- Operation Condor: right wing dictators in South America repressing leftists with the support of Americans and possibly the French
- Gladio: Post WWII Allied Forces and then NATO intelligence operations to delegitimize and destabilize leftist groups in Eastern Europe from end of WWII through the 1990s
- Ranch Hand: US led effort to destroy the foliage and agricultural land in Vietnam to deprive the Viet Cong of food and places to stage attacks
- PBSuccess: CIA led coup d’état in Guatemala at the request of the United Fruit Company (now Chiquita)
- Phoenix Program: CIA led effort to infiltrate the Viet Cong
post
How...How have I gone so long without hearing about any of this at all? Like I always hear we are evil, but the specifics are chalked up to 'cold war hysteria/propaganda'
Consider me spooked, and many thanks for the awareness boost OP!
US history programs are 95% propaganda so it’s not surprising.
Wait, really?
Unfortunately this meme is only part of it. Things like covering up Unit 731 didn't even get mentioned.
Well where is the all of it, and why is it all so tough to find for willing individuals? I seek to be more aware I promise
The malevolence of US foriegn policy is woven like a tapestry throughout modern history.
I'm not sure that anyone has been mean-spirited enough to write a single source detailing all of it in one place, but perhaps someone else can suggest one.
If you want to know how it gets hidden from you, Manufacturing Consent is old but a good place to start.
I haven't heard it myself but the Behind the Bastards podcast about Henry Kissinger is often recommended and probably covers a significant amount of US involvement in foriegn genocides.
USian here, and totally agree. The willful ignorance is stunning to behold.
But help me with my potential ignorance here - is this meme also suggesting that ordinary citizens of other developed countries know about these things? Do high school history and social studies classes have a day or a week that discuss US imperialism & shady dealings of recent decades?
My impression has always been that people in other countries read about this awful shit in the same places I do online, and that the differences in mainstream knowledge are about much more basic stuff like coal and climate change being bad while healthcare is good.
Do high school history and social studies classes have a day or a week that discuss US imperialism & shady dealings of recent decades?
No, that's the entire curriculum. Kinda impossible not to properly discuss a country's hystory without mentioning the US when the US has been fucking with it
Which country?
In Brazil there have been several pretty important meddlings, but at most the schools say that there where "several parties involved"
Like our dictatorship, where I'd only learnt "other countries incentivized the coup"
I've heard from many south american comrades, that their school systems have memory-holed this entire historical period of anti-communist massacres. Only now with the pink tide in some of these countries, is there any chance of liberals getting educated about their past.
Oh yeah, 100%
No, that's the entire curriculum [...]
I was asking about what country has US meddling as a considerable fraction of the curriculum
How they will teach about the military dictatorship era of my country without mentioning Operation Condor?
A lot of this is really old so it's the kind of thing my parents casually mentioned when I was growing up.
But then we learn the details at University, either in history classes or more broadly in any kind of discussion of colonialism, neoimperialism, etc.
Austrian here - 1st question: no idea. 2nd question: no Same here, US imperialism was never discussed as such in my history lessons during the late 80ies and 90ies. Would read about these atrocities only mich later, maybe in more "official" sources only if you're a student of history or politics and such.
Well, you guys should have come up with a better demonym that didn't belong to the entire continent(s)
Bah! Use a particular state if you know it. Otherwise American serves as well as European.
People who aren't USAians usually don't know wtf a Vermont is.
I prefer usonian, but ppl seem to hate that even worse. Much shorter than saying "US citizen", and also not going along with the US cooption of the term america.
Unitedestadian has long been the term used to describe USA citizens by the Spanish-speaking population of the Americas. Not their fault the country picked a length intro title and a vague region as their country name. Imagine if the UK was the UKE, United Kingdom of Europe, and called themselves Europeans by default. The other 90% would be pissed and make their own names, no?
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Usonia
I wish this had stuck.
That coulda worked. If only it didn't sound like an Ace Combat antagonist country. Osea, Usea, Yuktobonia, Belka, Aurelia, Usonia, see?
In truth, I'm just a Frank Lloyd Wright fanboy.
Frank Lloyd Wright designed awesome buildings, but his "usonian" urban planning ideas (i.e. Broadacre City) were fucking catastrophic.
I haven't been able to find the reference again, but I read something that said he actually worked for the FHA and wrote some of their design guidelines -- in other words, that he was directly responsible for the proliferation of suburban sprawl.
The hell is a USian?
Citizen of the United States
There are two United States.
Also, Dude, American is not the preferred nomenclature. USian, please.
Sounds like a term created by those people who get weirdly upset at Americans being called Americans because "America is 2 continents so technically everyone from North and South America is American"
Can't blame them who the fuck would want to get associated with USians
Shouldn't the term be USAian?
Would have issues when expanded, but someone above mentioned that Mexico is United Mexican States
Yea, because it is weird, you dolt. It’s literally just because it’s easier to say that it stuck, but it’s flatly useless. The country’s name is stupid, hard to deal with, and pretty much only the reality on the surface…much like the country itself.
I just say “US citizens”. It would probably be more accurate to say “citizens of the USA” buy my fucking god they aren’t worth that kind of effort.
Instead of 'american' or USian or others, why not Yankee? It has historical significance to the united states, originated a a pejorative, and the south hates it. Perfect
I’m literally a yankee, as in a lifelong resident of the area north of the Mason-Dixon line and I’ve visited several historical civil war sites over the decades because they’re among the inexpensive points of interest within several hours of here.
I think you’re both kind of right. Everything the previous comment said is correct IMO about it starting with a negative connotation and people in the south probably hating it. But modern online usage feels pretty respectful too. Even in a professional setting, if I were on a typical call and somebody from Europe referred to somebody thousands of km (or miles, lol) away on the other side of the US as one of the yankees/yanks, I don’t think it would even register as something I’d remember. (well NOW it will because of this comment, thanks lemmy! :D )
Plus more recently, those of us who do wild shit like pay attention to the outside world don’t exactly take offense to people insulting this fucked up country/government/culture/etc. We’re right here agreeing with you. So something like “yankee” doesn’t stand out much when you read somebody across the world write “fuck all USians” and you think to yourself “…I can see that. That’s fair.”
I've also heard that there's no true Yankee. Kinda like there's no true Scottsman. For someone in Mexico, all Yankees are from USandA and that's all they care about. For someone in Louisiana (myself) all Yankees are from north of the Mason-Dixon. For someone in Ohio, all Yankees are from the northeast somewhere. For someone in Jersey, all Yankees are just a bit further northeast. Maybe try Boston, they'll say. If you ask someone in Boston where to find a Yankee, they'll direct you to some street corner or a pub.
In Australia we call them "seppos". Short for "septics", which comes via rhyming slang from "yank" -> "tank" -> "septic tank".
Speaking as a...USian?...many of us know about these already and are ashamed of them.
I can assure you that you are giving the general public far too much credit unfortunately.
Remember, the #1 search on google on Election Day was “did Joe Biden drop out”
Remember, the #1 search on google on Election Day was “did Joe Biden drop out”
Jesus fucking christ. I have not read that before, but it is the most believable thing I’ve seen all week.
I’ll look it up tomorrow. I am always curious, but I cannot handle having this fact confirmed to me right now, lol.
I'm going to bet that if I did one of those street interview things with the question: "Do you know what operation condor is? Do you know what the phoenix program is?" I'd get maybe 1 usonian out of 300 that would have even heard of them.
Rather than 'american' or others, Yankee? It has historical s
Ranch hand? I can only think of one thing that could be for and it's not food. lmao

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