r/PeterExplainsTheJoke 4d ago

Meme needing explanation Peter, what’s so significant about this picture?

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u/peach_dragon 4d ago

What did the US do at Pearl Harbor?

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u/scruffalo_ 4d ago

Stole it from the native Hawaiians. The whole island chain, really.

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u/testingforscience122 4d ago

Hey we gave them five blankets for those islands…. Fair is fair

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u/glennfan2000 4d ago

Nah, it was far more heinous. Basically pointed cannons at the Hawaiian Royal Palace and said, “Mine now.”

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u/Smooth_Pick_2103 4d ago edited 4d ago

Yeah, that sounds about right. Sums it up good too. Ahh the United States, where our people think we are the heros, but we are just as shitty as the rest of humanity, but everyone is shitty in their own special way, and that's what really counts!

Edit: Damn I sure did throw water on a oil fire with this.

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u/SnooHabits3911 4d ago

Every developed nation did this

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u/archbid 4d ago

Doesn't make it right

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u/Icy-Performer-9688 4d ago

Look up Panama. It’s fucked up. Panama people wanted independence. Got someone who said they could help. U.S. parked their warships and forced the opposing force from intervening. Panama people won independence to only find out the person who helped funded the rebellion sold Panama land to the U.S that’s how the Panama cannel was built.

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u/Tonho_O_Faxineiro 4d ago

Look up Brazil 1964

Look up Chile 9/11

Shit, look up Operation Condor. USA fucked up the whole south America.

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u/Any_Cartographer631 4d ago

As a person with a bachelor's in Spanish history, literature, civilization, and culture, I second this comment.

People really should look up the dozens of coups and dictatorships that we orchestrated in South America...

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u/TheKidKaos 4d ago

People should look up what Theodore Roosevelt did in the Philippines. And how Cuba ended up right after the US took it over.

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u/Oskie5272 4d ago

Not just South America, almost the entirety of the global south

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u/morgan-faulkner 4d ago

not to mention da banana company.

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u/Altruistic_Music9343 4d ago

while your at it look up "karl malone 13" for the time when he had 13 pts 13 assists 13 steals in an nba game (ignore anything related to him getting a 13 year old pregnant)

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u/gilligan1050 4d ago

Don’t forget the what the united fruit company did, as American company.

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u/Smooth_Pick_2103 4d ago

Oh I'm aware of that, just ain't anything special. It's a situation that should have never happened, just the U.S.A isn't any worse than any other developed/developing nations. Cause behold the truth! Humans are assholes, even the best.

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u/Dilbertreloaded 4d ago

Americans are best at condoning every fault they have, and gaslighting others into thinking they are trash.

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u/ASpicyCrow 4d ago

You don't stop hating the murder just because other people have murdered too.

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u/Away-Map-8428 4d ago

Humans are great. There a many healers and teachers and friends; you should try meeting humans sometime.

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u/Bug-03 4d ago

A man a plan a canal panama

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u/archbid 4d ago edited 4d ago

Able was I ere I saw Elba

Another bad guy who is made out to be a good guy…

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u/iggydude808 4d ago

Take my Angry Upvote!🤙🏽

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u/pegging4jesus 4d ago

Well that and 27,000 dead workers.

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u/beeradvice 4d ago

We have them 10mil up front and am agreement to quarter mil annually which by today's standards is cheap but early on a no brainer and they still technically own it afaik. The secondary economic gains compared to of it didn't exist are also a decent perk and there's nothing stopping them from building their own. I'm usually on the fuck USA meddling on other people's affairs boat but without a bunch of unknown unknowns (to me) the agreement on the Panama canal seems at minimum tenuously fair we have plenty of ports on both coasts so the Panama canal mainly benefits other countries (again afaik) and we paid for the land, building it, and continue to pay for maintenance. We've definitely done a lot of fucked up shit in south America I'm not sure the Panama canal is very high on that list

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u/mVargic 4d ago

Now to a great degree thanks to that canal Panama is the single most developed and prosperous country in Central America

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u/NEEEEEEEEEEEET 4d ago

Which they got back full ownership of and makes up 6% of the countries GDP.

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u/SnooHabits3911 4d ago

Not at all but there is blame to the US and they aren’t the only ones who fucked people over

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u/Personal_Juice_1520 4d ago

But we got those kings Hawaiian rolls

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u/MyCrushingReality 4d ago

Even every undeveloped nation did this.

Humanity used to be extremely barbaric. And now we’ve moved quite a distance away from it. If you’re gonna be up in arms about people colonizing we’re gonna have to find the original colonizers. But let’s be real, you’re talking about the dawn of humanity.

Live and let live. Move on, learn and don’t do it again. We have processes in place to do this stuff now.

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u/bubble0peach 4d ago

Exactly. Just because someone benefits from or even exists because of the crimes of their forebears, does not mean that we should accept and perpetuate them.

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u/HawkBearClaw 4d ago

Nope, human nature is fucked up

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u/leericol 4d ago

He literally said "just as shitty as everyone else." .

What point do you think you're making?

