Reddit mentions of Barbarian Virtues: The United States Encounters Foreign Peoples at Home and Abroad, 1876-1917

This isn't an absurd notion, but obviously, the analysis and understanding of the situation is completely off the mark like a lot of dumb shit almost anyone in the news says concerning international politics. Not sure the 700 Club really even counts as news but whatever. Main part.
>“Everyone is convinced this is a conspiracy,” Ibrahim told Robertson, “you can’t help but wonder, of course it is, because why is the Obama administration so adamant about helping this organization?”

Uhhh, because we still want Egypt to not do dumb shit we don't like. We basically propped up a dictator for decades that was, newsflash, one of those dreaded towel hat non-Christian Satan lovers you seem to hate so much. We did it to keep shit calm. And Mubarak may have been shitty, but he was no Saddam Hussein really in his bluster or treatment of citizens. This worked for us, Egypt and Israel got along as best as we could expect, Mubarak didn't blow up citizens with grenades and post it on TV like Saddam, and Egypt was generally a safe/modern country especially compared to the region. You could go visit the Pyramids as opposed to trying to navigate the decapitaty cartels in Mexico.

Then we got a new fun hobby. We thought it would be smart to start spreading Democracy with peace bullets in the region. Then the Arab spring happened, and like it or not, the Muslim Brotherhood was elected in Egypt. Since political culture in Egypt is going to be screwed up for quite awhile, it's no wonder people quickly threw out the MB after electing them. But it makes perfect sense, that the US had every motivation to get in cahoots with them after the election to continue not doing shit we don't like in the region. Since they were the MB, wrote a crappy constitution, and were that evil not Christian religion, it also makes sense we didn't call them being thrown out a Coup so those poor Egyptians could try this whole Democracy thing a few more times until they elect someone we can all agree upon.

This is in no way to make a call on the morality of any of this. Some want an end to all foreign aid, some want us to invade China and Russia because freedom. But it's still reality and the reason nation-states do seemingly weird things. A more obvious example is North Korea. We send them a ton of freedom burgers, they rip the USA label off, apply their own "Dear leader burgers made from US army members and imperialist tears," and give it to their citizens. This legitimizes power over their citizens, but it absolutely ensures they can't do shit to SK or anyone else. They have previously depended on China but China is now more of an ally, especially econ wise, to the US than NK. They're slowly embracing more free market methods and that dipshit neighbor drooling at the kids table isn't worth crap anymore. NK knows this. SK knows this. US knows this. NK knows SK and US know this.

Now let's have more fun in Syria..

Edit: Good intro reading for anyone who likes this subject.