this post was submitted on 27 Sep 2025
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History Memes

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[–] SalamenceFury@lemmy.world 118 points 1 week ago (3 children)

Oh yeah, to this day, that massacre is the largest mass shooting ever committed in US soil. And it was done by the US government.

I keep telling Americans that common sense cop control would prevent more mass shootings than any gun law.

[–] lectricleopard@lemmy.world 20 points 1 week ago

I want cop control legislation.

[–] Diplomjodler3@lemmy.world 19 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Largest mass shooting so far.

[–] SalamenceFury@lemmy.world 3 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (2 children)

A regular civilian does not have the firepower needed to kill 300+ people unless you believe an AR-15 is as powerful as an entire artillery battery.

[–] count_dongulus@lemmy.world 6 points 1 week ago (1 children)

The guy who opened fire on a concert from a balcony in Las Vegas in 2017 shot about 450 people

[–] SalamenceFury@lemmy.world 4 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

He killed 50, no? Wounded Knee is still the record for most people killed. And the Las Vegas shooter was an actually special case, as he had dozens of illegally modified weapons and height advantage.

[–] count_dongulus@lemmy.world 3 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

I think this one was bigger based on wounded, but somehow everyone forgets about it: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/2017_Las_Vegas_shooting

[–] ininewcrow@lemmy.ca 83 points 1 week ago (3 children)

And white people wonder why we don't trust them with anything.

[–] PugJesus@piefed.social 82 points 1 week ago

"It's so long ago! Who cares!"

"So you're fine repudiating it, since you don't care?"

"NEVER! THOSE MURDERERS WERE HEROES!"

It's so frustrating to deal with people who reverse their position on racial justice as soon as it's convenient for them to do so. Frustrating, too, to have fucking family who will look me in the eyes and say shit like that about other atrocities.

[–] xxce2AAb@feddit.dk 45 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (1 children)

Counterpoint: Clarence Thomas. I think you'll find that problem is related to having power to abuse, not melanin concentration in the basal layer of the epidermis.

Counter-counterpoint: Jasmine Crockett. She's fucking awesome.

[–] shawn1122@sh.itjust.works 9 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (1 children)

I mean yeah assessing people on an individual level is different from collective. Look at the collective history of white people over the past few centuries and it's pretty logical why PoC are going to have their guard up. When white folk came to your country as a group, historical precendent is such that killing and/or stealing are high on the list of potential outcomes.

The Democratic party supported the civil rights act of 1964 in the US, which ended race based segregation. Since then not a single democratic presidential nominee has won the majority of the white vote. That's some pretty dark shit.

This doesn't mean that any single individual white person is presumed bad.

[–] GreyEyedGhost@lemmy.ca 1 points 1 week ago (1 children)

I think you're still missing the point of power imbalance. Sure, you don't see these atrocities committed in America by colored people because they haven't had enough power there. But look to other places where colored people had power (for just about any value of colored) and you see the same kind of atrocities. The biggest limiting factor seems to be the scope of their power, not the limits of their brutality.

[–] shawn1122@sh.itjust.works 1 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

The scale of colonial exploitation and the Atlantic slave trade trump many if not most atrocities by other groups through history.

Slavery in Africa was very different from the chattel slavery practiced in the US where slaveowners had the right to punish slaves to the point of manslaughter without reprecussion. See the Casual Killing Act of 1669.

Slaves in Africa at the time were integrated as household members or low-status laborers rather than treated as perpetual chattel. Legal frameworks allowed some slaves to marry, inherit, and sometimes ascend to military or administrative roles.

European colonists created such a demand for slaves from Africa that it destabilized local economies, promoted war through using weapons for purchase and even led locals to believe Europeans were cannibals just based on the sheer number of people they were purchasing and transporting.

I wouldn't blame Africans for being skeptical if a large group of white folk showed up at their coast and thats not even getting into the legacy of South African apartheid or the perpetuation of exploitation that persists to this day through neocolonialism.

