On the one hand, every generation thinks they are in the decline that will bring the fall of civilization as we know it.
On the other hand, all empires have to fall sometime. I for one welcome our new Chinese overlords, and would not mind living in a country that everybody else in the world doesn't hate for stepping all over their toes and supporting their horrendous dictators.
At least, they don't do those things yet. If they became the sole superpower, I'd bet you all my possessions they'd be just as bad, or worse, than the US as the bullies of the world.
Oh absolutely. I'm just saying that I wouldn't have to be FROM the superpower doing all that bullying and I could just be chill when travelling like somebody from Canada or Turkey or some other laid back country
Is this a joke? That's as inane a reason as any I've heard in a while. Have any idea how much
money we give out with no real expectation of ever being paid back? It's not like giving money to the Palestinians or to the Ukraine is something that even really has any secondary benefits to us.
"Bullying." I laughed. Watch less cable news and start reading about what the United States actually
does. Go look at the history of the Chinese whose lordship you're jerking off over and see if that's really a smart thing to say.
I should hope this is sarcasm, because as far as superpowers go, the U.S. has been pretty fucking moderate in its history
How does being less bad than the others excuse anything
'Cause when the options are
us or
them, we look like a pretty good option. We act to preserve our position, sure. So does everyone else. We're better at it, and frankly I'm glad we are--because we are the best of all options on the table. "International government" isn't going to happen anytime soon, except under the auspices of the biggest, strongest power in the area. That's us. In our case, it happens to be a positive that while we have our screwups, we tend to do a pretty good job on the whole. Who's going to do it better?
Politics is a nasty business. Crying about it ignores that
it's part of the game.
But "oh no they haaaaate us!" is not a reason to change policy.
Yeah but having policies that give people legitimate reasons to hate us is
Such as supporting oppressive governments or overthrowing legitimate ones to name just a few
Dude, look. This is how world politics go and have always gone: a unipolar geopolitical structure is the most stable, and the way you keep it such is the way the Romans and the British did. You have a big, big gun in one hand and a big, big sack of cash in the other. If you play ball, you get the sack of cash. If you don't, you get the business end of the gun.
I'm not saying it's good. I'm saying it works. Mealy-mouthed complaints that it's so terrible offer no solutions. People who get upset that politics is as nasty as it is are probably the people who don't belong in politics. Go sit back and act all horrified while you benefit from the actions of people willing to do what's necessary, it's expected of you.
I'm always sourly amused that the loudest complainants are the ones who've had their fat saved from the frying pan by that American involvement they decry today.
I'm pretty sure you just made that up cause I'm not sure who you hear "the loudest complaints" from[/quote]Then you're not listening very carefully. The biggest bitching consistently comes from Western Europe (who owe us a debt that's unlikely to ever be repaid, and I'm not talking about money). France and Germany have a habit of thumbing their nose at the U.S. just because they can.