US Infects Guatemalans With Syphilis During 1940s Experiments

[BleedBurgundy]

LINK

Impossible to defend. What the hell were they thinking?

[mooby]

Well this is an impending shitstorm.

Not to mention that's disgusting and seriously inhumane. Even though it happened over 60 years ago I can't believe they would do something like that. And the fact that they deceived Guatemalan officials in order to do it is even worse. We've done some dumb shit before but not on this level of idiocy. I'm pretty sure reperations are in order too.

[saden1]

Are you guys really surprised or shocked by the United State's capability and willingness to do something like this?

[mooby]

Originally Posted by saden1

Are you guys really surprised or shocked by the United State's capability and willingness to do something like this?

Sadly the more you think about it, not really. I prefer to just believe shit like this doesn't happen even though you kinda know it does.

[NC_Skins]

Originally Posted by saden1

Are you guys really surprised or shocked by the United State's capability and willingness to do something like this?

This pretty much echos my sentiment. I don't put anything past our government.

[saden1]

Originally Posted by JoeRedskin

Outside of our participation in WWI, WWII and the Korean War, please show me where we rank on the list of 20th Century atrocities.




Twentieth Century Atlas - Top Ranked Atrocities

Yet, with that said, there is nothing on the list to show a major bloodletting caused by the US.

Comparisons of this despicable action to the Nazis devalues the evil caused by the dehumanization of "non-aryans" by German National Socialists and the concommit genocidal and meglomaniacal killings. The "ideal" of the Nazis was a world dominated by the Master Race; the "ideal" of the US, however, is a world where individual rights are respected and basic human rights are assured (Read the preamble and the Bill of Rights).

Fortunately, the Nazis failed in accomplishing their goal. Unfortunately, due to human imperfection, the US's goal is impossible to accomplish. In our world, utopian societies of any significant size do not, can not and will not ever exist.

I suppose the deaths of Native Americans, the African Salves and the Chines rail road worker don't count? America was born out of sin, into sin and and will die in sin. I am quite tired of people making indirect apologies for it and using deflection. America doesn't need defending nor does it deserve defending.


The American: Look, we're not nearly as evil and we are aware of our evils.
The Canadian: Everyone is aware of their evil.
The Nazi: Exactly. At the end of the day the dead are still dead.
The Maoist: General Mao said "Communism is not love. Communism is a hammer which we use to crush the enemy."
The American: Huh?
The Nazi: I hate communism.
The American: Back to what I was saying. I think it matters how you kill people. The way you Nazis killed the Jews was cold blooded.
The Nazi: It was. I would have done it more mercifully.
The Maoist: In time of difficulties, we must not lose sight of our achievements.
The Nazi: What difficulties?
The American: Never mind him.
The Maoist: It's another quote from the great General Mao.
The Maoist: The atom bomb is a paper tiger which the United States reactionaries use to scare people. It looks terrible, but in fact it isn't.
The American: Another Mao quote?
The Maoist: Uh-huh.
The Canadian: I wonder what Mao would say if they dropped it on his head.
The Maoist: It's always darkest before it's totally black.
The American: I am sorry but America is nothing like these other evil evildoers and will always be special.
The Canadian: You're not special. Don't forget that low hanging fruit and your blankets. We have a train to catch.

[JoeRedskin]

Originally Posted by saden1

I suppose the deaths of Native Americans, the African Salves and the Chines rail road worker don't count? America was born out of sin, into sin and and will die in sin. I am quite tired of people making indirect apologies for it and using deflection. America doesn't need defending nor does it deserve defending.

I said 20th century. Yup, in the 19th Century, we ignored the words of our own Declaration and that proclamation "all men are created equal" and, as a practical matter, did exactly what the Nazis did which was to justify slavery, murder and war by dehumanizing all who weren't white, protestant, Europeans. Was it wrong? Yup. Did we as a nation shed blood and treasure to rectify these wrongs? Yup. Do we still spend hundreds of millions of dollars a year to try and repair some of the damage done? Yup.

Of course this nation was flawed in its origin and continues to be so and will always be so. What nation, made of humans, wasn't "born in sin"? Where on this earth is that not true? Where would the utopian nation you seem to think "defensible" exist? Would its utopian nature survive its expansion and application to 300,000,000 million people of diverse cultural backgrounds. When we find wrongs, we seek to change them. Just like individuals, sometimes the wrong is seen only in retrospect.

"Die in sin"? Most definitely. Just not anytime soon. Again, humans aren't timeless and nothing we create is either wheter it be monuments or governmental structures. The US we know will die eventually b/c it is made of imperfect and finite people. Perhaps the rust and decline has begun - perhaps not.

Indirect apologies? Deflection? Not sure what you mean here, I have an idea but before I respond, would like an actual clarification.

