https://twitter.com/bayraktar_1love/status/1580125305200840704?s=20&t=WqNBC76ZkYse2KEGn97yEQ
Can this be considered dehumanizing?
Yeah but Joe Biden was against gay marriage before he was for it and he voted to invade Iraq, so I declare checkersmate.
reminds me of a line in this louis ck bit about a soldier on a plane and he’s like “he’s fighting for freedom, he thinks”
1 Like
yall gotta stop taking the bait
1 Like
So I’m really truly wondering if any of the usual suspects are going to talk about Iran giving Russia drones will only prolong the war.
Not that I think that people like Chomsky support Iran giving Russia drones, it’s more that I wonder how those types of messages get amplified so much.
Is it because it’s more interesting to people so it enters the discourse? Or is it something more sinister, and the narrative at large is easily manipulated by a state actor?
Probably both, but just a thought I had
3:08 in the second video is particularly on point
Can you explain how that is relevant at all?
1 Like
In theory, we collectively have indirect ability to affect American foreign policy because we are supposed to be a democracy. We have significantly less theoretical ability to affect how Russia or Iran act. Thus, for some people, it is much more interesting to talk about how the US can act unilaterally to increase the probability of their preferred outcomes, treating American action as the variable and Russian behavior as fixed.
Maybe, but it’s also 2022 and there’s several international forums online now, and the criticism of US supplying Russia was far from just American citizens or even western allies.
Honestly, I’m choosing to believe it’s more interesting. Ain’t nobody even pretending that the Russians or Iranians are motivated with some sort of moral values here. The other way is too pessimistic for me.
US citizens are responsible for what the US does. They’re not responsible for what Iran or Russia does. Pretty elementary. That’s why Chomsky’s foreign policy critiques focuses on US crimes and doesn’t have much to say about Iranian crimes. Because Chomsky is responsible for what the US does in a way he isn’t responsible for whatever Iran does.
So… not relevant to my post at all. Got it.
2 Likes
It’s directly relevant! Chomsky doesn’t ever have much of anything to say about Iran’s foreign policy, for the reasons laid out in those clips.
As a group, or as individual citizens?
You wondered if “the usual suspects” would talk about Iranian drones. Keeed told you why they won’t. Seems relevant to me, although he should have just posted what he wrote in his next post instead of some videos.
They’re responsible. Although Chomsky makes the point that average citizens in repressive societies probably have less responsibility than those in free societies, which seems sensible to me.
he was asking what chompsky said, thought why not go to the source.
There’s a lot more than Chomsky in this world, and the usual suspects here definitely aren’t all American or westernized.
Can you clarify whether by “usual suspects” you meant public figures like Chomsky or posters here influenced by people like Chomsky? I assumed the latter, but now I’m not so sure.