• spacesatan@leminal.space
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    9 hours ago

    Since like half of the comments are saying this was racist can anyone explain how?

    Genuinely what the fuck are you guys on about. I would understand if she was an ethnically Japanese leader/diplomat from Brazil or something but what. So obsessed with race that you forgot Japan is a country?

    It’s a stupid deflection but it’s not racist. The thought process is pretty obvious ‘Why didn’t you tell Japan before the attack’ -> ‘To keep the element of surprise’ uhh Japan + Surprise attack -> ‘Who know’s better than Japan about the value of stealth for a surprise attack, like pearl harbor’.

    He just doesn’t even have the capacity to coherently make the bad comparison. He also completely whiffed the cadence of the joke he was trying to make causing it to come out even weirder. It’s a brain in decline trying to fall in to patterns that it used to be able to somewhat execute on but is now just grasping at straws.

    *thing bad, so anything negative about thing must be correct and must not be questioned. I hate lemmy sometimes.

    • rabber@lemmy.ca
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      1 hour ago

      Yeah people make fun of ww2 germany all the time and it’s totally fine

    • poopkins@lemmy.world
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      9 hours ago

      You disagree with his comment being racist? Well since you’re not with us, you’re against us! There’s no middle ground, no nuance and no discourse in this community!

  • PhAzE@lemmy.ca
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    1 day ago

    Remember that the US nuked Japan in response. So I guess he’d be ok if Iran nuked the US in response?

    • vga@sopuli.xyz
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      1 day ago

      They did not nuke Japan as a response to Pearl Harbor. It was a response to Japan stupidly ignoring the Potsdam Declaration when Germany had already been defeated.

      • Mulligrubs@lemmy.world
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        21 hours ago

        How would you know what FDRs motivation was?

        “This is for Pearl Harbor, I’ve been waiting a long time for this”.

        It could have been his response to Pearl Harbor, so your correction is REJECTED

        • Bytemeister@lemmy.world
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          17 hours ago

          FDR was dead before the first nuclear test dentonation ever occured…

          So I can pretty conclusively say that dropping atomic bombs on Japan was not his response for pearl harbor.

          • vga@sopuli.xyz
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            10 hours ago

            What about zombie FDR. He probably made Trump attack Iran too

        • Policeshootout@lemmy.ca
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          18 hours ago

          I’m going to nitpick a bit but FDR was president and made the decision to go to war with Japan over pearl harbor. Truman made the final decision to drop the nuclear weapons on Japan.

          Roosevelt had likely a plan since the Manhattan project was under his presidency but Truman inherited that.

          I think it’s mostly accepted that the USA did not nuke Japan specifically because of pearl harbor but more to force a rapid surrender. Japan was being extremely stubborn and the estimated loss of US forces was very high to continue the war.

          I also think FDR and his admin were motivated to pursue the Manhattan project in the first place due to the intel that the Nazis were also researching nuclear weapons. Nothing to do with Japan.

          • olympicyes@lemmy.world
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            7 hours ago

            The exhibit at the Hiroshima Peace Museum argues that Truman dropped the bombs to end the war before the Soviets could invade and to avoid the partition of Japan.

        • nickiwest@lemmy.world
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          19 hours ago

          I’d just like to take a moment to say how glad I am that most US presidents didn’t have social media to tell us their thoughts 24/7.

          It’s very possible that some of them were just as dumb as their 21st-century counterparts, but at least we don’t have the tweets to prove it.

          • vga@sopuli.xyz
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            10 hours ago

            There have been plenty of dumb in the esteemed position of POTUS, but I would like to make the brave claim that Trump is on an entirely different level intellectually compared to most, if not all, previous presidents.

  • roofTophopper@lemmy.world
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    1 day ago

    Bro. The people coming to his defense is mind blowing. “That’s not what he meant!”, “He didn’t mean it in a racist way!” Shut the fuck up. He knows what he’s saying. He doesn’t care. The mental gymnastics his cult does for him is crazy. Just own up to it. He’s the racist pedophile Uncle who makes bad jokes at a family gathering that you wouldn’t leave your 10 year old with.

