#polpot

On the 50th anniversary of Khmer Rouge’s deadly Year Zero campaign in Cambodia, @cbcnews takes a look at the impact of Pol Pot’s rule and talks to survivors about their memories.
https://flip.it/17Ma-e
#Cambodia #Asia #YearZero #PolPot #Genocide

Since January last year, a team led by a lawyer has traveled around Cambodia teaching schoolchildren about Pol Pot's brutal regime, sharing 20 years' worth of evidence and testimony from victims. https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2025/04/16/asia-pacific/crime-legal/cambodia-khmer-rouge-tribunal/?utm_medium=Social&utm_source=mastodon #asiapacific #crimelegal #cambodia #southeastasia #khmerrouge #polpot #genocide

Elizabeth Becker… outlines the story of #Cambodia under the #KhmerRouge. Jeremy Goldkorn discuss with Elizabeth Becker some of the ways that Washington DC under #Musk & #Trump resemble Phnom Penh under #PolPot. Podcast https://open.substack.com/pub/goldkorn/p/pol-pots-cambodia-musk-and-trumps?r=7p2cc&utm_medium=ios

@OrntLaOkro

Sorry, aber meine Geduld gegenüber auch linkem #Relativismus ist nicht unbegrenzt. Von #Stalin über #Mao und #Polpot bis zur deutschen #RAF zieht sich eine Blutspur auch linksdualistischer Gewalt und oft auch #Antisemitismus durch die Geschichte bis ins Heute. Aus dem fossilistisch-linksdualistischen #Venezuela ist ein Viertel der Bevölkerung geflohen! „Links“ ist nicht einfach „gut“, sondern benötigt ebenfalls ehrliche Selbstreflexion! https://scilogs.spektrum.de/natur-des-glaubens/fossiler-ressourcenfluch-verschwoerungsmythen-auch-venezuela-bestaetigt-die-these/

Today in Labor History January 7, 1979: Vietnamese troops conquered Phnom Penh, Cambodia and drove out Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge. 18,000-25,000 Vietnamese died in their war with Cambodia. Well over 50,000 Cambodians died in the conflict. 200,000 Cambodian civilians also died, not counting those who starved to death. However, under Pol Pot’s genocidal rule, 1.5-2 million civilians were killed or died of starvation. This amounts to 25% of the country’s entire population at the time.

#workingclass #LaborHistory #cambodia #vietnam #polpot #khmerrouge #genocide

If you haven't seen the #JohnPilger #documentaries about #Cambodia & how the #USgovernment is why #PolPot #KhmerRouge gained & retained power - please watch them.
It's important #geopolitical #history.
It was one of the worst #genocide atrocities in modern human history. Cambodians were #dehumanized like Vietnamese were. Both sovereign nations suffered many years of embargoes by US & their Western allies, along with Cold War pals back then - China. US was still angry & bitter about losing their imperialist invasion in Vietnam & they opted to punish Cambodia, Vietnam & Laos - they are really sore losers.

As you watch these #documentary films - please try to pay attention to how US officials haven't really changed their scripts in decades. They use similar lies/political deflective/avoidance verbal dances to this day. In 2024, they're talking about Arabs like they used to talk about Cambodians, Vietnamese & Laotians - like none of us are human beings. It's just collateral damage when a million or more POC folks, far from Western worlds, are mass murdered for political power games.

Year Zero:
https://watchdocumentaries.com/year-zero-the-silent-death-of-cambodia

Year One:
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=SkUc5MrZ1JU

Return to Year Zero:
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=VjZBWtjKzVk

#AsianMastodon #Cambodians #WarSurvivorsForPeace #WarCrimes #FuckTheUSA #USAterrorism #USATerrorists #TootSEA #NeverForget #Genocide #SouthEastAsia #geopolitics #USALies #warmongers #WarCriminals #AmericanAbuses #NeverTrustUSA #USAWarCrimes #SponsoredByUSA #USABullies #Decolonization #educational #USAFundsGenocide

@fixiemama

#Israel #angers me.

They are acting as badly as the #Nazis in WWII. Or #PolPot or #Pinochet. It’s not a #war, it’s a #killing.

Today in Labor History April 15, 1998: Cambodian dictator Pol Pot died on this day. Under his rule, the Khmer Rouge committed genocide, killing 2-3 million Cambodians, or 25% of the population. https://youtu.be/U4reO3LabZY

#workingclass #LaborHistory #genocide #cambodia #polpot #killingfields #KhmerRouge

@DrALJONES @Miro_Collas

#WarInGaza #Palestine #History

(2/n)

...IMHO, can only be compared to very few people in recent history. Among them are only #JosephStalin, #MaoZedong, and possibly #KingLeopoldII, as well as #Cambodia's #PolPot.

