this post was submitted on 24 Mar 2024
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I like how some people are claiming americans are aware of this lol
If most americans were sufficiently aware and organizing against it accordingly (if they're not organizing, they're not aware enough) the imperialist gov would already have been toppled.
I'm American and am aware of this. Explain that!
Some zoomers and some millennials know it. Boomers don't know or actually think it's a good thing, with some rare exceptions.
Either way your take is extremely juvenile and simplistic. There's a lot more at play with revolutions than people knowing their country did something bad. It takes a lot more than that to get people off their ass, with very few exceptions historically, and even those exceptions are usually led by rich people looking out for themselves.
People need to have their own livelihoods threatened before they do anything. And there are always power systems in place that deliberately make it hard for people to organize.
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It's a not uncommon theme in anime: some large imperialist/war nation or one associated with fire or occupying Japan.
It's also worth noting that Japan had a history of imperialism and occupied a significant portion of the world around them not too long ago.
Japan has a pretty similar world view to us. I don't know a lot about Japanese culture, but I think a lot of its similarities contribute to anime's popularity in the US. We both have pretty rigid class structures, appreciate violence and capitalism and are enamored with technology.
I know that Avatar is American, perhaps I just wanted to air out a pet theory, however I think it's good for us to explore some of these assumptions with art and stories.
I think most of us aren't the baddies though.
To be fair Not all fire nation citizens are bad either
Usually when there's a imperialistic government it's very rarely every citizens fault
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Japan has a similar worldview to Americans because there's been multiple points in history where we brute forced our ways on them, conveniently at times where their old ways were losing faith.
Forcing Japans borders open while they remained isolated with outdated weaponry, and the end of WW2.
Capitalism was drilled into their culture until it's teeth sunk in and they had their economic boom.
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The irony of a diverse set of people from around the world talking about an American cartoon and in the same breath saying that American only knows war is not lost on me
The US cultural victory'd so hard that it's hard to recognize it sometimes
Avatar is American, but it had fantastic cultural consultants.
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I disagree. Most Americans know we are the fire nation/empire from Star Wars.
Well at least most people I know.
You forgot the important part
"And they're proud of it"
It's crazy how military families are so into being in the military, out how proud they are of being Marines, etc. They're literally doing the governments dirty work.
The question is: why would they be proud of being marines?
I mean, marines are the cannon fodder in every alien invasion movie, so, with that knowledge, that military branch is composed of useless moving targets.
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Surprised it's taken this long for people to grasp it.
We control the world's reserve currency, and hold the ability to fry any country's economy via economic sanctions whenever we want. We have the largest military in the world and that military is set up for the purpose of invasion. Yeah, China has a massive navy, but their ships are tiny, most likely for the purpose of defending their oceans and eventually taking Taiwan. We on the other hand have more carrier ships than anyone else, all for the purpose of being able to flex our might on anyone in the world.
People used to say that we attempted to police the world. I don't hear it nearly as much anymore, but it's accurate. We throw our weight around. We're the world's bully.
Yes, and to large extent NATO countries love to join in on the bullying. Britain and Australia jumped right in with the Iraq invasion for example.
Reminder that the empire from Star Wars is a stand-in for the US, while the rebels represent the Viet Cong.
US military playing 'The Imperial March' from Star Wars on a loudspeaker while heading to Gaza
Fox news calling the US an empire is not new. How old do you all think the moniker "Empire State" is? It's wild how it's in our language but we just don't think about it.
Don't you think there are better, more recent examples of this?
(Oh, I missed the instance I was on lol)
? The most recent one is the ongoing genocide in Palestine that the US and its colony is committing.
No, "israel" isn't a separate entity. It was formed as a general western settler colony in Palestine using british colonization tactics, and has been functioning as an american one.
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Anybody know where I can get the Mandarin dub of the original cartoon?
Big nation go ooga fuck around n find out; hamburgerland munition go boom
greatness and freedom™
I think the only war we tried to show our military might "greatness" was the Gulf War. It did establish America as a coalition force to the world.
I think the meme is accurate to people who once supported the war in Iraq. I don't think it reflects people that opposed it or, people who have since changed their views on it.
Basically every war we did during the Cold War was about "sharing" the greatness of capitalism over communism, too. We're still pretending our embargo against Cuba is just for the same dumb reason.
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