[DmenshunlAnlsis]

There’s a difference, namely that you can say “Kent State” and look it up online, read about it in textbooks, see the newspaper articles, and discuss it online without fear.

Try that with the Tiananmen Square massacre in China.

Another difference is that four civilians died in Kent state, while 1022 died in Tiananmen Square. That’s three orders of magnitude difference, and why Kent State is typically called “Kent State Shootings” while Tiananmen Square was a “Massacre”. In fact an order of magnitude more policemen and military died in Tiananmen than overall fatalities at Kent State.

They are not comparable. I’m fact more people died in Tiananmen than died protesting the entire Vietnam War in the US.

[robotresearcher]

No one claimed they were identical. Kent State is a simple counter example to the claim made in the parent comment.

[simonh]

Kent state was tragic, but not only is it not subject to pervasive and draconian state censorship, it also was not explicitly ordered as an intentional massacre by the government. That particular distinction really does matter.

[robotresearcher]

So it was a less bad massacre of protesters by government forces. Shall we forget about it, and claim it doesn’t happen here?

Hell no.

[simonh]

Because forgetting about it was exactly what I was suggesting? Those straw men burn real nice, don't they.

[robotresearcher]

I named Kent State as an example of a US massacre of protestors, in response to a parent saying it doesn’t happen in the US. That’s all.

[JumpCrisscross]

> I named Kent State as an example of a US massacre of protestors, in response to a parent saying it doesn’t happen in the US

Tianamen was a massacre, but it was much more than that. If you think these incidents are comparable, you may find reading about them rewarding.

[bsder]

Your post places Kent State and Tiananmen in equivalent counterpoint without comment. That is a rhetorical device generally used to point out equivalencies.

As such, you are getting blasted, and rightly so.

People are finally becoming tired of the "false equivalency" and the "well, just pointing it out" as these are the tools of the propaganda arms of the Chinese, the Russians, and, yes, the US governments in order to manipulate social media sites and people are striking back when they occur.

I find this a very useful form of social vaccination that has taken far too long to take root.

[amaccuish]

> Your post places Kent State and Tiananmen in equivalent counterpoint without comment

It doesn't actually, if you'd read the thread. Maybe you missed the edit? He was replying to someone who stated that there are no such massacres in the US. He pointed one out. That is all.

Parent

> Edit: I feel like there is going to be what-about-tism responses. So, before you respond, ask yourself if you can criticize the Chinese government, protest against it and make a change in China. Last time that happened in Tiananmen square, there was massacre. That does not happen in US.

[DmenshunlAnlsis]

It’s still comparing the deaths of four people to the deaths of well over a thousand. On every level of the comparison it’s dishonest, from antecedent to impact to aftermath. There really is no comparison except thst both events are called “massacres” which really just tells you more about how many need to die at government hands in the US to achieve that status. If the government killed 1022 civilians in a comparable event in the US... honestly it’s hard to imagine. At the very least, it would be one of the most significant events of the century, and would be a lot more notorious than the already infamous Kent State shootings.

[michaelmrose]

Sources within the Chinese government put the death toll at 10,000 people