:

  Clearly you haven’t read Leveraging white guilt over the Holocaust to commit war crimes and crimes against humanity by Benjamin Netanyahu

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨send thoughts and peer review⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago⁩:

  Not mutually exclusive though I can understand how the West’s experience has led them to that conclusion.

  Though there are many scientists in the West that are religious.

  One has to understand that the purpose of prayer and community isn’t necessarily to improve material circumstances.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨We don’t have room in the carbon budget for a world war.⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago⁩:

  Presumably the impact would greatest if the population in areas with highest per capita usage were reduced first, right?

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Unconventional strategy.⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago⁩:

  When you’re persecution complex is so robust you reanimate the Old Testament despite being a “secular” nation.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Every single time.⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago⁩:

  Melania is that you?

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Game over⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Might be a good time to learn about the curry leaf.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Stereotyping is wrong.⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  If we’re going off election results it would be two thirds of white men and more than half of white women.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Stereotyping is wrong.⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  For which party and why?

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨The "western hemisphere" rubs me the wrong way⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  There’s truth to what you’re saying but it also doesn’t matter. If it was somehow designated as “North Atlantic” or with any arbitrary label, you would still have a subgroip of those people thinking their superior and giving us phrenology, eugenics, Nazism etc.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨The "western hemisphere" rubs me the wrong way⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  In UN proceedings the Middle East is referred to as West Asia.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Why does most American's give shit to the French when if not for them we would have lost the revolution?⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  France has no US military bases on its soil and has refused to be entirely vassalized by the US unlike most of the rest of Europe. It’s one of few Western countries that has managed to maintain strategic autonomy in the face of US hegemony. Refusal to participate in the war in Iraq is an example of this, while countries like the UK followed blindly like a good little lap dog.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨YSK TikTok Is Harming Children at an Industrial Scale. We know this because we obtained messages from TikTok engineers and executives⁩ ⁨⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Durable societies are unfortunately bound to have such inconveniences for some in exchange for the betterment of many.

  Tech companies have released the equivalent of digital opium so they and the government are accountable.

  When we look back at the opioid epidemic of the 90s we don’t blame the addicts or their families (well I suppose we did at one point, without the benefit of hindsight or a bigger picture view), we blame the Sacklers, pharmaceutical companies, doctors that took kickbacks etc.

  I’d hate for us to make the same mistake just because the drug is delivered in a way we don’t completely understand yet.

  It’s also not as simple as asking parents to simply be better at parenting, whatever that may mean. The drug is already out on the street, widely available, and ridiculously addictive. Keeping your child from it is not only depriving them of a dopamine hit that their brains are not developed enough to simply ignore (even most adults are addicted) and it is in many cases relegating them to social ostracization.

  This is far beyond what one parent or group of parents can fix. It requires a societal level change which generally needs to come from the government, whether we like it or not.

  Are we a society that collectively cares about the next generation? If we are then a solution is necessary. I’d be happy to hear out possible solutions and, as a parent, share what is viable and what isn’t. It would be nice to hear from other parents also.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨[deleted]⁩ ⁨⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  If you talk to locals, yes, this is the stereotype.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨They wonder why nobody wants kids anymore.⁩ ⁨⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  For people outside of the US, FMLA is up to three months of unpaid leave where you get the privilege of getting to keep your job and your benefits (though you continue to pay for them while not being paid).

  For many American women, this is all they have access to for maternity leave. So they power through those three months then have to scrap together the cash to put their 4 month old in day care ($15 to $20k annually) while not getting paid for the quarter of the year.

  Around 40 to 45% of women in the US don’t even qualify for FMLA because your employer needs to be large (50+ employees) enough and you need to have worked for them long enough to qualify (usually a year).

  Blue states fill the gap with their own state run programs (still usually only three months, though you get some pay) but if you’re in a red state the choice for many women is 1) have children and enter financial ruin or 2) don’t have children.

