Trump is destroying America's hegemony
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An excellent explanation of how Trump's skinflint foreign policy is destroying American power around the world.
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I'll go make some popcorn and wait for @blablarg18 to see this.
My take on it:
- The conclusion that the "America first" thing is not entirely genuine and at least partially used as cover for ulterior motives (and to pander to a voter base which salivates over that idea)? Undoubtedly true.
- The ensuing explanations of "he wants to get rid of democracy", "he wants to be in power forever", "they like the Nazis" etc? That's just the typical left-wing panic / fearmongering pulled completely out of thin air.
In my opinion Trump is not a great choice for president, but the majority of people in the US prefer him because the alternative the Democrat Party currently provides is just so atrociously bad. But rather than looking inward and correcting their own failures they are using all the media influence they can muster to discredit him. And some of those accusations have truth to them, because he's not the perfect president many of his followers laud him as, but most of it is just a desperate hate-fueled attempt to bombard him with the worst accusations they can think of.
At least that's what it looks like to me, from across the pond.
I don't know about China, but it seems clear to me that Trump is trying to benefit Russia with his policies. I draw this conclusion mostly on his stance that he will only provide support to Ukraine if Ukraine stops fighting back against the Russian invasion and lets them keep the territories they stole. This is, after all, exactly what Russia wants. I'm just not buying all his talk of saving lives and bullets flying across flat land until they hit someone. There are ways to force this war to an end and stop the bloodshed other than simply demanding that Ukraine accepts they've lost, seemingly with zero expectation of any concessions from the Russian side.
Unfortunately I don't think any one of us has seen a selfless unicorn president who truly acted in the best interests of the country in our lifetimes. The ones in recent memory all governed in ways that advanced their own interests in one way or another. Same goes for rulers in other counties I'm afraid.
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@hubrys Our debt already destroyed our hegemony. BRICS nations are already aligned to start looking at either forming a new currency or an alternative to SWIFT, either one will end dollar dominance, and that effort began a few years back. The Saudis a few years back also went away from requiring all oil payments to be made in dollars, and they now accept other currencies.
With the end of the dominant dollar, which began under Bush 43 and put into warp speed by Obama by ending the Congressional Budget Process and relying on mere resolutions, US economic hegemony has ended.
As for military, that has ended as well. We threw 20 years of blood and treasure away in the Middle East. We depend on a volunteer military, which means straight conservative white boys filling a good chunk of the ranks, and the country says masculinity is toxic, their previous sacrifices were in vein, and their nation should be open to the entire globe because their ancestors were evil. They're not going to volunteer like they used to because of that crap.
Our defense contractors have failed to adapt to the new digital age of warfare. The hypersonic missiles we tried to develop all failed their tests, while Russia, China, and Iran all have the technology
Culturally, no one is buying our culture anymore like they used to. Look at box office numbers, closing of theaters, ratings for Awards shows, etc. We've been culturally bankrupt on the world stage for about a decade now.
Hegemony doesn't exist anymore. We face a choice on the world stage. We can either adapt to either a new bipolar or multipolar wold or face unipolar China dominated world
If Russia becomes ostracized much further, they will retreat back into a full alliance with China out of necessity, and BRICS will own a new unipolar world. Russian mineral wealth with China's population and industrial base will dominate and become the unipolar hegemon. That's reality.
We can either retool and minimize the damage of the past 40 years of deindustrialization, unnecessary wars, and spiraling debt, or face a new bleak unipolar hegemon.
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Culturally, no one is buying our culture anymore like they used to. Look at box office numbers, closing of theaters, ratings for Awards shows, etc. We've been culturally bankrupt on the world stage for about a decade now.
Although it's true that Hollywood's reputation and numbers have taken a hit, the US still maintains its cultural dominance (no idea why but they do). People all over the world aren't watching Russian movies or listening to Chinese music. They're watching Netflix and listening to Taylor Swift. Further evidence of this cultural influence is that within a few years of the US pop culture going full woke, all the European countries had gone woke as well (and for us it wasn't something that had been building up in our institutions for decades, we all just followed your cultural lead). So it may be dented but the cultural hegemony is still very strong.
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@Rapsey-0 said in Trump is destroying America's hegemony:
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The Dominance is ending. Its not that the rest of the world is watching Chinese or Russian stuff, its that many more nations are producing their own stuff that crowds the crap Hollywood is producing out of the market, and because of that, even the cultural dominance is in jeopardy.
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@brettw97 I can only speak for my own European country but over here nothing has changed. We've always had our own domestically produced cultural media supplemented by US culture as the only significant foreign offering (except maybe some music from direct neighbour countries that share the same languages) and today it is still exactly the same. Stuff from other countries gaining any prominence is quite rare (Squid Game would be an example of that).
