Thread by @spacetwinks

seeing the usual talk about russia and libs having to be reminded that we did coups making me think also about how we always do coups in the most impatient manner possible because even when it comes to toppling governments americans are incredibly impatient

it's something i hit upon chatting with someone before about how america is constantly doing coups in south america, often in the same countries repeatedly, because we don't have the patience to 'boil the frog' and slowly hollow out state services. we just want it done in a week

"we could slowly install our own people and dismantle their government, leaving only enough intact for people to prefer status quo to revolution"

"that sounds long, hard, and boring. let's throw a bunch of people and guns at it for a month. this'll never backfire"

notably this is pretty much exactly how we talked about iraq. america is a terrible oppressive monster but also a child with no attention span and cannot conceive of doing longterm work to maintain their horrible grip on people outside of america itself

and to point this back to russia: we install yeltsin with a bunch of tanks, dust our hands, and go "well we never have to think about this again and surely nothing about this effort will backfire on us"

of course probably the most infamous of "america causing its own problems" probably being osama bin laden. we just can't be bothered with the slow work of subterfuge, we just pour money and guns into whoever looks most convenient at the moment