If anything the last 4 years (mostly composed of "professional politicians" despite those at the top maybe being outsiders!) should be real "mask off" to the supposed genius and amazing tradecraft of the US.
Ocamm's razor here is that this was the memo.
[Edit: Apparently the photo is from the National Lampoon, May 1978.]
US diplomats (& members of the Blob) like their counter parts in the foreign service (UK) quite often use humour in internal documents.
Listen to podcasts by insiders like the bombshell's there is also a famous SIS (MI6) document about the death of Rasputin written in the style of teh Daily Mail.
When I think of all Ambassadors with grace and favour appointments it makes me grimace. The extraordinary testimony from Fiona Hill and Alex Vindman was at least reassuring that competent people were in government, even if they were being ignored.
While the State Department might get a new coat of paint under Biden, it’s been being “gutted” for decades.
I didn't get that at all. Maybe it's discourteous and flippant. The humour is broad rather than refined but I still chuckled.
Hard to evaluate "ill informed" due to distance in time and the fact that I lack insight into the context. It wasn't aiming to be comprehensive and insightful. It was a tongue in cheek crib sheet between people that appeared to know and get where each other was coming from.
¯\_(ツ)_/¯Cheers! :)
Humour and professionalism are not incompatible. I know Trump liked to pretend that he is being criticised for failing to adequately play-act the sort of stiff formality his basic understanding of "being presidential" encompasses. But that was never the case.