#+title: foreign policy contrarianism

This is a phenomenon where people take popular [[file:20210712163124-foreign_policy.org][foreign policy]] opinions and
simply invert them. This is common on the [[file:20210520113302-left_wing.org][left]] / among [[file:20200707205056-communism.org][communists]].

The general template for such contrarianism usually takes the form of "We, as
socialists, must support X country because they are an enemy of the [[file:20210330201641-united_states.org][United
States]]."

Although as socialists I don't think we should actively call for US intervention
in such countries, but I also don't think that means we need to defend the honor
of the [[file:20210712164445-iran.org][Iranian]] government, for example, which is a reactionary and conservative
theocracy. Personally, I am not interested in defending such a government on its
own merits.

A further line of argumentation you'll get is "well, if you say anything
negative about X enemy of the US during this time, you're just doing the CIA's
work for it." I don't think the [[file:20210712164759-cia.org][CIA]] really cares about what I have to say about
Iran or Venezuela. Nor do I think my political opponents, who are right wingers,
would use my own arguments against X country.