https://www.pewresearch.org/politics/2026/03/25/americans-broadly-disapprove-of-u-s-military-action-in-iran/Amazing how differently people see the war based on political affliation. I'm sure our opinions are framed by established perceptions of Trump as well as right/left loyalty, but I wonder what the right wing media is saying about the cost of oil, the strait possibly being a forever toll road, other countries creating tolls around global shipping, and our EU and Asian allies being annoyed that we unilaterally fucked up their cost of living without notice.
Not to mention the potential loss of the petrodollar. Petrodollars have had negative consequences for many of us, but they also help subsidize the American economy. My personal need of needing income leads me to prefer the Middle-East subsidizing America rather than China. Not that the economy and individual well being are the same thing or connected as strongly as we'd like to pretend.
Also, I've seen the left intensely focusing on cost as a key argument against the war. I feel the cost avenue isn't the best critique--as money needs to be spent on domestic stuff as well as things abroad for America to retain power and for America to support good causes--better critiques may be the cost on Americans, the lack of goals, the lack of planning, the harm done to America's partners, the harm done to our image, the inhumanity in Trump's threats, pretending that the predictable action of shutting down the Strait was not going to happen.
I don't believe for a second this benevolent hegemon narrative the right/left have recently started peddling. Obviously, the right started peddling this shit because they want to paint a picture of America being used by the rest of the world. The left--weirdly--started using it because, ummm, maybe to make the US sound like nation of altruism all the time or because they need to have the opposite narrative for some reason? Fareed Zakaria was mentioning this on Klein's podcast this week. I don't get it. America has engaged in some seriously shitty actions abroad. We have severely fucked up other countries and done plenty of stupid shit that blew up in our faces.
The left and the center (and any non-lunatic on the right) needs to frame NATO, USAID, etc., as doing good, BUT acknowledge the horrible shit we've done, and explain some of the most benign things we do is to create benefit for us. We don't have military bases in Japan, Germany, etc., because we want to be nice to the people we (along with the UK, Canada, Russia, and others--Russia did the real heavy lifting of that war) beat in WWII, we have bases their because it is us preventing wealthy competitors/potential threats from developing a military to challenge us, risk our safety, or create wars that'll fuck up our economy the way we are fucking up Asia's economy right now. Our military, political, and support spending abroad has given us so much power and made the world comfortable for us, it has benefitted other countries for sure, but we get more back than we put in. It is not about altruism, it is about power, stability, and influence.
I swear, America needs to institute adult education sabbaticals. At the ages of 25, 30, 35, etc. all Americans should get 4 months off from work to study civics, medicine, finance, etc. The idea that we are done being educated at 18 or 22 is absurd. The news tells stories, but they lack depth. They lack real framing. I also wonder how much better our political debates might be if the avg person had been reminded of how government works and was introduced to a variety of political, economic, and social theories.
Topic: Changes under Trump 2.0 (Read 188785 times)