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The West is writing all the history books, and with the US having a monopoly in printing the worlds reserve currency and being the backbone of the West’s milita

The West is writing all the history books, and with the US having a monopoly in printing the worlds reserve currency and being the backbone of the West’s military might, history is obfuscated. An indictment of a former US Secretary of State is an indictment of America itself, and by proxy, its ally nations. I’ve worked in big tech companies with some of the most intelligent and capable people I’ve met in my entire life. And while they have very strong views on American politics — labeling Presidents, Senators, and other politicians corrupt, nefarious, incompetent, or some combination of all three - their views on Americas role on the world stage are more like America in a Hollywood film. The other countries are corrupt, “shitty”, “evil”, etc and only America has the capability, will, and sort of a divine “right” to interfere and fix things, and fixing things means doing whatever we believe is right. No one in the West batted an eye when children would be murdered in drone attacks in Pakistan’s tribal region. When America and Russia fought proxy battles in Syria, there was no solidarity with the Syrian people. When our “ally” Saudi Arabia bombed the hell out of people in Yemen, again - there was no one asking questions. “We’re not targeting civilians” they’ll all say. I mean, America gave a new classification to all the “collateral damage”, simply labeling anyone they thought might be 18 years or older as being a militant, even if they’re just civilian bystanders.

thephyber 5y ago
This is cherry-picking. > The West is writing all the history books Sure, the ones read in the west. The history books read in the East are frequently written in the East. Iran, Russia, and China have very old societies with long histories. They, among others, have their own written histories. There is nothing significant preventing western citizens from researching history books written elsewhere. It’s not difficult to find common books/movies/documentaries which challenge the rose-colored-glasses narrative of the US / The West. Noam Chomsky, Oliver Stone, et al are “writing the history books” which violate your assertion. There is plenty of media content which is extremely critical of US. There are hurdles to get the US DoD to participate in projects which are strongly counter to pro-US narratives, but possible to do without their participation.
- ozzythecat 5y ago
  > Iran, Russia, and China have very old societies with long histories. They, among others, have their own written histories. There is nothing significant preventing western citizens from researching history books written elsewhere. Their long histories are besides the point. How many Americans recognize Kim Kardashian? Now tell us how many could recognize where Iran is on a map. The average American doesn’t know Noam Chomsky. The average US middle school or high school textbook gives a distorted perspective of history. The US “founding fathers” are portrayed as being all wise and noble, but I digress. > There is plenty of media content which is extremely critical of US. The media content is critical of the other political party. In international matters, they’ve generally presented Russia, China, and other non-European or NATO countries as corrupt, threatening, etc. In international matters, the US media has not only supported but practically cheerlead American war efforts. During the second Iraq War, CNN, ABC news, Fox, etc had correspondents “embedded” with the US military, purposely creating this fictitious narrative that Iraqis were viewing Americans as liberators. Meanwhile, American troops were rounding up civilians, forcing entry into their homes and searching house by house for hidden ammunitions and the so called “weapons of mass destruction”. Innocent Iraqis were murdered in cold blood for shooting at the invaders. Ya know, the same thing that Russians are doing now in Ukraine where we’re now calling them war criminals.
  - thephyber 5y ago
    You are just complaining. You don’t have a theme in your comments except The West has done things to complain about (I totally agree). The average person would rather watch celebrity sleaze content and corporate outrage news than challenge their own priors by reading challenging pieces on foreign policy. Same as every place on Earth. I’m not going to defend US foreign policy, but your false equivalence of US collateral damage and Russian purposefully attacking civilian dwellings only wdilutes any argument you might have been making.
    - ozzythecat 5y ago
      > I’m not going to defend US foreign policy, but your false equivalence of US collateral damage and Russian purposefully attacking civilian dwellings only wdilutes any argument you might have been making. When America murders innocent civilians or starts illegal wars, it’s simply “collateral damage”. When another country does it, it’s “purposefully attacking civilian dwellings”. This is exactly what I wrote in my post above - the sort of God/righteous complex that Westerners and particularly Americans have about their government, the same Americans who otherwise recognize their government is corrupt, sleazy, “the swamp”, or whatever other names they’ve come up with. It’s ironic that you responded a post later literally just confirming my claim. :)
thephyber 5y ago
That said, I agree that too many people don’t seek out narratives/facts that counter their priors (I think this is psychically painful like an attack on our ego/identity). And I agree with the bottom of your comment about the lack of empathy for Syrians, Yemenese, etc. Personally I think it’s difficult to understand the different belligerents and their incentives/intents when looking at say Pakistan or Yemen instead of the more obvious “Russia invades Ukraine” plot. It’s worth explaining this through the lens of the Military-Entertainment Complex (movies, shows/series, books, and sports sponsorships).