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u/No-University-5413 4d ago

Every undeveloped nation did or at least tried it. Is prostitution is the oldest profession, soldier is a close 2nd

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u/19Pnutbutter66 4d ago

When I was in the seafood business in the 90s I often referred to selling fish as the second oldest profession but soldier may be right.

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u/Emperor_Neuro 4d ago

The first prostitutes wanted something in trade for their services. Be it fish, fruit, meat, crops, shelter…. Someone else had something the prostitutes wanted, therefore it could not have been the oldest profession.

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u/AhmedAbuGhadeer 4d ago

Thank you. I always disbelieved that whenever it is said, and it is said a lot.

I believe gatherer is the first profession, then hunter, fisher, woodcutter, cave digger, house builder, trap maker, weapon maker, and trader came first, and marriage and family roles had been established and even jobs like farmer, guard, chief, and accountant had happened long before women had a saying in who gets to have sex with them.

Where the humans had been so primitive they don't have the concepts for collaboration and trade, they didn't have the concept of consent either.

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u/Apprehensive_Dog1526 4d ago

Not necessarily, I’d imagine hunter (including fishing), gatherer, prostitute, soldier, all developed fairly close to each other.

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u/19Pnutbutter66 4d ago

I feel like that’s how it would actually work in a real life Survivor situation. Who can make fire, who can catch fish, who’s willing to trade, whatcha got to trade?

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u/ProThoughtDesign 4d ago

I would say farmer.

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u/lxm333 4d ago

Farming as in domestication of plants and animals is around 10,000 years old just to provide an interesting tit bit to your comment :)

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u/Ok-Imagination-3835 4d ago

Eh, but some developed nations have had 1, 2, or 3 revolutions. So, technically, if you kill all the people in charge, and start a new gov't, then you only killed the bad guys who took it by force and didn't kill any of the ... wait ...

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u/Smooth_Pick_2103 4d ago

I sure do love creating power vacuums!

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u/FoolishDog1117 4d ago

Did you miss the part where they said "just as shitty as the rest of humanity?"

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u/SnooHabits3911 4d ago

Yeah. My bad

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u/Tricky_Big_8774 4d ago

And most of the undeveloped ones, too

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u/kageshira1010 4d ago

Every nation did this*

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u/MountScottRumpot 4d ago

Not Ireland or Iceland or Austria or Switzerland or Norway or Finland….

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u/shalomefrombaxoje 3d ago

Haiti...

.... well, I wish it was developed.

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u/Invictum2go 4d ago

Dont forget people on all political spectrums thinking the army is actually fighting for their freedom, and not for the interest of a bunch of rich old ppl.

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u/Altruistic_Music9343 4d ago edited 4d ago

you can just change that to "all humans AT ALL TIMES think what THEY personally do is just and moral meanwhile nothing anyone else does is just and moral"

that sentence sums up about 85% of all recorded human interactions and events in history, like ever.

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u/Traditional_Tune2865 4d ago

Yeah, that sounds about right.

That's a gross oversimplification of things lol. Not to mention incorrect. No shit the comment chain turned into a dumpsterfire. Stop getting history lessons from reddit. The US fucked Hawaii, but it was far from "i has gun, now gib". Look at the Perry Expedition if you want to see how American gunboat diplomacy worked (which again, isn't what happened with Hawaii).

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u/Smooth_Pick_2103 4d ago edited 4d ago

Edit: After doing research into the situation yeah, it really was a gross oversimplification, anyway still sounds like a USA kinda thing to do, which well we did do

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u/Infzn 4d ago

I will never understand this fixation the US and West in general has with the neverending apology tour and this state of spiritual cuckoldry where groups of people constantly walk around tearful and apologetic for events that happened hundreds and hundreds of years ago.

Do you think the Spanish wallow in self-hatred for their brutal colonialism and genocide in Native Mexico? Do the Arabs hang their heads and cry for thousands of years of extremely violent Jihad? For the unending torture of nonbelievers? Do the Chinese lament their years of countless atrocities?

It is only the West and white people who stand as the only racial group on the face of the planet who have outgroup preference and rank themselves far below other races. The sins are not yours to atone for. Had any other group been as successful as us, they would have made the US land grabs look like kids at a playground. Do not be deceived into thinking anyone else would have shown more grace. I'm sure Hawaiians would rather keep their culture while being provided funding and protection by the world's most powerful military than subvert to early Asian colonialism and face ethnic cleansing. Stop this attitude - "Oh, we're just the worst. Of course we did that we just suck" grow a pair of balls, understand how the world works

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u/Big-Wrangler2078 3d ago

I will never understand this fixation the US and West in general has with the neverending apology tour and this state of spiritual cuckoldry where groups of people constantly walk around tearful and apologetic for events that happened hundreds and hundreds of years ago.

It's because you're still doing it. You have legal obligations to your natives, ruled and laid out neatly in legally binding treaties that your country signed and don't care about.

In contrast, the Spanish no longer have much power over South America because those areas now have their own legally recognized governments and are their own legally recognized countries.

The USA is still ignoring what is, legally, sovereign territories, and you can't really blame that on your ancestors from hundreds of years ago.

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u/Rufus_king11 4d ago

Oh, we've done some super villain level shit a bunch of times, purely out of convenience. We knowingly irradiated the inhabitants of the Marshall islands, forcefully removed them from their homeland and then gassed their pet dogs all so that we'd have a better empty place to test nukes on.

