On 16 January 2025, I had an excellent discussion with Paul Buitink, who runs the popular Dutch podcast — “Reinvent Money” — and Wierd Duk, one of Holland’s most influential journalists, who writes for De Telegraaf.
How about we stop containing other countries. How about we start containing our own foreign policy. It’s a hard pill to swallow but empires only last about 250 years. We’re at the end of the road and all we’re doing is doubling down on bad foreign and domestic policies. Threatening to start a nuclear war because the oligarchy doesn’t want to come down from their seat of power and influence which was obtained by destabilizing almost the entire global with economic, political, religious and military propaganda and interventions.
The US was rose to hegemonic proportions by genocide, oppression, land theft, broken contracts and lies. It gained enormous wealth through slavery and on the backs of immigrants. The reason it fears being attacked by Russia and China is because it’s exactly what they would do. They’re projecting their genocidal tendencies on other countries.
Not to extent the US has done so. What the US has done is unprecedented in recorded history. The United States, as a modern superpower, has had a unique global impact that sets it apart from historical empires. While other empires like Rome, the British Empire, and the Mongols dominated large swathes of territory and shaped history, the U.S. has influenced the world in ways that are distinct in scale, method, and consequence.
As long as we continue to justify the horrible atrocities of empire building and hegemony by saying all the other ones did it too, these crimes will continue to plague humanity.
Read history of the British empire and you will realize that the US is a continuation of that... Nothing has changed since the world began. To imagine that what we see now is any different to 5000 years ago is dreamland.
To call something evil or bad is moral relativism without having an objective measure. No God, no consequences. Your terrorist, my freedom fighter, your evil my blessing. Point out to me why you call something a horrible atrocity... By what measure?
I happen to agree with you so, I am smokkeling your kop.
The claim that nothing has changed since the world began is shocking. All things on earth, including humans, have undergone constant change, especially in the last 10,000-15,000 years of civilization. We absolutely do not live in a world that’s similar to the one humans lived in 5000, 2000 or even 200 years ago; not culturally, economically, politically, religiously, environmentally or technologically.
But I understand the point you tried to make. The practice and tendency of certain humans to build empires with its hierarchal structures and attending atrocities, since the dawn of civilization, is with us today. But the experiment of civilization is a fairly recent phenomenon in human history and evolution. I think it’s time for a change precisely because genocide, abuse of power, environmental destruction, oppression, violence, wars, inequality, misogyny, racism, homophobia and xenophobia are cooked into its model. A few benefit tremendously while the environment and the great majority of people suffer.
Please point out to me where I mention the words evil or bad in my post. Don’t worry about looking it up. You won’t find them because I never wrote those words down. They’re unqualified descriptors and don’t provide context or evidence to support a claim or argument. That’s what ignorant 12th century people used to silence, accuse and kill other people without a shred of proof of culpability.
You bring up god. Well, in the 10 commandments god said “thou shall not murder”. You can kill in self defense or by accident but murder is intentional and inexcusable. The important point being you can kill but you can’t commit murder and that’s what genocide is, the murder of innocent people who can’t even fight back. You agree that God’s word is eternal, therefore the British Empire is just as guilty of genocide and murder as the US. There’s no relativism there. If it was wrong then it’s wrong now with the US. God’s word is eternal. Apparently, god doesn’t change his mind. Although I’ve seen some questionable instances where that could be the case. But I digress.
Last time I checked I wasn’t a terrorist but I am a United States Air Force veteran.
Genocide is a horrible atrocity (so is slavery, oppression, inequality, etc). It was deemed so by god first (although the Jews claim that god told them to wipe out all the nations in Canaan but I don’t buy it) and then the 1948 United Nations Genocide Convention after WWII and the Holocaust. Even you would agree with this assessment I would hope.🤞
I love your argument and agree with you. However like Tolstoy (The Kingdom of God) you try to make people who do not recognize any God conform to godly standards and then you tell me God said to Israel... but you don't buy it? For there to be a judgment of good and evil, for anything to be horrible and an atrocity as you put it there has to be an objective measure. What is your measure of good and bad if you don't buy it?
This is not me trying to say, 'Gotcha' Its just an old man trying to get you to think. The God of the bible is all or nothing, you don't get to pick and choose. Get to know him, get in Him.
