this post was submitted on 24 Aug 2023
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Tiananmen Square Protests Wiki
Read about the death toll in and around Tiananmen itself. Around 300 people from both sides died in Beijing, but there is little evidence to support that thousands of protesters were killed in Tiananmen. There have been articles from western sources from reporters who admit that they weren't actually present when they wrote about the incident.
I'm not a tankie, but half-reading and twisting what they say to ridicule them only makes you look bad. The situation was actually much more complex than you want to believe.
It's not about the numbers, it's about the denial and/or the justifying of it. Maybe the official government numbers are correct, but still doesn't justify what they did.
Schools in the US has been teaching me about the fucked up shit the colonizers did. No history teacher that I had ever tried downplay slavery or tried to justify it. (This is not in a red state, so I can't say what red states are like)
By contrast, my older brother who went to school in China until what's equivalent to US's 7th grade was never taught about the events in Tiananmen. It's been erased from the history books.
I wouldn't say the US is the most benevolent country ever (far from it, in fact), but modern US doesn't hide it's history for the most part, China's government hiding it's history isn't really making them seem any more trustworthy.
I'm not a capitalist btw, I'm a left-wing anarchist. Both the US and China aren't anywhere close to being desirable countries to live in.
Red states like Florida are trying to make slavery out to be something that was beneficial to black people. So we aren't far off from China. I grew up in a purple state (WI) and my history classes were all over the place. Didn't help matters that I was tossed in the remedial classes cause of my ADHD, which just dumbed things down a lot instead of doing anything helpful for me.
We still have the first amendment. Kids can still search for information online, even in red states. But once the first amendment is gone, that will be the death of the republic.
I grew up in a red state. Looking back now that i've read more and had opportunities to learn from others of different backgrounds, I can definitively say they omitted events and details to present a more white-washed (pun intended) version of history. I wouldn't say my teachers tried to justify slavery, but there was an outsized emphasis placed on the "states' rights" explanation of the civil war, and they were maybe a bit too quick to point out when former slaves went to work for their former masters (as if this was some evidence that they "were worse off" after emancipation, as opposed to being a reaction to poorly implemented, and/or straight-up racist, reconstruction policies).
I'm glad your teachers didn't shy away from the seedy underbelly of history. But I do want to point out that I didn't even know how myopic my history education was until I got to college (not even from the classes, although those helped, but simply having a more diverse set of friends to talk with). I still learn new things that open my eyes to a whole other topic that I didn't even know was a thing. Don't assume, because you don't know of any gaps in your education, that you don't have any. (I'm sure you already know that, but I'm up on my soap box right now, and it seemed a nice conclusion)
I agree with this, I just think that we shouldn't call out lies by using more lies.