People voicing their opinions on Reddit don't have any meaningful influence US foreign policy, they don't reap any benefit from the presence or absence of new periodic Lethal Aid to Ukraine, and they don't have information necessary to make sound choices even if they did.
I wouldn't trust a Redditor to set US policy on Ukraine, much less to the tune of $24B/year. I wouldn't trust Congress or the White House, either. But I have as much control over the former as the former does over the latter, so it hardly matters what any of us think.
But at least people recognize there is a limit to our world influence
I mean, kinda? But this feels more like the "Don't Back A Loser" Trump mentality. Like, Ukraine was supposed to have this shit locked up weeks ago. Russia was supposed to be routed, while Ukrainians pour across the border to liberate Moscow. The CIA was supposed to have couped Putin by now. Biden was supposed to be standing on the deck of an aircraft carrier beneath a Mission Accomplished banner, so the Libs could crow to their Conservative rivals that Democrats do Neoconservatism better than any of their team did.
Instead, we've got a pivot to the south and a long intractable siege. No big W to brag about. Nobody to Own. Just another big money pit to hook our printer up to.
we should be focusing largely on improving domestic issues, at least economically.
And we are. We're putting more cops in NYC subways than ever before. We're giving oil companies billions to fight climate change. We're Defending Our Borders and protecting children from the Disney Trans Menace.
Those are all issues that politicians can brag about. But the Ukraine fight isn't producing anything particularly cheery to campaign on. That's what matters.
It’s fun for the whole family and a perfect distraction from the fact that our economy has been stalling since 2008.
More like 2001.
Google "Jobless Recovery". Bush's economic growth was powered almost entirely by financialization and outsourcing. The real domestic economy hasn't seen growth in this century.
You can make a stronger argument that the US economy was still growing under Clinton than under Bush. Although, yes, the pieces for permanent stagnation were being put into place under Clinton and the Gingrich/Lott GOP.
Clearly bezos and musk are betting on space, but I just don’t see it.
Hard to have markets without people. And getting people into space is incredibly difficult relative to the benefit of them being there.
Amazon’s logistics development alongside google/Microsoft/IBM ai work is probably the more important stuff for our future society, but fuck it is miserable funneling it all through austerity politics
Either Marx was right, and labor power really does produce a better future. Or he was wrong, and capitalists can run the rest of us like gerbils on an exercise wheel forever, with minimal complaint.
I'm betting on Marxism winning out in the end. But it's going to continue to be a slog.
I think the US would be more than happy to cut Ukraine checks every month, all else being equal. That money is just getting kicked back to US interests anyway.
This isn't manufactured consent. Its blowback to a failed foreign policy. You're going to see the media work hard to shift this perception back into line with the views of the MIC. And you're going to see politicians exploit the divisions and contradictions this policy creates wrt our domestic situation and our policy towards China.
You have to know what the baseline sentiment is before you can reshape it. Reddit is useful both for shaping consensus and for sending up trial balloons to see how westerners respond.
People voicing their opinions on Reddit don't have any meaningful influence US foreign policy, they don't reap any benefit from the presence or absence of new periodic Lethal Aid to Ukraine, and they don't have information necessary to make sound choices even if they did.
I wouldn't trust a Redditor to set US policy on Ukraine, much less to the tune of $24B/year. I wouldn't trust Congress or the White House, either. But I have as much control over the former as the former does over the latter, so it hardly matters what any of us think.
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I mean, kinda? But this feels more like the "Don't Back A Loser" Trump mentality. Like, Ukraine was supposed to have this shit locked up weeks ago. Russia was supposed to be routed, while Ukrainians pour across the border to liberate Moscow. The CIA was supposed to have couped Putin by now. Biden was supposed to be standing on the deck of an aircraft carrier beneath a Mission Accomplished banner, so the Libs could crow to their Conservative rivals that Democrats do Neoconservatism better than any of their team did.
Instead, we've got a pivot to the south and a long intractable siege. No big W to brag about. Nobody to Own. Just another big money pit to hook our printer up to.
And we are. We're putting more cops in NYC subways than ever before. We're giving oil companies billions to fight climate change. We're Defending Our Borders and protecting children from the Disney Trans Menace.
Those are all issues that politicians can brag about. But the Ukraine fight isn't producing anything particularly cheery to campaign on. That's what matters.
deleted by creator
More like 2001.
Google "Jobless Recovery". Bush's economic growth was powered almost entirely by financialization and outsourcing. The real domestic economy hasn't seen growth in this century.
deleted by creator
You can make a stronger argument that the US economy was still growing under Clinton than under Bush. Although, yes, the pieces for permanent stagnation were being put into place under Clinton and the Gingrich/Lott GOP.
deleted by creator
Hard to have markets without people. And getting people into space is incredibly difficult relative to the benefit of them being there.
Either Marx was right, and labor power really does produce a better future. Or he was wrong, and capitalists can run the rest of us like gerbils on an exercise wheel forever, with minimal complaint.
I'm betting on Marxism winning out in the end. But it's going to continue to be a slog.
deleted by creator
I think the US would be more than happy to cut Ukraine checks every month, all else being equal. That money is just getting kicked back to US interests anyway.
This isn't manufactured consent. Its blowback to a failed foreign policy. You're going to see the media work hard to shift this perception back into line with the views of the MIC. And you're going to see politicians exploit the divisions and contradictions this policy creates wrt our domestic situation and our policy towards China.
deleted by creator
You have to know what the baseline sentiment is before you can reshape it. Reddit is useful both for shaping consensus and for sending up trial balloons to see how westerners respond.