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I have been across the internet yelling at dumb liberal dipshits about this (conservatives too, but their response is about what you would expect, I figured though at least liberals would have an idea how serious this is.) and it still largely goes unappreciated how much harm this has done and will do, and it is not being reported and probably never will be, because it's perceived as largely impacting people with darker skin living in less developed areas.
The death tolls will radically increase in the coming years. Even if we restored USaid to full funding tomorrow, the interruption will continue to ripple for years and years.
The blood on the hands of the people who cut this program is going to be at biblical levels and they hold a hatred that cannot be overstated. This is a sheer malevolence that should lead to trials at the Hague followed by public crucifiction.
On the larger sites I always get pushback on this, saying that "We have to let countries learn to manage themselves." And "That money should stay in this country." and the like. If your feelings resonate with those statements, you aren't just morally decaying, you don't understand the strategic power of these kinds of programs and probably learned everything you want to know about geopolitics from Hearts of Iron games, and you certainly need to better understand the numbers involved. But you won't even look it up will you. Putting "What does USAID do" into your search bar gets a little too close to caring, and maybe feeling some of that blood on your hands as well, doesn't it?
Thinking is too shallow when it comes to this. Yes, there is absolutely the direct results: starvation, death, and malnutrition.
And for whatever reason people seem ok with that to save US $ and force the other country to pick themselves up by their bootstraps.
The shallow thinking avoids the indirect issues. The starvation leads to instability. The instability can cause war and fighting on a local level that can damage US interests and trade. It can spill over into neighboring countries causing the same issues. Increase radicalization and terrorism. They’ll blame the “West”, likely justifiably, for supporting some dictator that steps in to crush opposition yet protect the West’s interests in whatever resource they’re stripping from the country or ag product like chocolate they’re making people grind at growing and underpaying for. It could have the country(ies) switch allegiances to competitors like China. All of this can directly increase costs to the US or indirectly to the US via regional instability disrupting trade. That’s ok, they’ll just pass the cost on to consumers while business profits are protected. It beats spending any tax money on things.
This is typical reductionist and oversimplified thinking by the Right. Just punish people into changing behavior, nevermind the indirect costs.
The people you disagree with aren't idiots, they don't care about strategic power or geopolitics. You understand people may have different values than you right?
Yes and those values are bad.
People care about people suffering, they dont care about our countries ability to bully other nations through various means.
Yah you're right, USAID's exertion of soft power is bullying just like drone strikes and ground invasions. Jesus christ you're one of them. I sometimes wish there was a divine judge out there. Don't bother replying, I will get too mad at another inhuman, selfish, mindless drone scraping for excuses to not care about others.
Moooooo, ma, moo, moo.
Get off your high cow.
Sure, get angry rather than grapple with an idea you disagree with.