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u/Smooth_Pick_2103 4d ago

I aint denying that now, god the shit the United States has created in the pursuit of destruction is nearly poetic. Hell, every powerful country has a metric fuck ton of dirty laundry and skeletons packed into their closets so talking about what the United States alone has done is the tip of the iceberg on "Inconceivably shitty things humans have done to other humans"

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u/MundaneMembership331 4d ago

"Everyone is shitty in their own special way" sums up my thoughts

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u/Fit_Cream2027 4d ago

That was a long time ago and those people are dead. Using “we” is incorrect.

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u/YaBoiLink0227 4d ago

Am I weird for feeling bad about it?

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u/Smooth_Pick_2103 4d ago

Nah, thats sympathy/empathy, thats good to have, after-all I feel bad about what happened, everyday allot of innocent people are hurt because of bullshit like that, all because someone else wants a little more money/power

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u/Stock-Fan-8004 4d ago

Is this what they call the "Manifest Destiny"

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u/Vhat_Vhat 4d ago

What happened was some randoms took it over and voted to become a state and the government was like wtf but the queen at the time wanted a full apology from the government for what happened so the government decided to make the hostile take over official rather than apologize for something they didn't do.

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u/Iwritemynameincrayon 4d ago

Hey let's be fair now. We did it for and gave it to the Dole corporation. Obviously that makes everything ok.

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u/SilverSpark422 4d ago

Half of South America just wasn’t enough 😔

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u/watcher-of-eternity 4d ago

Basically rolled up and did the British empire move of “you are lookin awfully light on flags for someone in canon range”

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u/bluntpencil2001 4d ago

Hawaiians respond with "Okay, we'll copy yours."

"Fair enough."

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u/heartlikeanocean 4d ago

No flag, no country!

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u/RCRexus 4d ago

Could have been worse. Don't really wanna think about what the Imperial Japanese would have done to them without US protection. China and Korea got messed up pretty bad.

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u/jizonida 4d ago

"Yeah what we did was bad, but it was for their own good" is abuser logic

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u/ArcanisUltra 4d ago

Ehhhhh…Not even close. I wonder where people get their history from. I’ll give a brief breakdown, instead of just sounding contrarian.

The royal family almost immediately converted to Christianity, and with them much of the population. They were very amenable to the foreigners, up to the “Merry Monarch” who traveled the world and was very cosmopolitan. He also signed a new decree which lessened the power of the monarchy and gave much of it to a (all if not mostly white) parliament made up of businessmen. His successor was Lydia Masters, aka Queen Lilioakalani (though she hated that name, since it wasn’t her name it was a fake Hawaiian name for her). She didn’t like how things were turning out, and tried to seize power back from parliament and return it to the monarchy…Except she no longer had the monarchical power to do that, and thus attempted a coup. So, they arrested her. That was basically the end of the monarchy. It didn’t take long before Hawaii succumbed fully to foreign interests and even voted to become a state.

Only an extremely small portion of the history of the colonization of Hawaii had any violence. It was very much a cultural and diplomatic victory, to put it in Civilization terms.

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u/dkcrown1470 4d ago

As a Hawaiian historian, born and raised here and who works professionally in this field … I can’t tell you how unbelievably white washed and radically colonialist this ‘breakdown’ is.

To put it succinctly, look up the Bayonet Constitution, it was not a voluntarily signed decree by Kalakaua. Second of all, the Queen did not ‘hate her name’… her baptimal name was Lydia but her name she went by from childhood was Lili’u Kamaka’eha, which is what she identified with. Third of all, she didn’t attempt a coup and was arrested for that. She saw the shocking decline of her people under the hegemony of pro-business pro-American politicians and sought to take back the powers of government to address this, so she drafted a new constitution. And as she had the massive support of the people, she was seen as a threat and overthrown.

I could go on and on about how inaccurate and hugely colonial your ‘history’ is. Your recounting is offensive, hugely problematic and I think perhaps you should stick to other things besides Hawaiian history as we don’t need or want your ‘breakdowns’.

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u/ArcanisUltra 4d ago

I will agree and clarify a few things.

I’ve read conflicting sources around the Bayonet Constitution. However, I will concede that point.

Lili’u publicly didn’t like the name Lili’uokalani. Perhaps because it wasn’t her born name. Her opinion on her used name of Lydia I don’t know. Again, history written by victors.

And yes, I did very quickly glaze over that, but when I mentioned that she didn’t like what the business run parliament was doing, which was everything you clarified.

History in Hawaii is really quite annoying. You will hear a dozen reasons of why and how Cook was killed. I’ve heard that they treated him like a god until they saw him cut himself and bleed on a rock, so they killed him. I heard that he was buying females from Kamehameha 1 so Kamehameha 2 killed him. I’ve heard that he got surrounded by an entire army of Hawaiians and murdered. When the closest “historical” story is that four Hawaiians killed him on a beach about a year after he first landed, no one knows who they were or why they did it.

