The fact that many phrases aren’t meant literally, especially as their use increases in frequency, is a frustrating fact. I wouldn’t call people using a phrase with a generally understood meaning is inherently disingenuous though.
The trick is, it’s not a commonly used phrase. The chunk of the English speaking world that hears ‘Death to America’ and thinks ‘As peaceful as possible an end to the malign actions of the american government and it’s supporters’ is tiny. The vast majority of people just hear it as hate, and even a fair sized chunk of the people who are shouting it are shouting it in the literal, hateful sense of ‘kill the Americans.’ You can’t tell which is which without a conversation, and shouting ‘death to’ is not conducive to letting people have the conversation that would let them tell the difference between a person who wants fewer murders and one who wants more.
Yeah, it’s sort of a slogan to some people, but it’s a shit slogan. “Free Palestine!” means ‘free Palestine.’ "End apartheid!’ means ‘end apartheid.’ “Death to america!” is ambiguous, at best, and only serves the interest of the American propaganda wing by letting them claim everyone is out to kill Americans because they are American, making their actions into justified self-defense. Don’t help the propagandists. Don’t support the narrative. Supporting their narrative is supporting them. I don’t think that’s what you want.
Again, insisting that people are calling for genocide especially after clarifying the meaning of the phrase is just bad faith at this point. You can argue it’s unclear or bad optics, but it’s not calling for genocide. It’s calling for the end to the systems that produce mass death and exploitation.
The fact that many phrases aren’t meant literally, especially as their use increases in frequency, is a frustrating fact. I wouldn’t call people using a phrase with a generally understood meaning is inherently disingenuous though.
The trick is, it’s not a commonly used phrase. The chunk of the English speaking world that hears ‘Death to America’ and thinks ‘As peaceful as possible an end to the malign actions of the american government and it’s supporters’ is tiny. The vast majority of people just hear it as hate, and even a fair sized chunk of the people who are shouting it are shouting it in the literal, hateful sense of ‘kill the Americans.’ You can’t tell which is which without a conversation, and shouting ‘death to’ is not conducive to letting people have the conversation that would let them tell the difference between a person who wants fewer murders and one who wants more.
Yeah, it’s sort of a slogan to some people, but it’s a shit slogan. “Free Palestine!” means ‘free Palestine.’ "End apartheid!’ means ‘end apartheid.’ “Death to america!” is ambiguous, at best, and only serves the interest of the American propaganda wing by letting them claim everyone is out to kill Americans because they are American, making their actions into justified self-defense. Don’t help the propagandists. Don’t support the narrative. Supporting their narrative is supporting them. I don’t think that’s what you want.
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DEATH TO THE USA
DEATH TO ISRAEL
DEATH TO THE UK
DEATH TO FRANCE
DEATH TO GERMANY
DEATH TO THE NETHERLANDS
DEATH TO ITALY
DEATH TO ALL IMPERIALIST NATIONS
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Again, insisting that people are calling for genocide especially after clarifying the meaning of the phrase is just bad faith at this point. You can argue it’s unclear or bad optics, but it’s not calling for genocide. It’s calling for the end to the systems that produce mass death and exploitation.
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Who cares if you’re down with the phrasing? You’ve made it clear that you’re openly acting in bad faith.
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Doubling down on the permissibility of nationalism for a country that’s committed atrocity after atrocity is a shitty thing to do point blank period
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“How dare you condemn the genocidal imperialist US! Don’t you know that I, personally, benefit from it?”
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