Great take. If the past year has taught us anything, it’s that the US can’t really be seen as the “good guys” in such a simple way. Many of these things have been happening for years, but war crimes, disregard for international law, blackmailing allies, killing their own citizens without accountability, and allowing foreign governments to heavily influence policy are all troubling signs.

It’s easy to point to China as a place where freedom of speech isn’t present, but try asking members of the current administration or even Supreme Court judges who won the 2020 election and see what kind of responses you get. That alone says a lot about the current state of things.

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curt15 13 hours ago | parent | next [-]

>It’s easy to point to China as a place where freedom of speech isn’t present, but try asking members of the current administration or even Supreme Court judges who won the 2020 election and see what kind of responses you get.

Freedom of speech and regard for the facts are independent concerns. People absolutely have the right to call out lies about the 2020 election and have repeatedly done so.

	▲	paulryanrogers 13 hours ago \| parent [-]
		> People absolutely have the right to call out lies about the 2020 election and have repeatedly done so. Some at the cost of their careers and a few now face the threat of prosecution. China is a low bar. We shouldn't accept any of this as normal.

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possibleworlds 14 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

> If the past year has taught us anything, it’s that the US can’t really be seen as the “good guys” in such a simple way.

More like the past 200 years. America have never been the "good guys", and it is only Americans who seem to think they ever were.

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nixon_why69 13 hours ago | parent | next [-]

An American and a Soviet Russian were on a plane chatting. The American says "I'm very impressed with the quality of Soviet propaganda". The Soviet says thanks, but it's nothing compared to American propaganda.

The American says "But we don't have propaganda", the Soviet says "Exactly".

	▲	xarope 4 hours ago \| parent [-]
		And been written about since the 80s https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manufacturing_Consent

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cuuupid 14 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

If a majority of the Americans believed America was not generally the "good guys" it would be a sign of a failed democracy.

Similarly normal for the population of any country that has net negative externalities from America to view them as the "bad guys".

The current and growing anti-US sentiment is an expected result of an increasing gap between the US and the rest of the first world on economy and defense. The existence of a superpower is precluded on being viewed negatively by the rest of the world

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pezezin 10 hours ago | parent [-]

> If a majority of the Americans believed America was not generally the "good guys" it would be a sign of a failed democracy.

No, it would be a sign of critical thinking and self reflection.

	▲	remarkEon 9 hours ago \| parent [-]
		I've thought about it a lot, and done some self reflection, and concluded that America is, in fact, the "good guys".

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remarkEon 9 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

If only Americans think we're the good guys, then why does everyone want to live here?

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dragonwriter 9 hours ago | parent [-]

Well, first, that's two overgeneralizations.

But, second, often precisely because they think we’re the bad guys.

If you see the world as dominated by an evil, overwhelmingly powerful empire that uses violence in a way that shows no concern for the continuation or quality of human life outside of the metropole then, even if it is bigoted, repressive, and unjust within the metropole, you still want to be in the metropole rather rhan peripheries.

	▲	remarkEon 9 hours ago \| parent [-]
		This is an excellent argument for zero immigration, thanks.

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awesome_dude 14 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

To be fair, almost every society portrays itself as the defender of whatever is right/good.

And, to be equally as fair, the only genuinely good guys are the ones that are too small to enforce their will upon others directly - small countries without arms who are forced to find other ways to engage with others in order to achieve whatever goals they have (resource acquisition)

The Americans have been extremely adept at dominating the discourse via non-government pathways (Hollywood)