Comment

Comment on YSK: The CIA proposed a 9/11 style false flag attack on US citizens to justify invading Cuba

The United States has always been the villain of the story. But they used to at least try to hide it behind a sheen of soft power. The only difference between now and then is that Trump unabashedly takes the mask off and gives no fuck what the rest of the world thinks.

source

Sort:hotnew top

Gorilladrums@lemmy.world ⁨17⁩ ⁨minutes⁩ ago
That’s stupid. This is something that’s undoubtedly positive that’s being painted as a negative by people who are naive. The one and only reason why we even know this was even a thing is because the US is a democracy with some degree of transparency. Even if its decades later, we can still publicly view, discuss, and criticize things that the government has done in the past because those documents were declassified and released to the public.

Most countries are not like this. There are a lot of instances like this that will never see the light of day until that regime collapses, and even then its successor might keep the secret going. For example, Turkey is STILL locking up the Ottoman archives relating to the Armenian genocide more than century later. There are so many evil plots and schemes made both in the past and present that we will probably never know about because they will never be released publicly due to the ruling regimes wanting to maintain their image. I wish there was more instances like this from the US and every country so we can see the good, the bad, and the ugly and get a real understanding of history.

source
voodooattack@lemmy.world ⁨11⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
US is the Andrew Tate of global politics right now. They were a lot more subtle about it before though. But the core values that have always held throughout history are absolute self-interest, entitlement, and hubris.

Apply Gestalt Theory to the US and watch how unrestrained capitalism raised this baby from an idealist freedom seeker and into a narcissistic bully with self-aggrandising sophist reasoning and a pure Machiavellian outlook on life.

Trump only did away with the pretences, by firing the people who took care of the subtle masquerade. He didn’t like the pushback from them on global policy, and because the shoes already fit, decided to just do it live on stage without the makeup.

Unfortunately for US citizens, that means that they get to experience the splashback as he pisses on their international credibility.

A historically meticulously curated and maintained image that’s now irrevocably ruined forevermore. No sane person can trust a promise or a treaty made through US foreign policy ever again.

source
- plyth@feddit.org ⁨8⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
  
  No sane person can trust a promise or a treaty made through US foreign policy ever again.
  
  And yet the Iranians rallied and did some revolting. Since dropping South Vietnam nobody can have relied on the US blindly. People must be taking a risk and hope that the support lasts long enough.
  
  Trump is in power because he does what the elite needs. I would like to know why there is no need to hide the mechanisms from the masses.
  
  source
FlashMobOfOne@lemmy.world ⁨9⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
Exactly.

Not much is different here than the presentation.

source
RightHandOfIkaros@lemmy.world ⁨9⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
Not just the US government. All government. Literally all of them. Not a single human government has ever existed in the history of humanity that wasn’t the villain of the story.

In not an anarchist, governments provide useful services and protections for their citizens. But lets not fool ourselves into thinking that any government is better than another, they are all bad equally, just in different ways.

source
- Adderbox76@lemmy.ca ⁨9⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
  I agree with you to a point. I would say however that it’s not the fact that government exists that’s the problem. It’s the fact that government is controlled by corporations and billionaires that is the problem.
  
  Take all of that away and have a government is actually by the people and for the people…we’d be golden.
  
  source
  - chicken@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨8⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
    Can that be realistically achieved though? Any representative government is going to be vulnerable to the selection effects of people who want to be in charge ending up in charge, and those of them most willing to do whatever it takes having a competitive advantage. The formation of an elite class colluding at the expense of the rest of us seems like a natural result.
    
    source
  - RightHandOfIkaros@lemmy.world ⁨8⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
    No, the problem is the people. All the people. Even if you take away business and money, which isn’t realistic, you still have to deal with the fact that humans are awful to each other, especially when they have power over each other. Government rulers throughout history have been horrible to their subjects just for the love of the game, sometimes they didn’t even get anything out of it. They just wanted others to suffer.
    
    Look at Reddit, or even here on Lemmy, honestly. Is every moderator and admin some magnanimous and benevolent person? No, of course not. Moderators have a bit of a reputation for being horrendously corrupt power trippers, right? Do they get paid to be that way? Sure, some, but even without that they would likely act the same regardless. And I am a moderator here on Lemmy saying this.
    
    There are not enough “nice” people in the world for a human government to ever work the way you suggest. And even if there were, there is no guarantee that they would always be that way. All it takes is one person criticizing people with authority, one person suggesting something those with authority don’t like, etc. No human government ever started from purely bad intentions. But the bad was baked in from before the start, it is unavoidable.
    
    source
GuyIncognito@lemmy.ca ⁨12⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
Soft power is woke, deal from strength or get crushed every time.

source