this post was submitted on 16 Feb 2025
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In three weeks, Donald Trump has imploded whatever positive image the United States might have had internationally.

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[–] [email protected] 29 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Trump is creating a lot of enemies. Even turning allies into enemies. The reputation usually mostly recovers when there's a Democrat in the WH, but since American voters walked right back into the same chaos again, eyes wide open, it's going to be a lot harder to recover this time around. There's just very little trust and credibility left.

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[–] [email protected] 25 points 2 days ago (3 children)

America's wealth is tied up in perceptions. When the rest of the world views America the way I currently view Tesla, we're going to have some very big economic problems. And of course we already have huge security and safety issues as blow back for turning on our allies. It's impossible for me to imagine this isn't all a deliberate attempt to destroy America. And we all know which world leader Trump worships who is very very interested in causing that.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 day ago

Not much to add, other than I too am another person who sees the current affairs as the destruction, dismantling and sabotage of America as a country. I am not confident the country will make it to the end of this presidential term without splintering.

Part of me thinks life is gonna get really hard but some other part is more optimistic, thinking the fracturing of the states will lead to better lives for people, far far down the line. You gotta burn the old growth so the new can flourish. I wish we could just improve what we have now but it seems impossible to make progress with the current, very corrupted system.

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[–] [email protected] 37 points 3 days ago (32 children)

I feel like saying it's normal for empires to fall due to external causes is not accurate? It's usually the exception. Maybe the external factor is the final kick, knocking over a rotting house of cards, but the cause is almost always division, internal conflict, or unsustainable growth. An empire is much more likely to collapse under its own weight than it is to have Alexander the Great kick its teeth in. The Ottoman Empire was called "The Sick Man of Europe" for a reason.

[–] [email protected] 18 points 3 days ago (3 children)

It's absolutely not. It's their very internal policies that force them into destroying themselves. They start believing their own propaganda. For both Rome and Constantinople it was wasting huge amounts of it's power on fighting Persia and trying to extend its borders in ways that outran it's logistics capacity. For the Ottomans it was the rise of nationalism and their ham fisted attempts to combat it. For the modern Western imperialists it was the base fact that direct colonial rule was always a monetary drain for the state and only made businesses money. Making these stupid decisions was because each empire had created a web of political commitments and internal propaganda that was unsustainable.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 3 days ago (1 children)

The Roman Empire took centuries to eventually collapse and a lot of it was corruption, hyperinflation, and complacency. It's happening here but at a much quicker rate.

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[–] [email protected] 21 points 2 days ago (2 children)

The United States is imploding. The reign of Donald Trump is not only challenging and threatening the very foundations of its constitutional democracy, it is calling into question the U.S.’s post-World War II hegemonic role. Empires or hegemonic powers rise and fall. Often they are defeated by emerging powers. Sometimes their decline takes place over time. But rarely do they self-destruct as spectacularly as the U.S. is doing. The U.S. implosion is dramatic in its intensity and rapidity. In just over three weeks, Donald Trump has been able to redefine the United States’ position in the world from a global power to an international outcast. Despite whatever military and economic power the U.S. still has, its image and global leadership have been undermined by President Trump’s foreign policy decisions.

I just want to take a short, though probably unpopular, note that while you present it as something negative, to some people on the world, that's actually something positive. There are communities all over the world who have suffered tremendously through the US' global hegemony; and these people (me included) are sometimes actually in a very good mood about the news that have been coming the last few weeks.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (2 children)

While I absolutely agree that America has and continues to do abhorrent things overseas (and domestically), I fear that there currently exists no significant world power in position to replace them as #1 that isn't considerably more exploitative, sadistic, and cruel. We're currently in hell and have nowhere to go but down...

