Many HN types don’t really care about politics that don’t affect them directly. Imperialism and war directed at countries they never think about doesn’t bother many Americans. Only fellow Americans who share their ideology matter. Everyone else can pound sand. Foreigners aren’t real people to them.
Even democracy, which everyone claims to support, can be dismantled with many people not really noticing because they are mindlessly submissive to authority. America is doing a pretty good job of setting itself up for a very grim and conflict ridden future and many people don’t even notice that. Climate change? Oh tech will save us don’t worry!
It’s a weird time for sure. The deeper the multiple crises we face get, the more determined the masses are to bury their heads even deeper in the sand. The fanatical pursuit of ever elusive “happiness” and effectively enforced optimism that threatens transgressors with social ostracism is a sure sign that things are not okay.
The American people fully embrace pathological denial but they are, of course, in denial about that too and are always relieved to find another messenger they can shoot.
The US support for Saudi Arabia, to which the hardline anti-Iran policy belongs as well, is one of the biggest disgraces of modern US foreign politics.
The support for a dictatorial regime that allows child marriage, has Medieval punishments for political opponents and for which atheism is a criminal offense: this support makes any claim that the USA is the defender of the free democratic world a joke.
The US-Saudi relationship is a strategic alliance. In this complex world there are few chances to ally with, support, trade with, or align with ONLY free and democratic countries.
The US is aligned with the most free and democratic state in the Middle East (Israel) as well as one of the least free (KSA). [0] The NATO alliance sees the US formally aligned with one of the world's most free democracies (Norway) and a country that is judged as not-free at all (Turkey)[0].
Unless the US sticks to supporting - in words, with trade, and in security terms - the very small handful of countries that can claim to be entirely free and democratic it's going to get its hands dirty siding with people and states that it would, in a perfect world, prefer not to.
Sideloader|6 years ago
Even democracy, which everyone claims to support, can be dismantled with many people not really noticing because they are mindlessly submissive to authority. America is doing a pretty good job of setting itself up for a very grim and conflict ridden future and many people don’t even notice that. Climate change? Oh tech will save us don’t worry!
It’s a weird time for sure. The deeper the multiple crises we face get, the more determined the masses are to bury their heads even deeper in the sand. The fanatical pursuit of ever elusive “happiness” and effectively enforced optimism that threatens transgressors with social ostracism is a sure sign that things are not okay.
The American people fully embrace pathological denial but they are, of course, in denial about that too and are always relieved to find another messenger they can shoot.
misja|6 years ago
The support for a dictatorial regime that allows child marriage, has Medieval punishments for political opponents and for which atheism is a criminal offense: this support makes any claim that the USA is the defender of the free democratic world a joke.
docdeek|6 years ago
The US is aligned with the most free and democratic state in the Middle East (Israel) as well as one of the least free (KSA). [0] The NATO alliance sees the US formally aligned with one of the world's most free democracies (Norway) and a country that is judged as not-free at all (Turkey)[0].
Unless the US sticks to supporting - in words, with trade, and in security terms - the very small handful of countries that can claim to be entirely free and democratic it's going to get its hands dirty siding with people and states that it would, in a perfect world, prefer not to.
[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Democracy_in_the_Middle_East_a...