6 ms·

Because the US government is no longer even pretending to care about human rights.

by excalibur 1y ago

propagandist 1y ago
And it was always purely a pretense. One must laud the transparency this administration has introduced.
- mikeyouse 1y ago
  One really mustn't. There are plenty of people who work in government that actually care about human rights - this 'tear it down' mentality relies on the fantasy that it will be rebuilt in some better form. And this kind of 'both sides' bullshit from the article highlights it perfectly: > Blaha had already voiced frustration that despite the HRG passing its pilot phase, the Biden administration had not done enough to publicise it, meaning the provision to "facilitate receipt" of information was still not being fully honoured before the Trump administration deleted the channel entirely. One side didn't publicize it as much as we would have preferred, and the other one deleted it entirely. Both sides are bad!
  - runarberg 1y ago
    The ‘tear it down’ mentality is about tearing down the covers and exposing America for what it is. That is how I understood your parent at least. The USA has been doing human rights abuses for a long time, without any repercussions. The Iraq war and the Patriot Act is but a few of many many many more examples. For a while now the entire political spectrum in Europe has given this impunity to the USA, with the covers gone, maybe it will be harder—at least for the left of center parties—to give this impunity to the USA.
  - dfee 1y ago
    > There are plenty of people who work in government that actually care about human rights Hopefully most do! All should. However, most employees don’t pick what they work on. So it’s always at the discretion of the boss to determine what’s practically considered, regardless of ideals or desires.
  - propagandist 1y ago
    "Didn't publicize it as much as we would have preferred" is very polite speech for killing millions in "wars on terror" and through arming our great friends, the house of Saud, in their campaign against Yemen. Not going to get into the rich history of overthrowing local rulers and installing puppets through the most gruesome proxies to create "banana republics," the mass murder on a massive scale committed in the previous century, or the genocide that preceded to enable the founding of this state. This place is built on murder and theft. "Both sides" are guilty. One is less shy.
- hypeatei 1y ago
  > One must laud the transparency this administration has introduced. What transparency? What is transparent about running a meme coin that anyone in the world can bribe- sorry, "invest" in with no trace of who they are while you're President? As for the topic at hand: Trump truly has no vision for anything we do on the world stage so I don't believe it's a deliberate effort at "transparency"
  - speakfreely 1y ago
    > Trump truly has no vision for anything we do on the world stage It confuses me how anyone could look at what's happening in the world and see a lack of a plan. Trump administration seems to actually be unusually focused on foreign policy in this term and using geopolitical statecraft to upend the arrangements that were not working in favor of the US. The tariffs to force countries to choose US or China, putting the fear of Russia in Europe to pump up their defense spending, and the peacemaker strategy in the Middle East to force oil prices down to reduce inflation. It seems to be a very comprehensive strategy.
    - hypeatei 1y ago
      Tariffing the entire world, changing his position on Ukraine every week, and hinting at invasion of our allies is not coherent. On the Ukraine conflict, he didn't seem to understand that Putin is untrustworthy until recently.
    - actionfromafar 1y ago
      Upending the arrangements that were not working in favor of Trump!
    - cheema33 1y ago
      > Trump administration seems to actually be unusually focused on foreign policy.. You left out threatening to invade Canada if they did not join the US. And stealing Greenland. And asking Ukraine to give in to Putin's demands. Illegal tariffs that are a tax on common people. Yes, it may come as a shock to you that other countries do not pay the tariffs. We do. And unlike regular taxes, tariffs are not a progressive tax. So rich people love it. By almost all accounts, the US has lost ground globally. We have lost soft power and respect. Global surveys now show that the rest of world now sees us the baddies.
hirvi74 1y ago
[flagged]
- excalibur 1y ago
  > When did the US government ever care about human rights? July 4 1776
  - hirvi74 1y ago
    Educate me. How cruel was the treatment from the British truly? My understanding was things like "no taxation without representation" was unrealistic due to the sheer distance and amount of time required to travel between the US and the UK. We're talking somewhere around 2-4 months one way. To send a rep back and forth with a message like: US sends rep -> Uk and rep interact -> rep goes back to US with UK decision -> the US give their answer and the rep goes back to UK -> then rep goes back to the US with the UK's decision. Such an interaction could take well over a year. I also thought the US was the lowest taxed colony under British control? Not to mention it's not like the British didn't provide military protection to the colonies as well. I am not saying the revolution was purely unjustified, but I am not really aware of how bad things truly were. My history classes kind of glossed over that part.
    - pear01 1y ago
      Fwiw I believe the comment you are replying to was being sarcastic. Thus, you don't need educating. You're making their point.
    - whateveracct 1y ago
      The United States' way of government was revolutionary for its time, based on the cutting edge of human philosophy in many ways. The Bills of (negative) Rights in particular. It is a shame that it is being destroyed at lightspeed the last year, and worse that many don't seem to care.
    - dirtyoldmick 1y ago
      We didn't want to be ruled by wankers!
hydrogen7800 1y ago
Perception is reality. If there is at least a pretense of caring about human rights, then there is some modicum of shame upon leadership in not living up to them. And even if the desire was fake, creating a website to "tell us when we are being evil" is real. Pulling off the mask and showing the "true self", which is what the Trump administration is doing (and far more than that, I should add. It is only showing the "true self" of a subset of the population), is removing not only the potential for shame, but also accountability. I don't have to believe that America is/was a flawless champion of human rights to believe that it is much, much worse now.
gorbachev 1y ago
The US Government has never cared about human rights. It's always been used as a weapon to flog enemies. Allies like Israel can do whatever they like.
- cheema33 1y ago
  > Allies like Israel can do whatever they like. US has always looked the other way when Israel killed innocent civilians. But there were some limits on how far they could go. The difference now is that those limits have been removed.
- jkestner 1y ago
  That's what's interesting about this move (and all the other moves). We've stopped pretending we're good, signaling instead the prospect of violence to enemies foreign and domestic.
- hulitu 1y ago
  > The US Government has never cared about human rights. This is a blatant lie. /s They do care, and have always cared, about human rights. The human rights of the US Government and their sponsors.