  America lags behind most advanced economies in this regard and there isn’t any sign these circumstances will get better.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨They wonder why nobody wants kids anymore.⁩ ⁨⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  The American economy was birthed from chattel slavery so the idea of workers having rights has always been a struggle here.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨If cannibalism were the norm and human meat was freely available in grocery stores, there would surely be people who prefered to eat only the meat of people of their own ethnicity or only women's meat⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

  Not exactly cannibalism but mummia (powdered mummies) was popular in Europe from the 12th to 19th century.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨YSK that no form of United States ID, no matter how valid, guarantees protection when ICE decides you look like an immigrant.⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

  All those years the Americans spent bragging about defeating the Nazis only to then become the Nazis. What a timeline.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨YSK that no form of United States ID, no matter how valid, guarantees protection when ICE decides you look like an immigrant.⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

  Every empire has a grand narrative. The rest of the world has been quietly rolling their eyes at these American euphemisms for some time now.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨YSK that no form of United States ID, no matter how valid, guarantees protection when ICE decides you look like an immigrant.⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

  Was a thousand years of the dark ages not quite enough?

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨What should the next President of the United States do?⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  1. Immediately reverse domestically regressive policies.

  2. Foreign affairs? I’m afraid cats out of the bad. No ones trusting the US the same way again. Start the process of patching up relations but it’s going to take much longer than one term.

  3. Find a way to actually improve the material conditions of the average American. Trying to use laws to prevent another Trump is not going to work. Demagogues thrive in an environment, typically defined by unease or insecurity. If people feel that their lives are improving they don’t fall for it as easily.

  4. Be competent.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Being afraid of vaccines is literally childish behavior.⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  America doesn’t just do this domestically. They have interfered in other nations public health perceptions as well. The CIA undermined polio vaccination in Pakistan and Afghanistan when global eradication actually seemed possible.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Judging by how many users on the internet telling Americans to "just move to another country lolz", people must think immigration laws are very lax or something... (it's not)⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  I’m sure being targetted by ICE could qualify.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨The USA and Europe are now enemies⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  The US was isolationist during much of world war 2 and had a “cash and carry” approach towards selling arms to US allies during initial part of the war which after much deliberation became a lend-lease arrangement that had been against the desires of the American people who did not want to get dragged into conflict that had its center stage in Europe. These financial arrangements made the US incredibly wealthy, essentially extracting centuries of colonial and slavery based loot from the Brits, which allowed it to become the global hegimon it is today (for now).

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨The USA and Europe are now enemies⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  What has caused this?

  Wealth concentration among the elite in Western countries?

  Demographic collapse putting strain on social systems warranting increased immigration?

  Struggling to adapt to a changing world order brought about by a reemergent Global South?

  The hard part is figuring out the why. Trump and the far right are symptoms of a mich bigger problem and it’s not going away in one election cycle.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Venezuela Condemns US 'Piracy' as Trump White House Signals It Will Seize More Oil Vessels⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  When the US ovethrows a government for it’s nations natural resources, it then sends in it’s corporations to profit / benefit Americans involved in that industry. The locals get nothing. This is the neocolonial playbook.

  Pivoting to renewables would protect the local population but it would change the American imperial strategy on a meaningful way.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨If WW3 breaks out, what countries are going to be on which side?⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  India US relations have gone cold since Trump. Particularly with the +25% tariff for buying Russian oil which they perceive as unfair since

  1. India followed the US in sanctioning Iran in 2019 which is why they increased purchases of Russian oil.

  2. The West had set a price cap on Russian oil after the Ukraine war as everyone understood that completely banning its purchase would drive oil prices up undesirably.

  3. The Biden administration was explicit in acknowledging and accepting that India buy Russian oil. It was seen as necessary to stabilize the market.

  4. China buys more oil than India from Russia and faces no specific additional tariff.

  5. The EU continues to buy gas and the US buys uranium from Russia (which also allows them to continue to finance the war).

  6. The IMF (which is seen as an American/Western institution) continues to bail out Pakistan and the peception in India is that some of those funds will reach non-state actors who will perpetuate violence in India.

  There are actually more reasons but India recently hosted Putin for a state visit and rolled out the red carpet for him. India and Russia have historically had good relations (the Soviet Union used its UN security council position to support India against postcolonial Western interference on several occasions) but this was friendlier than many were expecting and it is in large part due to the current US administration being inconsistent on trade policy and incompetent at diplomacy.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨If WW3 breaks out, what countries are going to be on which side?⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Middle East/Africa would likely become its own sphere just based on geography. I assume Europe would be in Russia’s sphere.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Hey look, a giant sign telling you to find a different job⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Needs?