However the US cultural influence is probably somewhat filtered by our own media hegemonies (and has been for ages). Granted, most of the culture being exported from the US has always been left-leaning, but if there was a successful conservative movie in the US it wouldn't be propagated over here, nor are our radio stations ever going to play successful country songs from the US. All of our culture / media institutions are completely run by left-wingers so they won't promote anything that doesn't align with their values.
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@hubrys You say it like it's bad.
"Trump is destroying America's hegemony...destroying American power around the world"
But do you prefer "American hegemony & power around the world"?
Bomb shit out of any country that USA/UK/NATO feels like? Kill millions, in wars nobody approved? (Not UN, not Congress)
CIA history of assassinations? canceled elections? support of murderous dictators? & CIA in present day also? (Jolani, Zelensky)
USA teenagers, dying in 20-year Afghanistan war for "freedom" of gang leaders to use & rape little boys in bacha bazi?
Would you really prefer it? If yes: You're fucked up, dude.
Maybe penny will drop on you, that "America First" means you stop throwing away USA lives as well as other nations lives.
Even if you hate Russia & love Zelensky, today in 2025, you should NOT want "American hegemony & power". (Europe for Europeans, Europe defends Europe)
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@Rapsey-0 said in Trump is destroying America's hegemony:
Trump is trying to benefit Russia with his policies
No, better to say Biden-Kamabla drove Russia & China together, & Trump wants to not drive them together, that is, not be so retarded.
Military-wise, Ukraine war is lost. (Unless you want to go nuclear, 1000x loss.)
Good hegemons - if we go that way, decide we like hegemony - know when their proxy war failed & it's time to pull out.
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@blablarg18 said in Trump is destroying America's hegemony:
No, better to say Biden-Kamabla drove Russia & China together
That I agree with.
Military-wise, Ukraine war is lost. (Unless you want to go nuclear, 1000x loss.)
Debatable. This is the one-sided view Trump is pushing, yes, while Zelenskyy pushes the other side of that perceptual coin. The truth is somewhere more in the middle (but definitely not good for Ukraine, and it was never going to be, we knew that from the start).
However diplomacy-wise the war doesn't have to be the total loss that Trump wants to make it. He could apply a lot of pressure on Russia to force them into concessions. Instead he puts zero diplomatic pressure on Russia and maximum pressure on Ukraine to simply hand them their victory. That is why I say Trump's policies benefit Russia. What he's advocating for is giving Russia exactly what it wants, so that they will be satisfied and stop the war (for now).
Good hegemons - if we go that way, decide we like hegemony - know when their proxy war failed & it's time to pull out.
Like Biden did in Afghanistan?
Good hegemons don't do things halfway. They either don't get involved in the first place or they follow through until completion (as was done with Germany and Japan). The situation in Afghanistan would've been better if the US had never gotten involved, and it would've been better if the US had put its foot down and finished the job. Pulling out with the Taliban alive and kicking just left Afghanistan way worse off than before the US ever got there (and with it US influence in the region).
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@Rapsey-0 "Trump started Afghanistan withdrawal."
& got bigly flak for it. 2019. Sky was falling, to some people. Even Faaaaaaaaawwwks hated on Trump, for it.
Problem is not that Biden-Kamabla withdrew.....but that they messed it up. Sudden. Careful plans thrown out. Lives & 85B equipment (we are told) left behind.
Good hegemons don't do 20 year wars. "Forever wars"
& don't invade Afghanistan nor Russia. Too much depth of defense
Ukraine defeat "Debatable" - Fine, you need more convincing. Day by day, week by week, more comes.
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@blablarg18 said in Trump is destroying America's hegemony:
Problem is not that Biden-Kamabla withdrew.....but that they messed it up. Sudden. Careful plans thrown out. Lives & 85B equipment (we are told) left behind.
I agree they totally messed it up, but that wasn't the only problem. Even if they had executed it properly, Afghanistan would've been worse off than before and all the money and lives lost would've been for worse than nothing.
Good hegemons don't do 20 year wars. "Forever wars"
I also agree that they shouldn't have started it in the first place, and that the 20-year way it was conducted was really bad. But they did start it and they did drag their heels for 20 years so then the question becomes: which path leads to the best outcome now?
Pro's of pulling out: no further US lives lost.
Cons of pulling out: it was all for nothing and we made everything worse.If you think that was the best outcome to be had from this mess I suppose that's your subjective prerogative.
Ukraine defeat "Debatable" - Fine, you need more convincing. Day by day, week by week, more comes.
That's just a self-fulfilling prophecy. If we let Ukraine lose then they will lose. That much has always been certain. Not exactly sure what it's supposed to prove though... That Russia is bigger and stronger than Ukraine? I didn't need a war to show me that.
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@Rapsey-0 said in Trump is destroying America's hegemony:
it was all for nothing and we made everything worse
Indeed.
