They know what they are doing. Their goals just don’t align with the rest of humanity.

The mistake we make is in assuming that government choices are born of incompetence… The actions of empire are not incompetent. They are not intended to serve you or the citizens, but to serve material interests, the plunder of land, natural resources, markets, and cheap labor".

-Michael Parenti

RIP to the GOAT

Edit: He talks about it in the lecture starting around 15:35. Though the quote above is from his book “against empire”

https://youtu.be/s5oPFAfdrkU?t=935