> In the same way, I question how much "American hegemony" is pushed by America, and how much of it is "pulled" by other countries finding "American" values, pe

> In the same way, I question how much "American hegemony" is pushed by America, and how much of it is "pulled" by other countries finding "American" values, perspectives, and positions to be more attractive than other alternatives. i think the pull exists, at least a little, mainly in areas in free speech, personal wealth accumulation, etc. but i think 99.99% is push, not pull. for the 'push' part, you can read this by chomsky (free, online there): https://zcomm.org/deterring-democracy/ https://zcomm.org/deterring-democracy/ it's not necessarily light reading, but...well, i think our reading abilities have dropped so low that it probably does qualify as complex reading now. if you don't share chomsky's professed values -- The Golden Rule, elementary moral principles, democracy (not just formal, but actually-functional/functioning), etc. -- you'd probably pretty quickly come to hate that book and all of Chomsky's professed views.