First, his logic of "If there's opposition, then it's the US" is reductionist to the point of stupidity. Sure, the US will piggyback on discontent and try to stir it up and throw money in there and manipulate the media and also seed the ground for it through educational initiatives, as he digs into in the better parts of the presentation and sometimes it will be almost completely manufactures, but following his logic anyone who is unhappy with Starmer in this has to be so because of US interference and influence campaigns.
The "Let's see what they are 'burning their country down' for" and then mentioning some seemingly minor event framing, which he uses for Serbia and Indonesia (roof collapse and housing for lawmakers), completely ignores how discontent festers and can explode through one "inciting event" which on its own is relatively trivial (see Romania, East Germany for two prominent examples).
He also completely ignores the massive history of student protest, particularly in Indonesia. His idea that "they couldn't possibly come up with a Japanese Manga meme, or the closed fist symbol, or using the Hunger Games" by themselves without the US coming up with it and then pushing it, borders on infantilising Orientalism.
He also seems to hate students a bit and the mini-rant about "students..who aren't contributing to society yet...know better than everyone else" was particularly poor. The meme of "students have always been on the right side of history" is a meme because it is mostly right.
Also, his comment on the police brutality, "Well that's what they have to do, if people are 'burning their country to the ground' [he loves that phrase and usesd it what four times?] and if the police can't do it then the military should". Hmmmm. Not good.
His digging into the funding behind some of these groups that jump in throw fuel on the fire was excellent, as was his analysis of the US colour revolution playbook but these other things stood out to me.
The corporate media are complicit in the Gaza genocide.
Never forget what they did. Never forgive them for it.![]()