1000039292

[–] onslaught545@lemmy.zip 34 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (1 children)

White man here: I don't wonder shit. I know why people don't trust us.

I apologize for what my race and gender have done to the world.

[–] Septimaeus 3 points 1 week ago* (last edited 5 days ago) (1 children)

While I believe what you express above comes from a good place of empathy, care, and respect, if you’re open to suggestions, I would offer the following.

This hat-in-hand attitude often comes across as a tedious neoliberal brand of white guilt and “I acknowledge my privilege” performative social justice that primarily seeks personal absolution from allies rather than a hand in fighting systemic injustice.

Instead, it is a more useful exercise to consider your privileged identities, such as apparent gender or the color of your skin, as a disavowable inheritance like a family name, rendering them mere tools you bring to the cause of liberation, rather than a scarlet WM you must apologize to your comrades for at every turn.

Edit: concretely, I mean that it is no better to “other” yourself than someone else. Instead, acknowledge that our perceptions of race and gender are manufactured (and historically none more-so than whiteness and masculinity, easy proxies for explicit political and socioeconomic power). Whiteness and masculinity telegraph it the way a gun telegraphs strength. So instead of apologizing for how the weapons you were born with have been used by oppressors in the past, reject and subvert what they represent by committing them to the cause of those who are oppressed today.

[–] Mic_Check_One_Two@reddthat.com 3 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

Exactly this. Your job as an ally is to be angry when the oppressed need to keep the peace. Oftentimes, oppressors will blatantly oppress, then claim to be the victim when then oppressed gets angry and starts talking back. They hide behind decorum, and use it as a shield. Additionally, they’ll use the angry actions as justification for oppression.

When the oppressed needs to maintain decorum, it’s the ally’s job to get angry. The ally doesn’t fit into any of the boxes that the oppressor would otherwise use to villainize the oppressed.

As an example, here is what happened when Representative Keith Self intentionally misgendered Rep Sarah McBride. We see this exact scenario play out in real time. Self misgenders McBride, an openly transgender representative. McBride returns a simple “thank you madam” as a joke, but otherwise doesn’t react to it. Because she recognizes that anything she does will be used to further villainize trans people and justify their oppression. Self will use it to paint McBride as an unreasonable snowflake liberal. Instead, Rep. Bill Keating is the one to call out Self. Keating, a straight white middle-aged man, can’t have his identity weaponized against him. So he’s the one to go to bat in McBride’s place. He demands that Self explain his actions, and refuses to back down until Self does so. When Self realizes his “bait the anger” tactic worked against him by baiting the wrong person, he retreats by immediately ending the meeting.

[–] makyo@lemmy.world 58 points 1 week ago

I like how our favorite day drinker is all 'this is final' as if anyone's position in this admin is in any way secure

[–] KoalaUnknown@lemmy.world 40 points 1 week ago
[–] some_guy@lemmy.sdf.org 38 points 1 week ago (1 children)

But they so bravely slaughtered those helpless women and children. Surely that’s a good thing, right? Ffs

[–] RoidingOldMan@lemmy.world 29 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

"The 9th Bearded Infantry were too brave to accept the surrender"

"Come on boys, those white flags are no match against our muskets!"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_uvKWBSXbuc

[–] PugJesus@piefed.social 38 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (1 children)

For this 1890 campaign, the U.S. Army awarded 31 Medals of Honor, 19 specifically for service at Wounded Knee.[7][8][56] 18 were awarded in the months after the massacre, and two more awarded in 1893 and 1897 respectively.[57]

