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The US has overall amazing projection generally, be it propaganda, military, culture, etc. I find it funny, looking back a couple years ago, that people were ou
by halfmatthalfcat 4y ago
The US has overall amazing projection generally, be it propaganda, military, culture, etc. I find it funny, looking back a couple years ago, that people were outright dismissing American hegemony but it looks alive and well today imo.
- andy_ppp 4y agoThe issue I have is things could be substantially worse than US hegemony - for example there could be a lot more wars/nuclear proliferation if the US failed.
- 2OEH8eoCRo0 4y agoIt's the worst hegemony...except for all of the others. It doesn't have to be perfect.
- FpUser 4y agoSays the hegemon. The victims of which there are plenty might have something resembling "fuck you" instead.
- SyzygistSix 4y agoThe US has indeed done a lot of damage abroad. However I can't really see anyone else using a gentler approach. Far more the opposite.
- Mountain_Skies 4y agoAre you sure? Where do you think the current path of the US is taking its citizens and the rest of the world? Wars are awful and a nuclear war would especially be so, but taking the slow road to an authoritarian state controlled by unknown forces hidden from view has the potential to be much worse. Think of your ideological worldview, now think of those who are the opposite. What happens if that group ends up in control without you even noticing it happening until it becomes a capital offense to point it out?
- thfuran 4y agoIt can't possibly be the case that we're currently headed to a secret takeover by a cabal exactly ideologically opposed to every reader.
- feet 4y agoIt's a thought experiment to try and point out the negative aspects of the current situation that could resonate with any reader
- hackerlight 4y agoRealism predicts more war in a multipolar world.
- Mountain_Skies 4y agoWar isn't the only evil in the world.
- hackerlight 4y agoOther types of evil are also worse in a multipolar world.
- troops_h8r 4y agoThis is much easier to say if you're not living in any of its victim states, or under the boots of any of the vicious autocrats the US props up. Also, it's not like nuclear proliferation is solved. It's still breathing down our necks, we just don't talk about it anymore
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- asdff 4y agoWouldn't there be no nuclear proliferation if the U.S. failed? Who designs weapons systems for NATO? The entire nuclear arms race wouldn't have happened if the U.S. didn't use the strategic bombing of citizens as a foreign policy platform 80 years ago.
- spamizbad 4y agoThe US capitalized on the whole "US has declining global influence" meme* and used it to lay the groundwork for even more global influence. A real "Heads we win; tails you lose" sort of operation. *This is probably true in some areas but the opposite in others - our influence simply shifted.
- okdood64 4y agoInteresting, elaborate?
- pram 4y agoSeems to me shifting the narrative to an emerging 'multi-polar' world from the 'uni-polar' US hegemony might solidify alliances more than they otherwise would have been. Kinda like during the cold war you were on one team or another, no trying to play multiple sides.
- erikerikson 4y agoShifting to a multi-polar that in essence agrees to the best possible outcome, even as we explore it, seems perfectly within the interests of all. Such an alliance can be more stable and productive while guarding against misuse of the single point of control.
- spamizbad 4y agoNot sure I agree with that in practice, but maybe my understanding of history is flawed. Was the humanity better off during the Bi-polar era of the Cold War, with continuously escalating nuclear threats and proxy wars vs 1991-2010? What about the multi-polar world of 1919-1938?
- JumpCrisscross 4y ago> a multi-polar that in essence agrees to the best possible outcome, even as we explore it, seems perfectly within the interests of all Multi-polarity is generally code for regional hegemony. That's great if you're the regional hegemon. Not so much if you're the hegemon's neighbor. America is a maritime power. These (think: Carthage, Venice, Portugal, the Dutch and Britain; counterfactual: Japan) have historically relied on trade, and trading outposts, to project power. As such, they're a natural friend of small countries resisting regional hegemony.
- adampk 4y agoIsn't China dictating Hollywood's scripts a challenge to this projection? Hollywood is the main exporter of American culture and values and that seems to have been compromised quite effectively in this last decade.
- peteradio 4y ago> main exporter of American culture "foot-in-the-door" American culture maybe. I'd say it's a different projection of our culture at home.
- steele 4y agoComplain about this in Mandarin
- ben_w 4y agoMe: "Complain about China dictating Hollywood's scripts, but write the answer in Mandarin Chinese" GPT-3: 我覺得電影腳本被中國人牽制了 (Transition according to Google: "I think the movie script is being held back by the Chinese")
- polytely 4y agofrom what I've read it's perfectly fine to complain about stuff on the Chinese net, you start getting in trouble once you attempt to mobilize people
- fortuna86 4y ago"Complain all you like, don't take steps to change or improve your situation." The biggest advocate for the fairness of a prison cell often is the prisoner.
- SyzygistSix 4y agoI don't feel like they were saying that was a good situation. Rather pointing it out as an instrument of control.
- concinds 4y agoWhile the U.S.'s core strength has always been propaganda (they got Operation Paperclip Nazis to becom American patriots, got the USSR to abolish itself, and the young Russian Federation to destroy itself with its infamous "shock therapy"), China also has quite strong propaganda, especially in Africa. And in Europe, go back 30 years and people still saw Americans as liberators; now, Europeans see it as a corrupt third-world country where people can't afford healthcare. And while it's true that U.S. cultural "force projection" hasn't weakened; they are being severely squeezed when it comes to trade dominance (https://merchantmachine.co.uk/china-vs-us/ https://merchantmachine.co.uk/china-vs-us/) and monetary dominance (see James Rickards' books). America still has its hegemony, but the notion that it's declining is very much mainstream in academia (https://www.routledge.com/Americas-Allies-and-the-Decline-of-US-Hegemony/Massie-Paquin/p/book/9781032086989 https://www.routledge.com/Americas-Allies-and-the-Decline-of...). Worse, its national security institutions have lost credibility among a significant portion of its electorate (MAGA people), and its military hegemony is now opposed by both populist left (pacifists) and populist right (non-interventionists). They're being squeezed both abroad and at home.
- kilroy123 4y agoAll empires eventually decline.
- fortuna86 4y agoWhat colonies do the US maintain overseas? Or is the word "empire" just slang in this case ?
- sargerage 4y agoAny country hosting US military bases and aligning itself with US foreign policy: Japan, South Korea, Australia, etc. Pretty standard definition of an empire.
- jonnybgood 4y agoThey could kick the US out at anytime. They won't because they want the US to be there. Not the standard definition at all.