Skiluros

As an outsider, the article and top comments reek of desperation.

It's like they are desperate to find some sort of counter balancing logic or faux-dynamism that would serve as a way out without rocking the boat too much or asking uncomfortable questions.

I would disagree, considering the nature of Cato it makes sense for them to keep up appearances. Propaganda can show nuance when needed.

Consider russian propaganda, even they don't openly admit to being genocidal imperialists. On the contrary you often hear narratives around how they are helping Ukrainians and if not for the CIA, Ukrainians and Russians would be enjoying life together as brotherly nations.

I just find it difficult to take something like this seriously:

For more than 40 years, Cato has led the charge for liberty in our nation and around the world. The Cato Institute is a public policy research organization—or think tank—that creates a presence for and promotes libertarian ideas in policy debates. Our mission is to keep the principles, ideas, and moral case for liberty alive for future generations, while moving public policy in the direction of individual liberty, limited government, free markets, and peace.

This reads like some sort of communist propaganda or something similar (especially the bit about "for future generations"). From my perspective, this is pretty typical copytext for Americans who work on corruption enablement. Lots of pomp and tedious bullshit, but when push comes to shove, there is always algniment with oligarch goals.

‘from the desk of the president’ graphic

That graphic is indeed very strange and a massive red flag.

This is almost certainly some sort of clickbait farm.

From what's I've read from Cato, I don't think they actually believe in what they write. Some of the younger analysts (who lack life experience) maybe, and I am sure they keep a few "true believer" types to keep up appearances.

But at the end of the day their copytext about "freedom this" and "freedom that" doesn't pass the basic smell test. A bunch of oligarch funded think tank analysts by definition cannot know anything about freedom.

I am surprised to see Cato institute bring this up. They are pretty much open about their support for oligarchs, authoritarianism and hatred of human rights. I wonder if this is 4D chess of sorts where they worry RFK Jr.'s lack of PR skills and relative volatility could result in some plebs starting to wonder if the whole system is a ruse that plays them for suckers.

That's a much bigger danger to the people who bankroll Cato than some deaths/suffering due to mass viral outbreaks.

Thanks for the kind words! We have to collectively makes the most out of a bad situation.

I've lived in the US before (I am Ukrainian, living in Kyiv) and the impression I get is Americans are taking their current position for granted.

It's not just about aid from the US, but also maintaining sanctions (and expanding compliance checks) w.r.t. russia.

I am not American, but I have lived in North America, Europe and Asia.

Typically when a new oligarch gang takes over, their priority is providing benefits to themselves and their senior affiliates. Everything else is cover for the plebs.

It is very likely Schwinn is more of a PR move to provide rhetorical cover for their criminal activities. Schwinn is either in on the scheme and was paid off or is dumb enough to think she can change the system from within or that American institutions will magically resolve everything.

Don't hope for magical solutions.

Strong democratic institutions are good and all, but they have a tendency to fail exactly at the moment that you need them most. And when democratic institutions do fail, the cost (and sacrifice/risk) to return to normalcy increases exponentially.

All this death, suffering and sacrifice, only to be back-stabbed by a corrupt American oligarch and his goons.

Good to hear!

Yes, I do think (hope?) that will be another migration wave. Hopefully one that can kickstart organic double digit YoY MAU growth as well as getting total MAUs over 100K.

It was in no way my intention to downplay how fucked this is. I am just pointing out that it's worth evaluating and countering agitprop methods.