I would say Trump has the upside of shattering that notion, but as far as I can tell Americans just aren't getting it at all.
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E.g. if the US finds being compared with Russia (on the subject of murder) offensive, it is not seeing itself clearly.
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the US has put itself in the position of trying to administer a global scarcity economy in just way--an impossibility.
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they are both bad, but failing to live up to absurd moral aspirations is not the same as a thugocracy that runs on assassination
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I agree there is a moral difference, but what about the ethics of mass-scale assassination? At some point, murder is still murder.
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deliberate killing is still killing. but intent matters, Chomsky notwithstanding. but it would be better to drop the absurdity
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I can see the argument for the US being a better place to live than Russia, and US intent being misguided rather than malicious...
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But in foreign killing, I think the US is probably in the lead right now. And the moral difference is academic to the victims.
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sure. there's an argument that going back Putin's vision of 'great power' politics would make for a more peaceful world.
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but that would just be several competing regional oligarchies, instead of a global one.
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I suspect that logic didn't serve the great powers of WW1 very well, either...
The US path to reform should be shorter, though.
The one upside of destructive self-delusion being that it rests on lack of self-awareness rather than barbaric morality...
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