Full disclosure, I live in Africa and don’t have a dog in this fight. I like proper discourse and it’s alright if I and another person disagree on something, what is important is that we communicate and understand where the other is coming from. The ultimate goal is the satiation of needless and avoidable suffering for all minds.
I’ve only been on Lemmy for a few days but across any sub I’ve noticed any criticism of China or the CCP is met with immediate downvotes and anything remotely positive of the US or really any western country whatsoever meets a similar fate.
Anything pro-African is mostly neutral but in essence ignored, no upvotes, no downvotes, no comments.
Has anyone else noticed this? Am I completely off base here? And is there anything else here that seemingly gets downvoted automatically. It would be sad to see the fediverse and Lemmy be nothing more than just another echo chamber on the web.
Finally, I am posting this assuming it will also be downvoted to hell based on the title alone and that itself will be some monochrome of truth of the situation here.
That would be understandable, the US is a shame, particularly these days. There are few places with that much wasted potential to make the world a better place.
Putting all patriotism aside, I don’t think there’s any reality in which the US uses its potential to make the world a better place.
The big difference nowadays is that it’s become patently clear that the US government isn’t even trying to make the US a better place.
Yeah, the only reason people are so pissed is because now instead of everyone in the US reaping the benefits of rampant imperialism and global oppression, only the elite are.
Americans are broadly incredibly self-centered and even here on Lemmy the majority of the leftists only consider what is best for them specifically, not what is best for the world.
As the self proclaimed leader of the free world there was a time where there was an attempt but behind it was always those with anterior motives. As for today I wonder what their goal is. Their leader only seems to care for himself alone and anyone following him will likely be left eating dust. That’s not to say the leaders here aren’t exactly the same. In fact I see a lot of similarities between the US and here these days.
There is no goal other than wealth accumulation. It’s a barefaced embrace of the “Gilded Age” corruption and excesses that existed before the bottom fell out in the early 20th century. On a high speed setting.
The underlying vibe is that there is an economic collapse coming (this is why we are in the “Late Stage Capitalism” phase where the middle class is now being eaten alive) and the power brokers and wealthy are grabbing as much as they can before it all falls apart.
Fun times ahead.
America is falling, and this should be an object lesson for the world in what happens when the billionaire classes are allowed to do what they want.
It is okay to set a maximum level of wealth for the ultra wealthy in your country. If not, do everything in your power to limit their policical power.
Protect yourselves.
That’s probably the best way to put it. We used to have a sense of hope here in the US. We could have made things better, raising the global standard. Instead we allowed corporations to poison everything to the point that our leaders are openly evil.
If you had hope in the US, you weren’t paying attention.
Yeah - the whole tankie thing is another matter entirely
Ha ha, no. The US never has, and never will, make the world a better place, in our lifetimes.
Do you think things would be better if they didn’t intervene in WWII? Initially they were staunchly isolationist.
The US spent a lot of money on soft power, essentially bribing countries to go along with their agenda. Much of that money did actually improve people’s lives, whether it was food aid, vaccinations, or AIDS care. Sure, it was to further their own objectives. Sure, it’s mostly because it’s cheaper to buy compliance than to bomb people into compliance. Humanitarian aid with strings attached is still humanitarian aid, though, or the collapse of USAID wouldn’t be such a problem.
Yet at the same time we were couping foreign countries’ democratically elected leaders to put genocidal strong men in power, sponsoring death squads in countries with leftist insurgencies in latin america and elsewhere, and making sure western corporations can get in and take their resources to no benefit and real harm to those countries, paying off and corrupting the aforementioned politicians we helped install because they are corrupt.
To say nothing of how we use sanctions, punishing entire countries to ostensibly create regime change, even though that has NEVER worked, and instead cements those regimes in power as people rally around the flag when attacked from without.
The US hasn’t been the good guy, since maybe world war II, and that was a one off.
I get your point, but the balance of US foreign policy is overwhelmingly bad.