But the meme was not about that percentage, Stalin’s ussr had a much higher % of the population incarcerated and consequently also very likely a much higher percentage of the world prison population than the USA has now. This is not checked in the fact check and I doubt enough numbers are even available, it’s just deduction from population numbers. The meme doesn’t care about it either, it’s just doing Godwin’s law to draw a comparison of USA prisons to something like this: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nazino_tragedy It might as well have been a meme comparing Nazi concentration camps with USA prisons (not the new republican ones that are being opened now, but the ones at the time the meme was made). It’s a completely misappropriate comparison to make.
It wouldn’t matter if Stalin had 80% of the world’s prison population… the meme is meant to shock you that the USA could even be in the same order of magnitude by having nearly a quarter of the world’s prison population in modern times while having less than 5% of the world’s total population. That seems stalinesque.
Compare it to western Europe or Canada and people will be shocked as well.
Compare it to Stalin’s gulags or call it stalinesque and I am appalled. Stalin’s gulags were so much worse that the comparison is either made out of historical revisionism or out of ignorance. And since this meme first appeared in a period when Putin was working on historical revisionism, it wouldn’t surprise me one bit if it was deliberate misinformation.
They aren’t disputing the information presented. Simply the context of associating it with an image of stalin. Sort of sane washing him. It’s definitely bad that the United States does this. But it’s also definitely bad that it keeps getting reposted in this sort of context as a propaganda tool. Two things can be bad. Why couldn’t meme just ask what country does this? And then end with the United states. And I’d argue it would be just as impactful. Without having to downplay the horrors of another group.
I don’t really uave a horse in this, but why won’t you address the actual claim made in the meme?
You called it misinformation, but never once contradicted the actual claim: The US prison population is 22% of the world prison population
This is an old meme, it’s easy to look up a fact check, here’s one: https://www.truthorfiction.com/under-stalin-repression-was-so-severe-that-soviet-gulags-held-22-of-the-worlds-prison-population/
But the meme was not about that percentage, Stalin’s ussr had a much higher % of the population incarcerated and consequently also very likely a much higher percentage of the world prison population than the USA has now. This is not checked in the fact check and I doubt enough numbers are even available, it’s just deduction from population numbers. The meme doesn’t care about it either, it’s just doing Godwin’s law to draw a comparison of USA prisons to something like this: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nazino_tragedy It might as well have been a meme comparing Nazi concentration camps with USA prisons (not the new republican ones that are being opened now, but the ones at the time the meme was made). It’s a completely misappropriate comparison to make.
It wouldn’t matter if Stalin had 80% of the world’s prison population… the meme is meant to shock you that the USA could even be in the same order of magnitude by having nearly a quarter of the world’s prison population in modern times while having less than 5% of the world’s total population. That seems stalinesque.
Compare it to western Europe or Canada and people will be shocked as well.
Compare it to Stalin’s gulags or call it stalinesque and I am appalled. Stalin’s gulags were so much worse that the comparison is either made out of historical revisionism or out of ignorance. And since this meme first appeared in a period when Putin was working on historical revisionism, it wouldn’t surprise me one bit if it was deliberate misinformation.
They aren’t disputing the information presented. Simply the context of associating it with an image of stalin. Sort of sane washing him. It’s definitely bad that the United States does this. But it’s also definitely bad that it keeps getting reposted in this sort of context as a propaganda tool. Two things can be bad. Why couldn’t meme just ask what country does this? And then end with the United states. And I’d argue it would be just as impactful. Without having to downplay the horrors of another group.