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> most U.S. politicians do not recognize just how two-faced their country is. > Hypocrisy is central to Washington’s soft power -- its ability to get other co

> most U.S. politicians do not recognize just how two-faced their country is. > Hypocrisy is central to Washington’s soft power -- its ability to get other countries > to accept the legitimacy of its actions -- yet few Americans appreciate its role. > Liberals tend to believe that other countries cooperate with the United States because > American ideals are attractive and the U.S.-led international system is fair. Realists > may be more cynical, yet if they think about Washington’s hypocrisy at all, they > consider it irrelevant. This is just astonishingly brilliant. It is exactly the perception of the rest of the world but I never saw it so bluntly articulated in the American media.

kamjam 13y ago
Liberals tend to believe that other countries cooperate with the United States because American ideals are attractive and the U.S.-led international system is fair. I just watched The Four Horsemen on Youtube. It's pretty interesting, although nothing eye opening, but good to see it in one package (so to speak). The economic model to screw over everyone else to advance itself should have made it more than obvious everything you ever suspected was true. Now that more and more of these suspicions are being confirmed the US is on the back foot. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5fbvquHSPJU http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5fbvquHSPJU
notahacker 13y ago
I'm not sure about that. The claim that [insert political force here] is able to claim legitimacy only through hypocrisy is one of the oldest in politics, and the article does little to sustain the questionable assertion that most US politicians don't recognize the power game they're playing. It also misses the obvious corollary: other countries' hypocrisy is key to their willingness to accept US soft power when it generally aligns with their interests. (And yes, they're being just as hypocritical when they do selectively draw attention to America's hypocrisy) The article's claims that pre-Snowden "Chinese officials, although well aware that the Americans were acting hypocritically, avoided calling them out directly" are easily falsified by a quick search of Xinhua http://news.xinhuanet.com/english2010/china/2010-01/24/c_13148512.htm http://news.xinhuanet.com/english2010/china/2010-01/24/c_131... http://news.xinhuanet.com/english2010/china/2011-04/10/c_13822179.htm http://news.xinhuanet.com/english2010/china/2011-04/10/c_138... There's nothing remotely novel about other countries' willingness to assert that the US is hypocritical (particularly when on the defensive) and nothing to suggest they won't continue to maintain the relationship despite the "shock revelations" of the last few years, which, if anything, are rather less surprising and compelling than the "shock revelations" of the generations before. If half a century of coup d'etats sponsored by American spooks can't dent the prestige of America's push for "global democracy", it's hardly going to be dented by hard evidence that American spooks also spy. Just because Snowden woke up some of those so uninterested in politics they find claims of US hypocrisy novel doesn't mean the rest of the world was asleep.
- platz 13y ago
  'The claim that [insert political force here] is able to claim legitimacy only through hypocrisy is one of the oldest in politics,' and it sounds like something from Noam Chomsky's playbook too.
JonnieCache 13y ago
Unfortunately, Cryptome, illustrious as it may be in our eyes, is hardly "the American Media."

kamjam 13y ago

Liberals tend to believe that other countries cooperate with the United States because American ideals are attractive and the U.S.-led international system is fair. I just watched The Four Horsemen on Youtube. It's pretty interesting, although nothing eye opening, but good to see it in one package (so to speak). The economic model to screw over everyone else to advance itself should have made it more than obvious everything you ever suspected was true. Now that more and more of these suspicions are being confirmed the US is on the back foot. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5fbvquHSPJU http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5fbvquHSPJU

notahacker 13y ago

I'm not sure about that. The claim that [insert political force here] is able to claim legitimacy only through hypocrisy is one of the oldest in politics, and the article does little to sustain the questionable assertion that most US politicians don't recognize the power game they're playing. It also misses the obvious corollary: other countries' hypocrisy is key to their willingness to accept US soft power when it generally aligns with their interests. (And yes, they're being just as hypocritical when they do selectively draw attention to America's hypocrisy) The article's claims that pre-Snowden "Chinese officials, although well aware that the Americans were acting hypocritically, avoided calling them out directly" are easily falsified by a quick search of Xinhua http://news.xinhuanet.com/english2010/china/2010-01/24/c_13148512.htm http://news.xinhuanet.com/english2010/china/2010-01/24/c_131... http://news.xinhuanet.com/english2010/china/2011-04/10/c_13822179.htm http://news.xinhuanet.com/english2010/china/2011-04/10/c_138... There's nothing remotely novel about other countries' willingness to assert that the US is hypocritical (particularly when on the defensive) and nothing to suggest they won't continue to maintain the relationship despite the "shock revelations" of the last few years, which, if anything, are rather less surprising and compelling than the "shock revelations" of the generations before. If half a century of coup d'etats sponsored by American spooks can't dent the prestige of America's push for "global democracy", it's hardly going to be dented by hard evidence that American spooks also spy. Just because Snowden woke up some of those so uninterested in politics they find claims of US hypocrisy novel doesn't mean the rest of the world was asleep.

platz 13y ago
'The claim that [insert political force here] is able to claim legitimacy only through hypocrisy is one of the oldest in politics,' and it sounds like something from Noam Chomsky's playbook too.

JonnieCache 13y ago

Unfortunately, Cryptome, illustrious as it may be in our eyes, is hardly "the American Media."