Remember when NBC News presidential historian Michael Beschloss got all bent out of shape when then-Secretary of State Mike Pompeo tweeted “America First” from his official government account, perhaps giving away more than he intended by calling it a “partisan slogan”? In a speech given to the G7 countries in February, President Biden made his message clear: The Trump era of “America First” diplomacy is over. These tweets are from early February:
Biden just now: There is no longer a bright line between foreign and domestic policy, and to push back against authoritarianism effectively, the US must make racial equity a "whole of government effort."
— Howard French (@hofrench) February 4, 2021
Here’s Anne-Marie Slaughter of New America:
This is essential. But it's not just that without racial equity at home we cannot be effective abroad; why not start imagining what a foreign policy with racial equity at its core would look like? https://t.co/gqkMXD3hd1
— Anne-Marie Slaughter (@SlaughterAM) February 4, 2021
Have you lost your mind?
— Andrew Sullivan (@sullydish) February 28, 2021
There is actually an interesting and important debate to be had here, but certainly not with this opening.
— Anne-Marie Slaughter (@SlaughterAM) February 28, 2021
I think you have your answer @sullydish
— Matty Imlac (@MattyImlac) February 28, 2021
Alas, another Obama retread and Hillary loyalist who's willing to say anything to land a big job in the Biden administration.
— M. Chapman (@mcvadc) March 1, 2021
Remember like a year ago when I was saying that Wokeness is a national security threat for like ten different big reasons?
— James Lindsay, cultural phenomenon (@ConceptualJames) March 1, 2021
Yeah, but they said Biden was the least woke Dem candidate, so there was nothing to worry about.
— Wesley Mullins (@wesleyamullins) March 1, 2021
That got Tablet columnist Wesley Yang thinking:
"A foreign policy with racial equity at its core." Genuinely curious what this would mean in practice and how it would affect policy in Africa, China, India, the Middle East https://t.co/pAvRx5Egzf
— Wesley Yang (@wesyang) March 1, 2021
It is essentially branding aimed at realigning neocons and neoliberals.
— Nikhil Pal Singh (@nikhil_palsingh) March 1, 2021
Is this like Jimmy Carter and human rights?
— Wesley Yang (@wesyang) March 1, 2021
Are LBGTQ and "racial equity" going to become the new language of global intervention? https://t.co/oknfDJ7gjH
— Wesley Yang (@wesyang) March 1, 2021
In 2005 after Katrina, Condaleeza Rice said the legacy of the civil rights movement was enabling the US to find "its voice as a true champion of democracy beyond our shores." Before that recall the gender equality rationales for Afghanistan. So a return to that type of discourse.
— Nikhil Pal Singh (@nikhil_palsingh) March 1, 2021
I get this. It totally makes sense.
But the US military really is training its officers in "nonviolent communication" — telling them to say "I feel" rather than "I think" — and really is putting Ibram X. Kendi on syllabuses. https://t.co/TZqpb4OEuL
— Wesley Yang (@wesyang) March 1, 2021
Remember last summer when someone posted a slide from the U.S. Army’s “Operation Inclusion,” citing the phrase “Make America Great Again” as an example of “covert white supremacy”?
So there's this weird co-evolution here of branding, messaging, and actual adoption of wokeness in the military and natsec state. What started with Max Boot announcing his white privilege in WaPo is being institutionalized.
— Wesley Yang (@wesyang) March 1, 2021
Correction, Boot confessed to his white privilege in Foreign Policy, not WaPo https://t.co/3IAKcXxcTD
— Wesley Yang (@wesyang) March 1, 2021
Therapeutic sensitivity stuff that took over the corporate world is now embedded in the US military
— Wesley Yang (@wesyang) March 1, 2021
For sure it will all be retrofitted as a pretext for armed intervention. But it's not happening for that reason.
— Wesley Yang (@wesyang) March 1, 2021
People are surprised to learn that the military is teaching nonviolent communication, Ibram X Kendi, micro-aggressions, urging the end of "hyper-masculinity". Seems at odds with their mission.
But not at all odds with being a massive bureaucracy run by the federal government.
— Wesley Yang (@wesyang) March 1, 2021
Donald Trump would have continued his mission to strip this kind of training out of government entities in his second term.
I REALLY want to see the new woke drill sergeants in action
— Wesley Yang (@wesyang) March 1, 2021
We’re so screwed.
— Steve Huchteman (@Shuchteman) March 1, 2021
The CCP already uses a lot of woke language in its English-language press efforts. It's clearly something they see as an Anglophone weakness.
— Rational Policy (@ratlpolicy) March 1, 2021
Patton just did a 360
— Ask Questions (@NkayKay) March 1, 2021
"I feel" is just such bad language usage. I don't care how you feel about a matter. I want to know what you think about it. I guess in the woke world where subjective feelings are primary this makes sense.
— No Name is Safe (@truthtobugmen) March 1, 2021
We’ll annihilate entire villages, murder children, slaughter civilians, but god forbid you use the wrong pronoun.
— Zed Sez (@NissZedX) March 1, 2021
Related:
‘Brace for impact’: Biden makes it clear for G7 leaders that he’s putting an end to Trump’s ‘America first’ agenda https://t.co/HCcMbeROXQ
— Twitchy Team (@TwitchyTeam) February 19, 2021
