Thread by @shadihamid

In this week's @WCrowdsLive essay, I make the case for hypocrisy in foreign policy, not because hypocrisy is good but because it is better than the alternative. I wish it were otherwise but apparently it's not. 1/x

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As I finish a book about rethinking democracy promotion for the post-Trump era, I've been struggling with the question of hypocrisy. It's unavoidable now that the gap between words and deeds has returned with Biden, which is both bad and good. 2/x

The hypocrite has always been a subject of fascination, not merely because he is bad. Mere badness is pedestrian. The hypocrite is different (and worse) because of his ostentatious morality. But should a hatred of hypocrisy be applied to countries and not just individuals? 3/x

Liberal democracies, despite—or due to—being more moral, are especially prone to hypocrisy. Because they legitimate themselves on normative grounds, liberal societies "present themselves as better than they are." 4/x

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With Trump, we had something of a natural experiment. For the first time in my life, the gap between words and deeds was basically eliminated. We didn't even have a president who *pretended.* Trump was our first anti-hypocrite on foreign policy, but is anti-hypocrisy better? 5/x

Under no illusions about American interest in their plight, dissidents in the Middle East could adapt their activism accordingly and focus exclusively on their own local context. In his honest and frank disregard, Trump was simply incapable of betraying them. 6/x

There is a reason that Francois Le Rochefoucauld said "hypocrisy is the homage vice pays to virtue."

Read the whole thing at @WCrowdsLive, part of our Friday Essay series: wisdomofcrowds.live/why-america-ne… 7/x