I hate diplomacy, in that I hate the air of legitimacy it gives to positions of ignorance. It invites an argument to moderation as well. How would it be if President Obama invited the KKK to the White House for a dialogue, in hopes of reaching a diplomatic consensus? Outrageous. Because we, in all our erudition, know the KKK is evil and racism is backwards. But other things? We're not so lucky. In issues of governance, taxation, economics, sexual equality, religion, and what have you, one must pander and open a channel to the ignorant parties as to appear diplomatic, courteous, and bipartisan.
But their emperors are naked. I absolutely believe that top-down encouragement of virtue from positions of power can have a positive effect. I sympathize with enlightened despots. But on a much more realistic level, I believe that there are far too many good people out there who hide away their ideals and cower as to maintain group agreement and consensus. (Well, maybe not the Dutch.) It is also a problem of idiocracy and the right-wing tone of indignation; I can find one-hundred blustering idiots who'll die for their imaginary God for every one sincere intellectual not afraid to speak their mind. It is thirdly a problem of anti-intellectualism. This is an age of tailored spirituality, religion, and freedom to live in a world without any inkling of understanding how it works. People are separated from underlying workings by blind acceptance of the world around them, and the emotional comfort this world grants—which makes it mightily inconvenient when truth inconveniently shakes things up. There is a reason we have cars. There is a reason we have electricity. It's called SCIENCE, and it didn't suddenly stop being true just because it invalidated your bullshit faith, asshole.
The only use of diplomacy in improving the world should be for ruthless, calculating effectiveness. When not apt for this purpose, take a stand.
Oh, not to mention anarchy and anarchists. If you're of that ilk, you're an irredeemable fucking idiot who's ignored 4,000 years of human history. Without humanity's self-governance, you wouldn't have two stones to rub together.