As someone who sporadically did political organizing with David Graeber, I assure you he was sharply critical of US policy as it pertained to exploiting developing countries. He also happened to be a professor of anthropology at Yale and the London School of Economics. How you have determined he was a "foreign agent or useful idiot" is curious. But I know David would have found it as funny as I do.

Other defenders of the Red Khmers had even more impressive credentials. Need I remind you who was the writer of "Distortions at Fourth Hand" and "Manufacturing Consent"?

By definition, all useful idiots have impressive credentials. Without credentials, they are not useful.

Are you talking about the entire Western block where in the 80 when western powers brought support to the milicia in order to piss off the Soviet Union-backed Vietnam, or what?

That's easy. Generally speaking, anyone who is critical of empire-building is seen by that empire's apparatchiks as a "foreign agent or useful idiot."

The criticism doesn't come from any position of principle, it's just us-versus-them tribalism.

You mean, the long history of overthrowing governments, imperialistic wars and debt-trapping entire nations into selling their state-owned assets to US interest groups and funds?

Your memory may be short lived, but there are many of us who know and remember.

And, by the way, China hasn't started invading random countries all over the world...yet.

Bhutan, India, and Vietnam would have a word.

I spent just 2 minutes for this. I could go on, but you get the picture.

> In May 2006, the United Nations Mission in Liberia (UNMIL) released a report detailing the state of human rights on Liberia's rubber plantations. According to the report, Firestone managers in Liberia admitted that the company does not effectively monitor its own policy prohibiting child labor. UNMIL found that several factors contribute to the occurrence of child labor on Firestone plantations: pressure to meet company quotas, incentive to support the family financially, and lack of access to basic education.

> Beginning in March 2019, the Washington, D.C. based Center for International Policy funded an investigation into alleged labor and environmental standards violations by Firestone in Liberia, culminating in publication of the February 2020 report, "A Bridge Too Far: Social and Environmental Concerns in Bridgestone's Liberian Rubber Plantation and a Plan for Remediation."The report details labor rights violations of Firestone's collective bargaining agreements with the Firestone workers union; Firestone's failure to honor pension payments for retired Firestone employees; and, Firestone's contamination of local watersheds resulting in elimination of fish and natural wildlife.