This article smells like horseshit from thousands of miles away.

John Bingham wrote: ↑Fri Dec 16, 2022 11:56 am

bossho wrote: ↑Fri Dec 16, 2022 11:44 am This article smells like horseshit from thousands of miles away.

Why? It only has some minor inaccuracies as far as I can see. What do you think is wrong with it?

The suggestion that them bad ol' VN people done all this evil killin' over here in the KOW is what's wrong with it. If it's worthy I'll try to actually read the piece in question once I get to a computer and detail my findings. For now though, it does not pass the smell test.

Ok, so I was able to read the article in question on my phone and I found it to be good work overall. Richard and JB had me confused in their brief editorials. I disagree with the continued use of the death count of 2 to 2.5 million. I don't think Vickery, Heder or Kiernan use that figure but it continues to get repeated and unchallenged. What I do especially gravitate to in the article is the sense of KR normalcy that is portrayed. Narratives that show this very functional and social KR side are few and far between. It is rare to hear it told in this way but that normalcy seems to have been the case. These bizarre logic twists used to explain away the atrocities committed by Khmer onto Khmer can be seen in other instances of Khmer life and probably are rooted in lack of formal education, multi generational poverty and a tendency to repeat the careless imaginative ramblings of others.
It's likely too far in the past now to gather accounts of largely unaffected Khmer, those that basically did not suffer during the most violent period of KR led Cambodia. Even a seasoned pro like Heder is admits that there exists a massive lack of information about what happened and that social scientists really lack the ability to draw conclusions given how little is confirmed. The academic and political opportunism yielded by the atrocities that did happen seem to make possible for these reiterations of 2 to 2.5 million dead as in killed in the Civil War. No mention anywhere of more reasoned numbers like 750,000 killed and another 750,000 dead by gross mismanagement i.e. starvation by the KR administration. Also, did the word "genocide" just get abused so much that it gained connotation to include what happened in Democratic Kampuchea? What we're talking about is here is Khmer on Khmer murder and violence so how does that qualify as genocide unless of course genocide now means civil war violence and murder against your own ethnicity?

so this is why the Lock-Lock store at Aeon stays empty

(made in Vũng Tàu)

Reminds me of me jokingly saying "kluon barang - kbal khmer" or sth along those lines to some motodubs. It was pretty awkward, they looked at me like a ghost. Never tried it again.