[–] [email protected] 12 points 2 days ago (8 children)

This is always my thought when I hear that kind of response too. "Replace US hegemony" great. With what? China? Russia? India? Iran? Maybe the EU would be better, but I don't see an EU hegemony replacing US hegemony successfully any time soon. I feel like in a lot of ways the US dominated world order is/was a lesser of 2+ evils... We might be about to find out what the greater ones are :/

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[–] [email protected] 26 points 3 days ago (1 children)

In just over three weeks, Donald Trump has been able to redefine the United States’ position in the world from a global power to an international outcast.

This is exactly what people uttering "Make America Great Again" were asking for when they chose Trump to be the figurehead. None should be surprised.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 3 days ago (13 children)

As a European I'm all for it. Fuck up your own country for once and leave the rest alone. Nobody needs the corrupt self-declared policeman of the world

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[–] [email protected] 15 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Article about how the states is falling apart.

Uses picture of a house no middle class family could reasonably afford.

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[–] [email protected] 42 points 3 days ago (5 children)

If there was anything the US was good at, it would be marketing. Creating the image that it's the greatest nation on earth, influencing mainstream media to tell their version of the story, keeping up appearances of a strong nation.

The moment these smoke clears and the mirrors break, that is when we see the real US. I think we have Trump to thank to show it to us.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Once, the US was actualy very food at funding innovation. The shit that Bell Labs alone discovered are things that shape the world today. But in the nature of US capatialism, if discovery can't turn I to profit, why bother? It's easier to market 2nd or 3rd place as 1st, then to actually be the 1st, especially if the Chinese are constantly breathing down you neck.

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[–] [email protected] 73 points 3 days ago (20 children)

The Roman Empire fell because of a series of invasions by “barbarian tribes.”

I cannot take this author seriously after they wrote this. It was, you know, just a little more complicated than that.

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[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 day ago

hahahah it's NOT April FOOLS YET!

[–] [email protected] 11 points 2 days ago

We are the dog.

[–] [email protected] 37 points 3 days ago (1 children)

As it should. The rise of fascism shouldn't go unnoticed. The United States is capable of better but, the rot of capital needs to be expelled first.

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[–] [email protected] 39 points 3 days ago (8 children)

I feel bad for the innocent Americans who are gonna suffer... people who honestly didn't ask for or want any of this.

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[–] [email protected] 16 points 3 days ago (1 children)

The US falling apart would implicate that it was once whole, which it never was. It is just reaping the harsh fruits of half a century of aggressive 2 party campaigning.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 3 days ago (8 children)

All due to Ordinal voting. First Past the Post is the simplest Ordinal system, and completely broken if you have more than two candidates.

The only solution is a Cardinal voting system. Cardinal systems can handle two or twenty candidates without issues. Approval or STAR are the best options.

The sad part is, in 1780, First Past the Post was the only system available. It had to be adopted before mathematicians could look at it and say, hey shits broken.

The first was Condorcet. A French Mathematician who noticed the first problem with Plurality in the 1780s. But if you know your history, you'll know that being a French Nobleman in the 1780s was not the healthiest thing to be, regardless of how fucking based you were.

As an aside here, Condorcet was fucking based. He was antislavery, and argued for full suffrage for both women and the slaves that he wanted to free. He argued for universal education for all, and thought it would solve so many problems.

Anyway the next guy who saw the problem with Plurality was another French Mathematician and political scientist named Durverger. He proved that First Past the Post voting will always result in two party dominance. And he proved this in the 1950s. So not much to be done about it.

The next guy to put his name to voting science was Kenneth Arrow, an American who in the 1970s, showed that all Ordinal voting systems were flawed.

But again, the data came in far too late to easily fix things.

So here we are. The saying goes, the best time to plant a tree was 20 year ago, the next best time is now. So call your local representative and ask them to sponsor a switch of voting system to Approval or STAR.

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[–] [email protected] 7 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Look the U.S. was kind of past our prime already, and we were settling into a slow decline. President Elon and his lapdog Donald just decided to shake the table so all the dominos fall at once, instead of slowly over time.

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[–] [email protected] 137 points 4 days ago (6 children)

“The empire that defined the last century is falling apart at the seams. People notice.”

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