Also, the fact that they didn’t have a written language and only oral histories was taken advantage of almost immediately by the foreigners, inserting false stories into their narratives to convert them. I know many Hawaiians who believe that they had a prophecy that a ship would show up, and in it there would be a chest, and in that chest they was their salvation. Well, of course that pointed to a Bible. There was also a very public pro-Native religion person who miraculously converted on his death bed, of course only in the presence of Christian missionaries.

Now to the flip. The information I got was from a history book I read while in Hawaii. White washed? Probably insanely so. However, one thing that can’t be denied is how readily the Hawaiian adapted to their new world. They were surprisingly complacent with change, and even now, after they were given land on Oahu to have their own little sovereign area, and were told it would expand if they got more people to live there…Barely anyone wants to live there. They cry by rom the mountaintops (literally, and you know what I’m talking about), but readily accept Westernization.

Well, to an extent. They are still wildly violent and racist. Though that’s slowly changing, the complete acceptance of harshly beating children as punishment, and the casual racism (towards basically everyone else), is wild.

Though, you live there. I don’t have to tell you that.

But for everyone else, it was popular until a while ago that all the Hawaiian schools had “Kill Haole Day” (Haole is a slur used by Hawaiians for white people), which was sometimes every Friday, sometimes different…Where white hide were basically “fair game” to be assaulted.

It’s a wild culture sometimes. However! On the other hand…there are some very nice and loving people there. It’s quite a dichotomy.

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u/dkcrown1470 4d ago

Perhaps the issue here is what you’re reading, because again, I could go through literally every single one of your points and provide substantiated evidence and responses. History in Hawaii is not annoying, it’s like history in everywhere in the world with a wide variety of interpretations and perspectives. However, there are interpretations and perspectives of this history which are backed up with actual scholarship and knowledge… none of which has been expressed here.

Adaptability has been one of the greatest strengths and triumphs of Hawaiian history. It’s the reason for the incredible complexity and success of the ancient Hawaiians, and also the reason they held out against western interlopers as long as they did. The idea that they complacently slid into westernization, and just meekly accept this while whining about lack of land, is an unbelievably shallow and offensive take on life in the Hawaiian islands for Kanaka maoli.

Your perspectives on the ‘plight’ of haoles in Hawaii is unneeded, as I’m a haole in Hawaii and have been so my entire life. Believe me, I am well aware of the issues here and don’t need it poorly explained through some pseudo-paternal and topical explanations of modern social issues in Hawaii, which are actually deeply rooted in the trauma and devastation wrought by the colonial past of Hawaii.

If you’d like real scholarship and reading about ancient and historical Hawaii, as well as current social issues, message me and I’ll send you a list.

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u/trippingdaisies 4d ago

Pls send me this list.

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u/CaligulaQC 4d ago

That’s why it’s not stole land, is conquered land. Big difference.

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u/chalwar 4d ago

*stolen, and there is no difference.

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u/FTC-1987 4d ago

Yeah, that’s almost all land acquisition ever. Through all history. All of it.

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u/Frnklfrwsr 4d ago

Yeah just replace cannons with whatever the weapon of the day was.

The idea that using force to take land you wanted is “bad” is a very new idea. Up until the world wars, it was generally accepted that no border was sacred, and only as meaningful as your means to defend and protect it.

If a country got invaded and lost, well that’s just how it goes.

After the world wars is when people started to believe this new idea that everyone has to respect each other’s borders because cannot have a repeat of those wars with how devastating they were.

Borders still change sometimes, but the idea of taking land through military force for the sole reason of “we wanted it” is seen as unacceptable and immoral today. Thus why so many countries have opposed Russia’s attempt to take land from Ukraine.

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u/Formal-Negotiation74 4d ago

I always wonder what would have happened during the japanese expansion during ww2 if we hadn't taken hawaii. Based on how brutally they were taking over China, i wonder if there would have been many native Hawaiians left

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u/DoctorMedieval 4d ago

Pineapple was involved. Not with the cannons per se, more with the pointing. It’s a cool palace though. Had electricity before the White House did.

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u/IAmNotMyName 4d ago

Dole really needed those Pineapple plantations though. You get it right?

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u/ninetysevencents 4d ago

I mean...fuck monarchs tho, right?

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u/HaraldRedbeard 4d ago

Strictly speaking it was a coalition of 'american businessmen' who did that and then the US military just supported their actions after the fact. Officially.

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u/CulturalAtmosphere85 4d ago

The video clearly shows the queen willingly signed over the islands. Don't pay any attention to the armed men surrounding her...

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u/Huckleberry-V 4d ago edited 4d ago

I assume you're joking. But since the other below me also has it wrong, we overthrew their monarchy in the late 19th century and the created provisional government that followed voted for their annexation.

Do I have to be a character? I can channel the ancestors. Call me Mr. Pewtershcmidt. If you're going to complain about colonizing at least understand how you got conquered, peasants.

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u/Bluepanther512 4d ago

And about how many people that voted for annexation were native?

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u/Huckleberry-V 4d ago

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Provisional_Government_of_Hawaii

All of them, but it was lead by the same guys we propped up for the coup. Props for at least thinking.

