effort

People don't understand how I form an opinion of different countries in the world.

I always give much more weight to a country's behaviour outside its borders — its conduct on the world stage — than I do to its internal affairs.

Why? A most logical reason. Foreign countries' external behaviour affects me; foreign countries' internal affairs don't.

When I say I despise and loathe the United States, this has nothing to do with how it runs itself. I don't give a hoot about Reagan, Bush and Trump's tax breaks for the rich, about their gutting of social welfare spending, their overfilling of the prisons, about poverty, inequality, bad cops, the dominance of mega-corporations, the ban on abortions in some states, the 50-year failure to achieve any kind of gun control, the school shootings, the gangs, out-of-control violent crime, the crumbling infrastructure, or anything else that makes America look bad from the inside.

All these things are bad, of course, and ought to be concerning to intelligent Americans — and make me realize that the US is no model for the rest of the world to follow. But at the end of the day, none of this affects me. I've never set foot in the US, and I never intend to. These things are enough for me to go, “Hmm.” But they certainly don't make me hate or even dislike the United States. These things only affect Americans. They can run their country however they see fit. They're the only ones paying for it. Putting it another way, what do I care how my buddy spends his money? Whether he invests it and donates to cancer research or blows it all on hookers and crack, it's his own damn money.

What I notice about the United States is its foreign policy. You bet your ass I notice its foreign policy. I'm from the Middle East. That means Iraq. Iran. Libya. Syria. Yemen. Afghanistan. Palestine. Seven holocausts in a couple of decades, all with one thing in common. What could that one thing be?

That thing that so generously supplied us with hijacked elections, propped-up dictators and absolute monarchs, multiple invasions on false pretexts, deaths in the millions, destruction of our states, subsequent civil wars and terrorist insurgencies, strangulation through brutal sanctions… All enveloped in the vomit-inducing NONSTOP preachy moralizing rhetoric of American leaders, and in the RACISM that seems to characterize every single American from the President of the United States to some Yankee janitor on Quora, both of whom call us “shithole countries" and the like. Hey, 'muricans. You already killed or caused the deaths of about 1.5 million human beings in Iraq, so what's a little name-calling? Might as well add some insult to injury, right?

An eloquent Iraqi friend of mine put it in the best way possible. I'll protect his privacy of course, but this is what he said:

As an Iraqi, living in Iraq, I can assure you that the US has brought us nothing but pain and agony. Approximately 1M dead from the 2003 invasion, 500k (mostly children) dead from the criminal sanctions against us, sanctions that prevented the entry of food and medicine. At the end of all this, Iraq, with a population of roughly 40M, has about 5M orphans. They destabilised my country, sold us to the Iranians, butchered my people and ruined the good name of my nation. The amount of Iraqi blood spilled with no consequence, at the hands of terrorist groups (such as ISIS, which were essentially created by the US) or at the hands of militia, makes me feel nothing but a deep hatred towards this horrific monstrosity of a country. They call us savages and yet choose to ignore which country is the cradle of civilization, and which country is responsible for tens of millions of deaths each decade.

I have that statement on the best authority: an Iraqi. I always like to get my information from the most primary source.

(Whadayathink so far, 'muricans? Still gonna call me Wumao? I must be pretty passionate about the Middle East for a Chinese spy, huh?) 😂

Then of course I got to heavy reading. And I found out the United States did the same thing in Latin America. And Africa. And Vietnam. Pretty much everywhere but Europe and Australia (fellow whitey-land). Well, even Australia experienced a regime change operation in 1975 — when the CIA helped eliminate PM Gough Whitlam — but that's small potatoes compared to the rest, huh? The point is, almost everywhere on earth, brutal military aggression, political puppeteering, despicable clandestine chaos, economic strangulation, unpunished crimes against humanity, etc. all have a name. And that name is the United States of America.

Tell me anything that's majorly wrong with the world, and I can usually find the Yankee fingerprints on it. I can usually trace it back to the country that appointed itself ruler of the world.

THAT is why I despise and loathe the United States. BINGO. It's got nothing to do with how y'all run your country. It's got everything to do with the tragedy and brutality you inflict on the rest of mankind.

~ ~ ~

Now I'm sure you're wondering what my point is. You're wondering when I'm gonna answer the question. And I'm sure some brainiac here is gonna accuse me of “whataboutism.”

So here you go.

I apply the same principle when evaluating China. Zero fucks given about internal affairs, and all fucks given about external behaviour.

Now you hear me loud and clear:

I don't give a FLYING FUCK about the Great Chinese Famine, the Great Leap Forward, or the Cultural Revolution.

I could micro-analyze all of these events and show you how the propagandist and self-worshiping Western narrative diverges completely from reality (especially the reported death-toll!!), but this answer's long enough, and these details are outside the point.

Whatever Chairman Mao did wrong, he did wrong to his own people and nobody else. These things didn't happen to me. They didn't happen to you or any human outside China. They happened to the Chinese and the Chinese are in the NUMBER ONE POSITION to evaluate Mao's legacy and criticize him, demonize him, abolish him, or rehabilitate and honour him.

