this post was submitted on 19 Oct 2023
154 points (99.4% liked)
chapotraphouse
13473 readers
1 users here now
Banned? DM Wmill to appeal.
No anti-nautilism posts. See: Eco-fascism Primer
Vaush posts go in the_dunk_tank
Dunk posts in general go in the_dunk_tank, not here
Don't post low-hanging fruit here after it gets removed from the_dunk_tank
founded 4 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
A little bit to my surprise, ol' Norman Finkelstein, in his media appearances since this latest development in the occupation, has refused to condemn Hamas. In his interview with Chris Hedges yesterday, he explained this decision with reference to slave revolts in the US, John Brown, and the Haitian revolution. I think it's a sound comparison.
Yes yes I bring up the slave revolts whenever I get asked this. Feels like a perfect comparison to me. Most libs will admit that they think slaves freeing themselves was justification for violence, and they did kill innocent people in more than one uprising.
The most common response I hear is that "this is different, Hamas is getting funding from the real bad guys who just want to attack Jews." During many of the slave revolts, there are records of voices claiming "this isn't an honest rebellion, they are the unwitting stooges of the French/Spanish who just want to attack Brits!"
in the American War of Independence, the British offered freedom to slaves who fought against colonists. Many joined up with the "Ethiopian" regiment of the redcoats for that reason. So the lesson here is even if they are working for a foreign power... So fucking what?!?! Don't enslave them and maybe that wouldn't be their only option! Where else are they gonna get guns and training?
I wouldn't call it a Bri'ish W. It was opportunism. They foresaw the loss of their colonies and so decided to use a bunch of black men as human shields in a desperate attempt to keep those colonies. It was less driven by an ideological sympathy for abolitionism than it was driven by a desire to keep their colonial holdings. The British also opportunistically supported the confederacy during the civil war because they benefited tremendously from the American cotton market in their textile industry. Had the British held onto colonial America, it is very possible they would have betrayed the Ethiopian regiment at the end of the war and put them back in chains, or even more likely, just keep using them as cannon fodder until they all died.