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>These programs were largely about ensuring that American propaganda can reach people in Iran or similar places. This. The og point of USAID wasn't AID as per

>These programs were largely about ensuring that American propaganda can reach people in Iran or similar places. This. The og point of USAID wasn't AID as per the name would misleadingly let you believe, but spreading pro-US anti-USSR propaganda, and only like 3% of that program was spent on actual AID, like food and medicine for the third world, but most of it went to funding media, news and journalists across LatAm, Asia, Africa dn EE, that would push domestic support in those regions for US policies and be critical of US adversaries. US doesn't fund "freedom" of anything out of selflessness, it funds policies that are guaranteed to benefit it over its rivals, and use the word "freedom" to legitimize it. Once those benefits no longer materialize, the funding also goes away.

deleted 9mo ago
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BLKNSLVR 9mo ago
Makes the future interestingly unpredictable other than the inevitable fading of the US-isation of the rest of the world.
- joe_mamba 9mo ago
  >US-isation of the rest of the world Growing up in a post-communist country, Hollywood and the US music and gaming industry had more impact on the "US-isation of our country" than USAID propaganda, back then. But today most of Hollywood productions and music coming out of the US is pure trash that people abroad now reject it as propaganda garbage. US destroyed its global soft power, not by defunding USAID, but by forcibly injecting unpopular ideologies into its entertainment industry instead of sticking to tried and true formulas, ideals and values that transcend cultural and language barriers.
  - lyu07282 9mo ago
    > forcibly injecting unpopular ideologies Oh the right-wing propaganda of decrying "wokeness" in pop culture that "replaces" good old white christian culture is very much an export you fell victim to as well. It promotes far-right "alternative" political parties, useful to the US all the same..
    - joe_mamba 9mo ago
      [flagged]
      - ben_w 9mo ago
        You're mixing up a lot of things that don't really belong together here. To the broader point, Star Trek is a major cultural export of the USA, and has always shown what are now considered to be anti-right-wing ideals, from the Cage daring (by the standard of the era) to have a woman in a senior role in the command hierarchy rather than a traditional gender role, to the main series putting a Japanese officer on the bridge in the shadow of WW2 racial tension, a black woman on the bridge as a main-cast role even though US domestic politics were the Civil Rights era, and a Russian officer also on the bridge despite the US international politics being the Cold War era. By the films (perhaps sooner, IDK I'm not that nerdy), the canon was the Federation no longer used money. Later, Top Gun and Stargate SG-1 are both on-the-nose US military propaganda; the latter achieved success even though Sam Carter was not at all a traditional gender role, even introduced with stereotypical gender hostility before Jack O'Neill accepted her as an equal. Stargate Universe failed despite pushing the civilian scientists into military training, IMO because it was trying to be reboot-BSG with different set dressing, putting off all the people who wanted more Stargate without attracting anyone who wanted more BSG, but again, BSG itself managed to be a major cultural export despite the not-traditional-gender-role-conformant characters of Laura Roslin, Starbuck, and (even if they were not really human) Number Six and Number Eight. In specific details of what's mixed up and why it doesn't work together: > Yes, the "far right christian ideologies", such as masculinity, traditional gender roles, patriarchal values, self