mattpb.bsky.social
He/him. Physically disabled. Canadian-American; fond of rye toast, when he can get it. Dreams a little.
12,326 posts
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This isn’t ’don’t protest’ at all: I agree with this take I think. But so many people mythologize this shit. bsky.app/profile/john...
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And, on the other hand... Bert Schneider's Oscar speech for "Hearts and Minds": www.youtube.com/watch?v=AMR1...
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I held my tongue at the time but it did put a bad taste in my mouth how we were championing the delivery of Abrams as "unprecedented aid to Ukraine" as if we supplied several armored divisions instead of barely a battalion's worth
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It's interesting to note that basically every government on the planet expected the Ukrainian Army to collapse even faster the Afghan Army, and were caught completely flat-footed when it didn't.
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Stuff like busing, etc. constituted a backlash that prevented full consolidation and Reagan era machismo saw militarism make a comeback because voters didn’t care about the Vietnamese, especially the ones allied with them, they just didn’t want to be drafted.
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Definitely was a backlash. But the South saw increasing integration & black representation through the 70s, 80s & 90s. Anti busing won more in the North.
Reagan talked tough but in practice - consider the Lebanon withdrawal. The terrorists won easily.
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Civil rights gains did last, and the Vietnam syndrome continued until 1991 at least
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LBJ also picked Lester Pearson up by the collar while in private, LIFTED him off the floor, while breathing in his face, "YOU... PISSED... ON... MY... RUG!!!!" over Pearson's Vietnam stance!
So, let's not give LBJ ALL the credit, here.
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That said, LBJ was a New Dealer who believed in liberal democracy to the extent he was willing to lose the South forever to give black people rights and Donald Trump is a selfish authoritarian, so who the fuck knows what’s applicable these days?
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Insofar as any lessons can be learned, the most successful tactic appears to be respectability politics with the heavy disclaimer that this involves getting your ass kicked and thrown in jail in manner sufficiently fucked up enough to scare the normies.
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It seems the UK is trying to manage anger but the anger will of course continue to rise so long as the war on Palestine continues, and so long as spy planes remain in operation over Gaza, F-35 parts are sent, and trade flows.
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Best to take a comprehensive view of these moves, and to then continue on with pressuring these governments to go further: recognize Palestine, suspend F-35 exports, Iron Dome replenishment, implement two-way embargoes and cancel contracts with Israeli weapons firms, curtail EU-Israeli trade.
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It is too little too late, of course, but the fact that it happened at all is a testament to the remarkable intransigence of Israeli leadership, who had the West begging them on hands and knees to at least performatively give leeway and refused to do so.
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i wouldn't even know where to start on political bombings in the 60s
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Kidnapped and killed no less, but here I was looking specifically at the bombing they did.
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They killed a government minister!
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Let me tell you- the screenshot they got there is like the *mildest* of them. He posted about his family escaping the Tet Offensive and a bunch of Commies piled on like "oh so you're from bougie south Vietnam? your family deserved to die."
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It's a rough kind of hit you in the face with a plank kind of read in the era of Trump 2. Recommend.
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Also kind of ignores that a large swathe of the population was not mad that students got shot at Kent State
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I've made so much use of quotes from your books, and every time I look at the quotes again it just shocks me how much things never seem to change.
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There's no bottom to the potential lives scarred by unnecessary trauma and tragedy when you start throwing thousands more scared kids unfamiliar with the area into urban combat zones...each with an endless supply automatic weapons and explosives.
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Cops shoot each other and themselves (usually in the foot) not infrequently! Turns out guns are dangerous.
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...Kent State was in 1970.
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Oh, you're re-reading it, too?
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The long hot summer mainly refers to the especially warm climate during the summer of 1967
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It lasted another four years after he said that!
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at some point didn't they have like, an exorcism of the Pentagon?
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bsky.app/profile/eric...