Because pulling out was inevitable. Always.
& there was no one "better" to install in power.
@Rapsey-0 said in Trump is destroying America's hegemony:
If we let Ukraine lose then they will lose.
Time to go nuclear?
That is THE ONLY WAY left.
@Rapsey-0 said in Trump is destroying America's hegemony:
Not exactly sure what it's supposed to prove though
What happened to "Know thy enemy"?
You could try learning something of Russia side of story.
Even if you disagree, "Know thy enemy".
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For those who don't know: Russia-Ukraine War began in 2014, not 2022, with this sequence.
- 1990s, USA & UK promise to never never never never never touch Ukraine, nor even expand NATO
Search "Budapest Memorandum"
- 2014, USA invades Ukraine
Search "Maidan coup"
Famous recording where Victoria Nuland is so determined to install her own (USA) puppet government, she literally utter phrase "Fuck the EU"
- 2014, Ukraine invades Ukraine
Search "Donbas war". Ukraine attacks its own Eastern people, ie. Russians.
- Then & only then, Russia invades Ukraine
Search "Crimea 2014"
- Crimea votes overwhelmingly to join Russia.
Just facts! Facts facts facts.
Then
- Late 2010s, USA further invades Ukraine with
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CIA establishes at least 12 bases, on or near Russia border
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USA Senators, like McCain & Lindsey Graham, aid & encourage Azov Brigade & other Nazi units of Ukraine
- 2022, Russia invades to - they say - protect ethnic Russians of Donbas, etc., to clear out CIA bases, & to clear out Ukraine Nazi units.
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As to my position: I have always said, Putin is equally bad & it's war of Evil vs Evil.
When it's Evil vs Evil, you STAY. OUT.
No need to be in . Just get out.
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@blablarg18 said in Trump is destroying America's hegemony:
Time to go nuclear?
That is THE ONLY WAY left.
I call BS on that.
What happened to "Know thy enemy"?
You could try learning something of Russia side of story.
Even if you disagree, "Know thy enemy".
I could say the same to you. If you think Russia will stop its aggression if they are allowed to win this round you clearly don't know thy enemy.
You act as if I don't know the historical events you posted but I'm well aware of all of them. It just doesn't convince me in the slightest that Russia's invasion was justified or that they will leave it at that.
The US interference in Ukraine (which I also condemn btw) can at best be seen as a flimsy excuse for Russia to do what it wants, but they didn't even use that excuse. Overtly they invaded, not because of US meddling in Ukraine, but because "there are Nazi's in Ukraine!", remember?
Search "Budapest Memorandum"
You mean the one where both Russia and the US agreed to respect Ukrainian sovereignty in exchange for Ukraine handing all their nukes to Russia?
Sure, you could argue that the US violated that with their meddling, which gave Russia a free pass to violate it 1000x worse by trying to conquer the whole country. But it's not like Russia needs much of an excuse... The people there would rather be with us? We'll take it! There are far-right people there? We'll take it! Know your enemy my ass...
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@Rapsey-0 Not "you could argue"..... but "DID IN FACT" violate Budapest Memorandum.
It's clear. And UK, USA & Ukraine understood well, when they signed it, that "or else" of Budapest Memorandum was "or else Russia invades Ukraine to secure its interests & buffer zone".
OF COURSE. Duh. Very word "Ukraine" means "borderland". Borderland of who? Historically, Russia.
"Russia...trying to conquer the whole country"
Hyperbole.
Again... KNOW THY ENEMY. Search "Russia SMO aims".
To them, it wasn't even an invasion. To them it would be a brief operation to clear out CIA & Nazi Brigade bases, while protecting people of Donbas etc.
They were wrong about how easy or how long, but - If (if) you refuse even to KNOW their viewpoint before you reject their viewpoint..... at that point, you are part of vast war-brainwashing problem which ends in nuclear WW3. I do not consent.
"If you think Russia will stop its aggression if they are allowed to win this round" - Indeed they will.
Again: KNOW THY ENEMY. Putin has shown restraint. Examples.
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when USA helped Ukraine blow up NordStream, he did nothing we know of
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when USA miltary crews launched ATACM missiles last summer, in Ukraine's name, at beach in Crimea - he did nothing we know of
USA would do nuclear strike if, say, China or Russia blew up Cochin pipeline, or had their crews do missile strike in Mexico's name to kill 100 tourists at Huntington Beach.
"I call BS on that." (that Ukraine is defeated militarily, only nuke escalation is left)
Sign up for Ukraine front lines, then.
Oh wait - You want to gamble with other people's lives?
You prefer to sit back & see videos of Ukraine conscripton gangs who kidnap random dudes off streets, for to throw them in meat grinder & die meaningless death? You won't volunteer for it? No?
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