[identical castles and ships are facing eachother, one side with EU colors, the other side with USA colors]

[EU side]

  • OUR BLESSED EUROPEAN UNION - Our enlightened union
  • Our glorious lobbying democracy
  • Our noble asymmetric trade deals
  • Our heroic Frontex

[USA side] THEIR BACKWARDS UNITED STATES

  • Their barbarous federation
  • Their wicked technofeudal oligarchy
  • Their primitive imperialism
  • Their brutish ICE

https://thebad.website/comic/good_imperialism_and_bad_imperialism

https://bsky.app/profile/thebad.website

  • breakingcups@lemmy.worldEnglish
    1513·
    23 hours ago

    So, we’re doing the false equivalence “Both sides bad” posting on this level too, now? It was bad enough when it was dissuading American leftists from voting by both-sidesing GOP and the democrats, now we’re supposed to believe Frontex is as bad as ICE and EU trade policy is as moronic as Trump’s baseless tariff farts?

    Note, this is not an invitation for you to tell the class the bad things Forex has done. I’m well aware. They’re not patrolling European streets rounding up people who don’t “look right”, without identifying themselves, in flagrant violation of the law, and without ensuring their kidnappees detainees receive due process.

    • Not_mikey@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
      41·
      13 hours ago

      They’re not patrolling European streets rounding up people who don’t “look right”, without identifying themselves, in flagrant violation of the law, and without ensuring their kidnappees detainees receive due process.

      Not yet… The far right is rising fast in the EU. They’re maybe one election cycle behind the US before Frontex is doing the same.

    • Bad@jlai.luOPEnglish
      18·
      22 hours ago

      This meme is proving itself true. People romanticize the EU too much and/or don’t know about what’s going on in here.

      I spend a lot of my free time helping migrants in my home country (France), they do get rounded up and sent in camps called “Centre de Rétention Administrative”, some really really really bad places. Our police has been controlling IDs of parents outside schools, doing surprise ID checks at workplaces, etc. for a very long time. What ICE is currently doing isn’t new to us. For example, earlier this year, we had a very public and pretty big ICE-like operation, and believe it or not, the general public cheered.

      Mate you tell me to not talk about Frontex, well too bad, I will. The official death count is now at 66 519 as of 2025. That’s just the documented death count, imagine what the real one is. We’re not even counting Libyan torture camps and other similar lovely places paid for by our taxes. Some of my friends lost family members because of Frontex, I won’t shut up about it just to please you. ICE is bad but it’s not an exclusively american evil, it’s a standard and expected incarnation of capitalist imperialism.

      Yes, I’m happy to be living in the EU rather than in the USA. I do think the USA is a much worse place right now. But the difference is much easier to argue about when you’re not on the wrong side of those massively murderous policies.

      TL;DR: We have our own camps. Greece has one that’s reminiscent of your Alligator Alcatraz. Chill tf out.

      • алсааас [she/they]@lemmy.dbzer0.comMEnglish
        6·
        22 hours ago

        I can’t even think of a cynical support remark for this, your comment took me on an emotional rollercoaster first of despair and emptiness that then gradually turned into a cold, burning hatred…

        It’s an accurate write-up that takes you back to the bleak, cold truth about capitalism:

        The Deserter: The mask of humanity fall from capital. It has to take it off to kill everyone — everything you love; all the hope and tenderness in the world. It has to take it off, just for one second. To do the deed. And then you see it. As it strangles and beats your friends to death… the sweetest, most courageous people in the world… (he’s silent for a second) You see the fear and power in its eyes. Then you know.
        You: What?
        The Deserter: That the bourgeois are not human.

        (If it’s inappropriate to quote Disco Elysium here, please tell me)

        • алсааас [she/they]@lemmy.dbzer0.comMEnglish
          6·
          21 hours ago

          But please don’t take this as a pretence for inaction and hopelessness!

          What does the entire history of socialism and of all modern revolutions show us? The first spark of class struggle in Europe, the revolt of the silk weavers in Lyon in 1831, ended with a heavy defeat; the Chartist movement in Britain ended in defeat; the uprising of the Parisian proletariat in the June days of 1848 ended with a crushing defeat; and the Paris commune ended with a terrible defeat. The whole road of socialism – so far as revolutionary struggles are concerned – is paved with nothing but thunderous defeats. Yet, at the same time, history marches inexorably, step by step, toward final victory! Where would we be today without those “defeats,” from which we draw historical experience, understanding, power and idealism? Today, as we advance into the final battle of the proletarian class war, we stand on the foundation of those very defeats; and we can['t] do without any of them, because each one contributes to our strength and understanding.

          The revolutionary struggle is the very antithesis of the parliamentary struggle. In Germany, for four decades we had nothing but parliamentary “victories.” We practically walked from victory to victory. And when faced with the great historical test of August 4, 1914, the result was the devastating political and moral defeat, an outrageous debacle and rot without parallel. To date, revolutions have given us nothing but defeats. Yet these unavoidable defeats pile up guarantee upon guarantee of the future final victory.

          (It’s a short pamphlet and a very worthy and educating read!)

    • Lvxferre [he/him]@mander.xyzEnglish
      9·
      20 hours ago

      Frame it as a false dichotomy instead of false equivalence. Then two things become obvious:

      1. Cat shit is not elephant shit.
      2. Cat shit is still shit.

      You’re concerned people might fall for #1. That’s fair; but OP is telling people to not fall for #2.

      In other words, OP is a reminder that we shouldn’t shield the EU and its actions against criticism, just because Canadian Mexico does it worse. They might be different on level, but some of the former are problematic for the exact same reasons and causes as the ones of the later. And yet people do it all the time, trying to “sell” the EU as if that entity was the good guys, and USA as the villain - no you muppets, it’s dark grey vs. black, both are villains.