4 ms·

Soviets won the space race, just lost the cold war. And now we're here fighting another cold war and the US is losing

• nradov 1y ago
  Losing how?
  • laxd 1y ago
    Most certainly losing popularity https://www.politico.eu/article/usa-popularity-collapse-worldwide-trump-return/ https://www.politico.eu/article/usa-popularity-collapse-worl...
    • stronglikedan 1y ago
      Good thing it's not a popularity contest, and so goes America still so goes the world.
      • computerthings 1y ago
        [dead]
  • Arainach 1y ago
    Losing geopolitical influence, respect, and significance. Losing economic impact. Dramatically losing scientists, researchers, innovation, and the things to build future technologies. Losing the lead in electric vehicles and renewable energy. Losing the ability to build ships, semiconductors, large steel foundries, and more essentials. So. Much. Winning. I'm sick of winning.
    • Applejinx 1y ago
      Given that the original post cites a cold war the US is losing, I'd list these things as part of that war. Russia controls many aspects of the US now, and is bringing about these collapses on purpose. As one does in a war against one's deadly enemy. It's not particularly mysterious.
  • somenameforme 1y ago
    The same way the USSR lost. People talk about final-point reasons like economic issues caused by an arms race or whatever, but that's just the final steps of a long lost race. Empires collapse long before they finally fall due to inertia alone. And I think the "real" cause is always the same. When enough people inside an empire want it to fail, that empire will fail. And a common cause for creating that sentiment (that applies to everything from Rome to the USSR to the US) is Empires naturally tend to spend an increasingly disproportionate amount of their time focused on affairs outside their borders rather than within them. You have urban left leaning types becoming increasingly anti-capitalist, and the more right leaning and rural types feeling neglected by both internal and external policy. People agree on less than ever, but the one thing they all agree on is that the system sucks. This will likely result in over more radical shifts between presidencies. You end up with a country that's starting to feel a lot like a boat being rocked back and forth with increasing vigor. And obviously this isn't just the US. It seems many political systems throughout the world are headed towards dramatic shifts.
    • ramblerman 1y ago
      > And obviously this isn't just the US. It seems many political systems throughout the world are headed towards dramatic shifts. For better or worse Trump seems to have been an antidote to many right wing shifts in the western world.
      • gambiting 1y ago
        And for some, if has definitely emboldened them.
    • deepsun 1y ago
      USSR economy was heavily dependent on their export oil prices. Once they fall, USSR fell with them almost immediately.
      • somenameforme 1y ago
        Economic issues can cause an empire to start effectively dissolving itself, as happened with the British Empire, but that's not what happened with the USSR. It was forcibly dissolved from within as regions began literally just declaring their independence and refusing to recognize central authority, and that was largely caused by decades of increasing dissatisfaction with the system that simply reached it's final decline under the policies of Gorbachev. One can also look to examples like the US which survived numerous catastrophic economic collapses, like the Great Depression, wholly intact.