That's their business. That's their right. Who am I to tell the Chinese, “Oh no, you're wrong. Mao did this and that to you. You should hate him”?

Do you imagine I or you know more about China than the Chinese? This is their country. They inhabit it. They lived through these times, or were born to those who lived through them. Mao was the founder of their state. Socialism with Chinese characteristics, the Long March, victory in the Civil War, victory over the Japanese, foundation of the People's Republic, getting China through most years of the Western blockade and Cold War, giving America the message not to fuck with China during its invasions of Korea and Vietnam — Mao did it all. Mao did all the heavy lifting. Deng Xiaoping got to govern a safe, peaceful, united, independent, coherent and viable China only because of Chairman Mao. Deng got the easy part.

Of course, Mao made errors. Of course he was a much better general and strategist than he was an economist. Of course you could even argue that by the Cultural Revolution in 1966 he had grown a bit Trumpian and unfit in the head and cruel. Personally I think he should've stepped down from office on a high note in the late 1950s. His legacy would've been flawless. But was he a mindless tyrant? Was he a sadistic mass murderer? NO! He was the father of the nation. He wouldn't have been able to do that if he had been some maniac.

And of course, you’ve got to appreciate that for the Chinese, Mao's legacy is very complicated. You probably just click on some tweet from Melissa Chan saying, Mao did this! Mao did that! Mao Hitler! But the Chinese have a thousand-fold the knowledge and experience of Mao that you have. They have a great deal of good to take in with some amount of bad. And in the end, however they judge him, THAT IS THEIR PREROGATIVE AND NOT YOURS.

So that is what I think of China based on its internal affairs. Again, not that it matters.

~ ~ ~

Now, what do I think of China based on its external behaviour?

It scores 100 out of 100.

Where are the invasions? The sanctions and economic warfare? The political interference? The fugly imperialism and supremacism? The unpunished war crimes? The preaching and insufferable lying and hypocrisy? The victim nations in shambles? The dead bodies? Where's all that American good stuff?

Nowhere. All I see is bridges, railroads, cities, ports and 5G networks. The stuff that the real Nazi Germany (the United States) warns us means China plans to become the new Nazi Germany.

Are you kidding me? China's an amateur at being an “evil empire.” Piss off, China. You're not even close. America's not the gold standard, it's the Hope Diamond standard. It's practically won every Oscar and every Nobel Prize for being an evil empire.

You don't really think I'm stupid enough to blame China for covid, do you? Hello, 1918 influenza epidemic. Out of Haskell County, Kansas, and exported to Europe and the world by Yankee troops. 50–100 million dead. The deadliest pandemic in history. “Made" in the USA (I say “made" because countries don't make pandemics, bacteria and viruses do).

You don't really think I'm stupid enough to believe Uncle Satan about the Uyghur “Genocide" either, do you? Hello, Saddam's WMDs. When the fuck are you gonna find these WMDs? A million people had to die for them. But you barely noticed in California or Texas or wherever. Ridin' your ATVs, watching Monday night football, and laughing with Sean Hannity, not at him.

And after the hell on earth that you've turned my home region into — which you haven't recognized, apologized for, paid reparations for, put any of your politicians or generals or soldiers in prison for — why do you have your hearts up your sleeves for “oppressed" Muslims all of a sudden? Did baby angel Jesus suddenly fly by you and shoot some arrow of soul-searching? C'mon. I'd have to be 9 years old and still watching Sesame Street to believe you on that one!

~ ~ ~

I judge China based on its external behaviour. I judge China based on its role and conduct in the world. The things that affect me and all non-Chinese. And so far, apart from what Uncle Satan is screaming at me day and night (fuck that asshole), China's effect has either only been good, or it's been nothing at all. That's the way I like my countries: No news or good news. I like China because when invasions, sanctions, bombings, civil wars, or evil in general happen, it ain't China's fingerprints I keep finding. It's Yankee fingerprints.

And I like China because when clueless, asinine, or thuggish remarks about my home region or culture are made here, I never look at the author’s name and find out it’s “Hong Li" or “Jackie Chan.” It's usually Rusty Brian McYankee something-or-other.

That's all I have to say for tonight. If ya made it this far, thanks and good on you!

Update — ER, lemme put this here so I don't have a cell in Guantanamo with my name on it someday:

I am not a terrorist or extremist of any kind. I'm an ex-Muslim atheist. I'm just a regular civilian guy practising my freedom of thought, belief, opinion, and expression via media communication, as promised by Article 2(b) of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. I've never been to the United States and I happily owe it no allegiance. I am not in the pay of any individual, organization, or government. I do NOT condone violence or illegal conduct of any kind. My views on the United States, however extremely negative and condemnatory, are peacefully communicated factual observations and protected speech. If I can be a peaceful Klansman or neo-Nazi according to American law, then why can't I peacefully discuss America's horrific role in the world? And if you feel that even a single sentence in my posts is misinformation or propaganda, I will defend it (with words and evidence of course) to the letter. I'm no lawyer but to the best of my knowledge, anti-Americanism and emotional writing are not a crime.