Sh0eonhead is basically correct about USAID
On the Sh0eonhead vs. Bentham's Bulldog spat
Five days ago, famous Youtuber Sh0eonhead made a video about USAID. Sh0e leans left-wing, but she’s also a populist, so she’s critical of the CIA and is therefore suspicious of a lot of USAID’s activities.
Her video highlighted how USAID funds culturally left-wing (but not economically left-wing) imperialism in other countries, and also assists the CIA in regime change.
wrote an article on Substack rebutting a few of Sh0e’s specific points. He argued:USAID didn’t really spend large amounts of money teaching Sri Lankan journalists how to avoid gendered language. In reality, millions were spent on Sri Lankan journalists in a program to “promote democracy.” This included grants for web development and other office expenses, and also included an indoctrination course to avoid gendered language.
USAID spread propaganda in Kazakhstan. Bentham’s Bulldog doesn’t dispute this, but he claims it’s a good thing. He calls it “Combatting Disinformation” rather than “Spreading Propaganda.” I think that a government-sponsored effort to undermine a foreign state by deeming that state’s narratives to be “disinformation” is propaganda. State-sponsored media is not a free press, even if the state sponsor is the US government.
USAID promoted “Inclusion” of disabled people in Vietnam. BB says this is a good thing because it helped victims of Agent Orange, including by giving them assistive devices and livelihood assistance.
USAID promoted an LGBT activist group in Armenia. BB didn’t dispute this either. He thinks it’s good because he broadly agrees with the LGBT activists.
USAID spread propaganda in the US. BB says this is good. He calls it “combatting misinformation” like the program in Kazakhstan.
Sh0e claimed that John Bolton was the head of USAID. In reality he was an Assistant Administrator of USAID, not the head of the whole organization.
USAID funded drug production. In reality, USAID paid for farm equipment, and some of that equipment was later used for drug production.
USAID covered up sex abuse in Kenya. In reality, USAID funded an orphanage where sex abuse was occurring, but did not cover anything up.
Side note: Both Sh0e and BB think it’s a bad thing that USAID tried to overthrow the Cuban government. I think that’s awesome, since the Cuban government is evil, and any replacement government would probably be better.
OK, so Sh0e incorrectly claimed that USAID produced drugs in Afghanistan and abused children in Kenya, when in reality USAID was tangentially involved in those things, but wasn’t directly involved in the bad actions. And Sh0e incorrectly stated that John Bolton was the head of all of USAID when he was only the head of a subdivision of USAID.
These are real errors and Sh0e should correct them, but they’re so minor as to not materially alter the basic point of the video. Bentham’s Bulldog called them “insane falsehoods” which really isn’t a reasonable description.
Sh0e’s basic message, that USAID funds regime change and propaganda and left-wing cultural imperialism abroad1, is true. Sometimes nitpicking an opponent’s minor factual inaccuracies is a way to obfuscate the larger point. For example, Bentham’s Bulldog incorrectly stated that PEPFAR is a part of USAID. In reality, PEPFAR is a separate program which is implemented by USAID as well as several other agencies, including the CDC, DoD and the Peace Corps - but harping on that point would be a distraction from the overall point of BB’s essay, which is a defense of USAID’s record against several specific allegations.
BB concludes that USAID does good things as well, and we should weigh the good against the bad. Maybe so, but there’s good reason to be worried when our government engages in shadowy activities to indoctrinate the masses and overthrow non-ideologically-aligned governments. Those kinds of activities are basically aimed at taking over the world - they’re an attempt to ensure that only one ideology - the State Department’s ideology - will rule planet Earth. There’s a good argument that those kinds of activities undermine our governmental systems in the long run, and so they might be even more important than a short-run decrease in AIDS deaths, even if you’re of the opinion that we ought to spend our own resources to reduce the global prevalence of AIDS.
In any case, most of USAID’s funding does not go to PEPFAR. You are allowed to be against USAID’s nefarious activities. You don’t have to let yourself be blackmailed into supporting unlimited CIA and State Department perfidy, just because they tie those perfidious activities to a starving African child.
Sh0eonhead’s video starts with the assumption that the State Department is bad (correct in my view) and Bentham’s Bulldog’s response mostly amounts to “Yeah but I think the State Department is good.”
And propaganda at home as well!
Theres an old meme about the heavily left-wing biased deb00nker website Snopes. It has a headline like "Democrat politician fucks his cat" and then the big letters over the top saying FALSE. But then the fine print says "it wasn't his cat it was his friends cat".
Leftoids do this shit all the time. See: Bentham's rebuttals of the claims about USAID
Simon Laird defending Shoeonhead isn't a crossover I expected to see in my lifetime