Excellent essay! You really cut through the noise in our culture and politics and highlight the pertinent issue: our political class is owned by Wall Street and advances a foreign policy based on what's good for Wall Street, but they sell it to the public with this charade about protecting democracy, which they could not care less about doing, but which they demand everyone go along with as if it was true. Same pattern holds with domestic policy really.
We use "democracy" and "human rights" as a stick to beat countries that we do not like, whilst ignoring far worse violations by ourselves, our vassals and our satraps.
It’s really nice to see and read some IR talk, brings me back to my bachelors. I could never stand realist ideology, always felt like anyone who adheres to it is belying their neoliberal intentions without saying it to me.
But as the old adage goes: at least be honest about your intentions. No one trusts you if you patronize them, and unfortunately that’s where our foreign policy is at now. I’ll take a realist any day, because at least I’d know what their motivations are.
Excellent essay! You really cut through the noise in our culture and politics and highlight the pertinent issue: our political class is owned by Wall Street and advances a foreign policy based on what's good for Wall Street, but they sell it to the public with this charade about protecting democracy, which they could not care less about doing, but which they demand everyone go along with as if it was true. Same pattern holds with domestic policy really.
We use "democracy" and "human rights" as a stick to beat countries that we do not like, whilst ignoring far worse violations by ourselves, our vassals and our satraps.
https://www.politico.com/story/2017/12/19/tillerson-state-human-rights-304118
Not only is Zelensky a "dictator" but his government is clearly a facsist one. Maybe that is why they get US support.
It’s really nice to see and read some IR talk, brings me back to my bachelors. I could never stand realist ideology, always felt like anyone who adheres to it is belying their neoliberal intentions without saying it to me.
But as the old adage goes: at least be honest about your intentions. No one trusts you if you patronize them, and unfortunately that’s where our foreign policy is at now. I’ll take a realist any day, because at least I’d know what their motivations are.