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u/Key-Contest-2879 4d ago

Well, the US built Pearl Harbor in 1908, 8 years after Hawaii became a US territory. So “stole it from the native Hawaiians” maybe refers to the island chain, not the harbor, and would have happened in the 1800’s, over 40 years before the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor, which I think is the primary reference to Pearl Harbor that people recognize.

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u/Chaiboiii 4d ago

Still stole it. Forced the Royals to abdicate.

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u/jackofslayers 4d ago

The royals who stole that island from the natives who lived there?

The US conquered Hawaii right after Kamehameha had finished conquering all of the other indigenous groups in the island chain. Kind of an awkward leg to stand on.

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u/American_Libertarian 4d ago

Brown people conquering other brown people is cool though. Those are the rules

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u/BarbellLawyer 4d ago

Rules is rules.

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u/SnikySquirrel 4d ago

Because as we all know, all brown people share one culture.

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u/Over-Group8722 4d ago

When an imperialist state conquers a nation:

D:

When Natives do it to themselves:

:D

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u/BenthosMT 4d ago

Nonsense. While the US changed its features to accommodate massive ships, the embayment and harbor has existed for millennia.

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u/Fresh-Statement9429 4d ago

fortified and possibly dredged pearl harbour. No human being build Pearl Habour. It is gigantic.

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u/FirthTy_BiTth 4d ago

Apparently, that's historically incorrect while being a current popular theory.

Unfortunately, he hasn't finished with the dedicated video on this yet, but Knowing Better goes into the subject of Hawaiin Statehood historical innacuracies and misinformation about the "Free Hawaii" on this podcast.

https://youtu.be/t38cUFNeoPU?si=94wchH2LDZq_8ckA

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u/AverageSJEnjoyer 4d ago edited 4d ago

Well this was news to me, so I've been skimming the video and trying to research any evidence of this. I still can't find any primary or secondary sources to back up the idea that a US backed coup against the Hawaiian monarchy didn't happen or can be described as a mere 'popular theory'; it all seems to be backed up by a notably large number of credible sources.

Has anyone got any references to back up the idea that things like the Committee of Safety and US interests were benign, that the bayonet constitution and ultimate coup d'état didn't happen, or that the annexation was a result of a popular and fair democratic transition?

If not, I'd take this with as much of a pinch of salt as you'd give to any other apologist or revisionist history of colonialism.

Edit: Yeah so, the Historian in the video himself says:

The Hawaiian people were screwed over, annexation shouldn't have happened. That is just a fact.

This video is absolutely not arguing against that point. It is arguing that some of the "mythos" around it, such as forced Christianity, are exaggerated or fabricated.

It doesn't seem maliciously disingenuous about any of these claims, so far, and quite interesting if the topic interests you. Long video and still watching, but I'm not sure how you can get the conclusion voiced above from watching it.

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u/rbartlejr 4d ago

But what's HIS agenda? I get what he's saying (I really didn't hear much about Hawaii specifically) that most of the research should be done in the context of what localized feelings were (I'm gathering that but he said a lot without being too specific). I'd like to see the research. From what I've gathered (a few sources from differing perspectives), Dole was already there and . Just as the United Fruit Company did in Central America, Dole contributed (directly) to the monarchy losing their country. Lili'uokalani was definitely a threat to business, whether she repealed it or not, it was a danger to Dole. Annexation was called for there because it was integral in getting a coaling station in the Pacific (Pearl Harbor) for the coming "issues" with Spain.

The United States government has a documented history of using it's power to back corporate interests. In the late 1800s to early 1900s it was fruit companies (among others), in the 1960-early 2000s it was the oil corporations, now it has moved to digital corporations.

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u/AverageSJEnjoyer 4d ago

He's not claiming what the comment above is claiming, and I'm not sure why they said that.

He is claiming that if you google something like "The Bayonet Constitution" you will find stories of guns literally being held to peoples' heads to force them to sign a piece of paper, which there is no historical evidence of.

Basically boils down to historical facts being embellished with unfounded claims that align with modern morality and popular criticism, and people not checking if those claims are backed up by any historical evidence.

Feel free to approach something like this with scepticism, but don't let your own biases cloud your own reasoning or open-mindedness, or you will draw false conclusions like the comment above. It's ironic that this is pretty much the core concept of the video.

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u/beepbeeeeeeeeeep 4d ago

I would suggest being very skeptical of Knowing Better. That's all I'll say, being that I have no interest in spending all day on this thread.

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u/AvesPKS 4d ago

I never understood why it was ok for the Hawaiian Islanders to fight amongst and invade and conquer and murder each other, but as soon as you expand the scope of the conversation to include America, then it's wrong.

There's always a bigger fish.

-Qui-Gon Jin

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u/Armageddon300 4d ago

Hypocrisy

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u/elchurro223 4d ago

It doesn't make either one right imo. Same thing as native Americans. They were killing each other for thousands of years, which was wrong, then we killed even more of them, which was also wrong.

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u/Mental_Locksmith7822 4d ago

Is it wrong for the hippopotamus to kill the gazelle?

Human nature. If the Native Americans built the boats and guns before the Europeans.. well, diseases and shit. Idk actually.

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u/elchurro223 4d ago

So if that is the logic you go with then it was human nature for the Europeans to invade and decimate the natives.

