• uralsolo [he/him]@hexbear.net
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      2 years ago

      Every Olympics (and world cup) presages the mass brutalization of vulnerable people, and I gotta wonder: do people really care that much about shotput?

  • h3doublehockeysticks [she/her]@hexbear.net
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    2 years ago

    The nazis hosted the olympics, no imperialist war has ever stopped the olympics from letting someone compete. Even in the worst possible interpretation of Russia’s actions in Ukraine, barring them from the Olympics for it would be an entirely new precedent.

    • Antikythera@lemmy.ml
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      2 years ago

      You’re not wrong, but just because the USA and UK got away with it doesn’t mean we should continue to let others get away with it. We can’t go back in time and fix it but we’ve got to start somewhere.

      • ShimmeringKoi [comrade/them]@hexbear.net
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        2 years ago

        “Just because we let the world’s most prolific serial killer get away with it doesnt mean he shouldnt be allowed to keep murdering if he pinky swears his victims really deserve it this time.”

        We can’t go back in time and fix it but we’ve got to start somewhere.

        We are in total agreement here, and we can start by seizing the levers of power, purging the government of capitalists, withdrawing all troops from everywhere and using them for reforestation work, dismantling the IMF, paying reparations to every country we’ve victimized, and putting every fossil fuel executive and lobbyist against the wall for their omnicidal crimes against all terrestrial life.

        • TheMage@lemmy.ml
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          2 years ago

          Punished for what? Throwing money and military support towards everyone when they need it? Oh, that. Right. As always, hating the USA is what the cool kids do these days. Until they need taxpayer money or military support. I’d love to see us cut off every ounce of support we give to other nations and see how that works out.

          • camaron30 [he/him]@hexbear.net
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            2 years ago

            COOL. GO AHEAD.

            Lmao, the US, simultaneously the strongest and coolest country in the world and a cucked nation that can be bullied by even the smallest african country into giving away free protection.

      • StalinwasaGryffindor [he/him, comrade/them]@hexbear.net
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        2 years ago

        Why are we letting the people responsible for Iraq and Afghanistans current state get away with it? Like if the US wants to arrest a war criminal Bush and Cheney are right there. Same for Blair, or Harper, or any of the other architects of the invasions.

        • Antikythera@lemmy.ml
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          2 years ago

          I’m not saying they should get away with it, I’m just saying that we shouldn’t let Russia get away with it because the United States and the UK got away with it. It’s like the Boomer argument that it’s not fair to them for student loans to be forgiven because they had to pay.

          • I’m not sure where in the world you live, but for myself, I’m in a western country. It would be far more easy for my country to hold the architects of the Afghanistan invasion to account than Putin. The fact that my government doesn’t indicates that all the talk of punishing Russia has nothing to do with punishing aggression, it’s just about punishing a rival

      • judgeholden [he/him]@hexbear.net
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        2 years ago

        it’s just a coincidence that this stuff only ever starts with our state enemies huh? only the bad countries get sanctioned for doing the same things we/our allies do. only Russia has to compete with neutral flags. only African leaders get prosecuted in the ICC.

        it’s all nonsense used to manufacture consent for war and military spending

        • SeborrheicDermatitis [any]@hexbear.net
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          2 years ago

          I mean I do agree with you (as a genocide studies scholar in training, God willing!), but I think your view of the US as just a clumsy, misguided oaf doing the wrong thing for the right reasons is not accurate. It was never the case that the US tried to build a democratic government and failed-from the very start the US instilled Bremer (that idiot) as a dictator; he openly restricted freedom of the press, freedom of speech and association, and had people critical of the CPA arrested. Then afterwards the US tried to interfere in the elections to support Allawi but failed miserably. The CIA and the US embassy has always had a huge role in the picking of Iraqi Prime Ministers and other ministers and has never stopped quashing Iraqi self-determination and democratic will. Just look at what they supported Maliki through!

          • astral_avocado@programming.dev
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            2 years ago

            Thank you for your well informed comment, the whole thing was indeed a clusterfuck and you know more than me. What are you doing on that godforsaken instance?

            • SeborrheicDermatitis [any]@hexbear.net
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              2 years ago

              I am a socialist and it is nice to be among socialists, put simply. I disagree with plenty of them on many issues but honestly I have not found people rude or mean to me-indeed, even less so than on liberal forums e.g., reddit. Plus there is an energetic solidarity and support for marginalised ppl (I am disabled + poor + mentally ill) that you do not get in most communities because I feel they understand more so the structural roots behind these marginalisations (since they are socialists!).

              Also I was on hexbear since the start (the migration from /r/cth to chapo.chat) and I don’t really know what Lemmy is lol.

