[y4mi]

I'm neither the parent poster nor American, but from a Europeans perspective I'd say that America handles their censorship differently. Dissenters disappear in China. In America they're discredited and made into conspiracy theorist.

But nonetheless: the tiananmen square is quite unique in it's bloodiness.i know of nothing even remotely as bad as military personal killing unarmed civilians in the hundreds which mostly just try to flee.

[Drfamiliarhate]

Maybe The Bonus Army in 1932, though far less intensified in terms of casualties. Many labor movements and strikes in 19th and early 21th century also led to death of up to 100 by law enforcement, state troops or private guards hired by business owner. Most recent case I can think of is the Kent University Shooting in which national guard killed 4 students protesting Vietnam War. Some witnesses said these soliders was not self-defensing but deliberately shot at the crowd

[chewz]

Communist military shoting workers - Berlin 1953, Gdansk 1970, Poznan 1956, Budapest 1956. Just out of top of my head. There were many more...

Communists are always down to this single argument at the end.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polish_protests_of_1970

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/East_German_uprising_of_1953

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hungarian_Revolution_of_1956

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pozna%C5%84_protests_of_1956

But also this - Blair Mountain - one milion rounds fired.

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

[powerapple]

Because no one cares to report anything else.

How is it unique in its bloodiness? You are rendering the human history a lovely picture of peace and kind. It may not be as nice as the Chinese government portrait it, and it may not be as bad as europeans portrait it either. There is nothing wrong with leaving it to the past and move one.

[y4mi]

> How is it unique in its bloodiness? You are rendering the human history a lovely picture of peace and kind

Absolutely not. It's uniqueness comes from is bloodiness in the context of the situation.

Most crimes of that caliber happen by systematically alienating a people, 'legitimizing' these clearly inhumane actions in some way.

Take the Holocaust for example. Jews were portrayed as the source of all problems for years and subsequently slaughtered in the millions. Clearly inhumane and wrong... And way worse than the square was, but still a 'us vs them' situation.

On the square, you got the military doing a parade and civilians standing in the way in a demonstration. Their only crime was their unwillingness to let the parade continue. And the military opened fire on these people, because they were standing in the way and unwilling to leave

You don't think that such a situation is unique?