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The blame for public distrust in government and media institutions rests solely on those government and media institutions.
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Most westerners know that Bush and his allies destroyed Iraq, while hardly any westerners know Obama and his allies destroyed Syria. That right there tells you why we haven't seen any full-scale US ground invasions lately. America's solution to the PR crisis caused by the horrific consequences of its military interventionism has been to switch to preferencing sanctions, blockades, and proxy wars where violence is outsourced to other powers so the US doesn't take the blame.
Syria is a perfect example of this new model of imperialist slaughter. The US power alliance absolutely demolished that country by arming jihadist proxy forces and then sanctioning the hell out of it to keep it from rebuilding, all with the goal of eventually toppling Damascus, but the general public is completely unaware of this.
And make no mistake, good PR is absolutely essential to the operation of the empire. They don't pour that much energy into manufacturing consent because it's fun, they do it because they have to. You can't rule a managed democracy without good perception management.
The need to avoid bad PR fallouts is why Bush-era "Hulk smash" ground invasions are largely a thing of the past. It's also why the US empire now has a secretary of state who vocally supports the new model of subtler imperialist butchery:
Trump supporters act like it's something special that their guy "started no new wars," but the fact that he didn't has nothing to do with Trump himself; it's just the new model of imperialist butchery to favor sanctions and proxy conflicts instead, which Trump absolutely did.
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Netanyahu's right-wing thuggishness causing a PR nightmare for Israel is a good example of why the US-centralized power alliance increasingly prefers liberal manipulators to head many of its "democracies." An Israeli Obama wouldn't have lost control of the narrative like that.
There's just not enough public support for wingnuts for them to operate as effective stewards of empire in the western world anymore. That's why so many oligarchs and imperialists disliked Trump; not because they disagreed with him on any important policies (they didn't), but because he sucked at perception management.
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