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Honestly to me the USA seems to be closer to 79 BC than 180 AD. After a close call, we have a few good years as a republic yet, and are far more powerful than o

Honestly to me the USA seems to be closer to 79 BC than 180 AD. After a close call, we have a few good years as a republic yet, and are far more powerful than our peer competitors. American influence is expanding right now.

Fuzzwah 4y ago
I've been considering the similarity to the Gracchi brothers in ~170BC
- thom 4y ago
  A little later than that (Tiberius was killed in 133 BC). There are definitely parallels here, especially the deep-seated violent reaction the US has to socialism at home or abroad. The same is largely true in the UK where the entire institutional apparatus of government and the media seemed to activate against Jeremy Corbyn. Michael Parenti does a good job of painting the crises of the first century BC (with some mentions of the Gracchi) as a class struggle in his People’s History of Ancient Rome.
pclmulqdq 4y ago
I think you could make a strong argument for "end of the republic" too, but I would put us further along than that. Personally, I give the US less than 10 years (three more presidential elections) to enter an open civil war.
anticodon 4y ago
> American influence is expanding right now. This is an excellent example of wishful thinking. American influence is clearly shrinking. Just one example: when Biden went on a tour to oil-producing countries to ask them to increase oil production, every single country either ignored him or agreed to make homeopatic scale increase (which was presented as a huge win by US media).
WastingMyTime89 4y ago
> are far more powerful than our peer competitors Are you? Americans like to repeat that and certainly believe it but is it still as true as it was? It’s probably still true military but in term of influence the USA is less relevant by the day. You weren’t very successful at convincing developing countries to sanction Russia for exemple.
- kyleee 4y ago
  how much less relevant by the day?
- throwaway6734 4y ago
  Yes. The US is one of the largest producers of oil, a large exporter of food, and a large exporter of tech. None of those sticks were used against developing countries to get them to sanction Russia because currently there's no need
- qwytw 4y ago
  >weren’t very successful at convincing developing countries to sanction Russia for exemple Arguably US was even weaker in that regard during the cold war. E.g. the response to the invasion of Czechoslovakia was much weaker in every regard. Granted there weren't many soviet billionaires to sanction but sending weapons there would have been inconceivable (especially on this scale)

Fuzzwah 4y ago

I've been considering the similarity to the Gracchi brothers in ~170BC

thom 4y ago
A little later than that (Tiberius was killed in 133 BC). There are definitely parallels here, especially the deep-seated violent reaction the US has to socialism at home or abroad. The same is largely true in the UK where the entire institutional apparatus of government and the media seemed to activate against Jeremy Corbyn. Michael Parenti does a good job of painting the crises of the first century BC (with some mentions of the Gracchi) as a class struggle in his People’s History of Ancient Rome.

pclmulqdq 4y ago

I think you could make a strong argument for "end of the republic" too, but I would put us further along than that. Personally, I give the US less than 10 years (three more presidential elections) to enter an open civil war.

anticodon 4y ago

> American influence is expanding right now. This is an excellent example of wishful thinking. American influence is clearly shrinking. Just one example: when Biden went on a tour to oil-producing countries to ask them to increase oil production, every single country either ignored him or agreed to make homeopatic scale increase (which was presented as a huge win by US media).

WastingMyTime89 4y ago

> are far more powerful than our peer competitors Are you? Americans like to repeat that and certainly believe it but is it still as true as it was? It’s probably still true military but in term of influence the USA is less relevant by the day. You weren’t very successful at convincing developing countries to sanction Russia for exemple.

kyleee 4y ago
how much less relevant by the day?
throwaway6734 4y ago
Yes. The US is one of the largest producers of oil, a large exporter of food, and a large exporter of tech. None of those sticks were used against developing countries to get them to sanction Russia because currently there's no need
qwytw 4y ago
>weren’t very successful at convincing developing countries to sanction Russia for exemple Arguably US was even weaker in that regard during the cold war. E.g. the response to the invasion of Czechoslovakia was much weaker in every regard. Granted there weren't many soviet billionaires to sanction but sending weapons there would have been inconceivable (especially on this scale)