@Azure @r3df0x @natecull I'm not particularly fond of Marx, mostly because I'm quite fond of poststructuraliam and postmodernism, particularly their more bohemian aspects, and Marx's attitude about bohemians seems to get summed up as "lumpenproletariat." I have little patience for people centering human value on "work" while automation is eliminating both the capacity for and the need to meaningfully employ people.
@Azure @r3df0x @natecull I've run the numbers on mass deaths, and if we rightfully count the genocides of Native Americans and blacks alongside the preventable deaths from refusing to embrace national health care since 1935 when the idea was first proposed in the US, Americanism has killed about as many people as most dictators have. Most people are just used to shifting the blame to the victims in the US because there's nobody twirling a mustache.
Americanism, Death (CW: Numbers)
@icefox @natecull @r3df0x @Azure Here's the master reference: http://www.furaffinity.net/journal/8199553/#cid:52629625
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atlantic_slave_trade#Human_toll
Short-short:
Nixon: 800k direct, 2.4m indirect
Reagan: 325k direct, unknown indirect
Jackson: 50k direct
Buchanan/Polk/Fillmore: 120k direct
Clinton: 300k indirect
W. Bush: 100k direct
War On Drugs: 45k collectively
Healthcare: 45k/year (est) * 80 years = 3.6m.
Slave trade: Est. between 1.2m and 1.5m dead in transit, 4m died after capture/before transport.
Americanism, Death (CW: Numbers)
@icefox @natecull @r3df0x @Azure I don't think Viet Nam is an adequate comparison, seeing as our role wasn't "peacekeeping" but "Communist containment" (http://www.history.com/topics/cold-war/domino-theory).
Americanism, Death (CW: Numbers)
@Azure @r3df0x @natecull @icefox Also, here's a corrected link for the study: https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2009/09/new-study-finds-45000-deaths-annually-linked-to-lack-of-health-coverage/
