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How to Read the JFK Assassination Files

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Re: How to Read the JFK Assassination Files

#92
post #79
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!

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.

Horror story linky?

Re: How to Read the JFK Assassination Files

#93

I saw a documentary which analyzed footage found around 2000 iirc (discovered old footage) of the murder. The conclusion was that due to the wound exit, the shooter could never have been Oswald. It convinced me. Who does the American public currently believe to be the shooter? Is there consensus for some theory?

When I was young and loved the movie JFK I thought it was a huge conspiracy. Then I went to Daley plaza, its so much smaller than it seems on tv, that window is really close. I think any reasonably trained shooter could have got him.

Re: How to Read the JFK Assassination Files

#94
post #50
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.

That's a poor excuse all the colonizators and invaders always use - "We buit something there! We brought good and civilization to the wild bloodthirsty pagans! White man's burden anyone?"

Not really. Locals would build it as well, just maybe later. Technology spreads disregarding the governments or countries.

Re: How to Read the JFK Assassination Files

#95
post #94
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.

That's a poor excuse all the colonizators and invaders always use - "We buit something there! We brought good and civilization to the wild bloodthirsty pagans! White man's burden anyone?" Not really. Locals would build it as well, just maybe later. Technology spreads disregarding the governments or countries.

I said the world is not black and white. I did not say colonization was good or better than if it did not happen. The end situation was not universally bad. Some benefits remained. Anyone saying the countries would be in a better state now without colonization is speaking entirely out of their ass. Just like anyone saying the countries are better off as a result of it.

Re: How to Read the JFK Assassination Files

#96
post #72

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? 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 o…

>Thirdly, those countries that did engage on colonialism no >longer do and the people living there today have basically >nothing to do with it.

Right having, companys to do it for you, with support of bribed locals- moral advances- they are basically more abstraction layers to the horrors.

Re: How to Read the JFK Assassination Files

#97

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…

On a similar note, most Iranians blame the British, who were occupying the country at the time, for the Persian famine of 1917–1919. It is by some accounts estimated that up to half the population died in the famine, while the British were using the agricultural output for their war efforts and enacting policies that made the situation worse. Its portrayal in Iran is like a more aggravated version of the Irish famine…

I've been on a WWI kick lately, and I can absolutely believe that. I'd love to see a good written account.

WWI was a weird point in history when we could build immovable objects, but not yet create unstoppable forces. So the great powers built two massive immovable objects, and simply ground them against each other, day after day, because they didn't really know what else to do. Lubricating those grinding surfaces with men and materiel became an existential requirement for those powers, and the British drained the colonies, and themselves, of wealth in order to survive. Incidentally, lots of that wealth ended up in the US, which had a nice line in war profiteering going on for a lot of WWI.

I feel for everyone who died because of that stupid bloody war, but I'm not sure I can blame the British: once they'd got themselves into that situation they didn't have much choice. I don't even blame the Americans for profiting - all the other great powers were busy tearing each other apart because of their 19th century mindsets, it would be kinda stupid for the Americans, with their thoroughly 20th century mindset, not to just sit back and watch.

Re: How to Read the JFK Assassination Files

#98
post #73
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!

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.

Are you glossing over the uncomfortable parts of the empire that had nothing to do with the British? The world wasn't great before the Empire came (a lot of it was under some other empire anyway) - The Brits did record a lot of their atrocities though, meaning there is an informational bias.

Re: How to Read the JFK Assassination Files

#99
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!

It depends from case to case, you can't generalise. Ask people in Hong Kong if they prefer to be part of China instead of a British colony for example.

Well, that's not really a comparison at all. "Would you like to be a colony of evil empire A or evil empire B?"

Re: How to Read the JFK Assassination Files

#100

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…

It's lucky the American Revolution happened in 1776 before the British had all that industrial might to suppress rebellions that they used in the Boer war and their other brutal colonial repressions.

Not so lucky for Black slaves in America: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slavery_Abolition_Act_1833

Instead they would need to wait until 1865, 33-23 years later..

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