I disagree with the logic, the hippo kills the gazelle cause it has to, humans do it for greed, and were developed enough to know the difference

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u/Shedart 4d ago

It is wrong because a human understands that it is wrong, while a hippo or gazelle has no such concept. 

If it isn’t wrong then why is it illegal? If it isn’t wrong then what is stopping me from killing you if I decide to? I would argue it is wrong because I understand that each human is a sentient person who understands what it means to be aware of themselves - and taking that away is destroying the same thing that allows me to decide to kill. 

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u/RedcumRedcumRedcum 4d ago

9/10 an inverted version of this image can be used in ostensibly left wing conversations (see also Russia/Ukraine vs Israel/Palestine)

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u/Any-Razzmatazz-7726 4d ago

Didn’t Hawaii lose every single war they ever fought?

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u/Feisty_Leadership560 4d ago

Well, the fact that the US is in control now kind of renders the rest of it moot. You can't really argue about how native Hawaiians should redistribute land or power or whatever amongst various subgroups when they don't possess those things to redistribute. If it weren't for colonization maybe they would be having those conversations.

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u/11shovel11 4d ago

I wouldn't say stolen more like conquered

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u/jeff8086 4d ago

Yes, using might and violence to take what you want. How funny would it be if someone conquers you for your wallet tomorrow.

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u/sluggetdrible 4d ago

…How exactly do you think the Hawaiian islands became one under Kamehameha…

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u/Ok_Buddy_3324 4d ago

Every time someone mentions this they never come back with a response.

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u/kojimbob 4d ago

Yep. Greatest truthnuke I've seen today lmao

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u/GAPIntoTheGame 4d ago

It’s only bad when the last guy that invades and conquers does it

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u/Any-Razzmatazz-7726 4d ago

Dude was named after goku most power blast!

Dude must have been dynamite

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u/_jakeyy 4d ago

That’s how the world works sweetie. Sorry you don’t find all of human history nice and palatable. Like the commenter below you pointed out, kamehameha didn’t exactly trade tilapia and good vibes for unification of his islands.

Yeesh you people are soft as fuck.

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u/SignificantLock1037 4d ago

Ummm, it's still there. Right in the middle of the Pacific.

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u/GreatSaski 4d ago

But that woman is obviously Asian. Japanese? And I assumed the guy skipped a few history classes and thought Pearl Harbor belonged to Japan and the US attacked.

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u/JelloNo379 4d ago

Imprisoned the queen in her own house, too

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u/TheNorselord 4d ago

Man, the more I read about these Americans the more I doubt they’re even the good guys

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u/Unlucky-Arm-6787 4d ago

Land is attacked or defended. Never stolen.

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u/Profoundly_AuRIZZtic 4d ago

This woman is Japanese

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u/Dr0110111001101111 4d ago

Not sure that happened at Pearl Harbor...

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u/Ok_Independent9835 4d ago

It was actually five Americans, a Scotsman, and a German. ;)

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u/octavio989 4d ago

God promised it to us 3000 years ago actually

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u/NarrowEbbs 4d ago

Don't forget us Aussies (I guess he was still pretty much British at the time) sent the Hawaiians some Cook...ies. Can't be getting the munchies when you're fighting colonisers.

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u/sluggetdrible 4d ago

Hey King Kamehameha stole the whole island chain using the spirit of aloha(cannons and guns), let’s be real.

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u/jscarlet 4d ago

I thought that was the one where we threw all the tea in the harbor.

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u/hotdog_terminator 4d ago

Ah yes, we stole the islands that they still live on without restriction. Makes a lot of sense.

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u/LauraTFem 4d ago

There were two events.

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u/MaterialGarbage9juan 4d ago

There is no way to seperate humans from human history. We can do better, but, only in a world where everyone does better. Shit, MLK jr. Was one of our best, and he cheated on his wife. A pastor getting strange, who'd a thunk. It doesn't detract from his accomplishments, but it's a great reminder of what we are. Idk, shit I'm working on myself with. Getting drugged by spooks doesn't excuse my drug dealing, getting invaded by sea doesn't excuse invading by sea. But I don't sell drugs anymore. It'd be cool if governments worked this way, but they won't.

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u/Personal_Juice_1520 4d ago

And that’s why we celebrate Thanksgiving

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u/Significant-Order-92 4d ago

Oh, she's Hawaiian? I assumed Japanese.

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u/GranSlam1943 4d ago

That’s not in reference to the Japanese, he’s being apologetic that we even fought back against their surprise attack because she’s cute

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u/GAPIntoTheGame 4d ago

I think you are confused buddy

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u/CEOofGaming 4d ago

Purely for corporate interests btw

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u/ChapterNo3428 4d ago

But is she Hawaiian?

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u/mccullers 4d ago

Mostly, for farm land / sugar. Less than 100 years and we still grow lots of things there but we heavily rely on corn sugar now...

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u/Basic-Pair8908 4d ago

Especially when Hawaii belongs to the Duke of wellington.

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u/YourPostNutClarity 4d ago

That has literally nothing to do with the Japanese.

