this post was submitted on 11 Jan 2026

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MAGA to every use of state sponsored force. (lemmy.world)

submitted 2 weeks ago by FauxPseudo@lemmy.world to c/politicalmemes@lemmy.world

26 comments fedilink hide all child comments

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[–] zeppo@lemmy.world 57 points 2 weeks ago

Except Ashley Babbitt, who is a hero for breaking into a secured area of the US Capitol during a riot and getting shot.

[–] DarkCloud@lemmy.world 23 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) (2 children)

The Tianamen Square protest was for free speech, democracy, and to prevent China opening up to global capitalism... Which students and union leaders believed would lead to stark inequalities and wealth/class gaps.

Here's a photo of factory worker Unionist bikers on their way to the protest.

https://www.reddit.com/r/pics/comments/nudvsy/a_gang_of_striking_factory_workers_on_their_way/

[–] Taldan@lemmy.world 10 points 2 weeks ago

Which students and union leaders believed would lead to stark inequalities and wealth/class gaps.

Which, to be fair, they were right about. They just underestimated the level of prosperity it would bring China overall

[–] FauxPseudo@lemmy.world -3 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Which part of your comment is about this protester complying?

[–] DarkCloud@lemmy.world 6 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) (1 children)

Sounds like you want me to just comply with your parameters.

[–] FauxPseudo@lemmy.world 3 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Just trying to figure out why you decided moving the goal post was the right call instead of addressing the actual subject matter.

[–] Zombie@feddit.uk 6 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

They didn't move the goal post. You used one event to compare another. It is perfectly legitimate therefore to talk about the original event. You may wish the most recent US event to be the topic of discussion, which is fine, but that doesn't mean it's illegitimate for the original Chinese event to also be discussed.

If you didn't want Tiannamen Square to be discussed you shouldn't have posted an image of Tiannamen Square.

[–] FauxPseudo@lemmy.world -2 points 2 weeks ago

I'm fine with the topic of Tiannamen Square but that looked like a copypasta that didn't address the compliance topic. They had something they needed to say and dropped it in with no attempt actually tie it to this post instead of TS in general.

[–] bdonvr@thelemmy.club 20 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)

Except in the US today the tank would've killed him

[–] DupaCycki@lemmy.world 5 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago)

Would have killed him whether he complied or not

[–] JasonDJ@lemmy.zip 2 points 2 weeks ago

He's holding two packages that could contained IEDs! Run him over before he tries to blow us up!

[–] Formfiller@lemmy.world 3 points 2 weeks ago

Complied….shot anyway

[+] plyth@feddit.org -25 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) (4 children)

Check the Wiki page. A Japanese journalist argues that it was staged because he wears an unusual white shirt and it happened in front of the hotel for foreigners, to have pictures without violence about the event.

Edit: Read NeilBrü@lemmy.world’s comment!

Edit: That sounds reasonable to me:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tank_Man

Staged event theory

Harunobu Kato, a Japanese NHK journalist who covered the Tiananmen Square protests on-site, argues that the incident involving the Tank Man was staged by the Chinese Communist Party.

According to Kato, the Tank Man wore a conspicuously bright white shirt, unusual for a student protester who had supposedly been sleeping in the square for days, and nearby military personnel were also seen wearing white shirts. Despite the square allegedly being fully secured by the military a day earlier, the man walked onto the avenue and blocked a column of tanks for more than three minutes. Nearly twenty tanks lined up behind the lead tank did not attempt to bypass him, and the soldiers made no effort to remove or restrain him, instead allowing him to stand there unimpeded.

In addition, despite the heavy security surrounding the square, the Chinese Communist Party later announced that the Tank Man had “escaped,” an explanation Kato describes as suspicious.

Kato also notes that many foreign journalists, including himself, were staying at the Beijing Hotel, whose windows provided a perfect vantage point from which the famous scene could be recorded. Furthermore, when General Secretary Jiang Zemin was interviewed by CNN in 2000, he stated that the tanks were “humane because they did not kill the young man and stopped.”

At the time, Western media had reported that tanks had run over and killed many students at Tiananmen Square, thus creating a need for the Chinese authorities to counter this perception.

Read NeilBrü@lemmy.world's comment!

