there is no contradiction between condemnation of China in the context of external affairs and white supremacy or whatever else in the domestic context. They could even tie it all together and say that the Chinese are doing white supremacy on the Uighurs and it's racist to say they don't need to invade China to free the Uighurs, I bet many people would eat that up too.
There's historical precedent, too. During the Bush years, people would get called misogynists for opposing the Iraq war because the US government was allegedly going to turn Iraq into a modern liberal democracy and liberate the local women from traditionalist religious oppression. And if you didn't think that was doable, you'd get called a racist because you'd be implying Arabs were inherently less capable of being decent people than Americans. At least that's what I hear from people on the internet who say they're old enough to have been aware of politics back then.
Well yeah, but you know how people here are, they'll always say everyone to ever use social justice cultural signifiers to justify something bad in any context was totally cynical because it protects their ability to believe that actually what makes someone a "good" person is sincere attachment to the cultural norms of the Democratic-voting contingent of American society. I do think this is the crux of why they're so upset with Greenwald over this, because he's critical of what they see as "good" people, so it's always good to remind them that that's not actually how the world works.
I'm not sure they even believe it. They're so scared of being labeled "bad" that they just see an article like "You are this kind of bad if you don't support (obviously evil thing)" and they decide to support said evil thing.
Step away from the Lathe of Heaven
There's historical precedent, too. During the Bush years, people would get called misogynists for opposing the Iraq war because the US government was allegedly going to turn Iraq into a modern liberal democracy and liberate the local women from traditionalist religious oppression. And if you didn't think that was doable, you'd get called a racist because you'd be implying Arabs were inherently less capable of being decent people than Americans. At least that's what I hear from people on the internet who say they're old enough to have been aware of politics back then.
You don't have to go back. They're doing that regarding pulling out of Afghanistan right now.
The difference is that today nobody really believes them.
I suppose that's true. It doesn't stop people from saying it though.
Well yeah, but you know how people here are, they'll always say everyone to ever use social justice cultural signifiers to justify something bad in any context was totally cynical because it protects their ability to believe that actually what makes someone a "good" person is sincere attachment to the cultural norms of the Democratic-voting contingent of American society. I do think this is the crux of why they're so upset with Greenwald over this, because he's critical of what they see as "good" people, so it's always good to remind them that that's not actually how the world works.
I'm not sure they even believe it. They're so scared of being labeled "bad" that they just see an article like "You are this kind of bad if you don't support (obviously evil thing)" and they decide to support said evil thing.
Totally.