[johnknowles]

While other countries engage to some degree, I'm attempting to be hyperbolic to emphasize the sheer difference between US and them, which often (as it is now) gets downplayed and filtered out.

How, in the face of being presented with a list of evils the world over, are we all (us Americans) not prostrate in shame? Why do we search for some other vestige of evil to make rational our actions?

There is no rationality to the atrocities. There is no "other countries". There is US, and there is evil that must be admitted and atoned for.

[MikeUt]

> How, in the face of being presented with a list of evils the world over, are we all (us Americans) not prostrate in shame?

You're asking Americans to feel shame for the actions of an unelected agency that has subverted their democracy? And lied to them and hid those actions? Americans, as a whole, should be ashamed, not just the CIA?

Do you also demand Russians feel guilty for allowing Stalin to take power?

[johnknowles]

Yes, we should feel deep shame. We have benefitted from this for years, with lives of convenience, at the expense and exploit of millions of our brethren worldwide. It would only be naturally American to attempt to distance ourselves, to say its "just" the CIA, not us.

But it is our greed, our demand for cheaper and faster, our uncaring nature to the extractive business practices that push the CIA into action. We are complicit, every one of us, and it is only after we admit this that we can start to change. Its not about burying our heads in the sand in shame, but about understanding what we are benefitting from and having a heart for the millions pushed down to push you, as an American, up.

I don't care about the Russians. That's their problem. I'm an American. This is MY problem.

[MikeUt]

> But it is our greed, our demand for cheaper and faster, our uncaring nature to the extractive business practices that push the CIA into action.

Evocative rhetoric, that falls apart upon examination. Is it your claim that if only most Americans bought fair-trade coffee instead of the cheap stuff, the CIA would start to behave?

What about Americans that voted for politicians and presidents that promised fewer wars, or to clean up the deep state? Are they absolved of this guilt?

The CCP's tactic is to conflate criticism of the Party with criticism of the Chinese people and China itself, so that when the Party is attacked, the Chinese will also feel attacked, and rush to its defense. You are doing the same for the CIA.