        • Tankiedesantski [he/him]@hexbear.net
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          2 years ago

          Sorry, you’re right. In the absence of specific genocidal intent, the US and UK are only guilty of crimes against humanity, the crime of aggression, and various sundry war crimes.

          • astral_avocado@programming.dev
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            2 years ago

            Yes, correct. Now Saddam Hussein on the other hand…

            Edit: oh you’re one of the hexbear people, jesus you people are insufferable

              • astral_avocado@programming.dev
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                2 years ago

                Saddam Hussein didn’t literally genocide kurdish people? Not saying that justifies a country halfway across the world to brutally occupy them, but it’s not like that didn’t happen.

                • SeborrheicDermatitis [any]@hexbear.net
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                  2 years ago

                  Yes, but that is not a valid reason to justify the war because an autonomous Kurdish zone had already been set up after the Anfal in 1992. The only way Iraqi troops got in there is when the KDP invited them in during the Kurdish Civil War from 1994-7. Then once that was mediated and the KRG was split into two the Iraqi Army was no longer allowed in. The only real change 2003 brought was the legalising and formal institutionalisation of the KRG such that foreign capital was more willing to invest in it (encouraged, in fact, as the US tried to rebuild Iraq to stabilise things) and it had a big shiny “legal” sticker on it. The realities on the ground didn’t change though, especially as the constitutional articles surrounding referendums on Kirkuk and other disputed areas never came to fruition.

                  So by 2003 the Kurdish Question in Iraq had not been solved, but it had certainly been pacified in intensity, because a de facto independent KRG already existed!

                  I get what you’re saying, though. Yes, Saddam was an abhorrent and awful leader who was a genocidaire. However, the war was still an illegal catastrophe based on falsehoods that made things drastically worse for the Iraqi people. It is unjustifiable even when you take Saddam’s terrible-ness into account.

            • Schooner@lemmy.ml
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              2 years ago

              Yeah killing millions of people was totally worth getting one man!

              Now let’s bomb Washington DC to rubble and kill your family so we can get to Bush, the even bigger war criminal.

                • MemesAreTheory [he/him, any]@hexbear.net
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                  2 years ago

                  Nah you just pearl clutched when we called Western Powers bad names.

                  I’m loosely in favor of restricting the use of the word genocide to when it’s definitionally appropriate myself, but that’s in the context of effective communication and clarity. So long as “genocide” is going to be used exclusively to refer to US State Department desginated enemies only, then it’s perfectly reasonable to liken the US/France/UK’s horrific foreign interventions genocide as well. Western interventions, both formal and clandestine, have killed many more than anyone else those imperialist fucks have accused of the word, so in the interest of showing just how absurd their usage is yes, we should and can call Western powers genocidal too.

        • loathsome dongeater@lemmygrad.ml
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          2 years ago

          Also you: https://lemmygrad.ml/comment/1081955

          When you say it like that sure, except they also deny the Uyghur genocide and ignore the fact that China has their internet walled off and heavily censored/policed.

          Basically they’re so pro-communism that they looped back around and are now pro-fascists and drink the Kool aid. Not to mention the fact that China is only communist in name lol

          • Fuckass [none/use name]@hexbear.net
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            2 years ago

            Monday: china is fascist

            Tuesday: china is communist

            Wednesday: china is communist in name only

            Thursday: china is corporatist

            Friday: china is state capitalist

            Saturday: china is just authoritarian

            Sunday: china is just totalitarian

          • astral_avocado@programming.dev
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            2 years ago

            Yes this is me, thank you for advertising my accurate comment. China is indeed targeting and concentrating minorities into camps. Words have meanings.

            • loathsome dongeater@lemmygrad.ml
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              2 years ago

              Does not seem like words have meanings. All the nuance in your tank is reserved for the constant America-led warmongering in the middle east with a death toll in millions, many more displaced, and known torture sites like Guantanamo, Abu Ghraib and god known how many more black sites. Meanwhile the Uyghur are unequivocally being genocided despite ZERO CONFIRMED CASUALTIES four years into the news cycle. So your litmus test for genocide seems to be US foreign policy despite the emphasis on words having meaning.

  • EmotionalSupportLancet [undecided]@hexbear.net
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    2 years ago

    The original Olympic truce required everyone to lay down their arms. It would go against the spirit to selectively enforce this. Not that the IOC actually cares about the legacy of the games, they tried to remove wrestling at one point.

  • AynRandsGrindcoreBand [none/use name]@hexbear.net
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    2 years ago

    The Olympic Committee sitting round their big table laughing their asses off at this one.

