4 ms·

Typical run of the mill USAer mindset. Ah yes, we are "better" than them, so our problems don't really exist.

ramesh31 2y ago
>Typical run of the mill USAer mindset. Ah yes, we are "better" than them, so our problems don't really exist. No, we just have higher level problems to deal with. Running global trade, providing the reserve currency, generating nearly the entirety of high tech IP, outputting the vast overwhelming majority of culture and media, and continuing to provide the only real sustained economic growth in the entire developed world is a lot more complex and nuanced than LARPing as a 19th century imperial power bullying neighbors or submitting their citizenry to full obedience and worrying about grain imports. It requires more complex systems with greater levels of feedback and autonomy than any centrally commanded ideological fantasy regime could ever provide. The drawbacks of such a system are that they end up seeming messy and imperfect from the outside. But it's the only way such an organization can actually work in the modern world.
- ossobuco 2y ago
  Oh glorious child of freedom, heir to the beacon of liberty and burger-fueled enlightenment! I kneel before your radiant stars and stripes, humbly begging your divine intervention in my lowly, uncivilized land. Please, O harbinger of freedom fries and democracy, rain your benevolent drones of cultural superiority upon us! Invade my country, shatter my outdated customs, and replace them with the gleaming perfection of Walmart aisles, NFL Sundays, and pumpkin spice lattes. I yearn to sing your anthems while sipping on a 64oz soda and binge-watching reboots of shows that ran better in the '90s. Let your Hollywood blockbusters teach me the true meaning of heroism, your fast food teach me the joys of high-fructose corn syrup, and your reality TV show me the deep complexity of human emotion. Oh merciful dispenser of freedom, take pity on my backwards existence. Supersede my wretched culture with your superior one—bless me with the gift of questionable foreign policy decisions and an uncanny ability to add cheese to everything. Only then can I ascend to the higher plane of existence that is AMERICAN EXCEPTIONALISM™. Please, I implore you, invade us swiftly and mercifully. Turn my humble homeland into a shining franchise of your illustrious nation, and I shall forever pledge allegiance to the flag, even as I drown in the sweet nectar of Diet Coke. Amen.
  - ramesh31 2y ago
    ^ Brought to you by an LLM invented in the US, running on hardware designed in the US
    - ossobuco 2y ago
      Ackshually that's deepseek, you can thank China for it
benterix 2y ago
Having talked to Ukrainian refugees I strongly believe there's is some civilizational gap between certain countries in how they perceive systematic violence, especially killing people for resources. In Western civilization, there is no universal support for it. That's why when Bush prepared for the invasion of Iraq and Afghanistan, he couldn't really count for a wide coalition (his infamous "you forgot Poland!") and there were the biggest anti-war protests in the history of modern Europe, with millions of people going out on the streets. We, Westerners, hate killing people - whether they are Arabs, Afghans, Vietnamese. As for Russians, I'm not so sure - it was enough to convince people that Ukrainians are Nazi and the killing started.
- api 2y ago
  Western distaste for killing is a recent-ish phenomenon and is by no means universal. I don't think it would be that hard for us to go back to those days. Civilization can be a thin veneer.
  - benterix 2y ago
    I disagree. After the two wars there is nobody who couldn't see that war is pure evil. That's why the initial project than later became the EU appeared - so that a war never appears in Europe again. If anything, today we hate it more than ever.
    - mindslight 2y ago
      And when all of those people who remember the horrors of war, or at least heard first person accounts, have passed on?
    - ossobuco 2y ago
      Facts simply disagree with you. The USA took part in (too) many bloody wars and invasions since WWII. After Iraq, one would have hoped Americans finally learnt the lesson, yet Biden was voted president, after backing the invasions of Afghanistan, Iraq, and Lybia. Even Obama championed drone strikes around the world and supported Saudi Arabia's invasion of Yemen. If there's a lesson to be learned, it seems to constantly evade Americans' attempts to grasp it.

>Typical run of the mill USAer mindset. Ah yes, we are "better" than them, so our problems don't really exist. No, we just have higher level problems to deal with. Running global trade, providing the reserve currency, generating nearly the entirety of high tech IP, outputting the vast overwhelming majority of culture and media, and continuing to provide the only real sustained economic growth in the entire developed world is a lot more complex and nuanced than LARPing as a 19th century imperial power bullying neighbors or submitting their citizenry to full obedience and worrying about grain imports. It requires more complex systems with greater levels of feedback and autonomy than any centrally commanded ideological fantasy regime could ever provide. The drawbacks of such a system are that they end up seeming messy and imperfect from the outside. But it's the only way such an organization can actually work in the modern world.

ossobuco 2y ago
Oh glorious child of freedom, heir to the beacon of liberty and burger-fueled enlightenment! I kneel before your radiant stars and stripes, humbly begging your divine intervention in my lowly, uncivilized land. Please, O harbinger of freedom fries and democracy, rain your benevolent drones of cultural superiority upon us! Invade my country, shatter my outdated customs, and replace them with the gleaming perfection of Walmart aisles, NFL Sundays, and pumpkin spice lattes. I yearn to sing your anthems while sipping on a 64oz soda and binge-watching reboots of shows that ran better in the '90s. Let your Hollywood blockbusters teach me the true meaning of heroism, your fast food teach me the joys of high-fructose corn syrup, and your reality TV show me the deep complexity of human emotion. Oh merciful dispenser of freedom, take pity on my backwards existence. Supersede my wretched culture with your superior one—bless me with the gift of questionable foreign policy decisions and an uncanny ability to add cheese to everything. Only then can I ascend to the higher plane of existence that is AMERICAN EXCEPTIONALISM™. Please, I implore you, invade us swiftly and mercifully. Turn my humble homeland into a shining franchise of your illustrious nation, and I shall forever pledge allegiance to the flag, even as I drown in the sweet nectar of Diet Coke. Amen.
- ramesh31 2y ago
  ^ Brought to you by an LLM invented in the US, running on hardware designed in the US
  - ossobuco 2y ago
    Ackshually that's deepseek, you can thank China for it

benterix 2y ago

Having talked to Ukrainian refugees I strongly believe there's is some civilizational gap between certain countries in how they perceive systematic violence, especially killing people for resources. In Western civilization, there is no universal support for it. That's why when Bush prepared for the invasion of Iraq and Afghanistan, he couldn't really count for a wide coalition (his infamous "you forgot Poland!") and there were the biggest anti-war protests in the history of modern Europe, with millions of people going out on the streets. We, Westerners, hate killing people - whether they are Arabs, Afghans, Vietnamese. As for Russians, I'm not so sure - it was enough to convince people that Ukrainians are Nazi and the killing started.

api 2y ago
Western distaste for killing is a recent-ish phenomenon and is by no means universal. I don't think it would be that hard for us to go back to those days. Civilization can be a thin veneer.
- benterix 2y ago
  I disagree. After the two wars there is nobody who couldn't see that war is pure evil. That's why the initial project than later became the EU appeared - so that a war never appears in Europe again. If anything, today we hate it more than ever.
  - mindslight 2y ago
    And when all of those people who remember the horrors of war, or at least heard first person accounts, have passed on?
  - ossobuco 2y ago
    Facts simply disagree with you. The USA took part in (too) many bloody wars and invasions since WWII. After Iraq, one would have hoped Americans finally learnt the lesson, yet Biden was voted president, after backing the invasions of Afghanistan, Iraq, and Lybia. Even Obama championed drone strikes around the world and supported Saudi Arabia's invasion of Yemen. If there's a lesson to be learned, it seems to constantly evade Americans' attempts to grasp it.