Yeah, I suppose at this point it’s harder to find countries that haven’t. Though the US and NATO-aligned nations do have a certain knack when it comes to atrocities.
The difference is that the US portrays itself as the bastion of freedom, democracy, and justice. With that logic, it makes sense if Russia or Syria or whoever else bombs innocent people because they’re barbarians who don’t value democracy.
But when the bastion of democracy, freedom, and justice drone strikes an American and random bystanders; drone strikes dozens of children and community leaders; drone strikes a bunch of doctors; spies on citizens and allies; illegally occupies an island to torture Muslims for decades before releasing them; kill citizens who are caring for their communities using leftist ideology; funds cartels and death squads to massacre labor activists and leftists in exchange for letting them traffic drugs; drop more bombs than in WWII on small countries, then rape and massacre their villagers; assassinate other democratically elected leaders; and no one is ever punished significantly for it, then maybe it’s time to stop blindly worshipping it.
All countries portray themselves well. European countries less than other Western ones, but Russia and China also cultivate a specific image of protectors of a lifestyle.
They’ve been less military active in force projection, so probably not many yet. But I’m sure they’ll get their chance as they become a super power with global power projection.
Actually, they’ve at least flooded their own hospitals, I wonder if they’ve accidentally bombed any with failing rocket stages?
It’s not logical for you to defend the US as global superpower by asserting, without evidence, that China might also do the same bad things if they could. They haven’t done those things and you’d need to provide compelling evidence that they have plans to do so. If not, you’re inventing a completely false equivalence out of whole cloth.
Okay. The U.S. is the largest power with the largest global power projection. China might also become a large power with global power projection. This is bad because they might bomb hospitals. This means the U.S. is bad because they do bomb hospitals. This means that China might as well be just as bad as America. This means that Ukraine might as well be just as bad as Russia because they also bomb hospitals.
So where is this going exactly? We’re still left with “America does bad shit at a larger scale way more often” even when you imagine China doing the same thing in an alternate reality. Is this a useful line of reason? I can justify literally anything doing this.
I’ve seen this rhetorical tactic taken up by neoliberals and left libs when arguing on behalf of imperialism.
“This is American exceptionalism to say the CIA and the US military are all powerful and the sole cause for 50+ coups and invasions. You are denying the agency of foreign nations to be fascist on their own by saying America installed all the fascists”
It’s like they are trying to use anti-Americanism to argue pro-Americanism. It’s really a great tactic for muddying the waters and confusing everything by using a left rhetorical tactic to defend the fascist American empire
yeah that’s a good rul- wait that’s literally all of them with a working military
No, it’s really not. Only if you’re willfully ignoring what the US does.
Yeah, I suppose at this point it’s harder to find countries that haven’t. Though the US and NATO-aligned nations do have a certain knack when it comes to atrocities.
The difference is that the US portrays itself as the bastion of freedom, democracy, and justice. With that logic, it makes sense if Russia or Syria or whoever else bombs innocent people because they’re barbarians who don’t value democracy.
But when the bastion of democracy, freedom, and justice drone strikes an American and random bystanders; drone strikes dozens of children and community leaders; drone strikes a bunch of doctors; spies on citizens and allies; illegally occupies an island to torture Muslims for decades before releasing them; kill citizens who are caring for their communities using leftist ideology; funds cartels and death squads to massacre labor activists and leftists in exchange for letting them traffic drugs; drop more bombs than in WWII on small countries, then rape and massacre their villagers; assassinate other democratically elected leaders; and no one is ever punished significantly for it, then maybe it’s time to stop blindly worshipping it.
All countries portray themselves well. European countries less than other Western ones, but Russia and China also cultivate a specific image of protectors of a lifestyle.
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What does that have to do with image cultivation?
They’ve been less military active in force projection, so probably not many yet. But I’m sure they’ll get their chance as they become a super power with global power projection.
Actually, they’ve at least flooded their own hospitals, I wonder if they’ve accidentally bombed any with failing rocket stages?
It’s not logical for you to defend the US as global superpower by asserting, without evidence, that China might also do the same bad things if they could. They haven’t done those things and you’d need to provide compelling evidence that they have plans to do so. If not, you’re inventing a completely false equivalence out of whole cloth.
Okay. The U.S. is the largest power with the largest global power projection. China might also become a large power with global power projection. This is bad because they might bomb hospitals. This means the U.S. is bad because they do bomb hospitals. This means that China might as well be just as bad as America. This means that Ukraine might as well be just as bad as Russia because they also bomb hospitals.
So where is this going exactly? We’re still left with “America does bad shit at a larger scale way more often” even when you imagine China doing the same thing in an alternate reality. Is this a useful line of reason? I can justify literally anything doing this.
Is this some sort of misguided american unexceptionalism where you think every other country is also doing wars in a billion places?
I’ve seen this rhetorical tactic taken up by neoliberals and left libs when arguing on behalf of imperialism.
“This is American exceptionalism to say the CIA and the US military are all powerful and the sole cause for 50+ coups and invasions. You are denying the agency of foreign nations to be fascist on their own by saying America installed all the fascists”
It’s like they are trying to use anti-Americanism to argue pro-Americanism. It’s really a great tactic for muddying the waters and confusing everything by using a left rhetorical tactic to defend the fascist American empire