Wednesday, January 8, 2020

Naive or hypocritical?

I saw something on FB this morning that illustrated how leftists think about the world.

It’s a post about a public television program about getting to know people from other countries.   The headline is that we’re less likely to bomb people if we get to know them.

Now, I’ll start with the obvious fact that this is true.   I will guarantee that you could go to any country on earth and find nice people.   You can find wonderful people, who you would want the absolute best for.   That’s not a debate, but it’s also a naive and foolish approach to foreign policy.   But more than that it’s hypocritical.

First naive.   While I’m sure there are absolutely wonderful people in Iran who don’t deserve anything but opportunities to live long peaceful lives, unfortunately they aren’t in control.  The people who control Iran, and the people who support them, are a whole different matter.   Exactly how friendly can you get with people who chant “Death to America” and who think that the west is “Satan”?    Do you really think you can develop a friendship with someone who would see you killed for being s Christian?    Even stranger, is the fact that these progressives ignore the fact that Iran treats what they consider protected classes of people horribly.   American progressives apparently can’t have a civil discussion with a Trump supporter, but think they should be buddies with people who subjugate women, kill homosexuals, and attack those who don’t agree with them.

Now hypocritical,   Somehow we never see these kinds of posts when Israel is blanketed with rocket and mortar attacks.   Or when people from these countries strap on an explosive vest and blow up innocents.  The fact that these types of posts ignore so much of the reality of these conflicts and try to
make the poster look good, really isn’t helping the situation.  It’s also strange that these types of things never showed up during the P-BO administration.   It’s almost like it’s only about trying to attacking Trump for doing less that his predecessor.


I completely agree that we are less likely to have conflict with people we’ve come to know and have relationships with, but ignoring the reality at play in our world just so you can post something of FB to show how great you are, seems like a recipe for disaster.


10 comments:

Stan said...

Haven't they come to know Trump? Has that made them less likely to want to blow him up?

Craig said...

Clearly not. Maybe they should sit down with Trump, hold hands, and sing Friends.

Marshal Art said...

What if coming to know people from other countries confirms they hate us? It's quite the one-way proposition. There have been,for example, instances where people took it upon themselves to extend the hand of friendship and were summarily murdered. I remember one case concerning, I think it was, three people...one named Fox...who tragically found this to be true while engaging in the effort to "get to know" islamic radicals.

I think the wiser option is to encourage other cultures to consider honestly our differences from afar if there's any latent animosity toward us. From our end, we can still act on our "Golden Rule" principle toward them without also putting ourselves at their mercy. It's important to remember there are different rules for individuals and the governments under which they live. The latter's responsibility is to the former...not to people of other countries.

Craig said...

I’m all for getting to know people from other countries. But, one pitfall of that is that sometimes that means finding out that those people might be found chanting Death to America and swinging the sword that decapitates you. The fact is that getting to know people just might reveal that they aren’t very nice.

Marshal Art said...

We pretty much know, at this point, who hates us.

Craig said...

I’d suggest that there are plenty of people in Iran, who don’t hate us. I’d suggest that there are probably quite a few who’ve been told to hate us, but who would probably be open to changing their mind after meeting some of us.

In Iran, it’s more the regime and the Islamic leaders who push the hate America lines, and the radicals who follow their lead. I’m not sure how widespread it is in the population at large.

Especially since hating America hasn’t really helped their county make significant quality of life improvements.

Marshal Art said...

I'm sure there are people in every country who don't hate us. Likely, there are those in every country who wish they WERE us, or like us and envy us. In fact, I'd say it's more logical to insist people in other countries would benefit more by getting to know US, than we would getting to know THEM.

Throughout my life, my desire to learn about other people has only been tempered by coming to learn certain realities about life, international relations and world events that now, caution is the rule of the day. There's not a country, nor a people, I wouldn't wish to visit, explore and experience were it not for those realities.

The desire to get to know others in the world must be of equal importance to others in the world, otherwise the risks are too great. That desire can't be a one-way street.

Craig said...

As my post tried to point out, the premise that getting to know people prevents anything is either hypothetical or naive.

It’s all about pushing a false narrative to move a political agenda.

Craig said...

It’s looking like there are some folx who are calling for death to the right people. I’m guessing the folx calling the incident in Iran a plane crash, will probably object to these current protests. Because violence is bad, except when it’s directed at Israel.

Marshal Art said...

"It’s all about pushing a false narrative to move a political agenda."

It usually is. This is an "America bad/everyone else good" narrative.