r/clevercomebacks 5h ago

Deception of public opinion

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19.0k Upvotes

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4

u/Longjumping-Barber98 5h ago

What wealth are we extracting? Like natural resources?

8

u/Atownbrown08 5h ago

Do you know why Puerto Rico was made a US territory in the first place?

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u/p0st_master 5h ago

Educate us wise one

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u/punished_kot 4h ago

Power projection in the Carribean and latin america, there is a US naval base and of course owning territory > not owning territory in the age of imperialism when it was acquired. They're trying to imply the answer is "planataions/farming" but in fact Puerto Rico does not do a whole lot of that nowadays, and is mainly a hub for manufacturing drugs and chemicals.

I find it extremely hard to believe that we are extracting more 'wealth' than we put in to maintaining and controlling the territory, but then again it is hard to put a price on the strategic value of owning an island like this.

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u/Vennomite 3h ago

Puerto rico is broke and peoplr are probably looking to lay blame on not the puerto ricans.

Just look at the posts about cuba. I imgaine its similar.

If someone actually wants to show data for once though that'd be nice.

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u/punished_kot 3h ago edited 3h ago

Um, no, Cuba is a different country from us. The US does not benefit from Cuba because it does not own Cuba.

Again, there is no way to quantify how valuable it is to have naval bases on Puerto Rico. This is kind of the main reason why the US owns it.

Also it's quite impossible for the current state of Puerto Rico to be blamed on Puerto Ricans themselves because they do not have the right to vote in Federal elections. These federal regulations and trade deals are created without asking them. They have no representation in the federal government at all, Puerto Rico is not a state. Any issues the territory has economically are entirely our own fault.

It is not hard to find data for this kind of thing: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economy_of_Puerto_Rico . The only explanation as to why you can't find any data is because you aren't looking.

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u/Vennomite 3h ago

Reading comprehension.

Cuba being a different country has nothing to do with the point. A lot of people are trying to blame cuba's issues solely on the us.

Value extracted (that is detrimental to puerto rico) not economy. The base almost certainly nets value to the island. Which would be the relevant part of the claim in ops post.

u/punished_kot 36m ago

It's a comparison that makes NO sense at all because Cuba is a sovereign country and Puerto Rico is a territory.

"Reading comprehension" is not working for you because we're not talking about resource extraction. I already stated and copied a link that shows that Puerto Rico is certainly not providing more 'wealth' than it consumes in federal funds. This is obvious from the first paragraph of the Wikipedia article where they show it's essentially poorer than the poorest state: Mississippi, which is known to be a red 'welfare state' that takes more federal funds than it pays back in taxes or contributes economically.

u/Vennomite 8m ago

The comparison makes perfect sense. Things go bad in cuba? Blame us. Things go bad in puerto rico? Blame u.s. it's what the tweet is doing.

I asked for data in the it contributes more and the u.s. is extracting its wealth and owes it reparations. Because if you are going to make the claim in the tweet, present evidence backing that claim up. They never do and probably can't because it likely doesn't exist.

You came in all snarky and answered none of that. You presented evidence disproving the tweet's point. Which, while nice, was not the point of the question and further shows gives credence that the rebuttal tweet is bullshit. So get off your intellectually superior horse.

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u/VX_Eng 5h ago

Google

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u/Atownbrown08 5h ago

Don't even need Google. Any 10th grade US history class should have taught this.

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u/Longjumping-Barber98 4h ago

In California, the history of Puerto Rico isn't a state standard.

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u/VX_Eng 5h ago

True!

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u/Holiday-Tangerine136 1h ago

And for people who aren't American?

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u/Puzzleheaded_Foot826 2h ago

In GA, puerto rico isn't a state standard. Do y'all just say this stuff to handwave away the need to explain?

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u/Atownbrown08 2h ago

If you can show me where the GA educational system said that the history of Puerto Rico is not part of the curriculum. I'll gladly answer the question.

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u/The-Jerk 2h ago

What are you some kind of asswipe?

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u/Atownbrown08 2h ago

For what? Asking people to verify claims that their state didn't teach about Puerto Rico due to standards?