this post was submitted on 15 Dec 2023
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A German foundation has said it will no longer be awarding a prize for political thinking to a leading Russian-American journalist after criticizing as “unacceptable” a recent essay by the writer in which they made a comparison between Gaza and a Jewish ghetto in Nazi-occupied Europe.

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[–] deadbeef79000@lemmy.nz 10 points 11 months ago (4 children)

I've got some bad news.

The US was fully prepared to support the Nazis right up until it looked like they'd probably lose the war.

[–] Kbobabob@lemmy.world 13 points 11 months ago (2 children)

Do you have a source for that? I tried searching but didn't seem to find what you're referring to.

[–] archomrade@midwest.social 13 points 11 months ago

I think they're talking about American Nazi party involvement in the 1930's (sources in the comment below the question) at the time leading up to America's involvement, not necessarily official American foreign policy.

it's certainly an interesting revisionist question (i.e. if America had been on the axis side of the war), but it's definitely a-historical.

[–] deadbeef79000@lemmy.nz 5 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (1 children)

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/America_First_Committee is about all I can find in a few minutes.

Apologies, for not having more or better.

[–] Kbobabob@lemmy.world 0 points 11 months ago

That talks about a group of around 800,000 in a population of over 132,000,000. That's not exactly "the US".

[–] lolcatnip@reddthat.com 1 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (1 children)

I call bullshit. Why was the US supplying weapons to all of Germany's enemies starting in 1941 (months before Pearl Harbor)?

Americans mainly wanted to avoid siding with anyone because they saw the war as a European conflict they didn't need to be involved in.

[–] deadbeef79000@lemmy.nz 9 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (1 children)

You're right to call BS: I provided no supportive evidence. I'll try to do so.

The US "dealers of death" '(a precursor name of the military industrial complex) were happy to sell to anyone who was buying. Commercial support is only relevant as a source for lobbying.

The (strictly non-interventionalist at the time) US government officially wanted to avoid involvement in a war as a belligerent. That doesn't preclude sympathy within Congress or amongst the people for either side. The popularity of "America First" and Lindbergh in particular demonstrate that.

Germany was compelled to declare war against the US because of Pearl Harbour, the US' declaration was just reciprocation. The US, now busy in the Pacific, entered the European theatre only after operation ~~barbossa~~ barbarossa, noting that Germany had already made its fatal strategic blunder and was weakened from its battle of Britain defeat.

The Wikipedia articles have good sources and are well edited. They're a good place to find entry points into the histories.

[–] lolcatnip@reddthat.com 8 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Everything you just said is correct as far as I know, but I don't think it supports your original statement. The US was acting like Switzerland, which is scummy as hell when one side of a conflict is clearly in the wrong, but that doesn't mean the US waited until Germany looked like it was losing. I'm not that much of a WWII scholar, but I was as a kid, and I wouldn't say Germany was clearly losing until after the D-day invasion in mid 1944. That's certainly the position assumed by popular portrayals of WWII, such as Jojo Rabbit and Downfall, to pick a US example and the one German one I know.

[–] deadbeef79000@lemmy.nz 0 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (2 children)

I wouldn't use Hollywood as a source. What sells well to the American public? America winning the war.

In British media, it's the battle of Britain.

I imagine Soviet media would show it as operation ~~barbossa~~ barbarossa.

But yes, scummy as hell.

[–] TheSanSabaSongbird@lemdro.id 1 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Barbarossa. It's Operation Barbarossa. And again, you continue to ignore the political reality that at least two giant constituencies in the US had very good reasons for not wanting to get into the European war. In a democracy, their views could not be ignored, no matter what others may have thought was the right thing to do. As I constantly find myself repeating to people on lemmy, winning an election doesn't mean that you get to do anything you want, it means that you can probably do some of the things you want and will have to compromise on others.

[–] deadbeef79000@lemmy.nz 1 points 11 months ago

That's me falling afoul of auto correct. I'll edit.

[–] lolcatnip@reddthat.com 1 points 11 months ago (1 children)

True, it's not a real source. But I think it says something when media from both sides of the conflict paint the same picture.

[–] deadbeef79000@lemmy.nz 1 points 11 months ago

My point was that the allied countries' media doesn't present the same picture.

Of course axis media will paint the picture of their defeat as a late as possible, new player introduction; rather than incompetence in high command.

One must evaluate the source's Providence, motivation, etc.

[–] TheSanSabaSongbird@lemdro.id 0 points 11 months ago

Bullshit. The pro-Nazi elements in the US were never anywhere close to being a majority and were never close to implementing pro-Nazi policies. At worst, the US government was guilty of remaining neutral and continuing to do business with Nazi Germany, but that's a far cry from supporting the Nazis. This is pure revisionist tripe.

It's also worth mentioning that at that time the two largest ethnicities in the US were Irish and German immigrants or their immediate descendants. With the famine still in living memory and Irish independence still relatively recent, Irish-Americans were very leery of joining the war on the side of the UK, while German-Americans obviously weren't necessarily keen on fighting the country from which they'd immigrated. These two constituencies were far too important to be ignored politically, and that's a huge part of why it took the attack at Pearl Harbor for the US to do the right thing.

[–] Siegfried@lemmy.world 0 points 11 months ago (2 children)

I have more chances of going out with emma watson than the nazis had chances of winning that war.

[–] deadbeef79000@lemmy.nz 4 points 11 months ago (1 children)

There's a pre/post battle of Britain and pre/post harry potter thing in there somewhere.

[–] Siegfried@lemmy.world 2 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

My chances go getting out with emma* went down the hill after harry potter, i get your point and I think its pretty valid

*point of reference is 2023

[–] thecrotch@sh.itjust.works 1 points 11 months ago

They would have had a pretty damn good chance if they had stayed neutral with the soviet union. I don't think even American involvement could have stopped them.