Yeah as an American I didn’t mean to absolve that, and personally it’s tough not to struggle with the immense guilt that comes with. Most people are genuinely kind in this country but they are also genuinely brainwashed. I think one thing to note when it comes to US imperialism specifically, is that most Americans have never actually experienced war, which lets politicians weaponize their compassion. Americans that do support war genuinely think they’re doing the world a favor by spreading “democracy.” In the US, the citizens are so removed from geopolitical conflict that it makes them extra susceptible to propaganda because they don’t actually face the direct violence of imperialism like the global south does. We feel the consequences still, but it’s economic and it takes more logical steps for people to connect their struggles with what’s happening outside their borders.

There’s also a huge generational divide. Millenials and Gen Z are more left than the US population has ever been in its history. There may be an overall lack of knowledge when it comes to foundational theory, but that’s where the current struggle is.

It’s not an excuse, but for most people here it’s not malice either. If more Americans genuinely understood what our military and financial system did, there would be a whole lot less complicity in it. Which is why there is the most sophisticated propaganda system in history obscuring those truths and keeping people ignorant. But even if most people here weren’t ignorant and pushed back against Western imperialism, they would still have no say in their farce of a political system. We have absolutely no say in what our government does when it comes to militarization and imperialism, even on the more local level.