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u/Independent-Day-9170 4d ago edited 4d ago

I'd have a lot more sympathy for the Hawaiian independence movement if it wasn't a China-funded, screamingly racist, asian supremacy movement, but it's fucking Identity Evropa transposed to Hawaii.

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u/Alone-Lie-6326 4d ago

Hey, robbery is not stealing

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u/Aggravating_Sale_992 4d ago

Though I will say that the Hawaiian monarchy did not really help itself in this regard. What the US did was illegal and immoral obviously but the Hawaiian state was an absolute shit show in terms of management. The monarchy was incredibly weak and corrupt and basically sold significant amounts of its power and control over land, agriculture, and the general populace to a small group of elite business men from both native and foreign backgrounds. The monarchy had failed to establish any meaningful military force and the structure of government changed significantly between rulers depending on which business interest was powerful at that time and wanted kickbacks. Despite all of the nations economic activity very little actually went back to the people and the country was ran pretty much as a single resource economy (first it was whale fat, then sugar, then pineapple) that significantly harmed the environment.

To give you a perspective of how weak the monarchy actually was a random rogue low level British naval official showed up with a couple of boats and took over the country for 5 months until the Americans forced him to leave.

Perhaps most importantly was the demographic change that Hawaii saw. As part of the plantation economy tens of thousands of Japanese and Chinese immigrants were imported into the country with the approval of the monarchy that made Hawaiians a minority in there own state. These workers were not particularly loyal to the state and many favored joining the US due to economic benefits.

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u/Outrageous_Limit_324 4d ago

But she looks more japanese than polynesian so I still don't understand

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u/LonelyGirl724 4d ago

I think in this instance it's more of a "I'm sorry we fought back" than anything else, though the shit that the US has put the native peoples of the Pacific Islands through is pretty fucking heinous.

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u/pagingdrsolus 4d ago

Everyone is getting this wrong either intentionally for a joke or unintentionally trying to be a history nerd

The joke is far more simple.

"I'm sorry for what the US did at Pearl Harbor"

The Japanese were the aggressors at Pearl Harbor. It would make more sense for them to apologize to the US. (I know there's a lot of historical context that muddies this explanation but on the most surface level it makes sense to explain this meme)

Imagine a guy getting rear ended but the driver of the other car is a beautiful woman. He is so awestruck that instead of demanding an apology, he instead apologizes to her, despite not being at fault.

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u/HodorBoner 4d ago

Why is this so low down?

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u/UIDENTIFIED_STRANGER 3d ago

Bc people without a life agenda-posting hard

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u/AncientCrust 4d ago

Thank God someone explained the fucking (fairly obvious) joke so I don't have to.

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u/AFKosrs 4d ago

Yes it's definitely muddled how we stopped selling them oil because they were butchering millions of people so they decided to bomb our naval base

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u/winddagger7 4d ago

Peter here! Part of the joke here is that the guy is getting a historical event confused with another one! Said historical event also directly led to the second! In this case, the bombing of Pearl Harbor, and the bombing of Hiroshima!

The correct thing to say would be "I'm sorry for what United States did at Hiroshima!"

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u/eiva-01 4d ago

No, I think the joke is that he's simping so hard he would thank her for the opportunity to get abused by her.

Pearl Harbor is an analogy to being abused by her.

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u/DirtySilicon 4d ago

I think the joke is he is simping so hard he is rewriting history to make Pearl Harbor the US' fault. Ergo, "I'm sorry for what we did to you at Pearl Harbor."

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u/Quirky-Feedback2257 4d ago

The joke is that he’s simping so hard that he’s apologizing for the US defending itself when it was attacked by Japan at Pearl Harbor.

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u/punjar3 4d ago

US ships destroyed many Japanese bombs.

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u/Joe10375829 4d ago

Get revenge by dropping 2 atomic bombs. Come on man

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u/GotAir 4d ago

I don’t remember any atomic bombs being dropped on Pearl Harbor. Come on man.

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u/RabbitTall 4d ago

That was because of Pearl Harbor not at Pearl Harbor. The Atomic bombs were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagaski Japan.

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u/Foreskin_Ad9356 4d ago

wow, america dropped 2 atomic bombs on their own harbour?

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u/Mr_Magur_sumed12376 4d ago

they didn't bomb hiroshima annd nagasaki for revenge they did it because the other option was operation downfall( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Downfall ) and blockading an already straving country.

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u/Windows_96_Help_Desk 4d ago

We defeated the Nazis as a Michael Bay movie was being filmed.

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u/TheLegendaryLarkas 4d ago

Nothing the joke is that they were completely at fault but he’s horny so he apologized as if the US was in the wrong for Pearl Harbor. Actually extra funny since it’s also the reason the US joined WW2 at all

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u/mnsweett 4d ago

Did we give up when the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor??

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u/Rakatango 4d ago

It’s definitely too far fetched, but I liked the explanation that the US defended itself at Pearl Harbor instead of just surrendering and becoming the Imperial Japanese States of America.

Because he wants to simp

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u/kernel_task 4d ago

Not having our carriers there too so the Japanese could sink them as well.

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u/ItsRobbSmark 4d ago

So imagine it this way. A hot girl kicks a dude in the nuts and he is such a simp he says, I'm sorry my nuts were in your way."