    But if there was a competition for International Money Grabbing, Green Shirt Goblin Guy would be right in there with gold, varje gång.

    • Fazoo@lemmy.ml
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      2 years ago

      They should just be banned entirely. How many doping scandals does it take? The presence of their athletes is all Russia cares about. They’ll Photoshop in some flags and parade it around state TV.

        • mindlight@lemm.ee
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          2 years ago

          They are not allowed to represent their birthplace because the birthplace actively financing and supporting systematic doping. That is not the same as they are being banned.

          I have no understanding for why you want to represent that.

          • ElChapoDeChapo [he/him, comrade/them]@hexbear.net
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            2 years ago

            Why should doping even be illegal? You sound a lot like chuds talking about trans athletes

            Competition will never be perfectly fair, Michael Phelps is a genetic freak who’s just better at swimming than most people due to his insane lung capacity but he’s still allowed to compete

        • tellah@sh.itjust.works
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          2 years ago

          I don’t think it’s fair to the other athletes who also worked super hard to make it to the Olympics. It’s not a prestigious competition if it’s full of cheaters.

  • TheMage@lemmy.ml
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    2 years ago

    Now we’re up to $900 per US household for this Ukraine stuff. Let’s throw a few more bucks at it to buy flags. Great use of taxpayer dollars. Sure, Jan.

    • space_comrade [he/him]@hexbear.net
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      2 years ago

      In principle I agree but considering the US, Saudi Arabia and Israel are participating in all competitions without any sanctions I don’t see why we should be making a special case for Russia.

  • Gsus4@feddit.nl
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    2 years ago

    Go Ukraine, but it’s official, this worldnews community has become ragebait, like the original one :/

    • steltek@lemm.ee
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      2 years ago

      It’s particularly upsetting because lemmy.ml is a major instance. IMO, moderation in this c/ is infrequent and underwhelming. I don’t mean to hang the mods out to dry; it would take a big team to wade through this effluent and tame the trolls. The hostile “Here comes the Reddit refugees” and “OMG Tankie brigade” shit is just the easy stuff. A rule on lazy whataboutism would help the signal/noise ratio as well. This post is from RT, about Ukraine/Russia/Belarus but the biggest thread in here is rehashing the Iraq occupation. Can we just discuss the original topic? Is that so hard?

      • GarbageShoot [he/him]@hexbear.net
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        2 years ago

        “My post is about black crime, stop mentioning other things like white crime. Yes, I only post about black crime, are you trying to say black people never commit crime? That they should be allowed to commit crime? Thought so.”

        Sometimes bringing up context is important for discussing issues that some people would like to keep in a vacuum. The US competing at those same Olympic games under no penalty would be fucked up and makes it obvious that if Belarus was penalized here, it would be due to western politicking and nothing else (Russia already has the doping issue, so idk about that one)

        • steltek@lemm.ee
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          2 years ago

          No, you’re not helping. At all. It’s flamebait that can only derail the topic and turn into a circle jerk or verbal fistfight.

          Here’s an example that may help: Why is China allowed to participate in the Olympics despite their genocides and brutal crackdowns? Why the double standard?

      • Sasuke [comrade/them]@hexbear.net
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        2 years ago

        This post is from RT, about Ukraine/Russia/Belarus but the biggest thread in here is rehashing the Iraq occupation.

        the ‘punishment’ of russia is night and day to what we saw happen to the US and its western allies after the invasion of iraq. you can go and cry about ‘whataboutism’ as much as you’d like, but those of us who live in a world not shrouded by a willful amnesia of a past historical events can see the gross display of hypocrisy for what it is—namely a confirmation by the western world that some victims (of war) are worth more than others

      • Buelldozer@lemmy.today
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        2 years ago

        Can we just discuss the original topic? Is that so hard?

        When your entire schtick is anti-westernism then yeah it is that hard. I really don’t mind the comrades at lemmy.ml and lemmygrad.ml, they generate some thought provoking content at times. However their blind, predictable, and endlessly repeated talking points are tiresome in the same way that an invasion of Fox News viewers would be.

      • Dee@lemmings.world
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        2 years ago

        This post is from RT, about Ukraine/Russia/Belarus but the biggest thread in here is rehashing the Iraq occupation. Can we just discuss the original topic? Is that so hard?

        This is why so many instances defederate from hexbear, they do this in every comment section. Just turn it into whataboutism against the US, and add nothing to the topic that’s actually being discussed by the article. They’re basically lemmygrad but brigade comment sections more often.

        • zephyreks@programming.dev
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          2 years ago

          Instances defederate from hexbear because of emoji spam more than anything else.

          Defederation because of political views is, frankly, dangerous for democracy.