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It’s fashionable for the media, political and cultural elite to define social pathologies in such a post-modern way that activist influencers can build cultural capital off of definition creep. At the same time our elite is still as xenophobic as ever, projecting this historic European anxiety regarding Asian development that goes back to the Mongol Empire. While you can build a brand showcasing your awareness of personal guilt regarding day to day interactions (within a system, always have to add that part or else you’re just a dick), it’s much less lucrative to situate your biases within a grand historical context. A fear of the Russians, Chinese, and apparently even the Iranians, is punching up for this crowd.

Air strike assassinations get met with “no angel” tropes and above the fray “this is a bad strategy” cop-outs. These guys don’t like our half-wit president’s bluster. But you can’t build much of an anti-war movement on questioning the empire’s aesthetics. I don’t trust them. We saw some “don’t bomb Iran” signs hanging off an interstate bridge on the way home earlier today. My brother and I hung some “George Bush is a war criminal” signs off interstate bridges in Fargo something like fifteen years ago now. He’s now seen as a decent man.

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