sacrifice and fighting for your kin and country, protestant work ethic and entrepreneurship, protecting your borders against foreign invaders, hierarchical social structures based on merit, the same values and ideologies that built and made the western anglo-european civilizations the envy of the world superpowers, that got us to the moon, and where the rest of the world wants to emigrate to. Some of that is indeed far-right (masculinity, patriarchal values, and what is currently seen as "traditional" gender roles while actually missing both what those were and why they were fundamentally changed by inventions such as the washing machine and childhood vaccination). "Self sacrifice", "fighting for your kin and country", and "protecting your borders against foreign invaders" are basically everywhere, those didn't help differentiate "the western anglo-european civilizations" from anyone else, you'll find the former in every culture we have records for, and the latter two (if you accept "territory" rather than "country") even more broadly in species whose most recent common ancestor we share was when dinosaurs still ruled the earth. "protestant work ethic and entrepreneurship", I mean the Catholics would like a word about the former, let alone historical references like the Islamic golden age having already finished three centuries before the Protestant reformation and China being busy as the Middle Kingdom for most of world history right up until the west surprised them with the Industrial Revolution; and if "entrepreneurship" is limited to "far right" then the USSR getting to space first and China doing pretty well in the last few decades are also counter-examples. "hierarchical social structures based on merit" covers everyone except anarchists and hereditary rule, I think? > and where the rest of the world wants to emigrate to No we don't. At this point, lots of us are skipping the USA even just for holidays and business trips, let alone migration.
  - boelboel 9mo ago
    Most Hollywood production has always been trash. US shows are still very popular and influential. Many countries are just richer post 2000s, subsidize their movie industry and it's way easier to distribute movies internationally compared to 30 years ago. Barrier to entry in general has gone down. Pretending woke is the main reason ignores many things.
mopsi 9mo ago
> only like 3% of that program was spent on actual AID, like food and medicine for the third world, but most of it went to funding media, news and journalists across LatAm, Asia, Africa dn EE Source please. This doesn't pass the smell test, because the largest expenses in international aid programs are usually related to healthcare and agriculture. Propaganda is very cheap compared to producing and distributing malaria drugs or grain to the most remote corners of the world or building water sanitation plants in places that have no roads and no electricity.
Cipater 9mo ago
>only like 3% of that program was spent on actual AID, like food and medicine for the third world, but most of it went to funding media, news and journalists across LatAm, Asia, Africa dn EE, that would push domestic support in those regions for US policies and be critical of US adversaries. 3%? There was a lot of waste with the program but surely, please give this at least 30 seconds of thought.
- joe_mamba 9mo ago
  My bad, it was 5-15% of USAID that went towards food aid to countries in need.
frm88 9mo ago
The budget for USAID in 2024 was $25.6 billion [0]. $ 9.5 billion were allocated to health programs and $ 1.1 billion to agriculture, education and infrastructure [1]. You can do the math. [0] https://factually.co/fact-checks/politics/usaid-budget-2024-7d9e53 https://factually.co/fact-checks/politics/usaid-budget-2024-... [1] https://factually.co/fact-checks/health/usaid-2024-food-medicine-allocations-8248a9 https://factually.co/fact-checks/health/usaid-2024-food-medi...

