America doesn’t care about human rights abuses
The United States of America, the so-called leader of the free world, only cares about human rights abuses when it’s convenient for its interests.
Ask the average American where Turkmenistan is. Go ahead. Try it.
Most won’t know. Many won’t even hazard a guess. And that’s not because they’re stupid—it’s because they’ve never been given a reason to care.
Now ask them about Iran, and you get a different story.
Suddenly, you’ll hear opinions. Strong and emotional ones. Words like threat, danger, regime, and instability start flying around like they’ve been rehearsed. Or better yet—conditioned.
That contrast isn’t accidental.
Turkmenistan is one of the most closed, tightly controlled totalitarian states on Earth.
We’re talking about near-total control of media, severe restrictions on movement, political prisoners who simply disappear, and system where dissent isn’t debated—it’s erased.
This is full-spectrum authoritarian control.
And yet there are no headlines, no outrage campaigns, and no calls for U.S. intervention. No one is marching in the streets demanding action against Turkmenistan.
Why?
Because Turkmenistan isn’t useful to the American regime.
The ally everyone ignores
Then you’ve got Saudi Arabia. This one’s not hidden, and everyone knows what goes on there.
- They crush political dissent
- The regime tightly controls free speech
- Harsh punishments still exist
- Power remains centralized in a ruling elite
And yet Saudi Arabia isn’t treated like a global villain. It’s treated like a partner because it is a partner. Oil, strategy, influence—those things matter more to the American Empire than human rights rhetoric ever will.
So they soften, manage, and redirect the criticism just enough to acknowledge—but never enough to threaten the relationship.
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The countries they train you to fear
Now circle back to the usual suspects: Iran, and others like it the U.S. intervened in. Are there real human rights issues there? Yes, and only a fool would think differently.
But here’s the question nobody asks: Why are those issues treated as uniquely urgent, while equal or worse situations get ignored or excused?
Because countries like Iran serve a different role. They’re neither allies nor are they irrelevant. They’re who the powers that be tell you are America’s adversaries, and adversaries need narratives.
This was never about human rights, so don’t fall for it
That’s the part people resist: They want to believe the outrage is moral, and that it’s driven by a genuine desire to protect people.
It’s not. If it were, the attention would be consistent, and it would apply across the board. It doesn’t.
Instead, you get selective focus:
- Ignore what doesn’t matter
- Excuse what’s useful
- Amplify what justifies pressure or conflict
That’s strategy, not morality.
Most people don’t see this because they’re reacting to what’s in front of them. They see headlines, clips, and talking points.
They don’t see what’s missing, and they don’t notice that entire countries—entire populations—are effectively erased from the conversation because acknowledging them wouldn’t serve a purpose.
That’s the trick. Control the spotlight, and you control the perception of reality.
Why This Matters
Once you see it, you can’t unsee it. Every time a new conflict gets pushed into focus, every time you’re told who the villain is, and every time outrage spikes on cue, you start asking a different question: Why this one?
Not “is this bad” or “should we care,” but: Why is this the one I’m being told to care about right now—while everything else stays in the dark?
That question alone puts you ahead of most people, because now you’re not just reacting—you’re thinking.
Turkmenistan, Saudi Arabia, and a dozen other regimes with records just as ugly exist, but they don’t get the same treatment because they don’t fit the narrative.
And once you realize that, the entire conversation about “regime-change wars” starts to look a lot less like a moral crusade.
It leads you to one disturbing conclusion: The U.S. doesn’t give a damn about human rights abuses.
A theme that routinely hits home
Every book I’ve written carries the same theme about U.S. foreign policy, often through allegory: America only intervenes when the situation fits its interests.
In Wind Wielder, the imperialist nation of Tamuria strokes propaganda from the top on down: from its federal government to universities and the media, to athletes and celebrities, all the way down to local school teachers, who indoctrinate students.
In Cursed Mage, the superpower nation of Vimsinew raids Demka—an Iranian-equivalent nation rich in natural resources.
In Civil War, Bastille has become a soft national security state while it continually usurps its adversaries’ resources. And in Terrian Chronicles, America’s elite ruling class dictates the propaganda machine at home while it searches for enemies to fight.
All of the above nations claim they’re fighting to spread freedom, liberty, and democracy. Only, much like America’s conflicts, those wars hardly have an end date. And when they do end, a new conflict springs up from elsewhere. Often from a nation that they’ve spent decades demonizing.
This occurs while letting nations that are just as bad, if not worse, have its way with its people. It’s a message I won’t stop allegorizing any time soon, and you can get in on the action at The Rebel Lore Vault, where my library awaits.