Many years ago, the late German Chancellor Dr. #HelmutKohl hat a PR disaster when he compared a #Sowjet minister to the infamous #Nazi Propaganda Minister, #JosrphGoebbels.

Thus, #Lula's #Hitler comparison is very much out of...

https://allthatsinteresting.com/who-killed-the-most-people-in-history

Utopie und Schreckensherrschaft: Utopie und Schreckensherrschaft Die Roten Khmer: Linksradikale an der Macht https://jungefreiheit.de/wissen/geschichte/2023/die-roten-khmer/ #Kommunismus #Geschichte #Kambodscha #Revolution #RoteKhmer #PolPot

@DemocracyMattersALot No matter how much people want to ridicule him, we need to take him seriously. Ridicule and revenge brutality never solved anything. Imagine how many lives could’ve been saved if we had intervened with planned common compassionate sense and our CIA Nixon n Kissinger et al had acted differently n stopped #PolPot before he murdered 1/4 of his people 1.5- 4 m. #KillingFields

@dans_root One who supports communist dictatorships just because they aren't capitalist. This often entails denying the oppression and genocide in the #USSR and #PRC. The hardcore tankies also support #NorthKorea and deny anything bad ever happens there. The truly loonie ones think #PolPot was a goodie.

(1/2)

@prefec2
Das schöne an Diktatur ist, dass mancher, der ohnehin Schwierigkeiten damit hätte,das Denken ganz einstellen kann.
Der "große Diktator" sagt dir dann schon, was "richtig ist!
Die Geschichte zeigt wie's geht - #hitler #Polpot #Kim #Putin u.v.a.m.

Nate Thayer, a fearless reporter
He scored an interview with Pol Pot
He chased scoops worldwide
But his life has been tied
His legacy will never be forgot

#natethayer #polpot #journalism #legacy #limerick #poetry

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/01/06/world/asia/nate-thayer-dead.html

@brentendo

#polpot

Nate Thayer, journalist who interviewed Khmer Rouge leader Pol Pot, dies at 62 : NPR

https://www.npr.org/2023/01/06/1147424198/nate-thayer-rebel-reporter-who-interviewed-pol-pot-in-the-cambodian-jungle-has-d #NateThayer #Cambodia #PolPot

Discussions of genocide inevitably evolve into discussions about the nature of human evil. I find that usually most people deflect to trying to figure out what unique genetics or environmental influence turns someone into a sociopathic, genocidal monster. And that's always barking up the wrong tree.

Any attempt to explain genocide in terms of a particular culture doesn't explain why genocides have happened all over the world. Different cultures, different time periods, different history, different environments. The killing hasn't stopped since World War II.

And it was going on before that as well. The Armenian genocide took place in 1915.

At least a dozen countries during the past 50 years have gone through spasms of slaughter sometimes running into the millions. The #Holocaust and the Chinese cultural revolution were particularly egregious examples, but it didn't end there. It's never ended.

The common thread that underpins all genocide is power--without checks and balances.

There's a very strong impulse to "other" the perpetrators of genocide. To pretend that they are somehow categorically different from the rest of us.

THAT IS FALSE!!!

There's a quote from Alexander #Solzhenitsyn, paraphrasing: "The line between good and evil cuts through everyone's heart, and who is willing to destroy a piece of their own heart?"

The same evil lives in every one of us. That's the sad fact of human existence. We may think of ourselves as being so much better than a #Hitler or a #PolPot, but we're not.

The vast majority of us don't have the power to do great evil, and we are also bound by the law. So we've never really faced that temptation, to snuff out political enemies or people we just don't like.

Hypothetical thought experiment:

Imagine that all of those rules of civilization are gone, and you have the power over life and death. Wouldn't you be tempted to eliminate the people who you believed were causing the destruction of society and the Earth? Like #capitalist scumbags, fossil fuel profiteers, propagandists, and MAGAts destroying the fabric of our society?

Don't answer that. We know the answer. The temptation would be overwhelming.

Saving billions of lives by eliminating a few evil characters who are wrecking the climate, seems like a no-brainer. The destroyers of the Earth have names and addresses. But it never stops there.

If you have the power to "eliminate evil" by scapegoating and then taking lives, a lot of people would do it. And then the killing inevitably grows in scope.

The genocide-enabling belief is that for whatever reason, *killing is justified.* Once you have that justification, all bets are off, and blood flows like a river.

That's why we need ironclad rule of law and accountability, worldwide. Without it, nothing stops mass murder.

#genocide #ruleoflaw #civilization