Because the US government is no longer even pretending to care about human rights.

propagandist 1y ago

And it was always purely a pretense. One must laud the transparency this administration has introduced.

mikeyouse 1y ago
One really mustn't. There are plenty of people who work in government that actually care about human rights - this 'tear it down' mentality relies on the fantasy that it will be rebuilt in some better form. And this kind of 'both sides' bullshit from the article highlights it perfectly: > Blaha had already voiced frustration that despite the HRG passing its pilot phase, the Biden administration had not done enough to publicise it, meaning the provision to "facilitate receipt" of information was still not being fully honoured before the Trump administration deleted the channel entirely. One side didn't publicize it as much as we would have preferred, and the other one deleted it entirely. Both sides are bad!
- runarberg 1y ago
  The ‘tear it down’ mentality is about tearing down the covers and exposing America for what it is. That is how I understood your parent at least. The USA has been doing human rights abuses for a long time, without any repercussions. The Iraq war and the Patriot Act is but a few of many many many more examples. For a while now the entire political spectrum in Europe has given this impunity to the USA, with the covers gone, maybe it will be harder—at least for the left of center parties—to give this impunity to the USA.
- dfee 1y ago
  > There are plenty of people who work in government that actually care about human rights Hopefully most do! All should. However, most employees don’t pick what they work on. So it’s always at the discretion of the boss to determine what’s practically considered, regardless of ideals or desires.
- propagandist 1y ago
  "Didn't publicize it as much as we would have preferred" is very polite speech for killing millions in "wars on terror" and through arming our great friends, the house of Saud, in their campaign against Yemen. Not going to get into the rich history of overthrowing local rulers and installing puppets through the most gruesome proxies to create "banana republics," the mass murder on a massive scale committed in the previous century, or the genocide that preceded to enable the founding of this state. This place is built on murder and theft. "Both sides" are guilty. One is less shy.
hypeatei 1y ago
> One must laud the transparency this administration has introduced. What transparency? What is transparent about running a meme coin that anyone in the world can bribe- sorry, "invest" in with no trace of who they are while you're President? As for the topic at hand: Trump truly has no vision for anything we do on the world stage so I don't believe it's a deliberate effort at "transparency"
- speakfreely 1y ago
  > Trump truly has no vision for anything we do on the world stage It confuses me how anyone could look at what's happening in the world and see a lack of a plan. Trump administration seems to actually be unusually focused on foreign policy in this term and using geopolitical statecraft to upend the arrangements that were not working in favor of the US. The tariffs to force countries to choose US or China, putting the fear of Russia in Europe to pump up their defense spending, and the peacemaker strategy in the Middle East to force oil prices down to reduce inflation. It seems to be a very comprehensive strategy.
  - hypeatei 1y ago
    Tariffing the entire world, changing his position on Ukraine every week, and hinting at invasion of our allies is not coherent. On the Ukraine conflict, he didn't seem to understand that Putin is untrustworthy until recently.
  - actionfromafar 1y ago
    Upending the arrangements that were not working in favor of Trump!
  - cheema33 1y ago
    > Trump administration seems to actually be unusually focused on foreign policy.. You left out threatening to invade Canada if they did not join the US. And stealing Greenland. And asking Ukraine to give in to Putin's demands. Illegal tariffs that are a tax on common people. Yes, it may come as a shock to you that other countries do not pay the tariffs. We do. And unlike regular taxes, tariffs are not a progressive tax. So rich people love it. By almost all accounts, the US has lost ground globally. We have lost soft power and respect. Global surveys now show that the rest of world now sees us the baddies.

