How people back in WWII knew about war crimes committed by the allied forces or axis powers? At the time: it’s not like you can just say “I’m posting this online!”, there was no such thing as Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Reddit or Twitter (X) since they didn’t exist in 1939-45. The internet didn’t exist when Pearl Harbor was attacked, so that was only heard from word of mouth or tabloids (newspapers).
Now, when speaking about war crimes that the Americans, Brits or French committed during that era: people were oblivious about it at first only seeing them as liberators whilst overlooking their flaws (due to the propaganda floating about back then). They did kill German PoW’s, but how would the average joe in 1945 know that without the reliance of computers, search engines or social media feeds.
The thing is, how did normal people during that era manage to call out the Allies or Axis for their war crimes without the reliance of computers, social media or the internet (let alone livestream) during 1939-45? Japan did establish Unit 731, where Chinese and Allied PoW’s were subjected to brutal torture or human experimentation. How would people know its existence (let alone what goes on inside) during the 40s?
That would be up to the audience whether they trusted media outlets at the time, depending on where they live: as German people wouldn’t know about concentration camps (unless they worked in one as contractors or prison guards) since the Nazis censored that from the press, nor did Japanese people know about Nanking or Unit 731 during that era since their own press omits that as the government polices on what information they’re allowed to disclose.
A lot more Germans knew about the concentration camps than just the ones directly involved in it. People didn’t want to know and kept looking away or didn’t care for the people they believed were scum.
It’s conditioned by the Nazis via indoctrinating Germans to hate minorities (even kids were made to join the Hitler Youth) at that time, or true apathy. Unless they were the ones who are being treated the same way by someone else. Like when the Soviets managed to arrive during the latter years of the war, they did mistreat those people (even after the war).
Don’t forget that all of Europe had a very strong antisemitism context. The Nazis didn’t start from zero on their hate of the Jews, and help from the rest of Europe (and America) was scarce because of that
And that is different from Social Media of today in what way?
I trust the AP a hell of a lot more than anything I see on Youtube or Facebook. Fuck, when it comes down to it I trust Fox News more than any social media outlet, mostly because I know Fox News is propaganda.
In so many ways you can’t even imagine.
Most of it comes down to: things on today’s social media are 99.9% lies, and 1000 different ways of lying are involved all the time. That just wasn’t there. If there were lies in the official media, then it was the exception, not the normal, and the audience often recognized it, because they knew in advance what these “critical” topics were.
But there was also the time dimension. Nobody knew at that time what had happened somewhere else in the same hour. Rarely in the same week. Outcries about war crimes often happened only years later. And that was NOT regarded as a problem but as the normal thing, things were just as they were.
That comment is about people deciding to trust social media.
I will “bite” on your ramblings.
Do you really believe that the press of 1940s Germany and Japan was not 99.9% lies and 1000 different way of lying?
Let’s roll it back even before 1940s. Don’t you think it is strange that it is called Spanish Flu, even though the first case was in Kansas, USA?
How old are you?
Can you believe that times are different at all?
Social media is much more likely to be full of information that is NOT true than to be compltely devoid of information that IS true.
But to your point: that is why Israel now controls TikTok in the United States.
yeah. I do find they don’t put much into misinformation. I think its because all they need is the headline since most people do not read much more.
Tell me about it. I currently made a post and am getting hammered by morons who clearly only read the title, and not even very thoughfully at that.
did you post more than a title and link?
yes, and i regret it.
why? sounds like you did your part. if you had not given any more context then yeah its expected to get that but if you did then its on them to read the post. its understandable someone does not go off to another website but if the info is where they are hanging out then its on them.
well, it’s a little bit of a joke–i regret it because so many people didn’t read it.
His point was “it is up to the audience whether or not they trust the press.”
And that is 100% the case when it comes to social media.
That is a totally different topic and completely wrong.
They didn’t have modern technology at their fingertips: only radio, newspapers, press and word of mouth. It really depends on what country you lived in during that era (US, UK, Japan, Germany, Russia, France, etc). have their own perspectives regarding the war.
They have their own takes on it, if you grew up in Japan during the 40s: you’ll be brainwashed to believe that Americans are the bad guys (or that’s how the government puts it) while another person from the UK during the same time knows what Japan is really up to.
All of that is correct and completely unrelated to the topic at hand.