Universal morality suggests that there are core ethical principles that apply to all people, regardless of cultural or personal differences. While there is debate about the extent to which specific moral values are truly universal, many ethical systems and human rights frameworks propose that certain rights, fairness, and respect for others should be upheld universally.
I think as an evolving species we’ve learned a thing or two about our past moral values. Today, I agree with the universal condemnation and policy penned by the United Nations against genocide and slavery. I side with the over 124 countries that subscribe to the belief that genocide and slavery are wrong in any setting. I agree with the expert assessment and verifiable research of respected scholars that genocide and slavery must be condemned and stamped out of the human experience.
If you need a book to tell you what’s right and what’s wrong, by all means have at it. But there’s a reason we have divested ourselves from the outdated and dangerous morally bankrupt practices of our archaic past.
Are you implying that this the fate of the human race? From a realism perspective? If that were the case, then the Geneva conventions (& every other convention that the hegemonic US flouts) were an anomaly.. let’s redefine civilization as nothing more than conquest and aggression.
I see another Zionist who has not read the UN Convention on Genocide - key sentence…..’in whole or in part’. It does not say ‘ wiping out a nation or a people’. Consider……. if a timeout had been taken in the middle of the Nazi Holocaust (say early1944), would it have been a serious argument to have said that it was not a genocide because not enough Jews had yet been killed? Further consider…….. it’s May 1945, the war has ended; would it have been a serious argument to have said that it was not a Genocide, because not all the Jews in the world have been killed (not even all the Jews in Europe actually).
Oh, and Israel is not ‘insisting on confining’ anything to Gaza (where have you been for the last 15 months?). Palestinians (hundreds of them) have been killed on the illegally occupied WB during this genocide, plus thousands seriously injured.
This horror is not a war, it’s absolutely a genocide, and I predict that the ICJ (despite the enormous pressure from the Israeli occupied congress), will determine it to be so.
I will not bother to respond to your tired tropes & Zionist talking points, except to point out that you forgot all about ‘beheaded babies’ and ‘mass rapes’.
It does rather seem today, that Israel ‘f…..d around and found out’. Just a very short summary of where we are.
None of Israel’s stated war aims had been achieved. The IDF could not release the hostages, and Hamas is not defeated. The IDF could not push Hezbollah back across the Litani, and much of Hezbollahs offensive missile capability is intact. Why has Israel signed the ceasefire? Because of two things……. it knows that the Gaza war is done, it couldn’t defeat Hamas, and it couldn’t get its hostages. Secondly, Trump gave Israel the cover it needed to sign, without having to fess up to the former (‘We didn’t want to, but Trump made us).
Israel has been shown to be an airforce masquerading as a country - their land combat capability has to now be of serious concern to Israeli citizens. They couldn’t take a tiny sliver of land in Gaza, nor could they take anything significant in Lebanon. Totally dependant on a few thousand influential & wealthy citizens of another country 5,000 miles away. That dependency is now cruelly exposed- military, economic, and diplomatic. If any one of those pillars of support is pulled away, Israel is done.
Israel is despised cross the entire globe, inc by the general publics in western countries. It is diplomatically dead. Its high officials are under indictment by the ICC, and the state itself is under investigation for Genocide. Anyone who has ever served in the IDF needs to be extremely circumspect about travelling outside of the country.
The Palestinian issue is now centre stage globally. I don’t think it will go away in a hurry. Hamas are heroes throughout the Arab and Muslim world, throughout the global south, and I actually suspect throughout quite a bit of the west.
To me it seems that Israel bet the farm, rolled the dice, and lost - prob lost everything. It remains an important colony of the USA, but decolonisation is a long, grinding process, and always succeeds in the end.
If it is genocide why are the Israelis not attacking the Pallies on the west bank or the Pallies in Jordan? If the definition of a genocide is wiping out a nation or a people why are they insisting on confining this to Gaza and why oh why are they being killed while fighting what is clearly a war? These are not unarmed civilians, they are hostage taking terrorists led by murderous leaders who have no problem hiding arms under schools and hospitals. If Gaza is a state, then the state of Gaza took hostages and is holding hostages. If they wanted the war to end they should release the hostages and surrender the criminals. Clearly they don't want an end to the war. F around and find out.
