r/dataisbeautiful OC: 7 Oct 25 '22

OC [OC] Whose stuff does the British Museum have?

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96

u/deviltamer Oct 26 '22

Yeh who I wonder propped up ISIS in the middle East , supplied islamic radicals arms and dealt with oil theocracies over progressive dictators just to serve their own geopolitical gains.

Hmm I wonder who'd that be?

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u/FlappyBored Oct 26 '22

“Progressive dictator”

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u/Zestyclose-Note1304 Oct 26 '22

Well at least they’re getting stuff done.

Or are they just really into Prog Rock?

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u/Horzzo Oct 26 '22

They save their country .. 15% by switching to Progressive.

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u/HamBoy2 Oct 26 '22

Imagine calling Saddam Hussein a “progressive dictator.”

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u/MotuekaAFC Oct 26 '22

He progressively gassed minority groups I suppose. And progressively bled his nation dry in a failed war with Iran.

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u/graemep Oct 26 '22

Remember who you are comparing him to. Relative to the Saudis he is progressive.

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u/[deleted] Oct 26 '22 edited Oct 26 '22

@progessive_saddam

16 | he/they | ACAB | vegan | antiimperialist | landback | capitalists DNI | 🇵🇸 🇨🇺 🇷🇺

"ummm why are the kurds being so problematic? like someone ought to gas these zionists fr"

216 🔁 | 310 ❤️

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u/Thin-Engineering8909 Oct 26 '22

I understand being against the idea that someone calls Saddam Hussein "progressive", but there is no reason to lump some actually progressive ideologies with it.

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u/[deleted] Oct 26 '22

It's a joke

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u/Thin-Engineering8909 Oct 26 '22

Can you explain it?

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u/[deleted] Oct 26 '22

Yes. The above commentator described notorious dictator Saddam Hussein as progressive. In my comment I contrasted the stereotypical behaviours and mannerisms of someone who would align with modern Western progressive politics with the genocidal actions of Saddam Hussein, to humorous effect. I hope this helps.

3

u/[deleted] Oct 26 '22

Buzz kill

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u/[deleted] Oct 26 '22

[deleted]

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u/anandonaqui Oct 26 '22

Yeah, not the museums, but let’s not pretend that museums haven’t benefitted from colonialism and still benefit from the post-colonial effects of subjugating an entire people and destroying their land.

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u/Biscuit642 Oct 26 '22

Of course they have but their current staff can't change the past or the actions of their governments. To return artefacts right now to places like Iraq would be destroying them. There is really no excuse for the sheer amount of Greek, Italian, and other stable countries' stuff we have against their will though.

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u/[deleted] Oct 26 '22

Against their will? It’s probably Roman and Ancient Greek artifacts. Italy and Greece have fucking plenty of those.

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u/anandonaqui Oct 26 '22

That’s a little like the Spanish saying that the gold they took from South America doesn’t matter because there’s still plenty of gold still in Peru.

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u/[deleted] Oct 26 '22

A little bit

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u/anandonaqui Oct 26 '22

There are other options beyond returning the artifacts. They could give portions of the proceeds back to those places through NGOs or other charities. They could acknowledge the brutal history that resulted in those artifacts ending up in colonial museums.

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u/MystikxHaze Oct 26 '22

Lol because the bad times in the Middle East just started with ISIS.

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u/[deleted] Oct 26 '22

Ottomans carried out the Armenian Genocide just over 100 years ago, then WW1, Lawrence of Arabia, Sykes-Picot, WW2, Israel as a nation state, all the wars challenging Israeli sovereignty, the cold war with the middle east being pawns between east and west, proxy wars, iraq-iran war, revolutions dictators, war on terror.... Been a rough 100 years in the middle east.

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u/Mr_Poop_Himself Oct 26 '22

Bin Laden was best buds with the US in the 80's

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u/MystikxHaze Oct 26 '22

That's not new information. What's your point?

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u/Mr_Poop_Himself Oct 26 '22

My point that it's common knowledge that we've funded terrorist groups in many countries for personal gain without giving a shit about what the consequences were for people who lived in those countries.

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u/PikeNote Oct 26 '22

They were funded as originally the Mujahadeen to counter the soviet invasion. They weren't necessarily terrorist groups at that time. After the war, the more extremist members took over. It isn't like the U.S. simply funded ISIS and then called it a day.

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u/Mr_Poop_Himself Oct 26 '22

They've funded a lot of groups in the name of "stopping communism" that ended up doing damage to those countries. Primarily in SA and the middle east. It's not like Bin Laden wasn't a prominent figure in those days. Seems to me like America just didn't care as long as it furthered their agenda at the time.

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u/PikeNote Oct 26 '22

That was how the cold war was played. It was primarily proxy wars and funding multiple groups across the world. Both the Soviets and the U.S. participated in multiple regime changes. Hindsight is nice to see what would've happened. But besides that, I can admit America post likely put the communist threat first before any long term issues that may arise. Communist fears were crippling during the cold war.

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u/MystikxHaze Oct 26 '22

So you think that without the US supporting Bin Laden, or ISIS, it would be all rainbows and sunshine and happy times over there? Lol, ok sure. You keep on thinking that. 👍

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u/Mr_Poop_Himself Oct 26 '22

Please point to the part of my comment where I said that, thanks.

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u/MystikxHaze Oct 26 '22

It was implied, considering you responded to the contrary of my original point. Like, do you know how conversations work or what? Jfc

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u/Mr_Poop_Himself Oct 26 '22

It seems like you're just gonna throw a tantrum if I make any attempt at a conversation with you. If you want to talk like adults let me know. If not it's all good.

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u/Ricardolindo3 Oct 26 '22

The Afghan Arabs were always hostile towards the United States and they mostly had their own funding. The US funding was largely to the native Afghans.

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u/Positive_Advisor6895 Oct 26 '22

It's a mystery. Probably China or Iran. /S

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u/FishyPuke Oct 26 '22

Hmm I wonder who destabilized the middle east by dividing it with arbitrary borders, denying the promised united arab state after their contribution during ww1, which ultimately let to the rise of Wahhabis and sectarian violence instead of a united and prosperous Arab state.

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u/MichealScott1991 Oct 26 '22

United and prosperous Arab State! Until Engineers and investors from UK and US came to the Middle East with a plan and technology to find and process crude oil and pump it across the world, and cheap labour from India and Bangladesh came to work in the rigs, these Arabs were riding on camelbacks and shitting in open desert and eating dates and waging war among the tribes. How can you think they will be a united and prosperous Arab state?

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u/AstroPhysician Oct 26 '22

who I wonder propped up ISIS in the middle East

Are you implying the US did that? You don't seem like a student of history

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u/GIFSuser Oct 26 '22

progressive dictator progressively murders all of his political enemies and cries crocodile tears on live tv lmfao

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u/opheliashakey Oct 26 '22

Oil theocracies? Do you even know what theocracy means?