    It is what it is.

    • VitoRobles@lemmy.today
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      7 hours ago

      I’m noticing more discourse on Lemmy. I’m not saying I want Lemmy to be a hive mind. But there’s clearly more and more comments seemingly just giving really “wrong side of history” takes.

    • Oodlenoodlenoo@lemmy.zip
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      1 day ago

      It’s the same shit they repeated on the campaign trail god I got tired of being told “it’s all hyperbole” from people I know didn’t even know what the word meant

  • MuskyMelon@lemmy.world
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    1 day ago

    Time for Japan to dump their 1 trillion in US bonds. That’ll be worse than Pearl Harbor for them.

    • nickiwest@lemmy.world
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      18 hours ago

      His handlers would probably just claim that he meant “Why didn’t you warn POTUS?”

      But that doesn’t mean that every news outlet shouldn’t be pointing out that what he said, in addition to being extremely rude and undiplomatic, was utterly nonsensical.

      If you compare his performance now with videos of him from his first term, the decline is extremely obvious.

  • Spacehooks@reddthat.com
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    2 days ago

    Its crazy how well he represents the worst of america so well. Let me tell you folks no one does it better. The best people are all saying it. Top people in fact.

    • Mulligrubs@lemmy.world
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      21 hours ago

      This is what we deserve for decades of celebrity worship, it is strangely appropriate that he is our President

    • WIZARD POPE💫@lemmy.world
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      1 day ago

      They tell me, sir… They come to me and say, mr president you do it the best. Embodying the most tremendous and bad stuff about the US. Nobody does it like you sir…

    • MuskyMelon@lemmy.world
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      1 day ago

      Japan has been known to fire/jail their PMs so she might be pushed to do something like sell-off their US bonds.

    • FaygoRedPop@lemmy.world
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      2 days ago

      I hate Trump. Fuck Trump.

      However, out of all the disgusting and ghastly shit Trump has done and said, this one is not that bad. Poor taste, sure. Racist? Come on. Did you even read it? It was actually witty compared to his typical knuckle dragging bullshit.

      A reporter asked Trump why he didn’t tell U.S. allies, including European and Asian countries, such as Japan, that he was planning joint military strikes with Israel on Iran.

      “One thing, you don’t want to signal too much when we go in,” Trump said. “We went in very hard and we didn’t tell anyone about it because we wanted surprise. Who knows better about surprise than Japan? Why didn’t you tell me about Pearl Harbor?”

      This guy is a sex predator, pedo who is trying to be a dictator and is taking our democratic rights away. Let’s focus on that first. Don’t let this petty bullshit be the focus.

      I’ll take my downvotes now.

      • spacesatan@leminal.space
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        11 hours ago

        Like half way through trumps first term I thought people would stop taking everything he says extremely literally but here we still are. People are out here thinking he’s so far gone that he literally thinks he was president during pearl harbor and that his counterpart was running Japan. He has dementia but come on, you have to encounter reality deeper than just reading headlines and jerking yourself off with them.

        This is just how he talks and has talked. He just made a stupid comparison while trying to deflect a question.

      • Gsus4@mander.xyz
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        2 days ago

        I guess he could always do worse and joke about Hiroshima…but I wont give more ideas…

      • Bluescluestoothpaste@sh.itjust.works
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        2 days ago

        Yeah but this anecdote betrays his shitty personality. At the end of the day he is an unapologetic child rapist first and foremost, and it’s hard to imagine what could surpass that depravity, but these little vignettes help paint the picture who have trouble believing the commander-in-chief is also the chomo-in-chief.

      • shawn1122@sh.itjust.works
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        2 days ago

        I’m sorry but this is terrible diplomacy and diminishes America’s soft power on the world stage.