At least you didn't call me Hitler; well done, but you avoid the questions I asked. Answer the reasonable questions if only for your own intellectual honesty. One more question for you: If there is no God, and therefor no judgment and therefore no consequences why should you use a term like holocaust ? It is a trigger, a wolf-whistle, a trope like BLM trying to pretend that history changed when you were born. I ask, is there any place on earth that you know of that has a history not bathed in blood? Show one place on earth that was settled without death, destruction and what you call genocide. Show one!
what is the reason "America should ally w/Russia against China"?? this is complete and utter mad hatter stuff. Biden might not have been compos mentis, but this is absurdistan 2.0
There is reality and then there is dreamland. The former is enduring and the latter like Facebook and Instagram. One like gold and the other like Dutch gilders, or Spanish $ Or The mighty Pound Stirling or the Almighty $. What amuses me is to see people imagine that MMT is going to work or that some Convention in Geneva will change the nature of man.
Look at the world and see all the straight lines defining countries borders, Egypt, Sudan, Syria, Libya.... All lines on maps that mean nothing. I say repetitively; show me one place on earth that was occupied by anything other than by war and I will stop talking. Look at what has just happened in Syria, The straight lines disappeared over a weekend. I know that according to the rules it should not happen but it did.
I know that when Trump says "we need Greenland and the Panama Canal and we will take it;" people need a cope... they say no, the Geneva convention says... it is a cope, not reality.
Dr. Mearscheiner, I have two questions. 1) you say that Trump can’t stop the war in Ukraine unless he’s willing to leave Ukraine’s land in Russia’s hands and upset NATO/EU, but as someone who likes Putin and dislikes Europe and NATO, wouldn’t Trump be quite willing to do that? 2) if Putin started his war because of NATO’s 2008 decision to take in Ukraine, what is Putin hoping to achieve in the war?
In so many words, John Mearsheimer said that there are a myriad of geopolitical problems facing the human race as a species. I would add that we’re facing a whole host of problems beyond those that are simply within the realm of geopolitics.
And I would argue that the “course” I’ve developed is the best way to try to either overcome those problems or manage them so that they become increasingly more manageable.
I'll watch the video, hope the title is not the content! Then I'll edit this comment eventually.
But a part from talks, discussions, posts, comments, one thing we could do: Do the same as they do!! Promote the boycotting of American products and culture, their media, their Socials and everything belong to that State or it's behind the scene: warmongers/imperialists as Balckrock,Vanguard at al. Sell US stocks, ETF... sell dollars. Stop traveling there, the World is beautiful why going to the bad Empire then? Boycotting is legal, no one is going to go for you if you don't buy their stuff.
The only way to shutdown the United Criminals of America is economically... that's why they're so afraid of China!
Lovely and right words. A nice short description of what wise people think about US history, facts, secrets, financial long hands...
To the ones that compare US to other Empires in History, yes the Britts were as bad as US and they still are seeing the fact they hacked Brexit, they go to war anytime they can get along with US to kill, and just for the taste of blood. From which the famous phrase "Bloody British"
No other Empires has been that bad, that psychopath, as those two. Somebody say because both are from two islands... xD
Because both are 2 modern Empires and last, US, built its hegemony especially in the '900 accelerating after WWII txs to the use and developing of technologies and theories that made PSYOPs the heart of their practice along with genocide and destruction. Just think how they were able to sell Pearl Harbor, or the landing on the Moon or the 9/11 made with cutters...
They know exactly how to SELL their violence and hegemony as something the rest needs.
Thank you, Professor Mearsheimer, for your brilliant analysis and alsook for your courage to call the Israeli genocide by its name. It is sad that mr Wierd Duk is not interested in the facts on the genocide issue. He rather dwells with his Zionist opinions. But herewith, as an influential Dutch journalist, he makes himself a complice of the terrible crimes committed.
How about we stop containing other countries. How about we start containing our own foreign policy. It’s a hard pill to swallow but empires only last about 250 years. We’re at the end of the road and all we’re doing is doubling down on bad foreign and domestic policies. Threatening to start a nuclear war because the oligarchy doesn’t want to come down from their seat of power and influence which was obtained by destabilizing almost the entire global with economic, political, religious and military propaganda and interventions.
