Almost every damn time I criticize Russian bombing of civilians in Syria, an Assad supporter chides me for ignoring the human rights & war crimes of the US. Let me safely speculate that in my close to seven years on FB, not a day has passed when I haven’t criticized US foreign & domestic policies & in the sharpest terms.

The objection behind the reproach is that I criticize Assad & Putin, not that I ignore US crimes. I don’t do hero worship. I consider it unseemly & sniveling. It’s been a long time since feudalism & no matter how much neoliberalism, the barbaric phase of capitalism, resembles it, I am not moving backwards in history to kiss some dictator’s ass.

More important, I am a socialist who sees little virtue in any modern capitalist regime–especially the regimes of those shooting down or bombing unarmed civilians.

It doesn’t matter how many times you call me out for criticizing Assad, Putin, Duterte, Suu Kyi, Rousseff, Maduro, I don’t bend the knee to bullshit. So you might as well knock it off.