[–] RidderSport@feddit.org 24 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

If that were the case, chinese authorities would deminish the event by always citing this picture and saying it was staged. They aren't - they say it never happened - which is well documented and simply false. So whenever an authotarian regime doesn't pick up on something that is useful to them - it is untrue and would be easily disproven were there the need for it.

[+] plyth@feddit.org -12 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Unless the Chinese are patient and strategic. They need to sway the masses when the opinions of the people count. The bad reputation was no obstacle to people buying from China.

The image is still bad because it is linked to whatever happened on the square. If they point out that it is false, people will ask what happened. If they say nothing, people remember this image.

[–] A_norny_mousse@feddit.org 11 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) (1 children)

[+] plyth@feddit.org -7 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)

It's the opposite. The negativity of the picture comes from wild associations.

Tanks breaking for a civilian and soldiers not reacting with violence is in itself good.

Tankman was a huge propaganda win for the west. However upholding it in times of wikipedia is silly if the tanks were leaving. The man is not trying to prevent students from being crushed. What's the message now?

To clarify, I don't think that killing the protesters on the square was acceptable.

[–] Taldan@lemmy.world 7 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

To clarify, I don’t think that killing the protesters on the square was acceptable.

Then why are you committing so hard to this silly conspiracy? The point of the conspiracy is definitely to make China look better. It's one of the weakest conspiracies I've ever seen. Why push it?

[–] plyth@feddit.org -2 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago)

The spreading of the picture makes China look better. I originally thought the man was trying to protect students, showing heartless soldiers. But he is talking to leaving soldiers.

If the picture is Chinese propaganda and staged, it stresses that the cruelty on the square was so big that this distraction was necessary.

If it is authentic then what do we see? Soldiers who respect the life of a protester.

Edit: Read NeilBrü@lemmy.world's comment above.

[–] bbboi@feddit.uk 1 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) (1 children)

You don't condone the murder but you condone the cover up of the murder?

Edit: dumb

[–] plyth@feddit.org 0 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

To clarify, I don’t think that killing the protesters on the square was acceptable.

I don't condone the murder.

[–] bbboi@feddit.uk 3 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Yeah I swapped condone and condemn because I'm dumb

[–] plyth@feddit.org 0 points 2 weeks ago

The journalist argues that the picture is a cover up. I don't condone it, I point it out.

Read NeilBrü@lemmy.world’s comment!

[–] Taldan@lemmy.world 9 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago)

That's such an obviously bad take

The guy was carrying groceries. He obviously wasn't one of the student protestors, which completely invalidates the point about his white shirt

If they wanted journalists to witness it, why did they search all of them and confiscate all pictures and footage of the incident? One of the few surviving photos were famously taken and smuggled out by ~~Jeff Widener~~ Charlie Cole. He hid his negatives in the tank of his toilet, which prevented the CCP finding them. Stuart Franklin hid his photo in a box of tea to smuggle it out

The explanation that Tank Man escaped is suspicious, because it's widely agreed the CCP made him disappear

Edit: Clarified information about photo, and a bit about Stuart

Edit 2: It was Charlie Cole that kept his photo by hiding it in the toilet. Jeff Widener smuggled his out by giving it to a hotel guest to bring to the diplomatic compound

[–] NeilBru@lemmy.world 9 points 2 weeks ago

Fuck this drivel.

Everyone (at least in the West) seems to know about tank man, but there's another story that's not as widely known and I never understood why. It shines a whole new light on this and explains why the Chinese government is so heavy handed when it comes to this subject. It was more than just another autocratic crackdown on protestors, which, while terrible, are par for the course.

A good chunk of military units sent in to squash the protestors refused to carry out their orders, refused to brutalize and kill their countrymen. Some actively joined in on the protests, then units sent in to put a stop it joined in as well. This terrified the Chinese leadership so they sent in the 27th army group, largely comprised of illiterate peasant farmers with no connection to Beijing or its people, headed by a politically reliable officer. The 27th army group then proceeded to massacre everyone, not 'just' students and protestors, but their own comrades in arms, other PLA soldiers.

Read the British embassy report and tell me it doesn't completely change your perspective. The CCP wants everyone to think this was just another protest, no big deal. It wasn't, it was the time they almost lost control, and they know it. It's why they're so fearful.

https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/UK_cable_on_Tiananmen_Square_Massacre

[–] prettybunnys@piefed.social 4 points 2 weeks ago

yikes