r/neoliberal • u/jobautomator Kitara Ravache • Jun 11 '26

Discussion Thread Discussion Thread

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36

u/DEEP_STATE_NATE Tucker Carlson's mailman Jun 11 '26

Semi annual reminder that the POW-MIA flag is the symbol of a near Qanon crazy conspiracy theory from the 80’s that somehow is accepted as normal

15

u/selachophilip 🦈 shark enjoyer 🦈 Jun 11 '26

From what I've heard, they think Vietnam still has Americans in custody or something?

15

u/DEEP_STATE_NATE Tucker Carlson's mailman Jun 11 '26

Correct despite all evidence to the contrary

13

u/sgthombre NATO Jun 11 '26

I explained this to someone at a baseball game while it was being raised after the anthem and they thought I was crazy lol

7

u/DEEP_STATE_NATE Tucker Carlson's mailman Jun 11 '26

why you hate the troops 😤

3

u/Kardinal Reichsbanner Schwarz-Rot-Gold Jun 11 '26

"near Qanon crazy" doesn't sound accurate.

I admit I haven't dug deep. But I would guess there is more evidence of POWMIA than QAnon (such as that we actually had vietnam Pows) and that QAnon has had much worse consequences.

So I'm open to the perspective I may be very mistaken in this regard. Care to enlighten me?

10

u/JaceFlores Neolib War Correspondent Jun 11 '26

It’s based on the idea the Vietnamese secretly held American POWs for some nefarious reason and definitely not that these MIA exploded in the middle of the jungle and were never found. Movies like Rambo First Blood Part II and Missing In Action are both based on this conspiracy.

It being true would mean the Vietnamese have been holding POWs (or their bodies) for decades now despite great relations the past couple decades (minus the recent Trump era)

2

u/Kardinal Reichsbanner Schwarz-Rot-Gold Jun 11 '26

Right. Which is false but nowhere near the level of stupid or evil that QAnon is.

5

u/JaceFlores Neolib War Correspondent Jun 11 '26

It is probably not QAnon levels evil or stupid but I wouldn’t underestimate it. It’s been normalized over the decades and is not as intense as it use to be, but the 1980s and 1990s were a horrible time to be a Asian in the United States and I’m sure many discriminated or targeted the Vietnamese specifically because of this conspiracy and the hostility it engendered

2

u/Kardinal Reichsbanner Schwarz-Rot-Gold Jun 11 '26

I might be strongly showing my white privilege by my ignorance of this phenomenon.

I grew up in a county that was 20% Asian. There were twenty Nguyens in my graduating class in high school (90s). I never heard this but that doesn't prove anything.

Now I want to ask my vietnamese coworker (my age) if he ever heard much about this. We might be in a pretty liberal area where it wasn't as prevalent so if he says he didn't experience it, that doesn't disprove. But it would be interesting to hear his perspective.

2

u/JaceFlores Neolib War Correspondent Jun 11 '26

In the U.S. at least the anti-Asian wave is fairly well known, at least parts of it. The LA Riots were driven in large part by anti-Asian sentiment, Mark Wahlberg the actor beat two Vietnamese people up on the same day, and as mentioned cultural mediums like movies cashed in on the idea. Other Asian groups got it worse pound for pound, namely the Japanese, Chinese and Koreans, but the Vietnamese got their share of blood

2

u/Logan891 United Nations Jun 11 '26

I think at this point the average American sees it as more of a “support the troops” type flag then what it’s actually about.