this post was submitted on 05 Sep 2024
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MeanwhileOnGrad

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"Oh, this is calamity! Calamity! Oh no, he's on the floor!"

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Meanwhile On Grad


Documenting hate speech, conspiracy theories, apologia/revisionism, and general tankie behaviour across the fediverse. Memes are welcome!


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Incase anyone tells you that lemmy.ml is not a tankie instance.

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[–] [email protected] 0 points 2 months ago (4 children)

Poor Gaddafi was attacked by the corrupt NATO, to the disgust of the rest of the world (except that it was resolution by the UN security council).

[–] [email protected] 0 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (5 children)

Except there is strong evidence that Western powers (predominantly France, the UK and US) created the fiction of Gaddafi being a global supervillain and then used NATO forces to enact regime change in Libya, under the pretext of "preventing civilian casualties". The real goal, of course, was to secure Libyan oil reserves and open the country up to western markets.

NATO is often used an extension of Western foreign policy. To pretend it is solely a benevolent peace keeper is just as simplistic and naïve as saying that everything the West / NATO does is pure evil.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 2 months ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 0 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (1 children)

And what is dropping this wikipedia link supposed to prove?

Does it contradict the scholarly article I cited which supports everything I said?

P.S. who is "you people"?

[–] [email protected] 0 points 2 months ago

The article was supposed to educate you on what type of person and leader Kadaffi was but something tells me education is not your strongest suit.

"You people" are teenage armchair communists with zero life experience and disdain for history books.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 2 months ago

there is strong ~~evidence~~ propaganda.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 2 months ago

During Arab Spring, the West was (naively) hoping that Libyans would rise against Gaddafi and create a democraty. When he saw what was happening, he threatened to a) flood Europe with migrants and b) expose Sarkozy's illegal campaign funds.

a) made him a political adversary, b) made them launch a military campaign to topple him

[–] [email protected] 0 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (2 children)

Gaddafi was a supervillian. Almost literally:

.

It also wasn't NATO who directly killed him. His own citizens did, and they weren't kind about how they did it.

NATO also wants stable oil reserves. Both these things can be true.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Gaddafi was so popular among Libyans that in the end they dragged him to the street and raped him with a sword. Allegedly.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 2 months ago (1 children)

You think that couldn't happen with Biden?

[–] [email protected] 0 points 2 months ago (1 children)

No. He might get assassinated by an individual or a small group of conspirators. He won't get paraded through the streets while being raped with a sword until he dies. But nice try.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (1 children)

It's weird that some random German thinks they know what American hillbillies are capable of or actively talk about doing when their memory doesn't even go back more than three years and they have literally zero knowledge of history or the nature of angry mobs.

Oh, no, wait, that's not weird, I always forget some people are just average.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Your comment has been restored. @[email protected] removed it for no reason.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (1 children)

I removed it because it was an unnecessary insult on the other person's intelligence. If you feel like restoring it 2 weeks later, that's fine by me.

Oh, no, wait, that’s not weird, I always forget some people are just average.

That's why it was removed.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (1 children)

I'd prefer it if you lot don't touch this community. I've asked all of you multiple times not to, and you keep doing it.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (1 children)

This community is on my server. I have a responsibility to moderate it.

I will continue to try to let you handle the moderation here as much as possible, but that's a courtesy that I'm extending to you. The community is not independent from the server, and you will have to live with the fact that admins can and will remove content that they deem in violation of instance rules.

I think we are doing a good job of being hands-off. This community seems to be doing well. Don't let perfect be the enemy of good.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Removing comments that didn't violate any rule using "smh" is not good moderation.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 month ago (1 children)
  • Be respectful. Everyone should feel welcome here.
[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

Fair enough, continue then. But please warn them before hand.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (2 children)

He certainly played up to the role, presumably for egotistical reasons, but most of it was sabre rattling bravado. He wasn't seen as a genuine threat by Western intelligence agencies.

Also, NATO didn't have to kill Gaddafi directly in order to be instrumental to his deposition. You only have to look at the history of US intervention in Latin America for many examples of how regime change can be carried out via proxies and rebel groups.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 2 months ago (1 children)

US involvement in South America has been brutal- we are responsible for terrorism, murdering innocent people to spread fear, creating civil wars...Societies were torn apart in ways they may never recover from. How can you consider this an option and publicly advocate for it? That's fucked up

[–] [email protected] 0 points 2 months ago (2 children)

Cause it's whataboutism, not cause it's wrong.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 2 months ago (1 children)

calling something whataboutism is such a cop-out. what has the user said that distracts from the greater debate?

[–] [email protected] 0 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (1 children)

Cause the USA could leave NATO tomorrow and the discussion of NATO vs Russia wouldn't change. So the USA is irrelevant in this conversation. Plus, those were USA/CIA actions, not NATO actions. And NATO isn't ruled by the USA, no matter how much some people around here like insisting.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

the conversation had mentioned the US, western powers and derailed to an extent from the original post.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 2 months ago

Yey USA tankies!

