foreign policy contrarianism

This is a phenomenon where people take popular [[foreign policy]] opinions and simply invert them. This is common on the [[left]] / among [[communists]].

The general template for such contrarianism usually takes the form of “We, as socialists, must support X country because they are an enemy of the [[United States]].”

Although as socialists I don’t think we should actively call for US intervention in such countries, but I also don’t think that means we need to defend the honor of the [[Iranian]] government, for example, which is a reactionary and conservative theocracy. Personally, I am not interested in defending such a government on its own merits.

A further line of argumentation you’ll get is “well, if you say anything negative about X enemy of the US during this time, you’re just doing the CIA’s work for it.” I don’t think the [[CIA]] really cares about what I have to say about Iran or Venezuela. Nor do I think my political opponents, who are right wingers, would use my own arguments against X country.