In the Nebraska State Historical Society's summer 1994 quarterly journal, Jerry Green construes that pre-1916 Medals of Honor were awarded more liberally; however, "the number of medals does seem disproportionate when compared to those awarded for other battles." Quantifying, he compares the three awarded for the Battle of Bear Paw Mountain's five-day siege, to the twenty awarded for this short and one-sided action.[58] Historian Will G. Robinson notes that, in contrast, only three Medals of Honor were awarded among the 64,000 South Dakotans who fought for four years of World War II.[59] However, historian Dwight Mears points out that awards prior to 1918 were "Medal[s] of Honor in name only," making such comparisons with modern medals inappropriate, since "the medal that existed in 1890 is a materially different award."[60] Mears notes that Army regulations in 1890 stated that "Medals of honor will be awarded, by the President, to officers or enlisted men who have distinguished themselves in action," meaning that they could be awarded for actions that were merely distinguished, not gallant or heroic.[61]

Native American activists have urged the medals be withdrawn, calling them "medals of dishonor". According to Lakota tribesman William Thunder Hawk, "The Medal of Honor is meant to reward soldiers who act heroically. But at Wounded Knee, they didn't show heroism; they showed cruelty." In 2001, the National Congress of American Indians passed two resolutions condemning the Medals of Honor awards and called on the U.S. government to rescind them.[16]

A number of the citations on the medals awarded to the troopers at Wounded Knee state that they went in pursuit of Lakota who were trying to escape or hide.[62] Another citation was for "conspicuous bravery in rounding up and bringing to the skirmish line a stampeded pack mule."[58] Another medal was awarded in part for extending an enlistment.[63] One citation was just "bravery".[57]

[–] lectricleopard@lemmy.world 26 points 1 week ago

This is how you cover up a PR nightmare. The government is afraid of reporting a massacre, that the public may be shocked by the disparity in casualties. Anyone just reading the papers would notice this was a disproportionately large number of dead. You can make any failed mission look like a success, though, if you give everyone medals.

[–] HazardousBanjo@lemmy.world 27 points 1 week ago

Notice the stupid drunken rapist cunt called it a "battle".

Its the Wounded Knee MASSACRE

[–] Melvin_Ferd@lemmy.world 26 points 1 week ago (1 children)

why are they like this?

Also the left does a terrible job of advertising they're like this. Like Charlie dying and everyone saying "He's such a good christian"

The left needs to get their asses back on social media and post why they're like this so there is no confusion who these people are.

[–] suicidaleggroll@lemmy.world 7 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (1 children)

They do, but the people who most need to see it don’t, because their social media algorithms keep them locked in their echo chamber.

Same reason they never get to see any real news, because they only watch Fox and Newsmax who just lie to them.

[–] Melvin_Ferd@lemmy.world 1 points 1 week ago

No algorithm can only go so far. At this point they don't even need the algorithm. We're holding the door for Trump and Miller and his goons.

[–] titanicx@lemmy.zip 16 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

You can't say only a nazi regime. These were given out over a century ago, and maintained until an order to review was finally done a couple years ago. Now this nazi regime has chosen to let these butchers keep their medals. Medals like these tarnish those that were given in actual battle for causes that could be considered right, such as shooting a nazi n the face. I'm native, and a member of the Sioux Nation. This announcement was painful to see, but wasn't unexpected. They can't wait to deport us back to the reservations again.

The only thing that cheers me up after learning about wounded knee, is thinking about the death of Custer, I hope he died slow and painfully

[–] Lushed_Lungfish@lemmy.ca 10 points 1 week ago

"Battle". You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.

[–] Phoenix3875@lemmy.world 6 points 1 week ago

I learned this from BioShock Infinite.

[–] BananaIsABerry@lemmy.zip 4 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (1 children)

Was there some push to revoke their medals? They've been dead for over 100 years. Who cares?

Just performative nonsense.

[–] freddydunningkruger@lemmy.world 7 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Funny how easy it is to search the internet for "wounded knee hegseth" and find the answer.

In 2019, Democratic lawmakers, led by Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, introduced legislation to revoke the medals from the 20 soldiers involved in the massacre at Wounded Knee after a yearslong pressure campaign by members of the Lakota tribe.

