The United States withdraws from UNESCO

And religious people like to point to charitable giving.

But studies performed by religious organizations themselves (who, if anything, are likely to skew the numbers more positively) show that across the board, "Local and national benevolence receives 1 percent of the typical church budget," and an additional 5% goes to "church-run programs" (be it after-school care, social, or group activities).

If a secular charity - and let's go to Charity Navigator here - Top Ten Inefficient Fundraisers (https://www.charitynavigator.org/index.cfm?bay=topten), we see some of the worst charities spending 15% of their donations on "program expenses" (i.e., doing what they are being given money to do).

I'm not familiar with the monitoring of 501(c)3 groups, but I suspect if charities regularly spent only one percent of their givings on what they were entitled to enjoy tax exemption for, they'd likely have such a status revoked.

And, if you factor in this average percentage (even the six per cent combined, which is generous, as as much fun as social and youth activities are, they're not necessarily serving a critical need), and start to question 'how much money is being spent on 'spreading the word', patting themselves on the back, competitions in Texas to see who can built the world's biggest cross just down the road from where the world's previously biggest cross was built at costs of millions, there comes more and more skepticism of just how highly you can value "giving to your church" on the scale of charitable contributions.

A study by ECCU (http://web.archive.org/web/20141019033209/https://www.eccu.o...) stated that churches use 3 percent of their budget for children’s and youth programs, and 2 percent for adult programs. Local and national benevolence receives 1 percent of the typical church budget.

So.

I know many of “those people” and not a single one of them religious.

American leftist insults always go like this - X is bad, but only if it originated from us. The self loathing is amazing.

* Religion is bad, but only if it’s Christianity. * Men are bad, unless they’re trans * Gender is a social construct, but race is real * culture is important, unless it’s associated with whites, because they don’t have culture

Right wing is a semi balancing act * religion is good, unless Muslim * men aren’t necessarily good or bad. They can be heros or villains * boys naturally fight with sticks, it’s not taught * American culture is just as valid as any other

Not exactly a mirror image, but enough team loyalty and justification goes on so people can pat themselves on the back as smart while the other team is delusional

I'm not thrilled about what current US administration is doing when it comes to international NGOs. UNESCO is one example.

However, there's also another problem: various UN bodies became tools for international politics instead of doing what they were originally designed to do. It's another example of good will easily subverted by malicious actors to serve shady political goals.

These international organizations need restructuring that would introduce some sort of a watchdog that would make sure these organizations don't overstep their aria of responsibility. Similarly to how constitutional democracies usually have separation of power and multiple branches of government that are supposed to counterbalance each other.

My layman understanding of the reason for UNESCO existence is the preservation of cultural heritage. This shouldn't be political. This should be based on historical or archeological knowledge as well as arts. However, UNESCO as well as eg. UNICEF and other similar orgs shamelessly engage in political activism that has nothing to do with conservation efforts. The officers of these organizations haven't been elected to represent political wishes of their constituents. They bare no responsibility for the effects of political propaganda they are spreading, but it's impossible to prevent them from doing something they shouldn't be doing by all accounts.

Bad political actors found a way to subvert and misuse organizations that were intended for a good cause. We need to figure out a way to fight this subversion. Defunding is both too late, and comes at a cost of not having an organization that cares about preservation of historical heritage or the rights of children etc.