Politics, all over the place.
Okay, so I went to a left-wing conference on security politics (or, as we like to call it, peace politics. Because words matters, you guys.) in the last two days and again, I'm wondering why the hell I still do that. It's not like it was terrible or anything, in fact there were a lot of interesting panels and panelists. I'm just really tired of the majority of the left and peace movement members not being up to scratch with the simplest facts of security politics.
Like, they don't know the simplest things about the military or the way deployments are conducted or how security policy is made. And I'm getting really fed up by the simplistic approach so many people in that movement have to the whole topic. It's an incredibly complex conglemerate of issues and most people's approach to it seems to be "Well, let's just dissolve NATO and abolish our armed forces and we're golden!" and... it just does not work like that.
Now, I do realize that not everyone at the conference spent four years of their life studying nothing but military culture and security policy issues but honestly, even without that highly specialized knowledge, it shouldn't be too hard to have an approach that is a little more sophisticated than that?
What also pissed me off was the way everyone was practically dancing around the golden calves Jeremy Corbyn and Bernie Sanders while making Hillary Clinton look like fucking Satan (Trump's or any other Republican's name, by the way was notably absent from the debate. Apparently, for the left, Hillary is the Big Bad now. No further comment.). So yeah, security politics wise, Jeremy Corbyn is every peace movement activist's dream, wanting to get out of NATO (because that worked so well for France that they're now back...), protesting against the Trident program (which, okay, I can get behind because nuclear weapons are a shitty thing to have, for everyone), propagating that "talking to to everyone" would sure solve all problems in the Middle East (because Daesh seem so totally open to talking to anyone!), etc., etc.
Bernie, however, the Jesus of politics, is uh... not every peacenik's dream. For an American, sure, he's pretty restrained on foreign and security politics but remember, we're talking about a movement that thinks that getting out of NATO, abolishing our armed forces and talking to everyone would solve every imaginable conflict. And is also very much anti-interventionalist. Like, no military interventions at all. Which is, in itself, a perfectly legitimate (if fairly utopic) standpoint but not Bernie's. Bernie, and you can all read this on his own website, pretty much says that "military intervention should always be the last resort". The last. Not no option at all. Bernie very much does believe in military intervention. The one thing the peace movement hates. Bernie Sanders is not a dove, just not a falcon, either. Nothing further, your honor.*
So long story short, I just wish people knew what they are talking about. And I so, so wish people would stop fanning about two old white men. If Corbyn and Sanders were young women, no one would vote for them and I can't believe that that has never been a point in any debates yet, not even in explicit feminist contexts. Now, being an old white man is neither one's fault, but that isn't the point I'm trying to make. What I'm saying is rather that even in the left, we only really listen to old white men and I am so fucking tired of that. When will old white men stop having so much fucking power?
Yeah, okay, that really was all over the place. Anyone got any thoughts on it? How are you, guys? Equally tired of society's pandering to old white men? Anything else?
*yes, his security policy agenda is much, much bigger than just that. He did, for example, vote for the Kosovo intervention, still a very sore point for the German peace movement who still believes that that was the moment the Green Party and Social Democrats betrayed the left by voting for it since the intervention is widely considered a breach of international law in the German peace movement. He also does criticize overblown defense spending, which the peace movement loves. He also supports a strong military, which the peace movement really, really hates. There's a golden boy for you, guys.
Like, they don't know the simplest things about the military or the way deployments are conducted or how security policy is made. And I'm getting really fed up by the simplistic approach so many people in that movement have to the whole topic. It's an incredibly complex conglemerate of issues and most people's approach to it seems to be "Well, let's just dissolve NATO and abolish our armed forces and we're golden!" and... it just does not work like that.
Now, I do realize that not everyone at the conference spent four years of their life studying nothing but military culture and security policy issues but honestly, even without that highly specialized knowledge, it shouldn't be too hard to have an approach that is a little more sophisticated than that?
What also pissed me off was the way everyone was practically dancing around the golden calves Jeremy Corbyn and Bernie Sanders while making Hillary Clinton look like fucking Satan (Trump's or any other Republican's name, by the way was notably absent from the debate. Apparently, for the left, Hillary is the Big Bad now. No further comment.). So yeah, security politics wise, Jeremy Corbyn is every peace movement activist's dream, wanting to get out of NATO (because that worked so well for France that they're now back...), protesting against the Trident program (which, okay, I can get behind because nuclear weapons are a shitty thing to have, for everyone), propagating that "talking to to everyone" would sure solve all problems in the Middle East (because Daesh seem so totally open to talking to anyone!), etc., etc.
Bernie, however, the Jesus of politics, is uh... not every peacenik's dream. For an American, sure, he's pretty restrained on foreign and security politics but remember, we're talking about a movement that thinks that getting out of NATO, abolishing our armed forces and talking to everyone would solve every imaginable conflict. And is also very much anti-interventionalist. Like, no military interventions at all. Which is, in itself, a perfectly legitimate (if fairly utopic) standpoint but not Bernie's. Bernie, and you can all read this on his own website, pretty much says that "military intervention should always be the last resort". The last. Not no option at all. Bernie very much does believe in military intervention. The one thing the peace movement hates. Bernie Sanders is not a dove, just not a falcon, either. Nothing further, your honor.*
So long story short, I just wish people knew what they are talking about. And I so, so wish people would stop fanning about two old white men. If Corbyn and Sanders were young women, no one would vote for them and I can't believe that that has never been a point in any debates yet, not even in explicit feminist contexts. Now, being an old white man is neither one's fault, but that isn't the point I'm trying to make. What I'm saying is rather that even in the left, we only really listen to old white men and I am so fucking tired of that. When will old white men stop having so much fucking power?
Yeah, okay, that really was all over the place. Anyone got any thoughts on it? How are you, guys? Equally tired of society's pandering to old white men? Anything else?
*yes, his security policy agenda is much, much bigger than just that. He did, for example, vote for the Kosovo intervention, still a very sore point for the German peace movement who still believes that that was the moment the Green Party and Social Democrats betrayed the left by voting for it since the intervention is widely considered a breach of international law in the German peace movement. He also does criticize overblown defense spending, which the peace movement loves. He also supports a strong military, which the peace movement really, really hates. There's a golden boy for you, guys.