"Doesn't deserve defending"? So although individuals may redeem themselves, the societies of which they are part of cannot? As a nation, unlike the Nazis, Stalinists or Maoists, we have changed for the better and continue to do so. Other nations have done the same, but in terms of size, none have done so on the scale that the US has in its 200+ years of existence. From a small restrictive plutocracy of landed merchants and farmers, we have expanded, granted, and protected individual freedoms to more people than other country before us. I would agree that our government should not be blindly or unquestionally defended in all its actions (past or present), but the ideals set forth in our founding documents are most definitely deserving of defense. Failure to defend the structure - flawed though it may be - built on those ideals risks their loss entirely.

To emerge from the muck of tyranny and injustice, a nation and its people will inevitably get dirty.

[saden1]

Originally Posted by JoeRedskin

I said 20th century. Yup, in the 19th Century, we ignored the words of our own Declaration and that proclamation "all men are created equal" and, as a practical matter, did exactly what the Nazis did which was to justify slavery, murder and war by dehumanizing all who weren't white, protestant, Europeans. Was it wrong? Yup. Did we as a nation shed blood and treasure to rectify these wrongs? Yup. Do we still spend hundreds of millions of dollars a year to try and repair some of the damage done? Yup.

Of course this nation was flawed in its origin and continues to be so and will always be so. What nation, made of humans, wasn't "born in sin"? Where on this earth is that not true? Where would the utopian nation you seem to think "defensible" exist? Would its utopian nature survive its expansion and application to 300,000,000 million people of diverse cultural backgrounds. When we find wrongs, we seek to change them. Just like individuals, sometimes the wrong is seen only in retrospect.

"Die in sin"? Most definitely. Just not anytime soon. Again, humans aren't timeless and nothing we create is either wheter it be monuments or governmental structures. The US we know will die eventually b/c it is made of imperfect and finite people. Perhaps the rust and decline has begun - perhaps not.

Indirect apologies? Deflection? Not sure what you mean here, I have an idea but before I respond, would like an actual clarification.

"Doesn't deserve defending"? So although individuals may redeem themselves, the societies of which they are part of cannot? As a nation, unlike the Nazis, Stalinists or Maoists, we have changed for the better and continue to do so. Other nations have done the same, but in terms of size, none have done so on the scale that the US has in its 200+ years of existence. From a small restrictive plutocracy of landed merchants and farmers, we have expanded, granted, and protected individual freedoms to more people than other country before us. I would agree that our government should not be blindly or unquestionally defended in all its actions (past or present), but the ideals set forth in our founding documents are most definitely deserving of defense. Failure to defend the structure - flawed though it may be - built on those ideals risks their loss entirely.

To emerge from the muck of tyranny and injustice, a nation and its people will inevitably get dirty.

To me every country has redeemable qualities. Clearly the German people have redeemed themselves as much as anyone can. Russia is a far cry from Stalin's USSR. Ditto for Mao's China. I mean, China is out there doing a lot of work in Africa to build their infrastructure while lending America money to wage it's wars. Granted a lot of China work in Africa is out of self-interest but a lot of good nonetheless.


What I mean by indirect apologies is the swiftness of response to basically point out how less faulty we are and how comparatively noble our system is. I would prefer we say "We fcked up. we should apologize and make up for it" rather than "Man, this is bad but it's not as bad as those Nazis who did the same shit at a much larger scale. Plus we're the nicest country in the world except those instances we weren't so nice." Let Americas body of work stand for itself and lets judge the good things and the bad things on their own merit without having to do addition and subtraction to mask the dump we just took with an air fresher and pretend our shit stinks but not that bad.

I can't honestly say America has transformed itself on larger scale, more rapidly and for the better compared to China, Korea, Japan, and Germany. Granted, those are homogeneous societies but unlike america they weren't built to be diverse. Have they improved their people's condition more so than United States has? On the subject of slavery I would have to find out when these respective countries abolish slavery and what that meant? Was the aftermath as bad as Jim Crow?

[MTK]

Nazi Germany right here at home. Nice.

[BleedBurgundy]

Originally Posted by Mattyk

Nazi Germany right here at home. Nice.

That's what I thought, especially given the timeframe.

[mlmpetert]

Reading this, lead me to this:

Human experimentation in the United States - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

All pretty disgusting stuff.

[redsk1]

That's just crazy. Wow, I don't know what to say. Damn.

[firstdown]

This is what you get from big goverment.

[Coool3y47]

wWoWw can you say adolf?~!!~!!

I like the fact that Hillary clinton apologized for it. She is secretary of state it would be her job.

Oh and By the Way if you think America wasn't capable of doing things like this remeber the Native Americans lol enough said

But hey im a redskin fan so HTTR what can i say!!

[mlmpetert]

Panel Reveals New Details Of 1940s Experiment | FoxNews.com