If the "pro-Tibet" protesters were really pro-Tibet, they'd be in Bentonville not Beijing. But they don't give a shit about Tibet or its people. They are simply scared of China rivaling the power of the US. China has always been at the forefront of civilization. They had a complex culture with many relatively modern innovations while western Europeans were still living like "savages." This isn't completely forgotten. During the run-up to the Olympics we were bombarded by Chinese propaganda. Protesters saw the big buildings and they saw how the Chinese looked and lived similar to people in the west. This is unacceptable, they thought. They know the earth can't sustain a country with China's population living like they do (Al Gore told them so). Determined to show those damn Chinese there's only room for one superpower, they ran off to buy a plane ticket from capitalist San Francisco to capitalist China. No one in China deserves to hear shit about human rights abuses from any American. Talk to the Koreans, or the Japanese, about the United States and human rights.
The Wall Street Journal calls Russia's backing of South Ossetia separatists "imperialism." I don't know, but did they have the same reaction to NATO's backing of separatists in Kosovo? Russia, another brutal cutthroat capitalist country, still has enough pride to not allow itself to be pushed around by NATO. This, as Yugoslavia found out, is not acceptable. Russia, too big to be picked apart like Yugoslavia, has to be demonized and marginalized on the world stage. CNN has a list of "experts" on Russia who are quick to denounce the Kremlin's "aggression." No doubt many of these same "experts" were also called on when the butcher of Belgrade, Bill Clinton, decided to practice that good old liberal "humanitarian intervention." Amazingly, their analysis was in support of aggression that time.
The double standards are rampant. We want international multiculturalism, sure, but only so long as your culture doesn't try and get all uppity and shit. Know your place. And not only that, us holier-than-thou Americans are going to criticize you for doing what we have done, and still do, but don't like to think or talk about. So fuck you China and Russia! Did you guys actually think you were going to be part of what we define as "the international community" just because you both embraced capitalism? Well, think again. You'll only be welcomed into the west, this culture of competition, when we are 100% sure you can't compete with us.
