> sometimes you don’t have a choice as a nation but to do some detestable act for some higher purpose
It's always important to force yourself to remember that essentially all detestable acts are done for detestable purposes, no matter how selfless the rhetoric tries to make them sound. There may have been a handful of exceptions in history, but they are so vastly outnumbered by the other kind that they can safely be ignored.
The narrative of doing something for the greater good should be treated as a lie until the burden of evidence is so high that you are forced to accept that it was indeed good. In particular, spy agencies have produced far more terrorism, coups, and disinformation for their own people, with the goal of supporting the monetary interests of their nation, all others be damned, than they have ever defended anything. The exceptions almost always happen when the goals of empire happen to be aligned with those of the people, like during WW2.
> The narrative of doing something for the greater good should be treated as a lie until the burden of evidence is so high that you are forced to accept that it was indeed good.
An obvious impossible standard, more than that you can’t really know if an action was right or wrong without an oracle to tell you what would have happened if different forces had been made.
Yes, that was mostly the point - you should assume that nefarious actions are done for nefarious purposes. Assuming they are done for noble purposes risks normalizing them much more than the opposite. Your president has assassinated a foreign dignitary? Assume they are a criminal now. Perhaps in 50 years you will find out that it was of the outmost importance for world peace and prosperity, but it is far more likely that it was some petty revenge or power struggle.
That is why you should never be doing that kind of things. Nefarious acts almost always produce nefarious results. I agree with the parent comment completely.
It's always important to force yourself to remember that essentially all detestable acts are done for detestable purposes, no matter how selfless the rhetoric tries to make them sound. There may have been a handful of exceptions in history, but they are so vastly outnumbered by the other kind that they can safely be ignored.
The narrative of doing something for the greater good should be treated as a lie until the burden of evidence is so high that you are forced to accept that it was indeed good. In particular, spy agencies have produced far more terrorism, coups, and disinformation for their own people, with the goal of supporting the monetary interests of their nation, all others be damned, than they have ever defended anything. The exceptions almost always happen when the goals of empire happen to be aligned with those of the people, like during WW2.