This may sound cynical, but it is not intended so. The baffling confusion spoken of is most likely tied to alienating nationalism, which is really just a mixtu

This may sound cynical, but it is not intended so. The baffling confusion spoken of is most likely tied to alienating nationalism, which is really just a mixture of politics and ethnocentricity. * https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nationalism https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nationalism * https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethnocentrism https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethnocentrism Those are bad for discourse, but what's more troubling is that nationalism seems to be a common political trend of the moment. Other examples of nation level political administrations promoting nationalism are India, Russia, Turkey, Israel, China. The most unfortunate part of that is not that allies are alienated or that relationships are soured, but that its corrosive economically often doing more harm where it intends benefit.