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The United States withdraws from UNESCO

state.gov

251–260 of 989 posts

Re: The United States withdraws from UNESCO

#251
The US is complicit in the intentional starvation of gaza’s people by israel. At least 15 people have starved to death in the last 24 hours, including an infant.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/israel-gaza-war-hunger-childre...

Ragequitting UNESCO over their recognition of palestine is a small part of the project of supporting the ethnic cleansing of gaza and the west bank.

Re: The United States withdraws from UNESCO

#252
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.

Maybe take a few minutes to talk to the other side to better understand their thoughts and why they have such thoughts. Sadly I’ve noticed understanding and tolerance of diverse perspectives went out the window lately.

I do and did. In my youth one of my best friends slowly became a neo nazi, with lines like: "foreigners should be herded together and exterminated".

After one particular discussion he conceeded: "I know you're factually correct, but I don't care, because this is what I want". And this is the point were further discussion was useless.

Re: The United States withdraws from UNESCO

#254
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.

Maybe take a few minutes to talk to the other side to better understand their thoughts and why they have such thoughts. Sadly I’ve noticed understanding and tolerance of diverse perspectives went out the window lately.

To be clear, sadly, “lately” covers a longer time than the current administration.

Re: The United States withdraws from UNESCO

#255
post #190

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…

While UN is not optimal and needs a revamp, it is an organization that has almost all countries of the world as members. There is no guarantee that a new organization is going to be any better. Once US leaves UN, why would any other country believe in US to build a better organization, especially seeing that the existing administration in US itself is chaotic.

^ This is the primary meta argument against Trump foreign policy.

If you screw your counterparty over in every negotiation, you erode trust and end up without allies.

That’s fine in a business setting, if you’re self-capitalized (although Trump famously ran into issues after burning bridges with most banks), because you can do without them.

It works less effectively in a forum of sovereign nations, where you’re going to need to deal with CountryX tomorrow and ten years from now.

The US is ceding the soft power and web of alliances that are the basis of its economic and hard power.

The US, without allies, loses to China strictly on the basis of population.

“America first” is “America alone” with an orange spray tan.

Re: The United States withdraws from UNESCO

#256

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

I pursue material wealth because it provides for my family, my lifestyle, and allows me to support causes I like. But even if I was poor I would be content because family and friends are truly what matter.

Surprisingly many people who claim to care about "family" don’t seem to have any qualms about leaving their children and grandchildren a considerably worse world.

Re: The United States withdraws from UNESCO

#257

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

I don't think you realize that the Culture War is originating from the Right, and that it's a tar trap for those on the Left. More so, that the whole point of this War is to foster anger and division, so that we squabble amongst ourselves rather than the elite who own us all.

I don't think that's quite right. I think over the last 10 years a lot of the anti-corporate energy of Occupy Wall Street has been funnelled - by means of the culture war - into "identity" issues that have little potential to harm corporate power or profits. I would argue that this did not originate on the right or left but was the result of a political class that's beholden to endless donations.

To me, one really clear example of this is immigration. As recently as 2016, Bernie Sanders was saying that mass immigration is a Koch Brothers strategy for keeping wages low[1]. I think he was right. But the left has been cajoled away from this position over time because it had the potential to harm their corporate donors.

[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vf-k6qOfXz0

Re: The United States withdraws from UNESCO

#258
post #89

This seems to be a political back and forth (beginning with the admittance of palestine in the past)... (from wikipedia) U.S. (and Israel) left UNESCO in 2018, but the United States rejoined in 2023. I presume U.S. has left again now in 2025. [edit: kind of surprised this hasn't been flagged, but sadly indicative of HN's bias.]

This goes back further, the US had already withdrawn from 1984 (under Reagan) to 2003: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UNESCO#New_World_Information_a...

Re: The United States withdraws from UNESCO

#259
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.

Smart people in a bubble will confidently apply their intellect to things they have no first-hand experience with

Re: The United States withdraws from UNESCO

#260

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You took out the comment about people howling about change. Why? That seemed the central thesis of your statement. I would argue that it's not practical to burn the current system down without a plan at all for the next system (like the ACA a few years ago. . .) My concern isn't change. My concern is the complete lack of concern for consequences. Like it or not, the US is and has been on the decline in terms of world…

> Leaving a power vacuum, like dismantling the UN, will just open the door for places like China to step in. You think that country has any amount of give a crap about humanity as a whole? Not even a little, I would argue. If China wants to foot the bill, let them. As I pointed out, the US hasn't been getting anything in return for the last 25 years of footing the bill, basically since 9/11. China cares about its peo…

> As I pointed out, the US hasn't been getting anything in return for the last 25 years of footing the bill, basically since 9/11

You pointed this out but provided no evidence.

"I'm paying for these traffic lights with these taxes but all they do is slow me down"

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