Anonymous #1 5w

I don’t misunderstand the position of “Maduro bad, imperialism also bad” I just think it’s an extremely lukewarm take that embodies a big problem with American liberals, which is that they’re so addicted to nuance that they can never just call Republican actions bad. Like, the Iraq War was an unmitigated disaster and a crime against humanity. That statement does not mean I excuse the abuses of Saddam Hussein, I do not need to water down that take by going “Saddam was bad, but…” every single time

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Anonymous cheese_of_the_world_unite 5w

When we have a President who openly says “I’m gonna oust this foreign leader so we can pillage his nation’s oil” we should not be qualifying our opposition to wars for oil by saying “well it’s a complex situation, and the guy you’re trying to oust is bad, but…” we should be saying that wars for oil are atrocious and criminal actions, full stop. Our opinions on Maduro, or Saddam, or whoever else, are immaterial compared to the imperial actions we are arguing against and only weaken our position.

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Anonymous #1 5w

If you’re arguing against imperial actions and your opponent says some dumb shit like “so you support <dictator of country targeted>?” it is so easy to just say “No, I’m just against invading foreign countries that haven’t attacked us on principle” and keep going. Maybe even throw in a “if you had to overthrow every government ran by a ‘bad guy’ that would be most of the world, and also most dictators in the world are our allies” if they’re really pressing the point. You don’t have to equivocate

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Anonymous cheese_of_the_world_unite 5w

“Addicted to nuance” as though that’s a bad thing 😭 but anyway, it’s to immediately head off the “oh so you hate pancakes” meme

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Nuance is important, but it also has to be balanced out with principle and clarity in good rhetoric. I think a lot of American liberal rhetoric is skewed too heavily towards nuance at the expense of both clarity and principle.

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Anonymous cheese_of_the_world_unite 5w

Maduro has regularly committed human rights abuses, banned a political party from participating in elections, and refused to cede power when 80% of the country voted for someone else. he is a bad person. that is true.

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Anonymous cheese_of_the_world_unite 5w

Great fucking take 💯

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Anonymous #4 5w

Yeah, I never denied any of that about Maduro. I think the Unites States has even less reason to care about his people than he does, and is not doing some “humanitarian intervention” the way this argument is being framed, but it’s a conflict over oil reserves. Maduro is bad, American imperialism is worse, it’s not even close.

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Anonymous cheese_of_the_world_unite 5w

i agree with you there. i have seen people saying some crazy shit the last few days.

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