king and country
And what about this op-ed on China from a couple of days ago?
The Chinese government's continuing suggestions that we deliberately bombed its embassy, or that the spy plane's recklessness led to the crash, needlessly inflame public opinion. Paradoxically, we're also hurt by a freer Chinese press: some quasi-private Chinese tabloids have the capitalist instinct, and because of the fervor to sell papers they are the ones with the most jingoistic stories.
"Paradoxically" is the word to note here, as it exposes an assumption rampant in this country: that the establishment of democratic institutions in other countries is always good for America. Quite obviously it isn't. We need to prop up authoritarian governments in much of the Arab world (f'rinstance) because any serious democratic reform would result in electoral victories for the Islamists and a rapid attrition of U.S. influence in the region. I'm not claiming that this is a groundbreaking view—it's obvious after even a cursory look at the issues—but pieces of journalism like the above show how dearly we would like to believe otherwise.
Justin would like everyone to know that counting sheep is some bullshit. Also, don't think about polar bears.