hirvi74 1y ago

[flagged]

excalibur 1y ago
> When did the US government ever care about human rights? July 4 1776
- hirvi74 1y ago
  Educate me. How cruel was the treatment from the British truly? My understanding was things like "no taxation without representation" was unrealistic due to the sheer distance and amount of time required to travel between the US and the UK. We're talking somewhere around 2-4 months one way. To send a rep back and forth with a message like: US sends rep -> Uk and rep interact -> rep goes back to US with UK decision -> the US give their answer and the rep goes back to UK -> then rep goes back to the US with the UK's decision. Such an interaction could take well over a year. I also thought the US was the lowest taxed colony under British control? Not to mention it's not like the British didn't provide military protection to the colonies as well. I am not saying the revolution was purely unjustified, but I am not really aware of how bad things truly were. My history classes kind of glossed over that part.
  - pear01 1y ago
    Fwiw I believe the comment you are replying to was being sarcastic. Thus, you don't need educating. You're making their point.
  - whateveracct 1y ago
    The United States' way of government was revolutionary for its time, based on the cutting edge of human philosophy in many ways. The Bills of (negative) Rights in particular. It is a shame that it is being destroyed at lightspeed the last year, and worse that many don't seem to care.
  - dirtyoldmick 1y ago
    We didn't want to be ruled by wankers!

hydrogen7800 1y ago

Perception is reality. If there is at least a pretense of caring about human rights, then there is some modicum of shame upon leadership in not living up to them. And even if the desire was fake, creating a website to "tell us when we are being evil" is real. Pulling off the mask and showing the "true self", which is what the Trump administration is doing (and far more than that, I should add. It is only showing the "true self" of a subset of the population), is removing not only the potential for shame, but also accountability. I don't have to believe that America is/was a flawless champion of human rights to believe that it is much, much worse now.

gorbachev 1y ago

The US Government has never cared about human rights. It's always been used as a weapon to flog enemies. Allies like Israel can do whatever they like.

cheema33 1y ago
> Allies like Israel can do whatever they like. US has always looked the other way when Israel killed innocent civilians. But there were some limits on how far they could go. The difference now is that those limits have been removed.
jkestner 1y ago
That's what's interesting about this move (and all the other moves). We've stopped pretending we're good, signaling instead the prospect of violence to enemies foreign and domestic.
hulitu 1y ago
> The US Government has never cared about human rights. This is a blatant lie. /s They do care, and have always cared, about human rights. The human rights of the US Government and their sponsors.