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Nevilledog

(51,156 posts)
Fri May 28, 2021, 09:09 PM May 2021

Why Fighting White Supremacy Is Important for America's Role in World



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Why Fighting White Supremacy Is Important for America’s Role in World

Why Fighting White Supremacy Is Important for America’s Role in World
Authoritarian States seek to tear at the national fabric of America at home and tarnish its image abroad.
justsecurity.org
6:03 PM · May 28, 2021


https://www.justsecurity.org/76619/why-fighting-white-supremacy-is-important-for-americas-role-in-world/

Politics, both domestic and international, have certainly changed over the last few years. It’s almost impossible to enter a discussion or read a report on current trends in foreign policy and national security without two points being raised: one that domestic extremist violence is now considered the top terrorist threat to the U.S. homeland, and two, that the world is entering a new era of great power competition. What is not frequently discussed is how these two trends are intricately linked, and how addressing one can aide the United States in the other.

Authoritarian governments, primarily led by Beijing and Moscow see themselves in competition with the United States for key relationships with countries around the world. For decades following the collapse of the Soviet Union, there was an assumption that the international standard for progress and reform was the adoption of democracy and liberal market reforms. Today, that is no longer the case. Authoritarian regimes are offering an alternative vision for how to organize society and for a government’s relationship with its people. Their proposition is simple: Yes, it may be more repressive and there are fewer freedoms than with liberal democracy, but it is also more orderly, efficient, and able to handle big problems.

But it is more than simply promoting their own model. Authoritarians also seek to tear down America’s comparative advantage in this this perceived battle of ideas, its self-proclaimed strength as a beacon of democracy, freedom, and equal rights. By doing so they are working to undercut the image America seeks to projects to the world, and the very idea promoted by Democrats like John F. Kennedy and Republicans like Ronald Reagan that America should serve as a shining city upon the hill. If the United States and democracy is not viewed as offering freedom, liberty, or equal rights, then it’s all a sham and the model that it professes is a sham too.

This is why foreign, authoritarian-run media covered the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol so extensively and sensationally. Chinese State-owned outlets described it as an “internal collapse” of the American political system. Chinese outlets were even sent instructions for their coverage of the Capitol Insurrection to emphasize attacking democracy and promoting the idea that censorship is a superior political tool compared to freedom of speech. RT and Sputnik, Russia’s vaunted international propaganda outlets, similarly promoted such messages, covering the Jan. 6 insurrection with headlines describing it as “a date which will live in infamy,” “the date the Second Civil War began,” and “a symptom of a bigger problem.” The Russian government goes beyond simply promoting damaging messages in news coverage, but even tries to exacerbate racial tensions in the United States through its social media manipulation. It is home to leaders of American Neo-Nazi and extremist organizations. Russia’s disinformation networks also specifically target minority groups, especially African Americans, in their disinformation campaigns. There are even reports that Russian intelligence may be financing certain hate groups in the United States, specifically trying to push them towards violence.

*snip*

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Why Fighting White Supremacy Is Important for America's Role in World (Original Post) Nevilledog May 2021 OP
Very important article. Kid Berwyn May 2021 #1

Kid Berwyn

(14,933 posts)
1. Very important article.
Fri May 28, 2021, 10:42 PM
May 2021
From JustSecurity:

This is not a particularly new or novel idea. During the Cold War there was a recognition that division at home hurts America abroad. Domestic reformers and Cold War strategists alike understood that America’s best message to the world was to live by its values and demonstrate that while democracy may be imperfect and in need of constant update and renewal, everyone should all strive to reach that ideal. While in an ideological, global competition with the Soviet Union, the United States needed to build a stronger country at home and prove to the world the value of the democratic model.

The same is true today. Democracy is under assault around the world as authoritarian regimes promote their system abroad and anti-democratic movements spread hate and conspiracy theories here at home. Only by addressing its most dire democracy crises at home can the United States speak with authority abroad.

OP Source: https://www.justsecurity.org/76619/why-fighting-white-supremacy-is-important-for-americas-role-in-world/

Thanks, Putin.
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