deleted 9mo ago

[deleted]

BLKNSLVR 9mo ago

Makes the future interestingly unpredictable other than the inevitable fading of the US-isation of the rest of the world.

joe_mamba 9mo ago
>US-isation of the rest of the world Growing up in a post-communist country, Hollywood and the US music and gaming industry had more impact on the "US-isation of our country" than USAID propaganda, back then. But today most of Hollywood productions and music coming out of the US is pure trash that people abroad now reject it as propaganda garbage. US destroyed its global soft power, not by defunding USAID, but by forcibly injecting unpopular ideologies into its entertainment industry instead of sticking to tried and true formulas, ideals and values that transcend cultural and language barriers.
- lyu07282 9mo ago
  > forcibly injecting unpopular ideologies Oh the right-wing propaganda of decrying "wokeness" in pop culture that "replaces" good old white christian culture is very much an export you fell victim to as well. It promotes far-right "alternative" political parties, useful to the US all the same..
  - joe_mamba 9mo ago
    [flagged]
    - ben_w 9mo ago
      You're mixing up a lot of things that don't really belong together here. To the broader point, Star Trek is a major cultural export of the USA, and has always shown what are now considered to be anti-right-wing ideals, from the Cage daring (by the standard of the era) to have a woman in a senior role in the command hierarchy rather than a traditional gender role, to the main series putting a Japanese officer on the bridge in the shadow of WW2 racial tension, a black woman on the bridge as a main-cast role even though US domestic politics were the Civil Rights era, and a Russian officer also on the bridge despite the US international politics being the Cold War era. By the films (perhaps sooner, IDK I'm not that nerdy), the canon was the Federation no longer used money. Later, Top Gun and Stargate SG-1 are both on-the-nose US military propaganda; the latter achieved success even though Sam Carter was not at all a traditional gender role, even introduced with stereotypical gender hostility before Jack O'Neill accepted her as an equal. Stargate Universe failed despite pushing the civilian scientists into military training, IMO because it was trying to be reboot-BSG with different set dressing, putting off all the people who wanted more Stargate without attracting anyone who wanted more BSG, but again, BSG itself managed to be a major cultural export despite the not-traditional-gender-role-conformant characters of Laura Roslin, Starbuck, and (even if they were not really human) Number Six and Number Eight. In specific details of what's mixed up and why it doesn't work together: > Yes, the "far right christian ideologies", such as masculinity, traditional gender roles, patriarchal values, self sacrifice and fighting for your kin and country, protestant work ethic and entrepreneurship, protecting your borders against foreign invaders, hierarchical social structures based on merit, the same values and ideologies that built and made the western anglo-european civilizations the envy of the world superpowers, that got us to the moon, and where the rest of the world wants to emigrate to. Some of that is indeed far-right (masculinity, patriarchal values, and what is currently seen as "traditional" gender roles while actually missing both what those were and why they were fundamentally changed by inventions such as the washing machine and childhood vaccination). "Self sacrifice", "fighting for your kin and country", and "protecting your borders against foreign invaders" are basically everywhere, those didn't help differentiate "the western anglo-european civilizations" from anyone else, you'll find the former in every culture we have records for, and the latter two (if you accept "territory" rather than "country") even more broadly in species whose most recent common ancestor we share was when dinosaurs still ruled the earth. "protestant work ethic and entrepreneurship", I mean the Catholics would like a word about the former, let alone historical references like the Islamic golden age having already finished three centuries before the Protestant reformation and China being busy as the Middle Kingdom for most of world history right up until the west surprised them with the Industrial Revolution; and if "entrepreneurship" is limited to "far right" then the USSR getting to space first and China doing pretty well in the last few decades are also counter-examples. "hierarchical social structures based on merit" covers everyone except anarchists and hereditary rule, I think? > and where the rest of the world wants to emigrate to No we don't. At this point, lots of us are skipping the USA even just for holidays and business trips, let alone migration.
- boelboel 9mo ago
  Most Hollywood production has always been trash. US shows are still very popular and influential. Many countries are just richer post 2000s, subsidize their movie industry and it's way easier to distribute movies internationally compared to 30 years ago. Barrier to entry in general has gone down. Pretending woke is the main reason ignores many things.

mopsi 9mo ago

> only like 3% of that program was spent on actual AID, like food and medicine for the third world, but most of it went to funding media, news and journalists across LatAm, Asia, Africa dn EE Source please. This doesn't pass the smell test, because the largest expenses in international aid programs are usually related to healthcare and agriculture. Propaganda is very cheap compared to producing and distributing malaria drugs or grain to the most remote corners of the world or building water sanitation plants in places that have no roads and no electricity.

Cipater 9mo ago

>only like 3% of that program was spent on actual AID, like food and medicine for the third world, but most of it went to funding media, news and journalists across LatAm, Asia, Africa dn EE, that would push domestic support in those regions for US policies and be critical of US adversaries. 3%? There was a lot of waste with the program but surely, please give this at least 30 seconds of thought.

joe_mamba 9mo ago
My bad, it was 5-15% of USAID that went towards food aid to countries in need.

frm88 9mo ago

The budget for USAID in 2024 was $25.6 billion [0]. $ 9.5 billion were allocated to health programs and $ 1.1 billion to agriculture, education and infrastructure [1]. You can do the math. [0] https://factually.co/fact-checks/politics/usaid-budget-2024-7d9e53 https://factually.co/fact-checks/politics/usaid-budget-2024-... [1] https://factually.co/fact-checks/health/usaid-2024-food-medicine-allocations-8248a9 https://factually.co/fact-checks/health/usaid-2024-food-medi...