TEHRAN - The United States, which has long seen itself as the (self-proclaimed) flag bearer of human rights and democracy in the world has held an online conference with the reported attendance of around 100 countries to preach about democracy and human rights.

According to the U.S. State Department, the goal of this event was to “provide a platform for leaders to announce both individual and collective commitments, reforms, and initiatives to defend democracy and human rights at home and abroad.” It added that the virtual forum will call for “bold, practicable ideas” on subjects such as “defending against authoritarianism,” “fighting corruption,” and “promoting respect for human rights” around the world, but not in the United States its course.

President Joe Biden has repeatedly argued that America and “like-minded allies” need to show the world that democracies are a far better tool for societies than authoritarianism. This is of course America’s idea and version of democracy and human rights. This is made in America.

It just coincidentally happens that the event was scheduled as the U.S. won a court ruling appeal to extradite Julian Assange, a journalist who exposed U.S. war crimes. One of the many publications he released shows a U.S. airstrike killing at least a dozen civilians in Iraq including two reporters. America has been after Assange for a long time, despite international condemnation towards the U.S. and its strong ally the UK over his treatment. Washington wants to put Assange on trial for espionage which carries a maximum sentence of 175 years. He is also being extradited to a country that wants to kill him. In 2017, when in hiding at Ecuador’s embassy in London, the CIA drew up plans on how to kidnap and kill Assange. According to 30 former American officials, including high ranking intelligence agents, who formed the backbone of a Yahoo News Investigation, senior officials inside the CIA requested “sketches” or “options” on how to assassinate the whistleblower.

The irony of Biden’s conference is that everything that was spoken about is already being practiced back home inside the United States itself. It does sound very “authoritarian” rather than “democratic” coming from the country that just hosted a conference on the two types of governance.

Reporters without borders has called for Assange’s immediate release saying "we condemn [the extradition] decision, which will prove historic for all the wrong reasons," says the group’s Secretary-General Christophe Deloire. "We fully believe that Julian Assange has been targeted for his contributions to journalism, and we defend this case because of its dangerous implications for the future of journalism and press freedom around the world.”

Instead of being praised and awarded for raising human rights violations, Assange has long been targeted and punished by Washington for raising issues ironically related to human rights. The main theme of Biden’s conference. The conference also just happens to come on the backdrop of a coup attempt earlier this year on Capitol Hill itself, one of the biggest violent attacks on a transition of power in the United States since 1861.

The former American President told his supporters that the election was rigged, the vote was stolen, and called on his large following to march on the capital and demand lawmakers halt the certification process of Biden as the new President. The armed mob stormed the national legislature and attempted what can only be described as a coup attempt. The members of Congress who were inside and former Vice President Mike Pence just narrowly escaped with their lives. During the mayhem that ensued police officers died, others were injured. The putschists searched for House Speaker Nancy Policy to kill her, as later footage emerged showing the putschists unafraid declaring "we were looking for Nancy to shoot her in the friggin' brain.” They constructed gallows on the Capitol steps screaming “hang Mike Pence,” while former presidential candidate and Senator Mitt Romney was saved from running into the mob by luckily running into a police officer instead who sent him to a place of safety. The footage of lawmakers under tables or running for safety under the blaze of tear gas is rarely seen in an extremely authoritarian country let alone an “authoritarian” regime, yet it was on full public display in Washington DC.

The problem is half the population still think the election was rigged, votes were stolen and President Biden should not be President.

Since the insurrection, its memory has somewhat kind of faded away in America despite it occurring only this year, perhaps because the implications are so alarming and so embarrassing for America’s public image that it has and will continue to be slowly brushed aside. The U.S. mainstream media and government officials would prefer to look past the prospect of the country falling into “authoritarianism,” if it has not already done so. If the same events occurred in a nation that strongly opposes American hegemony, then the coup attempt would have ended every news item in American media reports for decades to come.

Funnily enough, that was another theme during the Biden conference. “Defending against authoritarianism,” in favor of (American) democracy.

Meanwhile, as voting laws are being changed, experts say black Americans have worse voting rights now than during the height of the civil rights movement in the 1960s. This follows violent crackdowns in 2020 by U.S. security forces against anti-racism protesters, as black Americans continue to be fatally shot at by the police in broad daylight.

Then comes the wealth gap of course; analysts argue the U.S. cannot even be considered a democracy when so few have so much and so many have so little. Issues of income, wealth and racial inequalities, wealth gaps are political crises as well as moral ones. According to the Brookings Institution five years ago, a typical white family’s net worth was $171,000, while a black family’s net worth was $17,150. That gap is widely reported to have expanded during the Pandemic. Discriminatory policies make it harder for black families to own a house, get a loan from the bank, create a business and even access decent quality education for their children, let alone earn a decent living wage.

This is not a democracy America is putting forward; it’s more like a form of society-owned by a bunch of oligarchs. The 50 richest people own more wealth than 165 million people, who are classified as sitting at the bottom end of society. 650 billionaires have seen their wealth increase by more than $1.3tn and the gap is growing. Homelessness in 2020 was reported at nearly 600,000, while other estimates put people and families with children living rough on the streets at 1.3 million. Inflation has just hit an almost 40 years high, while giant corporations are said to be benefiting from it.

There are arguably different types of authoritarian systems. In the United States, some experts describe the ruling class as an authoritarian regime, others point out that’s it’s competitive authoritarianism, saying it’s a system that does hold elections but with just two parties really competing, the process is held under extremely unfair conditions which systematically favor one side over the other.

The irony of Biden’s conference is that everything that was spoken about is already being practiced back home inside the United States itself.

It was a virtual event so the routine stand-up applause from a few of the other authoritarian rulers (still clinging to Washington’s boots for protection) invited was not heard and that kind of affected the whole international public relations aspect of it all. Basically, there was no standing ovation as the White House would have wished. The still unknown Omicron. Not even the closest ally of America was going to get on a plane to attend this busy affair.

Meanwhile, international monitors, rights groups, scholars among others all agree that American military adventurism overseas is the source of global instability and insecurity. The U.S. military invades one country after another, occupies one country after another, interferes in one country after another, steals the wealth of one country after another and it doesn’t even bother checking in with the United Nations anymore. The fact of the matter is every time the U.S. military sales abroad, it’s not even winning anymore but returns embarrassed. A bit like the Titanic from the outside yet sinking on the inside.