this post was submitted on 26 Mar 2026
194 points (97.5% liked)

Asklemmy

53725 readers
1035 users here now

A loosely moderated place to ask open-ended questions

Search asklemmy ๐Ÿ”

If your post meets the following criteria, it's welcome here!

  1. Open-ended question
  2. Not offensive: at this point, we do not have the bandwidth to moderate overtly political discussions. Assume best intent and be excellent to each other.
  3. Not regarding using or support for Lemmy: context, see the list of support communities and tools for finding communities below
  4. Not ad nauseam inducing: please make sure it is a question that would be new to most members
  5. An actual topic of discussion

Looking for support?

Looking for a community?

~Icon~ ~by~ ~@Double_A@discuss.tchncs.de~

founded 7 years ago
MODERATORS
 

Yesterday, a Declaration of the trafficking of enslaved Africans and Racialized Chattel Enslavement of Africans as the Gravest Crime against Humanity was voted at UNO. As usual, Israel and the USA voted against. How did your country vote? Any thoughts about it?

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[โ€“] yucandu@lemmy.world 1 points 1 day ago (1 children)
[โ€“] mrdown@lemmy.world 7 points 1 day ago (2 children)

The transatlantic slavery trade lasted 400 years there was definitely more death caused by it than the Holocust .

[โ€“] CactusEcho@piefed.social 0 points 17 hours ago

How about this one? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Chinese_Famine

Your dad was probably alive when it happened

If it's about duration https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trans-Saharan_trade lasted longer and it had more victims.

[โ€“] stickly@lemmy.world 0 points 17 hours ago (1 children)

For sure, for sure. 15 million humans forcibly relocated and an estimated 30-60 million deaths over 400 years is certainly among the gravest human tragedies.

On the other hand could you imagine if tragedies like the holocaust or holodomor or the Chinese three years famine were extended to even a fraction of those 400 years? Or if a handful more cities had been nuked? Or if we let the 50 million people living in modern slavery die in bondage? What about the billions of people that have died from preventable diseases over centuries of neglect?

...Why are you even bothering to argue about this? There's no objectivity in these conversations, and yet you insist that everyone but you is wrong.

[โ€“] mrdown@lemmy.world 1 points 16 hours ago (1 children)

On the other hand could you imagine if tragedies like the holocaust or holodomor or the Chinese three years famine were extended to even a fraction of those 400 years?

If they extended to 400 years then yes they would be worst than the slave transatlantic trade

[โ€“] stickly@lemmy.world 2 points 13 hours ago

If someone walked up to me and told me to label anything as the gravest, worst thing to happen in human history I would definitely abstain. It's just not possible to say that [as a representative of millions of people] unless you're OK with diluting the conversation around serious ongoing problems with hyperbole.

Sorry to the millions of people being genocided in Gaza, the real gravest tragedy is something else (or vice versa). There is no correct objective answer to such loaded propositions.

You don't abstain from a resolution about slavery that include reparations to the victims because you think another crime against humanity is worse.

You shouldn't frame honest attempts at reparations and progressive policy in black/white terms. The point of this resolution is the same as everything in the UN: toothless posturing that goes nowhere to the domestic political benefit of everyone involved.

The Nay votes can say they're defending whatever tragedy plays best to their audience, the Yea can play off their moral superiority (either in opposition to Nays or for support of their tragedy) and the Abstainers get gold stars for their deft diplomatic balancing. And it didn't cost anyone anything but ink!

Us peons are supposed to slurp up the drama and pump our echo chamber full of our chosen narrative (see: this post). But there's another secret option: stop engaging with rage porn content, it's better for your health.