The US was rose to hegemonic proportions by genocide, oppression, land theft, broken contracts and lies. It gained enormous wealth through slavery and on the backs of immigrants. The reason it fears being attacked by Russia and China is because it’s exactly what they would do. They’re projecting their genocidal tendencies on other countries.
Can you name another place and time in all of history when what you describe was not in place?
Not to extent the US has done so. What the US has done is unprecedented in recorded history. The United States, as a modern superpower, has had a unique global impact that sets it apart from historical empires. While other empires like Rome, the British Empire, and the Mongols dominated large swathes of territory and shaped history, the U.S. has influenced the world in ways that are distinct in scale, method, and consequence.
As long as we continue to justify the horrible atrocities of empire building and hegemony by saying all the other ones did it too, these crimes will continue to plague humanity.
Read history of the British empire and you will realize that the US is a continuation of that... Nothing has changed since the world began. To imagine that what we see now is any different to 5000 years ago is dreamland.
To call something evil or bad is moral relativism without having an objective measure. No God, no consequences. Your terrorist, my freedom fighter, your evil my blessing. Point out to me why you call something a horrible atrocity... By what measure?
I happen to agree with you so, I am smokkeling your kop.
The claim that nothing has changed since the world began is shocking. All things on earth, including humans, have undergone constant change, especially in the last 10,000-15,000 years of civilization. We absolutely do not live in a world that’s similar to the one humans lived in 5000, 2000 or even 200 years ago; not culturally, economically, politically, religiously, environmentally or technologically.
But I understand the point you tried to make. The practice and tendency of certain humans to build empires with its hierarchal structures and attending atrocities, since the dawn of civilization, is with us today. But the experiment of civilization is a fairly recent phenomenon in human history and evolution. I think it’s time for a change precisely because genocide, abuse of power, environmental destruction, oppression, violence, wars, inequality, misogyny, racism, homophobia and xenophobia are cooked into its model. A few benefit tremendously while the environment and the great majority of people suffer.
Please point out to me where I mention the words evil or bad in my post. Don’t worry about looking it up. You won’t find them because I never wrote those words down. They’re unqualified descriptors and don’t provide context or evidence to support a claim or argument. That’s what ignorant 12th century people used to silence, accuse and kill other people without a shred of proof of culpability.
You bring up god. Well, in the 10 commandments god said “thou shall not murder”. You can kill in self defense or by accident but murder is intentional and inexcusable. The important point being you can kill but you can’t commit murder and that’s what genocide is, the murder of innocent people who can’t even fight back. You agree that God’s word is eternal, therefore the British Empire is just as guilty of genocide and murder as the US. There’s no relativism there. If it was wrong then it’s wrong now with the US. God’s word is eternal. Apparently, god doesn’t change his mind. Although I’ve seen some questionable instances where that could be the case. But I digress.
Last time I checked I wasn’t a terrorist but I am a United States Air Force veteran.
Genocide is a horrible atrocity (so is slavery, oppression, inequality, etc). It was deemed so by god first (although the Jews claim that god told them to wipe out all the nations in Canaan but I don’t buy it) and then the 1948 United Nations Genocide Convention after WWII and the Holocaust. Even you would agree with this assessment I would hope.🤞
I love your argument and agree with you. However like Tolstoy (The Kingdom of God) you try to make people who do not recognize any God conform to godly standards and then you tell me God said to Israel... but you don't buy it? For there to be a judgment of good and evil, for anything to be horrible and an atrocity as you put it there has to be an objective measure. What is your measure of good and bad if you don't buy it?
This is not me trying to say, 'Gotcha' Its just an old man trying to get you to think. The God of the bible is all or nothing, you don't get to pick and choose. Get to know him, get in Him.
Universal morality suggests that there are core ethical principles that apply to all people, regardless of cultural or personal differences. While there is debate about the extent to which specific moral values are truly universal, many ethical systems and human rights frameworks propose that certain rights, fairness, and respect for others should be upheld universally.
I think as an evolving species we’ve learned a thing or two about our past moral values. Today, I agree with the universal condemnation and policy penned by the United Nations against genocide and slavery. I side with the over 124 countries that subscribe to the belief that genocide and slavery are wrong in any setting. I agree with the expert assessment and verifiable research of respected scholars that genocide and slavery must be condemned and stamped out of the human experience.