thephyber 5y ago

This is cherry-picking. > The West is writing all the history books Sure, the ones read in the west. The history books read in the East are frequently written in the East. Iran, Russia, and China have very old societies with long histories. They, among others, have their own written histories. There is nothing significant preventing western citizens from researching history books written elsewhere. It’s not difficult to find common books/movies/documentaries which challenge the rose-colored-glasses narrative of the US / The West. Noam Chomsky, Oliver Stone, et al are “writing the history books” which violate your assertion. There is plenty of media content which is extremely critical of US. There are hurdles to get the US DoD to participate in projects which are strongly counter to pro-US narratives, but possible to do without their participation.

ozzythecat 5y ago
> Iran, Russia, and China have very old societies with long histories. They, among others, have their own written histories. There is nothing significant preventing western citizens from researching history books written elsewhere. Their long histories are besides the point. How many Americans recognize Kim Kardashian? Now tell us how many could recognize where Iran is on a map. The average American doesn’t know Noam Chomsky. The average US middle school or high school textbook gives a distorted perspective of history. The US “founding fathers” are portrayed as being all wise and noble, but I digress. > There is plenty of media content which is extremely critical of US. The media content is critical of the other political party. In international matters, they’ve generally presented Russia, China, and other non-European or NATO countries as corrupt, threatening, etc. In international matters, the US media has not only supported but practically cheerlead American war efforts. During the second Iraq War, CNN, ABC news, Fox, etc had correspondents “embedded” with the US military, purposely creating this fictitious narrative that Iraqis were viewing Americans as liberators. Meanwhile, American troops were rounding up civilians, forcing entry into their homes and searching house by house for hidden ammunitions and the so called “weapons of mass destruction”. Innocent Iraqis were murdered in cold blood for shooting at the invaders. Ya know, the same thing that Russians are doing now in Ukraine where we’re now calling them war criminals.
- thephyber 5y ago
  You are just complaining. You don’t have a theme in your comments except The West has done things to complain about (I totally agree). The average person would rather watch celebrity sleaze content and corporate outrage news than challenge their own priors by reading challenging pieces on foreign policy. Same as every place on Earth. I’m not going to defend US foreign policy, but your false equivalence of US collateral damage and Russian purposefully attacking civilian dwellings only wdilutes any argument you might have been making.
  - ozzythecat 5y ago
    > I’m not going to defend US foreign policy, but your false equivalence of US collateral damage and Russian purposefully attacking civilian dwellings only wdilutes any argument you might have been making. When America murders innocent civilians or starts illegal wars, it’s simply “collateral damage”. When another country does it, it’s “purposefully attacking civilian dwellings”. This is exactly what I wrote in my post above - the sort of God/righteous complex that Westerners and particularly Americans have about their government, the same Americans who otherwise recognize their government is corrupt, sleazy, “the swamp”, or whatever other names they’ve come up with. It’s ironic that you responded a post later literally just confirming my claim. :)

thephyber 5y ago

That said, I agree that too many people don’t seek out narratives/facts that counter their priors (I think this is psychically painful like an attack on our ego/identity). And I agree with the bottom of your comment about the lack of empathy for Syrians, Yemenese, etc. Personally I think it’s difficult to understand the different belligerents and their incentives/intents when looking at say Pakistan or Yemen instead of the more obvious “Russia invades Ukraine” plot. It’s worth explaining this through the lens of the Military-Entertainment Complex (movies, shows/series, books, and sports sponsorships).