[–] [email protected] 0 points 2 months ago (1 children)

He certainly played up to the role, presumably for egotistical reasons, but most of it was sabre rattling bravado.

My dude, this ignores like 40 years of him being the most unhinged leader in North Africa. He's always been a wild card on the global political stage, swinging wildly from befriending revolutionary leftist, and then immediately dumping them for right winged dictators.

The man literally tried to sell surface-to-air missiles to a street gang in Chicago...... No one had to make him seem crazy, he was crazy.

Now that doesn't mean I think the US should have intervened, but I don't think anyone had to really do any work to make him seem like an insane supervillain.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 2 months ago (1 children)

That also overlooks all the times western powers were friendly with Gaddafi. They didn't mind him following his ascent to power, nor in the post 9-11 period when the U.S. and European countries restored diplomatic ties with Libya, and Western oil companies re-entered the Libyan oil sector.

In 2007, the UK's Tony Blair visited Libya to strike up energy deals, and France's Sarkozy met with Gaddafi for military and economic agreements.

Was Gaddafi a supervillain then too, or did he only become one when his interests were no longer aligned with the Western powers?

[–] [email protected] 0 points 2 months ago (1 children)

That also overlooks all the times western powers were friendly with Gaddafi. They didn't mind him following his ascent to power, nor in the post 9-11 period when the U.S. and European countries restored diplomatic ties with Libya, and Western oil companies re-entered the Libyan oil sector.

That was my point about him swapping out friends sporadically. Gaddafi had massive swings in political alignment throughout his time as leader of Libya. The reason nato/un could actually make a move on his government without greater political ramifications is because he's burned every bridge across the political spectrum.

Was Gaddafi a supervillain then too, or did he only become one when his interests were no longer aligned with the Western powers?

Literally yes...... Is it that surprising the west would work with a crazy despot that has a bunch of oil?

[–] [email protected] 0 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (1 children)

It seems we're largely in agreement then - that 1) NATO did, in fact, make a move on Gaddafi and 2) the West supported him when it was beneficial but turned on a dime the minute he stopped cooperating.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 2 months ago (1 children)

that 1) NATO did, in fact, make a move on Gaddafi

Not something I ever disputed? Would be kinda hard for a rebel force to get a cruise missile.

  1. the West supported him when it was beneficial but turned on a dime the minute he stopped cooperating.

This I don't really agree with as it's a bit of a reductionist mischaracterization. Gaddafi literally funded terrorist attacks on the US in the 80s, which led to about 15-20 years of political disruptions between the two countries. They normalized relations again in the early 00s, with the US eventually going as far as to delist them from the state sponsored terror list in 08.

It would be hard to describe that as "turned on a dime the minute he stopped cooperating". There's a reason why no one in the UN, including Russia and China UN vetoed the resolution.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (1 children)

Gaddafi literally funded terrorist attacks on the US in the 80s, which led to about 15-20 years of political disruptions between the two countries.

According to the Regan administration perhaps, but not according to intelligence agencies from several European countries. There was a concerted effort to link Gaddafi to individual terrorist attacks, like the Lockerbie bombing, although there was no hard evidence to support that.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 2 months ago

According to the Regan administration perhaps, but not according to intelligence agencies from several European countries.

Again, a reductionist interpretation. There's been a lot of conspiracies over the years due to so many groups initially claiming responsibility. However the trial held in the UK and a recent one in 2020 both point to the same culprit.

I think you may be talking about the bombing in Germany.

Either way, the point is that Gaddafi has sponsored over 15 violent paramilitary groups in other people's countries. Not exactly going to be winning a lot of friends on the global stage by doing that.

This is not what stable leadership looks like ...

[–] [email protected] 0 points 2 months ago

Interesting, thanks

[–] [email protected] 0 points 2 months ago (1 children)

except that it was resolution by the UN security council

You mean the Security Council over which Russia has veto power? That UN Security Council?

[–] [email protected] 0 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (1 children)

Russia's decision to abstain in that vote happened under the notoriously "liberal" Medvedev and was a point of heated disagreement between him and Putin. It was arguably the breaking point for Putin deciding he needed to hold onto power indefinitely or else (in his view) a liberal president would let NATO do whatever they want, with Russia presumably being next on the chopping block

[–] [email protected] 0 points 2 months ago

Is that why Medvedev is constantly on X threatening to nuke NATO like every 5 minutes?

[–] [email protected] 0 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

All the happy cake days to you! What will you do with your time without them? ;) EDIT: i.e., without lemmy.ml

[–] [email protected] 0 points 2 months ago

Thanks for the reminder, happy cake day