Congress has rescinded more than 900 Medals of Honor since a law passed in 1916 created a board of retired military officers to review previous awards. In 1990, Congress apologized to the descendants of the Native Americans killed and injured at Wounded Knee.

The campaign to remove the medals gained momentum in 2020, when historical and systemic racism received intense attention. Many of the medals given out for the U.S. Army’s Indian Wars for land and resources in the West were for violent acts against Native Americans.

In July 2024, Lloyd J. Austin III, then the defense secretary, convened a panel to review the actions of each soldier at Wounded Knee.

In a video posted on social media on Thursday, Mr. Hegseth said the panel recommended to Mr. Austin in October that the soldiers should keep their medals. Mr. Austin did not make a final decision on the medals, which Mr. Hegseth described as “careless inaction.”

“Under my direction, we’re making it clear without hesitation that the soldiers who fought in the Battle of Wounded Knee in 1890 will keep their medals, and we’re making it clear that they deserved those medals,” Mr. Hegseth said in the video.

[–] BananaIsABerry@lemmy.zip -1 points 1 week ago

Why would I look it up when I have you to do it for me?

Anyways, the tribe themselves pushed for it. I support them wanting to discredit the "honor" of past events, but it really changes a whole lot of nothing, really. Feels like they just gave Hegseth the chance to be a douchebag, if nothing else.

[–] Gladaed@feddit.org 2 points 1 week ago

Why does the sow have a pet?

[–] RandAlThor@lemmy.ca 1 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (1 children)

In a way I'm glad they're not white-washing this. Keep that part of history with its ugliness intact. I think it is important to remember that THIS was and IS the United States of America. It's past is as repugnant as it is powerful. That the banner carrier for democracy has its own ugly nazi past and present that can't be erased. And it has as much moral authority as Hitler in global affairs.

[–] PugJesus@piefed.social 8 points 1 week ago

Repudiating the past is an important way of establishing a future. By retaining both the Medal of Honor and these individual citations, we cheapen all present awards, and adulterate the crimes of these men with the genuine sacrifices of those who deserved their medals in American history.

The Roman Emperor Claudius, when removing a certain man with a sordid past from a list of those to suffer public shame, added, "But let it be noted he was removed" - ie that the act of removal itself was notable. This is not a question of shuttering these men down the memory hole, but of acknowledging the horrors of the past and expressing an intention to hold a higher standard not just for our future, but also for how we view our past.

[–] Meron35@lemmy.world 0 points 1 week ago (2 children)

Wasn't this the massacre in Bioshock Infinite which Booker DeWitt participated in, and subsequent PTSD set off the game's (and arguably franchise's) events? No wonder it was hated by gamers (derogatory)

[–] PugJesus@piefed.social 13 points 1 week ago (2 children)

Bioshock Infinite was hated? Everyone I've ever heard talk about it loves it.

No matter how good and loved a game is, there will always be a bunch of people hating on it

[–] Meron35@lemmy.world 1 points 1 week ago

Oh yes, especially among gamers (derogatory). Even a basic search of "bioshock infinite hate" will bring up countless threads. The attacks and abuse got so serious they even made multiple news articles, with some accusing Ken Levine (creator) as a Jew making a white killing simulator.

But it was very amusing, because if you tried to engage with some of these haters and why they didn't like the plot, they'll say that they hated how Infinite's plot was more "political" whereas Bioshock 1/2 were more "ideological."

How BioShock Infinite Became One of the Most Controversial Games Ever - https://www.cbr.com/bioshock-infinite-most-controversial-games-ever/

[–] psx_crab@lemmy.zip 7 points 1 week ago (1 children)

I thought it's because the ending is confusing as heck?

[–] SloganLessons@lemmy.world 5 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

That, but it was especially because the game didn’t live up to the marketing material. It under delivered on a lot of promises

I don’t think the massacre had anything to do with the poor reception of the game, or at least I never heard of anyone complaining about it

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