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.
Exactly. All the talk about democracy and human rights has been a fraud for a very long time. Wall Street gets what it wants, because it has been running the country for generations. Even when Wall Street was far weaker in the 50s, it was still calling the shots.
When we care about our own sovereignty and let respect the sovereignty of other countries, it makes for better relations. AMLO in Mexico got along better with Trump than he does with Biden, even though AMLO is a hardcore socialist. Why? Because AMLO is a Mexican nationalist and not a globalist stooge.
Wall Street and DC treat American citizens just as badly as they do foreign countries. We are all peons to them. They like when we just nod and support like good NPCs. They hate when we actually believe in the lies that they tell us about liberty and democracy.
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.
There is something to be said for that. Zelensky has stomped opposition and organized the country around hating an external enemy, Russia.
The main concern for the US in foreign policy is to what extent a country opens itself for exploitation by US multinationals. Zelensky has changed the laws in Ukraine to allow foreign purchase of land and, from my understanding, Big Agriculture has bought up huge amounts of Ukrainian land over the last few years.
Ukraine has long been one of the most corrupt countries in the world. Zelensky is largely a puppet anyway, an actor playing his designated role. Soon after he was elected he tried to bring the Azov militia under control. Azov threatened to kill him if he negotiated peace with Russia. Of course, Azov was already an American proxy army and Sentors McCain and Graham had visited with them in December 2016. Biden bragged about his manipulation of Ukraine to get some money for Hunter (and his himself).
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.
Most people prefer the knife to their face rather than a stab in the back. Even idealist foreign policy is usually a cover to advance the interests of someone with influence and power.
Of course, most of the people making decisions on US foreign policy are pretty clueless as to both America's interests and the unfortunate target of their actions. Everything is just places on a map that they really don't know or understand, whether it be Omaha or Cairo.
Oh yea of course, I guess I should add that’s how I see all US foreign policy because of its nature. It’s gonna be pushing for interest/influence/power with some sort of cover because it’s nationalistic by definition 😂
Goddamn, I’m not fresh on any of the current players in the industry. How could they be that out of touch with their own jobs, are they just YesBots?? You mean there’s a serious disconnect between Federal US ideological/economic interests and the people tasked to sketch out policy and diplomacy for them, only to enforce it against parties they are unable/unwilling to understand?
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.
Exactly. All the talk about democracy and human rights has been a fraud for a very long time. Wall Street gets what it wants, because it has been running the country for generations. Even when Wall Street was far weaker in the 50s, it was still calling the shots.
When we care about our own sovereignty and let respect the sovereignty of other countries, it makes for better relations. AMLO in Mexico got along better with Trump than he does with Biden, even though AMLO is a hardcore socialist. Why? Because AMLO is a Mexican nationalist and not a globalist stooge.
Wall Street and DC treat American citizens just as badly as they do foreign countries. We are all peons to them. They like when we just nod and support like good NPCs. They hate when we actually believe in the lies that they tell us about liberty and democracy.
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
Exactly. Democracy is just a slogan these days, a tool to abuse others, while real democracy must be suppressed by any means available.
Not only is Zelensky a "dictator" but his government is clearly a facsist one. Maybe that is why they get US support.
There is something to be said for that. Zelensky has stomped opposition and organized the country around hating an external enemy, Russia.
The main concern for the US in foreign policy is to what extent a country opens itself for exploitation by US multinationals. Zelensky has changed the laws in Ukraine to allow foreign purchase of land and, from my understanding, Big Agriculture has bought up huge amounts of Ukrainian land over the last few years.
Ukraine has long been one of the most corrupt countries in the world. Zelensky is largely a puppet anyway, an actor playing his designated role. Soon after he was elected he tried to bring the Azov militia under control. Azov threatened to kill him if he negotiated peace with Russia. Of course, Azov was already an American proxy army and Sentors McCain and Graham had visited with them in December 2016. Biden bragged about his manipulation of Ukraine to get some money for Hunter (and his himself).
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.
Most people prefer the knife to their face rather than a stab in the back. Even idealist foreign policy is usually a cover to advance the interests of someone with influence and power.
Of course, most of the people making decisions on US foreign policy are pretty clueless as to both America's interests and the unfortunate target of their actions. Everything is just places on a map that they really don't know or understand, whether it be Omaha or Cairo.
Oh yea of course, I guess I should add that’s how I see all US foreign policy because of its nature. It’s gonna be pushing for interest/influence/power with some sort of cover because it’s nationalistic by definition 😂
Goddamn, I’m not fresh on any of the current players in the industry. How could they be that out of touch with their own jobs, are they just YesBots?? You mean there’s a serious disconnect between Federal US ideological/economic interests and the people tasked to sketch out policy and diplomacy for them, only to enforce it against parties they are unable/unwilling to understand?
Of course. You hit the target.
Yeesh, that explains a lot…