I’ll get this out of the way right now, I’m a progressive socialist and Kissinger’s legacy in the world is one of reactionary repression and suffering. I find pretty much everything he stood for to be wrongheaded and harmful to society.

That said, celebrating someone dying in the way that’s happening now shows disrespect to human life and an utter lack of humanity. I understand the motivation, but it should be fought against by remembering that no one is ever just one thing, everyone is a mix of good and bad, and we certainly shouldn’t give in to the desire to rejoice at another’s death, no matter what we think of them.

  • ttmrichter@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    Fuck that opinion.

    Is celebrating the death of a human being mildly unpleasant? Sure. But is it more unpleasant than the 3-4 million deaths he caused? Fuck no.

    Celebrate the death of an evil man. Go for it. And for the neo-Victorian scolds who want to say that it’s bad to speak ill of the dead:

    You know what goes here!

    FUCK YOU!

    • assplode@kbin.social
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      1 year ago

      Celebrate the death of an evil man. Go for it.

      This is where I’m at too. I feel no guilt celebrating the death of an evil person.

  • deegeese@sopuli.xyz
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    1 year ago

    I’m not going to pretend he was a good person. The world is a better place with him gone.

    If we cannot celebrate the death of an evil man, how will younger generations learn to avoid the mistakes of the past?

    Pretending he never existed amounts to a coverup of his crimes.

    • ImplyingImplications@lemmy.ca
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      1 year ago

      Alfred Nobel’s death was celebrated prematurely. He held several very lucrative patents all related to explosive munitions. A newspaper accidentally ran his obituary which described him as the “merchant of death” and equated his life’s work to creating new ways to “mutilate and kill”. He was so distraught by what society thought of him that he used his massive fortune to create the Nobel Prize. He had hoped that this would change how people would remember him.

      I also think people who lead terrible lives should be remembered as such. Hopefully it causes other politicians to wonder what their own obituary will look like.

    • Lopen's Left Arm@sh.itjust.worksOP
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      1 year ago

      No one’s asking anyone to pretend he was a good person, or that he never existed. We don’t have to do any of that in not celebrating his death.

      Younger generations can learn to avoid the mistakes of the past through being educated by those who lived through it and by being exposed to human kindness and compassion instead of retributive hatred.

      • ShunkW@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        So if people celebrated the death of Hitler, you’d say the exact same thing right?

        There are times when it’s ok to celebrate the death of evil. The witch is dead was a UK #1 when Thatcher died. For good reason

      • Zerlyna@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        No that makes the kids feel bad to learn the shitty mistakes we made in the past. Can’t teach that. /s

  • JakenVeina@lemm.ee
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    1 year ago

    For my part, I agree. I don’t celebrate death. I sure as hell ain’t gonna mourn evil people, or pretend the world isn’t objectively better off without them. I’m also not gonna lose any sleep over other people doing it. I’ll happily celebrate any good things resulting from their death. But death itself isn’t to be celebrated, not for me.

  • Pons_Aelius@kbin.social
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    1 year ago

    Congratulations, you actually posted an unpopular opinion.

    I think the best comment in response is from @mawkishdave.

    I bet you would think different if his actions directly impacted you.

    That said, celebrating someone dying in the way that’s happening now shows disrespect to human life

    The man in question disrespected human life his entire life. He is just receiving what he dished out.

  • Poggervania@kbin.social
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    1 year ago

    It’s weird how more and more people celebrate death because of this really extreme “us vs them” mentality that’s been developed.

    I recall a lot of people were strangely happy when the people in that Titantic sub fucking died solely because the victims were rich people. Like… seriously? It was also weirdly morbid how people treated it like a spectacle with the Twitter account that was counting down the hours of air left.

    • livus@kbin.social
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      1 year ago

      I would never celebrate the death of the people on the Titanic.

      But they were not responsible for the deaths of millions of people and the suffering of millions more.

      • Maeve@kbin.social
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        1 year ago

        They could have alleviate the abject poverty of thousands and still maintained generational wealth. I’ve yet to meet decent billionaires. Maybe they earned it honestly from some accumulated good karma for prior lifetimes of decency.?

        • livus@kbin.social
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          I’m no fan of the people who died in it. I personally don’t celebrate the death of random bad people, even billionaires (who yes I agree, hoard resources by definition). They’re just deaths. Cogs in the machine.

          My point is the magnitude. Kissinger was a monster who went out of his way to deliberately cause and support wars and even genocides.

    • Melkath@kbin.social
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      1 year ago

      How is it weird or bizzare?

      The class war has taken us back to Depression era levels of poverty for the masses.

      Eat the rich.

      • Poggervania@kbin.social
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        1 year ago

        How is it weird or bizzare?

        Because of shit like your post. You basically went ahead and justified celebrating death by spouting some banal left-sounding rhetoric. It’s honestly the same kind of energy that right-wing nuts have whenever they talk about “taking America back” and idealizing the death of liberals and left-leaning people.

        There’s a fine line between a “good riddance” and “WOOHOOO THIS FUCKER IS DEAD” - the latter should truly be reserved for people like Hitler. I can see the latter for a piece of shit like Kissinger, but not for the Titantic sub people.

