I swear the most obvious red flag for any of the squad members is the idea you'd have someone who is invested enough in politics to start interning out of highschool and run for office after growing up during the Bush admin yet has zero foreign policy of her own.
Think of how omnipresent support for U.S. imperialism is within the U.S., and how hard it is to break out of that:
Start with a background media environment that is wall-to-wall propaganda: the national anthem at every sporting event, military flyovers, "salute to service" garbage, video games and movies that show the military as cool and good, etc.
Oh, you follow the news? Corporate media is a tireless cheerleader for U.S. imperialism.
Oh, you take some classes? High school largely teaches imperialism as a matter of fact, and even when college courses are more critical they rarely present alternatives (to modern imperialism, at least) as clearly better.
What if you get really wonky and get your information from a bunch of think tanks/NGOs? Whole swaths of that world are nothing but propaganda mills.
What if you get super wonky and get into the U.N., human rights law, etc.? Tons of that is used as a cudgel against states that don't adequately comply with imperialism, and of course that perspective is the minority one.
You're 18 and you got some prestigious internship with a congressperson? They're not going to have a coherent anti-imperialist stance.
You're 30 and running for a minor office? Your constituents, who grew up in the same imperialist environment you did, care far more about their immediate material conditions than they do about some "dictator" halfway around the world.
You're 32 and you hold a minor office? You can't really do anything about imperialism, but if your comments deviate from imperialist orthodoxy too far it could cost you your job.
Oh, you wholeheartedly embrace anti-imperialist leftist politics and go searching for good leftist opinions on the subject? You can find a wide variety of opinions, all from leftists, on all sorts of foreign policy issues.
It's incredibly difficult to come around to solid anti-imperialist politics in the belly of the imperial beast. The vast majority of the country does not hold these politics for these reasons, despite living through the Bush Administration.
It's not a red flag to lack anti-imperialist politics initially -- the red flag is if someone shows an unwillingness to learn.
I don't know about "zero foreign policy experience". Most likely it's just bad data.
There's mountains of revisionist history out in print dating back to the early 20th century. If everything you know about China comes from the KMT and Falun Gong, of course you're going to be against them.
I swear the most obvious red flag for any of the squad members is the idea you'd have someone who is invested enough in politics to start interning out of highschool and run for office after growing up during the Bush admin yet has zero foreign policy of her own.
Think of how omnipresent support for U.S. imperialism is within the U.S., and how hard it is to break out of that:
It's incredibly difficult to come around to solid anti-imperialist politics in the belly of the imperial beast. The vast majority of the country does not hold these politics for these reasons, despite living through the Bush Administration.
It's not a red flag to lack anti-imperialist politics initially -- the red flag is if someone shows an unwillingness to learn.
:100-com:
Very well said
I don't know about "zero foreign policy experience". Most likely it's just bad data.
There's mountains of revisionist history out in print dating back to the early 20th century. If everything you know about China comes from the KMT and Falun Gong, of course you're going to be against them.