How Gullible Can Conservatives Get?

Hot Air, my favorite conservative web site because it is so much more intelligently done than, e.g., the other Salem sites, tonight picked up a story from the South China Morning Post. The Post explained that the U.S. government has banned essentially any U.S. government employee living in China from having romantic relationships with Chinese nationals.

Seeing the Hot Air headline: “US Bans Sex Between Government Personnel and Chinese Citizens” I was expecting some well-deserved mockery of bureaucratic foolishness or maybe even a surprise reveal that the headline was actually from the Babylon Bee.

Nope, Hot Air’s normally sober and informative John Sexton fell for it. In grave terms he wondered “what prompted this new policy… How often does this happen in China? I mean, spies using sex to gain secrets isn't new, but apparently the US hasn't had a complete ban like this in place since World War II. And that suggests this was a real problem, i.e. lots of US men in China were being approached by attractive Chinese women, some of whom (most of whom?) were actually spies.” (My emphasis)

Really? What it suggests to me is one more instance of GOP China hawks maliciously and ignorantly revving up another two-minute hate,

Further into the South China Post story, this was quickly confirmed. Sexton should have seen through it.

Apparently, the Biden administration had implemented a milder version of the policy last year. But “two of the people with knowledge of the ban told the AP the new policy was first discussed last summer after members of Congress contacted [Ambassador] Burns to express concern that restrictions on such relationships were not stringent enough. The House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party did not respond to a request for comment.”

Tightening the policy under congressional pressure does not suggest anything like “this was a real problem.” It suggests Congressmen needy for attention and like toddlers not caring what they do to get it.

Congressmen specialize in self-serving ignorance and sincerely believing the lies they tell themselves to sell themselves. Indignation without indication is their life’s blood.

Haven’t conservatives been listening. The government lies all the time. Morning, noon, and night. It’s lied us into war after war; it lied us into shutting down our schools and taking drugs that were ineffective and dangerous; it lied about men being women, it lied about where all that US AID money was going, it lied about how deeply the U.S. military was involved in Ukraine, which apparently included guiding Ukraine ordinance to targets in Russia.

And Congressmen?! Congressmen lie just to have something to do.

I assume the Chinese do use “honey traps” just as U.S. intelligence agencies do or would if they were competent. And we spy on allies as well as adversaries. But weaving rather hum-drum intelligence activities into one more hate China campaign is despicable. Falling for it is dumb.