        Yes we’re moving into a multipolar world where soft power matters less but narrative building is always relevant and rubbing your allies the wrong way is just terrible strategy from any vantage point.

        Trump’s caused so much damage to Western credibity in so little time just by highlighting and widening fault lines at a records pace. This will create a vacuum that others will seek to occupy. This comment may not seem like much but it’s another little cut that will slowly bleed away America and the West’s standing in the world.

        • Instigate@aussie.zone
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          1 day ago

          Has he really damaged Western credibility, or is he only damaging the USA’s credibility? I’ve not seen reports that Trump’s behaviour is impacting how others feel about Canada, France or Germany. Trump’s behaviour really only reflects on the global opinions of the USA, as other countries and their populations are generally intelligent enough to understand that he is only elected by one country; only represents one country; and is only the product of the population of one country.

          • shawn1122@sh.itjust.works
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            1 day ago

            Many Western countries follow along and act as cheerleaders for US foreign policy. Seven countries (including Canada, France and Germany) have already signed on to help secure the Strait of Hormuz which is only blocked because of yet another US misadventure.

            A lot of these countries are small and in terms of global influence would be middle powers at best if not part of a Western bloc. Trump is slowly eroding the concept of a Western bloc so the idea of collective credibility or collective values is eroding with that.

            Most of the rest of the world sees Western countries as vassals of the US and the question now is will they be able to assert their independence on the world stage or will they simply go along with the US as they often do.

            • Instigate@aussie.zone
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              1 day ago

              Care to point to any reports that other nations are viewing those other Western countries poorly as a result of Trump’s actions?

              Securing the Strait of Hormuz seems to be self-interested actions by those nations; an attempt to reduce the impact of higher oil prices on their own economies. It’s a far cry from the Western world following the USA into Iraq with boots on the ground 20-odd years ago.

              Trump is eroding the idea of a USA-led Western bloc. Canada’s PM Carney is leading the charge to create new middle-power blocs to establish credibility outside of the USA’s influence. I’m yet to see reports that those measures are being viewed in a negative fashion by the rest of the world, but I’m happy to be corrected.

              • shawn1122@sh.itjust.works
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                1 day ago

                It’s a matter of perspective. The Global South has always been acutely aware of Western hypocrisy and double standards, often being the victim of its perfidiousness. It’s just that the mask seems to be coming off now so the internal contradictions are much more apparent. People like Alexander Stubbe (Finland’s president) and Mark Carney understand this. Much of what Mark Carney said in his speech at Davos are perspectives that have been shared by prominent figures in the global south for some time now. He deserves credit for sharing it in a way that is palatable to Westerners. It remains to be seen if, in the abscense of the US as a central stabilizing force, an ex-US Western bloc would be able to maintain its global credibility and influence.

                As the Global South (which makes up 80% of humanity) gains a more prominent voice on the global stage, certain internal contradictions will continue to move into the spotlight and Western credibility will be at risk of further erosion. The question is will the West be able to adapt in real time - acknowledging that the so called ‘rules based international order’ was never really a fair playing field but a tool to maintain Western hegemony - and take a leadership role in shaping the new world order.

                Stubbe explains this well from a Western perspective in his book The Triangle of Power Rebalancing the New World Order (the triangle referring to the Global West, East and South).

    • UnspecificGravity@piefed.social
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      2 days ago

      Coming up with the analogy is just his regular poor taste and racism. Not realizing that it paints the US as the equivalent to the Japanese in WWII is his dementia.

    • kautau@lemmy.world
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      2 days ago

      Not to worry. He’s going to be SLAMMED for this. Perhaps even someone will BLAST him. And since journalism is literal Pokémon moves now he might even be CONFUSED or HYPNOTIZED

    • mkwt@lemmy.world
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      2 days ago

      Or even just 9 months ago, when he told the leader of Germany that D-Day “was not a pleasant day for you.”