If you need a book to tell you what’s right and what’s wrong, by all means have at it. But there’s a reason we have divested ourselves from the outdated and dangerous morally bankrupt practices of our archaic past.
Are you implying that this the fate of the human race? From a realism perspective? If that were the case, then the Geneva conventions (& every other convention that the hegemonic US flouts) were an anomaly.. let’s redefine civilization as nothing more than conquest and aggression.
Those behind this disastrous war in Ukraine are milking it for all it’s worth. And what is it worth? Billions in defense spending!
“All war is based on deception.”
Sun Tzu
Mr Mearsheimer I do NOT watch you any more.
I suspect you are Chinaphobe.
John is an academic and yet describes Gaza as Genocide. One look at the dictionary and you see he is misguided.
He is correct on that. It is Genocide.
I see another Zionist who has not read the UN Convention on Genocide - key sentence…..’in whole or in part’. It does not say ‘ wiping out a nation or a people’. Consider……. if a timeout had been taken in the middle of the Nazi Holocaust (say early1944), would it have been a serious argument to have said that it was not a genocide because not enough Jews had yet been killed? Further consider…….. it’s May 1945, the war has ended; would it have been a serious argument to have said that it was not a Genocide, because not all the Jews in the world have been killed (not even all the Jews in Europe actually).
Oh, and Israel is not ‘insisting on confining’ anything to Gaza (where have you been for the last 15 months?). Palestinians (hundreds of them) have been killed on the illegally occupied WB during this genocide, plus thousands seriously injured.
This horror is not a war, it’s absolutely a genocide, and I predict that the ICJ (despite the enormous pressure from the Israeli occupied congress), will determine it to be so.
I will not bother to respond to your tired tropes & Zionist talking points, except to point out that you forgot all about ‘beheaded babies’ and ‘mass rapes’.
It does rather seem today, that Israel ‘f…..d around and found out’. Just a very short summary of where we are.
None of Israel’s stated war aims had been achieved. The IDF could not release the hostages, and Hamas is not defeated. The IDF could not push Hezbollah back across the Litani, and much of Hezbollahs offensive missile capability is intact. Why has Israel signed the ceasefire? Because of two things……. it knows that the Gaza war is done, it couldn’t defeat Hamas, and it couldn’t get its hostages. Secondly, Trump gave Israel the cover it needed to sign, without having to fess up to the former (‘We didn’t want to, but Trump made us).
Israel has been shown to be an airforce masquerading as a country - their land combat capability has to now be of serious concern to Israeli citizens. They couldn’t take a tiny sliver of land in Gaza, nor could they take anything significant in Lebanon. Totally dependant on a few thousand influential & wealthy citizens of another country 5,000 miles away. That dependency is now cruelly exposed- military, economic, and diplomatic. If any one of those pillars of support is pulled away, Israel is done.
Israel is despised cross the entire globe, inc by the general publics in western countries. It is diplomatically dead. Its high officials are under indictment by the ICC, and the state itself is under investigation for Genocide. Anyone who has ever served in the IDF needs to be extremely circumspect about travelling outside of the country.
The Palestinian issue is now centre stage globally. I don’t think it will go away in a hurry. Hamas are heroes throughout the Arab and Muslim world, throughout the global south, and I actually suspect throughout quite a bit of the west.
To me it seems that Israel bet the farm, rolled the dice, and lost - prob lost everything. It remains an important colony of the USA, but decolonisation is a long, grinding process, and always succeeds in the end.
If it is genocide why are the Israelis not attacking the Pallies on the west bank or the Pallies in Jordan? If the definition of a genocide is wiping out a nation or a people why are they insisting on confining this to Gaza and why oh why are they being killed while fighting what is clearly a war? These are not unarmed civilians, they are hostage taking terrorists led by murderous leaders who have no problem hiding arms under schools and hospitals. If Gaza is a state, then the state of Gaza took hostages and is holding hostages. If they wanted the war to end they should release the hostages and surrender the criminals. Clearly they don't want an end to the war. F around and find out.
Read some proper news NOT Mainstream Media!
