Progressives (Liberals)

Neoconservatism in American politics might be a phenomenon seen differently outside the USA (Remember: many there consider the Nazis to be Socialists.)

Indeed, they probly don't consider themselves extreme right but in effect, the neocons did push the republican party further to the right.

There's a related book review in the NYT: The Mind of Conservatism

One example:

Agreed! The temptation of "brand name politics" (good phrase) is the same as the temptation towards absolutes or black/white formulations - such formulations are simple and allow for some rest for the weary mind.

Hitchens' shift or critique was, in important ways, both sensible and honest. The neoconservatives got a long wrong and I'd be happy to yell about that all day long. But they got some things right as well, one being a moral position which held that America (or more correctly, the West) was obliged to attempt to curtail fascist/totalitarian movements arising in the world. One can easily make this argument while at the same time acknowledging that the drive to war in Iraq included other far less seemly motivations.

We can note here how Trump's politics - his anti-intellectualism, his natural affinities for kleptocracy and his courting and celebration of the world's worst regimes and leaders - have very understandably driven the neoconservative crowd into their opposition of him. Again, regardless of what they got wrong, they got this right.

Allan Bloom detailed in The Closing of the American Mind how his university students (most of whom were on the left) were unable to process the dilemmas and complexities which proceeded from a fixed notion that the West and America particularly (which surely had operated as an empire or series of empires) had produced only bad consequences - or perhaps it's more accurate to say that good consequences must not be permitted to be spoken of because the bad consequences were seen to be so disastrous morally and in fact. Again, the temptation for simple black/white formulations were too tough to resist.

Sermon ends.

Top 10 warning signs of ‘liberal imperialism’

He wouldn't be the first Marxist to turn his coat and start advocating wars of choice and xenophobia, among the tenets of the far right... There've been many other cases, historically. The neocons themselves used Trosky's entrism tactics, so they borrowed from communist revolutionary theory. The extremes touch each other, they say.

the testimony made it clear the whistleblower was right. the ass licking GOP senators cared far more about holding onto their own political power than they cared about the good of the country. Shameful,. and now trump's vendetta against people who tell the truth claims another victim.

Excellent piece. The 10 warning signs are quite well crafted.

The theory that 'West' has some sort of responsibility and moral authority to intervene in the 'East'and the 'South' is an old idea. It used to be called "the white man's burden" way back when people were not politically correct.

To use 'the West' terminology instead of 'the white man' is too timid an agionamento, in my view. In today's multipolar world, one could for instance speak of China's responsibility to intervene in for instance the US, in case the **** seriously hits the fan over there...

Isn't China helping the whole world, including 'the West', deal with the Covid-19 crisis? Do you think they should it crank up and invade countries that don't play ball?

The terms western world, the West, western (high) culture or occident can have different meanings depending on the context.
The term "West" or "Occident" e.g. originated as a counterpart to "Orient", which Luther first used in his Bible translation* (and which was introduced into the German language by Kaspar Hedio in 1529).

* If Luther had not let the three wise men go "from the Orient" to Bethlehem - who knows whether the "Occident" would then ever have arisen as a counter term. In the original Greek text of the Gospel of Matthew, the three kings simply arrive "at sunrise", from a geographically only vaguely defined region.

Right on. And again, this acknowledges the complexities that can upset one's hopes for a better world through intervention even where a moral argument is very compelling. Parenting or getting a marriage right are near impossibilities. Getting foreign policy right between nations of millions or billions isn't likely to be accomplished through some Hallmark-type formulation.

I would have thought my posts on this suggest I'm aware of your points.

Of course the words themselves have a point of view. These terms are eurocentric.

The term 'West' took a stronger meaning during the cold war. In 1960's France, 'Occident' was the name chosen by an extreme right student group from which a lot of FN people would ultimately emerged. Ils défendaient bien entendu les valeurs de l'Occident Chrétien...

Not this bit:

West Germany, for instance, means in Germany (in German) my homestate, North Rhine Westphalia (like in West German Radio, West German Football, WMH Group [West German Metal Trade], West German Society for Pneumology, ...) - because we are located in western Germany.

Westdeutschland ("West Germany") was the term used by the GDR instead of the official name Bundesrepublik Deutschland ("Federal Republic of Germany").

So, no moral obligations for other nations to intervene when 6 million Jews are systematically murdered? No moral obligations anywhere at any time to intervene in another nation's affairs no matter what is taking place? No moral obligations when Russia annexes Ukraine? No moral obligations if an African nation sets to exterminating all homosexuals?

In actual history, the US did not engage in WW2 to save the Jews from the Holocaust. In fact, the allies never prioritized stopping the Holocaust by bombing its infrastructure. They could have, they even consider it, but they decided otherwise. So your example here is purely theoretical. A less theoretical case could be made that the US should really have welcomed Jews fleeing Germany prior to the war, rather than close its door to them.

I’ve had the thought that Abe's obsession was a bad idea too. I guess that makes us both racists.

This guy sounds just like Trump, eh?



America First, Baby!

as a former skipper , are you implying that he , as a general officer had nohere to go to get assistance in his ship's condition. Apparently, new information about the effects and pathway of this virus are being unmasked each day. Ive learned new stuff just within the last week .In one domain, what we said could NOT happen is beginning to reveal itself, that is, the easy cross transmittal between humans and mammals (this post dates the single dog and cat infection of a few weeks ago. Cattle hve a habit of coughing up their cud and often spray particles and aerosols. (They looked at that wrt CWD and "Mad cow").

Thats just an example of what weve only recently began understanding. Im no longer associated with the military and I need to have answered what the hell is a leader about if not making really tough decisions. We have a presient who kips and evades his responsibilitis and we kill our least -leadership averse members. What dos that do for the morale of the entire senior officers still on duty??