I’m honestly scared about how dysfunctional and irrational the West has become. Washington and Brussels no longer understand how things work or they themselves have become powerless to govern their own policy because domestic politics now is entirely driven by ideology or populism.
Years of hostility and propaganda against China and Russia have created a political dilemma for the West, in which they are unable to work together with them. Instead, there is a well-established routine of being aggressive against Beijing and Moscow for the sake of showing strength to its own people and creating unity of purpose that any attempts to move away from it will be seen as weakness by the public.
However, this approach to foreign policy has made it nearly impossible for China and Russia to engage with the West in normal diplomacy. For them, negotiating with the West is like trying to reason with an Islamic jihadist because they both possess an unshakeable faith that cannot be reasoned against, except with the West, their religion is Neo-Liberalism instead of Islam. This means that even as the world is burning, Washington and Brussels will stymie attempts to reach joint-solution to fix global problems. Like it or not, mutual cooperation is necessary to confront major international issues we all face today like climate changes, COVID-19, or rising energy and supply chain costs. Yet instead of seeing the big picture and approaching things pragmatically, the West is focused on wasting its attention and resources to spar over whose ideologically or morally superior.
As China and Russia are becoming more and more frustrated with Western governments, they are beginning to realize that they have to negotiate indirectly with the West’s corporations to get anything done. If the West has surrendered their sovereignty and become a plutocracy, then the only way to cooperate with them is through their companies and not through their elected officials who are already ensnared by lobbyists and corporate money. Russia and China don’t actually need to invade the West, they just need to negotiate an agreement with big business to establish control. This also works in big businesses’ favor because they don’t want to govern people which is a liability, they only want to make money and it’s very profitable to sell out their own countries.
