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> This is a good opportunity to suss out which of your "anti-imperialist" friends are anti-imperialist, and which are actually just anti-US-imperialist. This o
by testbjjl 4y ago
> This is a good opportunity to suss out which of your "anti-imperialist" friends are anti-imperialist, and which are actually just anti-US-imperialist.
This opportunity has existed for some time. It’s clear to me at least where most Americans stand on this matter. I watched an In Depth with Chomsky on C-SPAN about a month back when in my opinion he summarized the position succinctly: America is willing to fight Russia and the invasion with every last Ukrainian.
- kspacewalk2 4y agoOoh, "to the last Ukrainian", man what a zinger, har har. It can't be that Ukrainians are begging to be sent weapons to defend themselves from literal genocide and the US is the good guy in the story. That would just blow up Chomsky's Formula For All Global Affairs: US Bad. And since US cannot be good by definition, Ukrainians should just accept their country, language and culture being erased, like don't they know something something spheres of influence and some guy promised no NATO enlargement (actually not, but don't look into that because remember, US Bad).
- nathanaldensr 4y agoHow many "literal" things have happened recently that turned out to be far more nuanced?
- stoltzmann 4y agoI don't quite see your point here. Russians were killing Ukrainian civilians in territory they attacked and occupied, and presumably this is still happening on the territory they still hold. I definitely count that as genocide, I don't see how this situation can be more nuanced.
- kspacewalk2 4y agoOkay, so to what end do you wish to employ this appeal to nuance? I ask because usually this is just a naive argument in favour of inaction. Of course inaction is an action in itself, with consequences that can be just as serious as those of actions. See e.g. Obama on Syria.
- EB-Barrington 4y agoOK, but in Ukraine, this is actually a genocide. Research it yourself, by any means, and see if you can come to any other conclusion. It's the opposite of nuanced.
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- kcb 4y agoThat's just the classic, the US is the only country that controls world foreign policy and everyone else just plays along.
- EB-Barrington 4y agoAmerica fighting "with every last Ukrainian" is the literally the same line the Kremlin uses. It's propaganda, and makes no sense - against barbaric Russian soldiers committing countless rapes and civilian executions... Ukraine would fight to the last Ukrainian even without any external support.
- teh64 4y agoThat is some real American Exceptionalism from Chomsky. It's as if he is saying Ukraine can't think for themselves and that everything everyone does is somehow attributable to America's meddling.