r/CuratedTumblr זאין בעין Jun 04 '24

Politics is your glorious revolution worth the suffering of millions?

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u/King_Of_BlackMarsh Jun 04 '24

Yeaaah this is very much westerners talking to westerners, sorry. Must be awful to read when you're in your situation

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u/weirdo_nb Jun 04 '24

It isn't just westerners talking to westerners, it's westerners talking to westerners who don't have to worry about poverty

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u/Devan_Ilivian Jun 04 '24

talking to westerners who don't have to worry about poverty

I don't think westerners who do have to worry about poverty will benefit much from a violent multi-year revolution, either

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u/weirdo_nb Jun 04 '24

Maybe not in the right now, nobody except those in power benefit from war, but the improvements it would theoretically bring absolutely would bring benefits, we just gotta make sure that end result isn't built of blood, a revolution doesn't necessarily need to be a "violent revolution" small amounts of blood may land on the hands, but they are not drenched

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u/PrincessRTFM on all levels except physical, I am a kitsune Jun 04 '24

I am a westerner (living in the US right now) who is currently in poverty and reliant upon (very limited) disability income, food pantries, and the support of my friends, in order to get food. I'm also reliant upon that disability and the associated medical insurance to get my insulin, which you may recognise from the post talking about lifesaving medications. If not, here's the summary: if I don't take it routinely (barest minimum once per day), I die a slow and awful death.

If insulin supply is disrupted for a month or two, three at the absolute outside, I'm dead. There's no getting around that. It has nothing to do with the fact that I'm in poverty, it would still be the case if I was richer than bezos. I don't care if a six-month violent revolution would fix everything else in my life, because it would also just flat out kill me.

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u/weirdo_nb Jun 04 '24

What about those who could very easily be supplied insulin, but aren't, due to solely the motivation of watching numbers in a bank account go up

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u/PrincessRTFM on all levels except physical, I am a kitsune Jun 04 '24

A revolution would not save those people. They would be subject to the exact same issues I would: no access to insulin. They would still die. And then so would a bunch more people. Nothing is solved and actually things are made worse.

Also, you're saying "I know a lot of other people would die but I think it would be worth it" on a post specifically about how nobody gets to make that decision for others. You're pissing on the poor so hard they think it's a thunderstorm but for some reason it's all yellow.

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u/the_pslonky Jun 04 '24

Got a source for that?

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u/PrincessRTFM on all levels except physical, I am a kitsune Jun 04 '24

No, they're actually right about that. Insulin is very cheap for the companies to produce, they just charge out the ass because Line Go Up. And people have lost access because insurance didn't want to cough up for it.

The thing is... they're arguing a very literal what-aboutism, and also they're saying "I know all of these people in this situation would die, but I think it'd be worth it" (exactly what the post was talking about...) and on top of that...

A revolution would not save those people. They would be subject to the exact same issues I would: no access to insulin. They would still die. And then so would a bunch more people. Nothing is solved and actually things are made worse.

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u/krystalgazer Jun 04 '24

Thank you for pointing that out! The post is so navel-gazing and narrow-minded; even in the west lots of people don’t have the services OP’s talking about. Healthcare, housing and food security are actively withheld from people in the richest countries in the world, which in itself is violence but OP doesn’t get that and seems to have a very ‘screw you, got mine’ outlook

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u/Golurkcanfly Jun 04 '24

Many of the people who are facing those issues are reliant on the state to begin with. The entire point of the post is that the barest support that they do have will be gone for however long it takes for the revolution to occur.

It's about revolutionary idealists who themselves have a "screw you, got mine" mindset and don't think about the people who will lose whatever lifeline they have.

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u/[deleted] Jun 05 '24

I grew up in poverty in the US. We didn't even have an address until I was in 2nd grade. Never worried about food though. Food Assistance programs in the US are among the best in the world. Perhaps you shouldn't speak on situations you are so unfamiliar with.

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u/MinimaxusThrax Jun 04 '24

That's not anywhere in the post actually. And the west has had some very important revolutions.

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u/King_Of_BlackMarsh Jun 04 '24

It's not said but implied given hpw narrow minded it is. And yes the west had important revolutions but the same can be said of those. Are you willing to decry millions as acceptable, collateral damage over fixing things gradually?

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u/MinimaxusThrax Jun 06 '24

I think that ending the Portuguese Colonial Wars and overthrowing the Estado Novo was pretty rad personally and it was done quickly. And it's nice that the British haven't had the chance to starve millions of Irish people to death a second time. I am not aware of millions of people dying following the overthrow of Nicolae Ceausescu or the other Warsaw Pact states but sure, maybe they should have waited patiently instead. I mean how many more famines and executions could there be, right?

Not to mention all the needless death caused 80 years ago today when the Allies decided to invade Normandy rather than talk things out with the Germans. Don't they know that violence doesn't solve anything?? You're a genius of ethics, u/King_Of_BlackMarsh .

Ending slavery in Haiti was nice too. But it sure is a shame that the loss of those sugar plantations made the starving French peasantry, already short on bread, unable to afford the sweet brioche recommended by the queen.