At least you didn't call me Hitler; well done, but you avoid the questions I asked. Answer the reasonable questions if only for your own intellectual honesty. One more question for you: If there is no God, and therefor no judgment and therefore no consequences why should you use a term like holocaust ? It is a trigger, a wolf-whistle, a trope like BLM trying to pretend that history changed when you were born. I ask, is there any place on earth that you know of that has a history not bathed in blood? Show one place on earth that was settled without death, destruction and what you call genocide. Show one!
what is the reason "America should ally w/Russia against China"?? this is complete and utter mad hatter stuff. Biden might not have been compos mentis, but this is absurdistan 2.0
Dr. Mearsheimer, your neocon approach to China is repellent. I am horrified by it.
Thank you. Please host more discussions like this. Very informative. And what a treat to hear opposing thoughts discussed respectfully by all.
There is reality and then there is dreamland. The former is enduring and the latter like Facebook and Instagram. One like gold and the other like Dutch gilders, or Spanish $ Or The mighty Pound Stirling or the Almighty $. What amuses me is to see people imagine that MMT is going to work or that some Convention in Geneva will change the nature of man.
Look at the world and see all the straight lines defining countries borders, Egypt, Sudan, Syria, Libya.... All lines on maps that mean nothing. I say repetitively; show me one place on earth that was occupied by anything other than by war and I will stop talking. Look at what has just happened in Syria, The straight lines disappeared over a weekend. I know that according to the rules it should not happen but it did.
I know that when Trump says "we need Greenland and the Panama Canal and we will take it;" people need a cope... they say no, the Geneva convention says... it is a cope, not reality.
If that’s all Mearsheimer can come up with, he should become very quiet.
Dr. Mearscheiner, I have two questions. 1) you say that Trump can’t stop the war in Ukraine unless he’s willing to leave Ukraine’s land in Russia’s hands and upset NATO/EU, but as someone who likes Putin and dislikes Europe and NATO, wouldn’t Trump be quite willing to do that? 2) if Putin started his war because of NATO’s 2008 decision to take in Ukraine, what is Putin hoping to achieve in the war?
In so many words, John Mearsheimer said that there are a myriad of geopolitical problems facing the human race as a species. I would add that we’re facing a whole host of problems beyond those that are simply within the realm of geopolitics.
And I would argue that the “course” I’ve developed is the best way to try to either overcome those problems or manage them so that they become increasingly more manageable.
I'll watch the video, hope the title is not the content! Then I'll edit this comment eventually.
But a part from talks, discussions, posts, comments, one thing we could do: Do the same as they do!! Promote the boycotting of American products and culture, their media, their Socials and everything belong to that State or it's behind the scene: warmongers/imperialists as Balckrock,Vanguard at al. Sell US stocks, ETF... sell dollars. Stop traveling there, the World is beautiful why going to the bad Empire then? Boycotting is legal, no one is going to go for you if you don't buy their stuff.
The only way to shutdown the United Criminals of America is economically... that's why they're so afraid of China!
Lovely and right words. A nice short description of what wise people think about US history, facts, secrets, financial long hands...
To the ones that compare US to other Empires in History, yes the Britts were as bad as US and they still are seeing the fact they hacked Brexit, they go to war anytime they can get along with US to kill, and just for the taste of blood. From which the famous phrase "Bloody British"
No other Empires has been that bad, that psychopath, as those two. Somebody say because both are from two islands... xD
Because both are 2 modern Empires and last, US, built its hegemony especially in the '900 accelerating after WWII txs to the use and developing of technologies and theories that made PSYOPs the heart of their practice along with genocide and destruction. Just think how they were able to sell Pearl Harbor, or the landing on the Moon or the 9/11 made with cutters...
They know exactly how to SELL their violence and hegemony as something the rest needs.
Another great interview.
Clear thought.
Clear thinking.
Greatly appreciated.
We all know how to end the wars in Gaza and Ukraine.
It's simple but hard.
Turn off the tap - no more money; no more weapons. (This isn't realistic - it's political suicide)
Excellent discussion, respectful, and eye opening. And very rare in today’s western world to hear truth about Israel.
Thank you, Professor Mearsheimer, for your brilliant analysis and alsook for your courage to call the Israeli genocide by its name. It is sad that mr Wierd Duk is not interested in the facts on the genocide issue. He rather dwells with his Zionist opinions. But herewith, as an influential Dutch journalist, he makes himself a complice of the terrible crimes committed.
Yeah of course the USA should align itself with a war criminal. The trot traitor goes deep, shows his true colors.