Historically, all advanced countries have engaged in this kind of profiling and analysis of their partners and rivals. It’s an essential function of statecraft, espionage, diplomacy, and the like. But after a decade of living in TrumpWorld, we’ve jettisoned a big chunk of our functional bureaucracy in favor of Yes Men, nepo-hires, and whatever the fuck AI is doing. So, the idea that one might use trained professionals to inform a negotiation with a political rival has gone from “No shit!” to “That’s what the pros do.” to “What a novel idea! Never thought of it before.”
Or is the news that the USA is run by a mentally deficient man child?
Hardly just the US. We’re not the first country to decay into a gerontocracy of sundowning oligarchs. Hell, this isn’t even the first time we’ve governed ourselves this way (see: Ronald Reagan, Woodrow Wilson, … Joe Biden)
This is becoming news because the media cycle is also increasingly governed by decrypt fucks, more fixated on the humiliation of losing an exchange of long range explosives than developing long term socio-economic strategy. News anchors are casting around for answers to the question “Why didn’t we march into Tehran like we did Baghad and Kabul?” and landing on “Iranian Mind Ninjas defeated us in the Brain Dojo” as an easy-to-digest Pop-Sci explanation.
Historically, all advanced countries have engaged in this kind of profiling and analysis of their partners and rivals. It’s an essential function of statecraft, espionage, diplomacy, and the like. But after a decade of living in TrumpWorld, we’ve jettisoned a big chunk of our functional bureaucracy in favor of Yes Men, nepo-hires, and whatever the fuck AI is doing. So, the idea that one might use trained professionals to inform a negotiation with a political rival has gone from “No shit!” to “That’s what the pros do.” to “What a novel idea! Never thought of it before.”
Hardly just the US. We’re not the first country to decay into a gerontocracy of sundowning oligarchs. Hell, this isn’t even the first time we’ve governed ourselves this way (see: Ronald Reagan, Woodrow Wilson, … Joe Biden)
This is becoming news because the media cycle is also increasingly governed by decrypt fucks, more fixated on the humiliation of losing an exchange of long range explosives than developing long term socio-economic strategy. News anchors are casting around for answers to the question “Why didn’t we march into Tehran like we did Baghad and Kabul?” and landing on “Iranian Mind Ninjas defeated us in the Brain Dojo” as an easy-to-digest Pop-Sci explanation.