Fact Check Me: Moral Power Isn’t Neutral
I hate war.
Not in the fashionable way — not as a slogan or a posture — but genuinely.
I don’t understand how killing strangers became a policy tool.
I don’t understand how grief is turned into strategy.
I don’t understand how the worst day of someone’s life can be written off as necessary.
I believe most people are good.
I believe most people want fairness, safety, dignity, and a future that makes sense.
And I believe those same people would stand up — even fight — if the cause was undeniably just.
That’s the problem.
Nothing is ever presented as undeniably just anymore.
The West tells itself a comforting story:
We stay out of wars because we’re evolved. Measured. Civilized.
Fact check: staying out doesn’t mean staying clean.
We’re involved through trade.
Through arms sales.
Through money that changes hands five times before it reaches anyone who needs it — if it ever does.
Through “aid” that stabilizes our interests first and suffering second.
We profit. Of course we profit. Why wouldn’t we?
That part isn’t even hidden anymore.
What is hidden is the lie that non-intervention equals morality.
It doesn’t.
Often it just means outsourced violence — pain handled somewhere else, by people we don’t have to look at.
Everyone says, “If another Hitler shows up, then we’ll act.”
Look around.
There are tyrants everywhere.
Mass graves. Forced displacement. Starving children. Camps with fences and numbers and silence.
But we hesitate.
Not because it’s unclear.
Because it’s inconvenient.
Because the victims are far away.
Because the history is messy.
Because the people don’t look like us — and we’ll never say that part out loud, but we all know it’s there.
So instead, we issue statements.
We send money.
We nod solemnly.
We move on.
And somewhere deep down, we tell ourselves it’s not really our problem.
Here’s the thing no one wants to admit:
Power that is never used is not restraint — it’s a signal.
It tells the world exactly what we’re willing to tolerate.
And moral language without consistent action becomes theater.
Not leadership. Not peace. Theater.
That doesn’t mean war is the answer.
It means hypocrisy isn’t.
People talk about “putting fists up” because they’re angry, yes — but more than that, they’re tired.
Tired of leaders who never risk themselves.
Tired of values that apply selectively.
Tired of being told to believe in freedom while watching it be rationed.
People don’t want blood.
They want clarity.
They want honesty.
They want to believe that when we say human life matters, we mean all of it, not just the parts that fit our borders or our balance sheets.
What if we demanded something radical?
Not constant war.
Not blind intervention.
But truth.
If we benefit, say so.
If we won’t act, own the consequences.
If we claim ideals, apply them universally.
If we call something evil, stop pretending neutrality is noble.
Maybe if we argued less about who deserves what
and more about who is being crushed so someone else can stay comfortable,
half of this war shit wouldn’t survive daylight.
Until then, don’t confuse restraint with virtue.
Don’t confuse silence with peace.
And don’t confuse feeling “above it all” with being innocent.
Most people are good.
That’s still true.
But goodness that never stands up —
never risks credibility —
never draws a real line —
isn’t goodness.
It’s permission.