sohois
2hr ago
I know a lot of people here still consider Israel an “ally” or at least a neutral country in the grand scheme of things. Do these midterm results change your opinion? Do they shift you toward seeing Israel as a dangerous “enemy within”?
In what sense is a country having their own goals and desires a cause for them to be neutral or even an "enemy within"? In the UK, you'll find plenty of right wingers who grumble about the so-called "special relationship" with the US, remarking that the relationship appears to be entirely one-sided, the UK doing anything the US wants while getting very little in return. And plenty of these people advocate for a more independent relationship because of that, which is fine. But absolutely none of these people will declare that the US is an "enemy within" just because they seek to gain things from the alliance.
sohois
6hr ago
But you can say the same for the various national and supra-national organisations that you proposed had a binding effect on power. While the EU or supreme courts might protect some progressive causes, in actual fact nations can leave the EU, or pack the supreme court, and then get away with all kinds of right-wing policies.
I suppose you could argue that there would still be some blowback risk as has happened with the likes of Duterte and Bolsanaro, but if you were dealing with a genuine socialist/communist leader the blowback would probably be them getting assassinated mid rule so it evens out
sohois
5d ago
I'll echo the point Poplar made below: surely there are parts of the motte diaspora that can be asked for promotion to bring in some new voices?
Who knows if Scott would be willing to throw us a mention, but even without a direct nod mods could probably go into some of the Open Thread comments and make some advertisements for new users.
And the various substack spin-offs, would none be willing to throw the motte a bone? I don't really know who has become well read outside of TracingWoodgrains, but maybe someone else has paid more attention. (I guess trace is a no go given he stormed off last time he posted here and doesn't even post as Trace anymore, not here, at the schism, or at rdrama)
But this applies just as much to left wing parties. The Democrats are also a ragtag coalition with often contradictory single issues and leadership that is composed of the useless or corrupt.
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