Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

How to Read the JFK Assassination Files

politico.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

71–80 of 141 posts

Re: How to Read the JFK Assassination Files

#71

Post by baud147258 »

irrational wrote: post #41
jwdunne wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This isn't a stretch to believe. I'm British too. We did something similar with India. We also allowed the Irish famine to happen too. History does say we were not a very kind empire - causing famine was not beyond us.

It wasn't just you. The other European colonization efforts likewise destroyed the lives of millions of people. I always get a chuckle when I see Europeans deriding the American Empire. Pot calling the kettle black much?

The European colonization build countries from nothing, forming an upper class which led the decolonization effort and formed the leading class of the new countries. So there might have lives destroyed, but there were also lives created.

Re: How to Read the JFK Assassination Files

#72

Post by ionised »

irrational wrote: post #41
jwdunne wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This isn't a stretch to believe. I'm British too. We did something similar with India. We also allowed the Irish famine to happen too. History does say we were not a very kind empire - causing famine was not beyond us.

It wasn't just you. The other European colonization efforts likewise destroyed the lives of millions of people. I always get a chuckle when I see Europeans deriding the American Empire. Pot calling the kettle black much?

> I always get a chuckle when I see Europeans deriding the American Empire. Pot calling the kettle black much?

Firstly, Europe is not a country, it is a continent of countries and many did not partake in colonialism. Referring to Europe as one homogenous group is one reason Americans are derided, because it is ignorant.

Secondly, the US has an unhealthy superiority complex and considers itself exceptional among all other nations, despite being pretty much the same as any other Empire that has existed in the past.

The fact that (to an outside observer) they consider themselves immune to the weakness that destroyed previous superpowers is another reason they are derided, because those weaknesses are pretty apparent to anyone who isn't a flag-waving jingoist fanatic.

Thirdly, those countries that did engage on colonialism no longer do and the people living there today have basically nothing to do with it. They deride Americans because they are in fact engaging in colonial-type practices today, despite the lessons of the past.

Re: How to Read the JFK Assassination Files

#73

Post by ionised »

satya71 wrote: post #36
jwdunne wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This isn't a stretch to believe. I'm British too. We did something similar with India. We also allowed the Irish famine to happen too. History does say we were not a very kind empire - causing famine was not beyond us.

I was under the impression that British schools still teach that colonies actually benefited from British occupation. Looks like you went out of the way to learn the reality. Kudos!

A lot of British people (over 60% when polled I believe) are convinced that our Empire was a positive thing overall for the world. They tend to gloss over the uncomfortable parts.

I find it the most disgusting aspect of my country and its people. Nationalism at its worst.

Re: How to Read the JFK Assassination Files

#74

Post by ionised »

2845197541 wrote: post #18
wallace_f wrote: post #2

Hypothetically, if a group of people was willing to go to all the trouble of breaking laws to assassinate a President, what's forcing them to be honorable in producing and releasing information implicating themselves? It seems any excitement is contingent on believing not just in the conspiracy, but also in extreme incompetence, no?

Theories don't all implicate the US government. There are notions of Russian/Cuban involvement, for example.

Wasn't that the theory put forward by the US government? That Oswald was a communist agent?

Re: How to Read the JFK Assassination Files

#75

Post by retox »

clarkmoody wrote: post #9

One of the best Radiolab episodes I've heard was Mau Mau [1], which chronicled the uncovering of thousands of documents pertaining to the British Empire in Kenya. The extent to which history must be rewritten is stunning, only to be surpassed by the brutality of the English. Not that releasing the JFK assassination files would rewrite an extensive period of history, but the precedent remains: the grim truth of histor…

Top rated comment with nothing to do with the topic.

Thanks dang

Re: How to Read the JFK Assassination Files

#76

Post by saiya-jin »

rapsey wrote: post #50
satya71 wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I was under the impression that British schools still teach that colonies actually benefited from British occupation. Looks like you went out of the way to learn the reality. Kudos!

The world is not black and white. The british built infrastructure that is still being used today. Like their railway system. They also educated the populace.

exactly the justification I heard from my english friend some time ago. like some stupid infrastructure improvements for few justifies enslaving whole nation for generations, shooting a protesting thousand civilians on a whim and generally robbing the nation.

what's wrong with you?

Re: How to Read the JFK Assassination Files

#77

Post by celticninja »

rohit2412 wrote: post #58
rapsey wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The world is not black and white. The british built infrastructure that is still being used today. Like their railway system. They also educated the populace.

Railways to take away raw materials. Educated? India's literacy rate in 1947 was 12% Look at british literacy rate when they became a big empire. https://www1.umassd.edu/ir/resources/laboreducation/literacy... Even though it might be because of industrialization and not colonization, India could have industrialized faster without being a colonial subject.

Swings and roundabouts really, not everything they did was bad and not everything was good.

Re: How to Read the JFK Assassination Files

#78

Post by hutzlibu »

kbart wrote: post #52
irrational wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It wasn't just you. The other European colonization efforts likewise destroyed the lives of millions of people. I always get a chuckle when I see Europeans deriding the American Empire. Pot calling the kettle black much?

" I always get a chuckle when I see Europeans deriding the American Empire. Pot calling the kettle black much?" You can't put all European countries in a single pot here, only a small part of them were leading empires. Most of other countries/nations were incorporated in empires against their will and suffered greatly too.

Hm ... Britain, France, Germany, Spain, Portugal, Belgium, Dutch, Austria, Russia ... just come to my mind, when I think of european empires.

So what "most other nations" are left, except for some easterns states?

Re: How to Read the JFK Assassination Files

#79

Post by stuaxo »

satya71 wrote: post #36
jwdunne wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This isn't a stretch to believe. I'm British too. We did something similar with India. We also allowed the Irish famine to happen too. History does say we were not a very kind empire - causing famine was not beyond us.

I was under the impression that British schools still teach that colonies actually benefited from British occupation. Looks like you went out of the way to learn the reality. Kudos!

They certainly didn't where I went to school, in the 80s. It really wouldn't surprise me if this was the case in some schools now though.

We've basically semi-privatised a lot of our schools under the academy system - they are run like businesses and have a lot more freedom over the curriculum leading to all sorts of horror stories.

Post reply on HN