The US controls gigantic parts of the information/entertainment space: movies, music, social networks, YouTube, TV, even their politics is a keyfabey circus for the rest of the world. American propaganda is literally everywhere.

It's an image of consumption and individualism above even self preservation, so deeply internalized that Americans and perhaps half of the rest of the world don't notice. Sometimes it feels like the US lost its mind in 9/11 and started hurting itself in confusion but it was never a "smart player" in the world, just a narcissistic bully.

It's not necessary for the CIA to be involved because it's literally superliminal and grotesque at this point in time. The US throws its weight all around the world and is brutish and callous with its "use of force", which means murdering people (and destroying property, oh they love them some property) in case there's people in this thread that are lost in so many layers of euphemisms and irony.

Americans need to deal with this instead of becoming defensive and recurring to whataboutism. Yes, China and Russia are horrible and murderous in their own ways and at a different scale, but one must not use them to avoid self reflection.