4 ms·

As it stands, this doesn't sound dissimilar to America (which also spends billions on making the world love it in the name of soft power)

kitschshrine 10y ago
well, then you probably need reading comprehension classes. the world isn't black and white, it's shades of grey
- kristianc 10y ago
  Trump has proposed exactly the same kind of 30% import tax, is also happy to turn a blind eye to air pollution and has handed over the Department of Education to a billionaire who to all intents and purposes bought the job. Perhaps those American exceptionalism rose tinted sunglasses aren't working so well for you.
caio1982 10y ago
Your argument has a name: tu quoque.
- kristianc 10y ago
  Then that argument is true of the Economist's article too, which explicitly quotes Nye.
dave_sullivan 10y ago
Boo. False equivalency. Can we acknowledge that this is the favored argument by authoritarian propaganda machines and it's a baseless distraction? It has no place here. More: http://www.npr.org/2017/03/17/520435073/trump-embraces-one-of-russias-favorite-propaganda-tactics-whataboutism http://www.npr.org/2017/03/17/520435073/trump-embraces-one-o...
- kristianc 10y ago
  The article explicitly cites Nye and how American concept of soft power is being adopted by authoritarian regimes.
  - dave_sullivan 10y ago
    Huh? Not sure how that's relevant to you trying to use a garbage argument in response to very valid criticisms of modern China. Everything PP said was accurate, US doesn't come close by comparison, your observation is manipulatively off base.
throwayedidqo 10y ago
The US is also still largely a transparent democracy. By soft-power do you mean the only modern country so defined by its achievements that it's culture is emulated across the world? In the former Soviet Union and even in modern China it's fashionable and a sign of wealth to have American technology and fashion. Among many trade barriers, China artificially limits the number of American movies allowed in theaters to a couple a year because they're so popular. Even countries with extremely friendly relations to the US take some actions to limit the pervasiveness of US culture. In the case of Japan, limiting the number of US baseball players on Japanese teams comes to mind. It's telling that even with the magnitude of recent intel leaks there has been nothing found to indicate the US uses government funded propaganda. They don't need to. Not to go too off my chain too much on why US culture is looked up to, but we're talking about the country that invented the car,microchip, transistor, computer, atomic weapons, GPS, and the internet. Most of the great inventions of modern history were created in the United States, some of them by the government itself. Silicon valley continues to pump out the most valuable companies in the world at an astounding rate to this day. So what is soft power exactly? Is it bad that a lot of countries look up to the US model of society? Is that unfair? Your claim is baseless, American culture is popular simply because the US is so successful.
- kristianc 10y ago
  And yet the US export of soft power to the Middle East largely ended in ignominious failure. And there's plenty of intel out there in the open that the US funds propaganda abroad, such as Omidyar's co-funding of the Ukraine resistance (https://pando.com/2014/02/28/pierre-omidyar-co-funded-ukraine-revolution-groups-with-us-government-documents-show/ https://pando.com/2014/02/28/pierre-omidyar-co-funded-ukrain...). Or in Chile, where the United States overthrew a democratically elected leader and installed a dictator who went on to commit over 300 human rights atrocities. Indeed many of the technologies you cite as being invented by the US were invented within a military context! Atomic weapons were not, I'm sorry to say, America's wonderful altruistic gift to the world. The US has certainly been successful projecting its power around the world - arguing that that has come from the sheer force of American global popularity is more of a stretch.

kitschshrine 10y ago

well, then you probably need reading comprehension classes. the world isn't black and white, it's shades of grey

kristianc 10y ago
Trump has proposed exactly the same kind of 30% import tax, is also happy to turn a blind eye to air pollution and has handed over the Department of Education to a billionaire who to all intents and purposes bought the job. Perhaps those American exceptionalism rose tinted sunglasses aren't working so well for you.

caio1982 10y ago

Your argument has a name: tu quoque.

kristianc 10y ago
Then that argument is true of the Economist's article too, which explicitly quotes Nye.

dave_sullivan 10y ago

Boo. False equivalency. Can we acknowledge that this is the favored argument by authoritarian propaganda machines and it's a baseless distraction? It has no place here. More: http://www.npr.org/2017/03/17/520435073/trump-embraces-one-of-russias-favorite-propaganda-tactics-whataboutism http://www.npr.org/2017/03/17/520435073/trump-embraces-one-o...

kristianc 10y ago
The article explicitly cites Nye and how American concept of soft power is being adopted by authoritarian regimes.
- dave_sullivan 10y ago
  Huh? Not sure how that's relevant to you trying to use a garbage argument in response to very valid criticisms of modern China. Everything PP said was accurate, US doesn't come close by comparison, your observation is manipulatively off base.

throwayedidqo 10y ago

The US is also still largely a transparent democracy. By soft-power do you mean the only modern country so defined by its achievements that it's culture is emulated across the world? In the former Soviet Union and even in modern China it's fashionable and a sign of wealth to have American technology and fashion. Among many trade barriers, China artificially limits the number of American movies allowed in theaters to a couple a year because they're so popular. Even countries with extremely friendly relations to the US take some actions to limit the pervasiveness of US culture. In the case of Japan, limiting the number of US baseball players on Japanese teams comes to mind. It's telling that even with the magnitude of recent intel leaks there has been nothing found to indicate the US uses government funded propaganda. They don't need to. Not to go too off my chain too much on why US culture is looked up to, but we're talking about the country that invented the car,microchip, transistor, computer, atomic weapons, GPS, and the internet. Most of the great inventions of modern history were created in the United States, some of them by the government itself. Silicon valley continues to pump out the most valuable companies in the world at an astounding rate to this day. So what is soft power exactly? Is it bad that a lot of countries look up to the US model of society? Is that unfair? Your claim is baseless, American culture is popular simply because the US is so successful.

kristianc 10y ago
And yet the US export of soft power to the Middle East largely ended in ignominious failure. And there's plenty of intel out there in the open that the US funds propaganda abroad, such as Omidyar's co-funding of the Ukraine resistance (https://pando.com/2014/02/28/pierre-omidyar-co-funded-ukraine-revolution-groups-with-us-government-documents-show/ https://pando.com/2014/02/28/pierre-omidyar-co-funded-ukrain...). Or in Chile, where the United States overthrew a democratically elected leader and installed a dictator who went on to commit over 300 human rights atrocities. Indeed many of the technologies you cite as being invented by the US were invented within a military context! Atomic weapons were not, I'm sorry to say, America's wonderful altruistic gift to the world. The US has certainly been successful projecting its power around the world - arguing that that has come from the sheer force of American global popularity is more of a stretch.