25 years ago an unknown Chinese protester stood in front of a tank in defiance of the government. No one knows the identity of the man but he was given the nick name “Tank Man”. This is one of the most iconic photographs of the century.
It’s actually been 27 years now since the incident known as the Tiananmen Square Massacre occurred. The picture above, famously referred to as “The Tank Man” was actually taken on June 5, the day after the massacre. (Which honestly makes him the one of the bravest person, to go back and stand up to a regime after such a terrible event transpired)
So what happened? I’m gonna give the TL;DR version:
- April 15, 1989. Hu Yaobang, a former Communist Party Chief dies.
- Many people, including workers, laborer, students and some officials come to mourn. You see, those protestors were originally there to mourn, not protest.
- Time passed and there were some hunger strikes, and protests, and a call for accountability and reform from the government.
- Eventually, things went south, because the communist party doesn’t have time to deal with these sorts of “demands” and grievances.
- Keep in mind, the people wanted not the end of the Communist Party, but for the party to stop with the official corruption, rule of law, and the gross monopoly of information and power.
- Incidentally, China still suffers from all of these SAME problems to this day…
- June 3, 1989. The massacre started at night to disperse the crowd. Many were shot, wounded, and killed.
- June 4, 1989. Some of the parents of the protestors who never came home went looking for them. It was still total mayhem.
- June 5, 1989. The iconic image of the tank man was taken. To this day, no one knows what became of this person.
Content Warning for video: blood
“Tell the world…”
I cannot stress how important it is that people remember and know about this event. Do you know how China responded? With lies and censorship.
Even now, in 2016, we do not have an official death toll on the Tiananmen Square Massacre, the Chinese government doesn’t even acknowledge the event as a “massacre”. And they weaves these cover stories of “counter revolutionaries trying to overthrow the government”. Therefore, the violence was necessary to ~protect~ the people. (Or some bullshit like that)
The amount of lying and censorship in China is, quite frankly, scary amazing. Tumblr, which somehow managed to fly under their radar, found itself being blocked in that country.
After all, tell a lie often enough and it becomes the truth.
And those who remember the incident in China? …………well, you tell me.
Please at least REMEMBER this tragedy. Untold innocent lives were lost, and a nation has been fed a lie for almost three decades now from their oppressive af regime.
I have never seen this video before.
What the fucking hell.
What the hell.
racist-virgin
here’s the full tank man photo by the way
surprised this dude could walk with balls that big
There is nothing like what nature brings to my soul. It offers something which society never can.
I need to have a picnic on a lavender field in France during a sunny midsummer afternoon at least once in my life
Apparently this happened 3 days ago. Did you know about it? i sure didn’t, because it’s not on any major news station. I’m tired of people ignoring us, I’m tired of people hating us, it’s really not difficult to just NOT vandalize a memorial that stands in honor of the 6 million Jews who were systematically murdered. It’s not hard to just NOT shoot us, or stab us, or kill us. It’s not hard!!!!! I do it every day!!!!!! SOMEBODY GET MAD FOR US FOR ONCE
I’m mad for you. This is heartbreaking.
Anyone interested can donate here: https://www.jewishnashville.org/waystogive/annualcampaign/annual-campaign-donation
“Some words stay in your head long after they’re spoken.”
— Robin Roe // A List of Cages
dewogong
I’ve been trying to find this gifset because this is relevant now more than ever.
holy crap Adventure Time
popokko-deactivated20210315
a few towns over there used to be a golf course with a bunch of statues and one of them was a huge orange dinosaur which became a local landmark. like this dinosaur was beloved. but its also important to note that its hideous. like really, really fucking ugly. and so more recently the golf course got removed and an apartment building was being built, and everyone was FURIOUS at the thought of them removing their precious, disgusting orange dinosaur, so the town had no choice but to leave it up. so now there is a brand new shiny apartment building with an anatomically incorrect orange dinosaur overlooking the horizon
popokko
i don’t think my description does it justice actually. here’s the man himself
can they please make a dishwasher with a transparent door? i want to see what's going on in there
washing machine: open, honest, shows you how its cleaning your clothes
dishwasher: mysterious, untrustworthy, keeps its cleaning methods a secret
Being an adult means realizing $1,000 is a lot to pay but so little to have.
deobibf-deactivated20200725
at this point tumblr is just for talking to yourself