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Culture War Roundup for the week of February 24, 2025

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This is the best reply in this thread I've read.

People like to wishcast world events as actually being about their pet causes. While I'd like to believe American reluctance is from Europe not taking the conflict seriously even after 3 years and being lapped in artillery shells sent by freaking North Korea, that's not actually the case.

The reality is that very few people care about foreign policy, while plenty of people care about culture and vibes and dunking on their outgroup. This means leaders get to effectively decide foreign policy, and the voters will mostly follow like sheep since they want to support their ingroup. I can practically guarantee that if Trump said we're now going big on booting Russia out of Ukraine by whatever means necessary, the Catturds of the right would flip (like they perennially do on Israel) and say jingoism is actually the best thing ever now -- "AMERICA IS BACK BABY". Really, the only thing you need to do to understand contemporary American politics is learn about negative partisanship. Learn about the frothing, searing hatred the two wings of the country have for each other, and everything else will follow naturally.

I also agree that America is a fundamentally untrustworthy ally. With the Legislative branch effectively defunct, the President has become more and more like an elected, absolute monarch. And you simply can't trust a country that's willing to elect a Mad King every so often.