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The United States withdraws from UNESCO

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Re: The United States withdraws from UNESCO

#371

Post by kjksf »

runako wrote: post #284
glitchc wrote: post #150

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The online space (Reddit, HN, others) is so deeply embedded with groupthink that people have lost the ability to see other points of view or debate topics of interest. To me it's very clear why the government is leaving UNESCO (and over time the UN at large). The UN is dysfunctional and does not work. It used to be a source of soft power for the States, but hasn't been so for the better part of this century. Meanwhil…

> when funds are scarce The US budget is ~$7T annually. There is $50B to spend deporting critical parts of our workforce. There is $1T in defense spending to ensure that we spend more than the next 9(!) militaries combined*. Et cetera. The US spends ~$18B supporting UN programs. This is ~0.003% of the federal budget. The point here is funds are not scarce, and in any case to the extent that one is concerned about spe…

The U.S. is $35 TRILLION in DEBT. It's on a fast path to very high inflation which will be bad for everyone.

U.S. can't afford $18 billion of non-essential spending. It can't afford $1 billion of non-essential spending. In fact, it can't afford $1 of non-essential spending.

The argument "we're $35 trillion in debt so it's not a big deal to add 0.01% to it" is just incomprehensible to me.

And it's not just UN. It's $47 billion to USAID, $9 billion to NPR, $10 billion to California's "never gonna happen" rail, $1.3 billion to Harvard and that's just a small part of spending.

US government still needs to go on a serious spending diet. But every cut gets people to catastrophize how the world will end if US doesn't fund UN or Harvard.

Re: The United States withdraws from UNESCO

#372

Post by glitchc »

foobarian wrote: post #312
glitchc wrote: post #150

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The online space (Reddit, HN, others) is so deeply embedded with groupthink that people have lost the ability to see other points of view or debate topics of interest. To me it's very clear why the government is leaving UNESCO (and over time the UN at large). The UN is dysfunctional and does not work. It used to be a source of soft power for the States, but hasn't been so for the better part of this century. Meanwhil…

The surface arguments for abandoning these kinds of programs (also USAID, recalling diplomats, bunch of research funding) seem straightforward: "there is a deficit, why pay all this money for ostensibly wasteful work, etc." Where I get frustrated is when the admin turns around and massively expands the deficit by throwing cargo ships full of money at other wasteful, in my opinon, programs. That tells me the fiscal re…

Yes, they are spending funds on things that matter to those that voted for them, and removing funds from things that don't. Sounds like a standard thing that happens in a democracy. When someone you vote for is in power, they will spend on things you prefer to fund instead.

> Example: you claim UN hasn't been a source of soft power "for the better part of this century." Well, says you - I think it has done a great job. Now what?

Okay, what has it done that has aligned with US interests?

Re: The United States withdraws from UNESCO

#373

Post by ngruhn »

DSingularity wrote: post #361
offtotheraces wrote: post #359

Earlier quoted context omitted.

…says the Hamas-run health ministry . Nothing to see here, no conflicts of interest. Let’s trust the people who kidnapped babies and raped and pillaged their way across southern israel.

[flagged]

For having an opinion you don't like? This attitude is tearing America apart.

Re: The United States withdraws from UNESCO

#375

Post by glitchc »

Apocryphon wrote: post #344
glitchc wrote: post #150

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The online space (Reddit, HN, others) is so deeply embedded with groupthink that people have lost the ability to see other points of view or debate topics of interest. To me it's very clear why the government is leaving UNESCO (and over time the UN at large). The UN is dysfunctional and does not work. It used to be a source of soft power for the States, but hasn't been so for the better part of this century. Meanwhil…

You don’t think China, the Gulf states, hell, oil-rich Azerbaijan won’t pick up the slack for international legitimacy or national glory? And you think U.S. isolation from the League of Nations was the right move, too?

Let's see. We'll know soon won't we?

Re: The United States withdraws from UNESCO

#376

Post by DSingularity »

nsypteras wrote: post #295

1984: U.S. withdraws. 2003: U.S. rejoins. 2011: U.S. stops paying dues after Palestine joins. 2017: U.S. announces withdrawal (effective end of 2018). 2023: U.S. rejoins, pledges to repay dues. 2025: U.S announces withdrawal Seems to be a revolving door

Cycle of politician appeasing their genocidal masters until the government start to realize what that means exactly at which point we pull back to humanity.

Re: The United States withdraws from UNESCO

#377

Post by wredcoll »

TheBlight wrote: post #96
akashshah87 wrote: post #63

“The U.S. began defunding UNESCO under Obama after it admitted Palestine as a full member—and then withdrew entirely during Trump’s first term.” — [ New York Times ]( https://www.nytimes.com/2025/07/22/world/europe/us-withdraw-... ) This isn’t just a blip, but part of a long-term downward trajectory in U.S. and UNESCO relations.

[flagged]

Why do you think this action is worth defending? Do you personally agree with it? Do you have an actual position here?

Re: The United States withdraws from UNESCO

#378

Post by primitivesuave »

lvl155 wrote: post #40

And it’s wild to think that more than 1/3 of the devs I’ve met in my life support this admin. These are seemingly smart people. The past 10 years or so made me realize I don’t know anything about human nature or intellect. Edit: I am in no way saying conservatism is bad and liberalism is good. I have my values in both.

If you are searching for some insight into human nature and intellect, you may find the history of the Roman Republic (and it's transition to an empire) to have shocking parallels to modern-day events. Trump is remarkably similar to Sulla, who showed the next generation of leaders how to break the rules to gain power. Caesar is coming...

Re: The United States withdraws from UNESCO

#379

Post by isolli »

lvl155 wrote: post #40

And it’s wild to think that more than 1/3 of the devs I’ve met in my life support this admin. These are seemingly smart people. The past 10 years or so made me realize I don’t know anything about human nature or intellect. Edit: I am in no way saying conservatism is bad and liberalism is good. I have my values in both.

What is wild to me is that all the replies I read are written as if everyone on this forum obviously agreed and those who don't are "others" not worth thinking about.

I'm not a US citizen and did not have to make a choice, but I could see plenty of reasons not to vote for the Democratic candidate: the establishment had tried to run a candidate that was obviously unfit for office and parachuted a replacement at the last minute; the Democratic response to covid was atrocious (yes, the irony of Trump capturing that slice of the vote does not escape me); the issue of males (transwomen) in female sports and prisons...

Whether those reasons outweighed the obvious (to me) negatives is everyone's choice to make when casting their vote... but the inability to understand the other side (and brag about it) seems odd for all the smart people here.

Re: The United States withdraws from UNESCO

#380

Post by spacebanana7 »

watwut wrote: post #231
spacebanana7 wrote: post #157

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Steelman their position. Try finding reasons good people would vote for Trump, or at least sincere mistakes of reasoning that a good person could make.

They were steelmanned for years and that is how theu got powerful. Maybe we should stop to do it and start to interpret their words accurately. Sometime, cruelty is the point and there is only delusion in trying to project "good reasons". It is loosing strategy.

To get Trump supporters to vote for you it's important to beat Trump at addressing their concerns. Even a small swing of 5-10% of them could win an election.
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