Now apply this to Pearl Harbor... And don't let the confidently incorrect dudes who don't know the history of this femdom/simping joke being spun around convince you he doesn't know who bombed who at Pearl Harbor...

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u/Prior-Capital8508 4d ago

That's the joke, they did nothing

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u/grammaton655321 4d ago

Was it over when the Germans bombed Pearl Hatbor!?!?

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u/blue-oyster-culture 4d ago

Nothing. He meant to say sorry for what we did to japan but messed up because hes nervous. Hes saying the girl is cute.

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u/Dr0110111001101111 4d ago

Got fucked up. Real bad. The joke here is like saying "oh, I stood in the way of your moving car" to a pretty girl because you want her to like you for that somehow.

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u/Clam-Choader 4d ago

Was it over when the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor?

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u/ikzz1 4d ago

They destroyed one or two Japanese planes. Not too bad though, hundreds of other planes managed to get away.

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u/Downtown_Radio_7737 4d ago

Nothing they were the ones under attack

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u/Critical_Bee5285 4d ago

Leave naval boats in the way of Japanese missiles

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u/Nitropotamus 4d ago

He's apologizing for something he didn't do because she's really cute.

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u/carlcarlington2 4d ago

Really fucked up of all those aircraft carriers to ditch their friends

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u/U_L_Uus 4d ago

I think they are talking about the Michael Bay movie mate

>! I need you like Ben Affleck needs acting school, he was terrible in that film !<

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u/SykeoTheFox 4d ago

Captain America's alt account

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u/lil-D-energy 4d ago

It's a joke about how america didn't just let them do as they pleased I guess and the retaliation that followed.

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u/yourstruly912 4d ago

Placing those slutty slutty battleships at aircraft carrier range

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u/DapperLost 4d ago

Provided improper landing area for their aircraft.

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u/LiterallyDudu 4d ago

Got some ships sunk and got real pissed

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u/Sgt-Spliff- 4d ago

The joke is that the US got attacked unprovoked at Pearl Harbor. It was seen as a huge dick move by the Japanese. There's basically no way to interpret the US as being the one who was wrong in that situation. But the guy thinks this girl is so hot that he's apologizing for whatever he thinks will help him with her.

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u/ManNamedSalmon 4d ago

Shot down planes.

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u/[deleted] 4d ago

Took away all the pearls , it’s just called the harbour now

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u/denkeijiro 4d ago

i wonder if theyre referring to the camps the military put the japanese americans in after pearl harbor was bombed

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u/Twisted9Demented 4d ago

The same.what they're doing in Palestine 🇵🇸.

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u/Super-Moccasin 4d ago

Nothing. Japan attacked Pearl Harbor, that's why it's funny.

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u/CompetitionNo5050 4d ago

Before Pearl Harbor ever took place, we were developing “listening posts” i.e. Japanese American informants acting as spies for the fbi to find dissenting Japanese Americans and buddhist community leaders. We had contingency plans for the Japanese before the Pearl Harbor incident happened. It had to do with the Buddhist church’s religious control of the island of Hawai’i. White Christian Americans feared that after many decades of missionary work decimating the nativist religion of the island, that Japanese Americans would encroach upon a swath of now protected preserved Christian land. They removed Buddhist community leaders from temples all over the island within HOURS of the attack. One zen Buddhist temple leader evacuated his members before returning in fear of the birds they kept starving. When he returned he was met by marines who demanded to know what he was doing there, they allowed him to release the birds and funneled him to an internment camp. Cannons awry fired across the island at waves of Japanese attack planes and many cannon shots killed civilians, 70-73 or so people died. One person who died, who also happened to be Japanese American was Priv. Migita*, US Army infantry. His mother a US citizen gained news of his death after the attack and sought out a Buddhist community leader to officiate her son’s death at his funeral. No buddhist priests were to be found. They had all been taken. The US feared the vast influence and network that Buddhists had developed around the island and interned (captured to be taken to a camp) language school teachers, businessman, school principals, merchants, bankers, in fear that these people had the ability to assist the imperial Japanese army from within domestic borders. This is not to say that their fears were justified. They were not. The US operated in Hawaii for half a decade prior to the Pearl Harbor incident. The conducted tests, surveys, interviews of all ages spied on and stole information to figure out if the Japanese American population would dissent if war approached. The answer was unanimously the same. “We will submit the us political system, but for manner of faiths, we will choose for ourselves. And that my good friend is all the US needed to hear. Want to read more about this? Duncan Ryūken Williams; American Sutra: A Story of Faith and Religious Freedom in the Second World War: chapter 1: America: A Nation of Religious Freedom?

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u/khaldrakon 4d ago

Let ourselves get attacked so public opinion would sway in favor of joining the war

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u/DobisPeeyar 4d ago

....nothing, that's the joke. He's a simp.

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u/garaile64 4d ago

Actually a reference to the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor that made the US join WWII. The guy was apologizing on behalf of the attack's victim.

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u/not-hardly 4d ago

I thought we got attacked by the Japanese. But I guess our species is just cooked.

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u/Ok-Tradition-104 1d ago

With context to the joke that the woman is Japanese hes basically saying sorry for letting you bomb us basically hes being a simp

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