Since the US government is "elected", doesn't it make the American people even more directly culpable in and responsible for their government's crimes and wars and mass killings abroad?

(Of course, one can always claim that Americans are brainwashed to elect genocidal regimes.

But that's not what the media says. They portray Americans as highly capable of seeing through propaganda because they have a "free" press

Instead, it is the Chinese who are brainwashed)

With China, you can still say things like "I hate the CCP, not Chinese people" because you feel that the Chinese government is not "elected" and is therefore illegitimate.

Well, the US government IS elected, and is thus the legitimate representative of the US people. Now what?

For if China is illegitimate, then by extension, US is legitimate.

So by the media's own logic - Americans should be held responsible for crimes of their govt since they've elected it - just as the Chinese CAN'T be held responsible for crimes of their govt, since they've not.

So what does that tell us about US citizens, who keep electing savage regimes that commit unspeakable crimes?

Applying the western media's own logic leads to a revealing conclusion:

US citizens are complicit in US war crimes at worst, and banally evil Little Eichmanns at best.