The Moral Mob and the Human Rights Industrial Complex | Opinion
The article examines how a segment of the American public has come to view adversarial authoritarian regimes more favorably than the U.S. or its allies on human rights, attributing this shift to coordinated efforts by international institutions and activist networks. It argues that human rights language has been weaponized through causal inversion, where outcomes are misattributed to intent without sufficient evidence, and accusations precede factual verification. The authors identify two main forces: authoritative international bodies that issue unverified claims and street-level protest ecosystems, some linked to foreign actors, that amplify these narratives while deflecting scrutiny from actual human rights violators.
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By Joel Finkelstein, Shawn Chenoweth, and Judea PearlShareNewsweek is a Trust Project memberSee more of our trusted coverage when you search.Prefer Newsweek on Googleto see more of our trusted coverage when you search.As American forces engage Iran, a question worth asking in every situation room is going unanswered: How did a meaningful share of the American public come to view the regime we are fighting more favorably than our own country on human rights? Recent polling finds that Democratic voters under 50 view Iran and Israel unfavorably by nearly identical margins, and that almost three in 10 younger Democrats view China favorably.The answer is not spontaneous.
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