It's a materialist approach to deconstruct what it means. It's always good to seek where information is coming from, who is saying it and why, otherwise it is easy to fall into reactionary behaviour ripe for and often bred from misunderstandings. In this case:

The slogan has historically been contextualized as a reaction to the U.S. government's policies towards Islamic countries and merely an expression of outrage at those policies, not a wish for literal death for American people themselves.[13] In a speech to university students, Iran's supreme leader Ali Khamenei interpreted the slogan as "death to the U.S.'s policies, death to arrogance".[14]

In other words... Before reacting to inflammatory phrases, it's important to understand their actual meaning, cultural context, and who's using them and why - things often get misunderstood across language/cultural barriers. America could certainly use the humility and self reflection.

[–] DylanMc6@lemmy.ml -5 points 2 months ago (1 children)

So that slogan started as an extreme opposition-type slogan from Islamic countries?

[–] fossilesque@mander.xyz 17 points 2 months ago

Brother, it's all explained in the first paragraph of the wiki article...

Death to America"[a] is an anti-American political slogan widely used in Iran,[1] Afghanistan,[2] Lebanon,[3] Yemen,[4] Iraq,[5][6] and Pakistan.[7][8] Ruhollah Khomeini, the first supreme leader of Iran, popularized the term.[9] He opposed the chant for radio and television but not for protests and other occasions.[1] The literal meaning of the Persian phrase Marg bar Âmrikâ (مرگ بر آمریکا) is "Death to America". In most official Iranian translations, the phrase is translated into English as the less crude "Down with America".[10][11] The chant "Death to America" has come to be employed by various anti-American groups and protesters worldwide.[12]

Curiosity is healthy, please embrace it.