        But unfortunately, most of the internet nowadays won’t take a more level-headed approach until either Critikal or Asmongold does (if they do).

        • Melkath@kbin.social
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          1 year ago

          Your little name calling hissy fit missed on each mark.

          I consider myself an Independent/Anarchist.

          That said, if a man who has billions of dollars decides to pay 250k per seat to a man who has 12 million dollars to go on a ultra-mega-uber exclusive noone else can afford it voyage to see the Titanic in a vessel that has been speculated to have had a material cost (not engineering cost, material cost) of less than 50k dollars, then die by the model of the greed you spread in this world, then here is what I have to say.

          Rest in piss. So long mother fucker. Adios. You were an embarrassment in life and you will be a totem of dipshitery for as long as we remember “the dumb ass titanic submersible guy.”

          You could have spent a half million dollars to feed and clothe your neighbors. You could have fed a half million dollars back into your company to fairly pay your employees.

          No. You decided to go on a literal ego trip to your death.

          Only person I feel bad for in that story is the son, who never had an opportunity to demonstrate if he was an actual redeemable human being because someone who deserved a MUCH worse fate took a half million dollars to allow his father who deserved a MUCH MUCH worse fate to force him into the vessel.

          • Maeve@kbin.social
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            1 year ago

            Especially when 300? died just trying to survive, in the same time frame as useless billionaires, and hardly got attention on media and sm.

  • Urist@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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    1 year ago

    He lived to 100. He died a powerful and rich man. It’s not like some incredible violence happened to him and everyone is celebrating his pain. It seems to me he lived his best possible life, from his perspective. I’m sure he died without regrets. He was a psychopath.

    There’s nothing wrong with celebrating that this man is gone. I hope historians can illuminate his crimes. I hope we can collectively remember him as a villain, and accept his war crimes are something the USA is directly responsible for.

    I regret that he was never tried at The Hague.

  • assplode@kbin.social
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    1 year ago

    A truly unpopular opinion!

    celebrating someone dying in the way that’s happening now shows disrespect to human life and an utter lack of humanity.

    I disagree with this when applied to Kissenger. His actions directly contributed to millions of people unnecessarily dying. This is not an exaggeration.

    He committed treason against his country by purposely sabotaging Vietnam peace talks. He did this to ingratiate himself to Nixon, not for any sort of higher reason.

    His evil deeds are very much still fucking things up in the present day.

    Kissenger was one of the worst monsters of the modern era.

    To top it all off, he never received justice for any of his misdeeds. He was widely venerated and powerful until his death.

  • OpenStars@kbin.social
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    1 year ago

    I don’t think people here are very receptive to what you are trying to say - fwiw I don’t think what you want to convey can be taught in mere words, as it relates to people’s underlying worldview with which they filter everything. But some of us get what you mean, no matter what words are chosen, and I want to say kudos for standing up for decency.:-)

  • spacecowboy@sh.itjust.works
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    1 year ago

    The man is responsible for hundreds of thousands of deaths. You’re god damn right I’m going to cheer his own. I wish it was long and painful. I also wish he was locked up in “The Hague” when he died. Alone.

    But I know you’re just looking for engagement because nobody would be THAT naive to not think he deserves death and so much more.

    • OpenStars@kbin.social
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      I am not OP but the argument appears to be the difference between Justice vs. Vengeance - i.e. even actively cheering for his death is not quite the same as celebrating it happening, after the fact.

      • spacecowboy@sh.itjust.works
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        1 year ago

        I’m not sure how you came to that conclusion from what OP wrote.

        I wish he died a long time ago. And I’m happy he’s dead now.

  • Melkath@kbin.social
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    1 year ago

    Evil people deserve to be hated.

    Tolerance of intolerance (what you are doing here) is intolerance.

    Intolerance of intolerance (what people expressing joy over Kissingers death) is tolerance.

    Get off your fucking high horse, stop looking down your nose at actual good people, stop speaking up in defense of bad people.

    Not that fucking hard to understand.

  • cerement@slrpnk.net
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    1 year ago

    We’re not rejoicing his death per se but rejoicing in a new world where the murderer of over 4 million no longer walks among us.

    • DessertStorms@kbin.social
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      1 year ago

      How can this be so hard for people to understand?
      Gotta wonder if OP, being plopped in say, Paris 1945, would have also criticised people for celebrating Hitler finally ridding the world of himself…
      Fucking centrists. smdh

  • Nonameuser678@aussie.zone
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    1 year ago

    Simple thought experiment. If you were alive during Hitler’s death would you still feel the same way?

    I don’t like the idea of celebrating death because there’s usually at least one person who is mourning and deserves to be respected in that. If people were celebrating the death of my loved one then yeah i’d feel pretty shitty about that.

    But there is a certain category of person where this doesn’t apply. If you’re famous for doing war crimes then your death should be celebrated. It’s less about the person and more about what they symbolise. If you use your existence to bring such suffering upon the world then humanity kind of has a duty to celebrate the loss of that existence from the world.