I spend time thinking about the empire from like a strategic viewpoint "if I were interested in continuing the status quo or strengthening it and had power to influence things what would I do?" as a way of trying to understand the last few years, the last 20 years and the last 80ish years since WWII.
And I always kinda come back to the same conclusions. Is this happening because the leaders along the way were all bumbling morons? Partly, yes. The biggest failure though, and one so fundamental to the empire that its rot was practically destined to destroy it, is drinking the koolaid of private property ownership and, in a word, capitalism. Treating capitalism not as a way of generally viewing the economy and generally like how you'd like things to operate but as a religion has absolutely charted a course that can't be avoided unless that thinking is broken across the board and the religion proven false for everyone to see... probably in a spectacular collapse of "the west."
You can't run an empire, which by definition has to have a core, a centralized power base, in a decentralized fashion. Well, maybe you could, but it would have to be much more self-aware and outward about the project. The US empire has always presented as "what empire?" It doesn't officially exist. No president is gonna be at the podium talking about US imperialism. And that's the "problem" (as well as a strength to an extent, I can't deny that. Pretending to NOT be the one behind all the evil shit definitely helps keep people from doing something).
The same theory which says like "all these corporations will compete to produce the best product! How beautiful!" end up being the same corporations all bribing the government to take some portion of control over it to get what they want. So instead of having the ability to say like "yes Raytheon will make billions if we do a proxy war, but that will harm our ability to coerce other states so we won't be doing that... suck it up, guys" you just have politicians and broadly speaking middle and upper income Americans all going along with it. "If stonk number go up, it good!"
You see similar destabilization in all sectors due to rampant "free market" ideology with no buffers. Housing is permanently fucked because the fix would "harm" homeowners, landlords, and ideologically it would be "socialist" to seize land and build high quality free homes. Can't do that! Similar for college. Going back to no tuition or at least heavily discounted for people in low and middle income brackets would "harm" those capitalists who have now invested into universities as a means to profit for themselves. So, can't do it! Nothing can ever go towards less "free market" and it certainly can never harm investors of any sort at any time for any reason. If that means no homes? Too bad. Etc.
It's just this never-ending spiral to hell and it can't be controlled because, well, who the fuck would be able to? The US government is basically designed perfectly in a dogshit way to NEVER have any sort of effective democratic control (real democracy. Populism). The military can't get contractors to actually build working airplanes (lol). Infrastructure can't be rebuilt because someone has to profit but it's legitimately so expensive to do it that it's only feasible for a government entity to just handle the whole build process... but we can't do that because socialism! Just around and around and around the drain spinning faster, sucking in and killing anyone who was unlucky enough to be closer to the hole and the vortex of the spinning destroying the entire globe as it spins faster. But that suction sound is starting to become undeniable, the water level is low, and we're all seeing the drain hole very clearly now and we don't know wtf happens if we all just get sucked in. All we know is plugging that hole would require the power of government and that sounds like socialism. Maybe our Deities like Bezos and Elon will come save us... we will all them a great, basically non-repayable, debt!
Anyway, I obviously think capitalism is the problem. And more specifically the American religion (because it is just that) of unwavering adherence to "free market" neoliberal capitalism. Just the same as a Christian can't question if Jesus was the son of God, no American patriot ™️ can ever question the philosophy of less government, higher profit, means testing for everything until it's totally useless.
Indeed, it was pure hubris and this monumental mistake on the part of the west. Prior to the conflict, few questioned the power of NATO, but now it is clear that this alliance lacks the resilience necessary for a serious war effort and that the west's economy is not as self-sufficient or pivotal as once thought. The economic front of this conflict has created an entirely separate economy outside of western influence, further highlighting the importance of Russian resources. This realization is particularly unsettling from a Western perspective because European countries are now forced to purchase these resources at inflated prices through third parties rather than directly from Russia. As such, there's no turning back from this point and it will undoubtedly be remembered as a significant catalyst for the decline of the western empire in history books.
Yup, the west has screwed itself over in a multitude of ways in this situation. Really even if they had engaged Russia in Ukraine but told Ukraine to concede the Donbas it would still have been fine, but at this point so many mistakes have been made that as you said there’s no turning back. Really the biggest one was freezing and then taking the Russian reserves that were in the US.
For sure, there were many offramps available even after the conflict started and the west chose to take the worst possible way forward each and every time.
Well they didn't officially send US uniformed troops to Ukraine, which might have been the very worst possible way since it would have meant either tens of thousands of coffins heading back or global nuclear holocaust
Yes, but Ukraine has been the biggest blow to American empire in literally its entire history. Before the war the rot was visible if you knew where to look, but now it’s everywhere.
The US fucking around in the Middle East for decades then pulling out and changing nothing. Failures in Vietnam and Korea. I think all three of these overshadow Ukraine in terms of demonstrating western failure.
Sure, Ukraine is important but the situation isn't even close to being resolved, and we won't know its full implications for years.
Then you don’t know much about history from a Marxist context because none of those conflicts had any real negative impact on the American empire, they only expanded the American economy by pumping money into MIC and expanding the security state. Ukraine on the other hand in just two years has de armed nato to an astonishingly high degree, allowed Americas enemies to stand up and fight, led to the largest military raid on Israeli soil in generations, pushed nato troops out of Africa, bolstered an entire economic block of emerging powers, and has given incentive for those powers to break off from the USD which is the lifeblood of modern capitalism and imperialism. There’s a mega on the front page that’s been going on for years now talking about it I would really recommend you read it some time.
I think this and Trump pulling out of the Iran Deal were the two greatest (relatively non-violent) fuckups on the planet of the last two decades, period. The world where Russia is in NATO and has China sandwiched between Russia, a likely US-friendly Central Asia, Japan and South Korea, and other US-friendly countries like the Philippines - that world is god fucking awful. Thank god we aren't in that one, as bad as this one is. Not necessarily hopeless because it might have prompted China to take more urgent action on anti-imperialism, and the descent into the neoliberal rot would still be weakening the empire from the inside, but good god. Two capitalist nuclear superpowers contesting a single socialist one is not a great time.
All they had to do was not push Russias redline and American empire would have lasted another 40-50 years at least. Sucks to suck I guess.
I spend time thinking about the empire from like a strategic viewpoint "if I were interested in continuing the status quo or strengthening it and had power to influence things what would I do?" as a way of trying to understand the last few years, the last 20 years and the last 80ish years since WWII.
And I always kinda come back to the same conclusions. Is this happening because the leaders along the way were all bumbling morons? Partly, yes. The biggest failure though, and one so fundamental to the empire that its rot was practically destined to destroy it, is drinking the koolaid of private property ownership and, in a word, capitalism. Treating capitalism not as a way of generally viewing the economy and generally like how you'd like things to operate but as a religion has absolutely charted a course that can't be avoided unless that thinking is broken across the board and the religion proven false for everyone to see... probably in a spectacular collapse of "the west."
You can't run an empire, which by definition has to have a core, a centralized power base, in a decentralized fashion. Well, maybe you could, but it would have to be much more self-aware and outward about the project. The US empire has always presented as "what empire?" It doesn't officially exist. No president is gonna be at the podium talking about US imperialism. And that's the "problem" (as well as a strength to an extent, I can't deny that. Pretending to NOT be the one behind all the evil shit definitely helps keep people from doing something).
The same theory which says like "all these corporations will compete to produce the best product! How beautiful!" end up being the same corporations all bribing the government to take some portion of control over it to get what they want. So instead of having the ability to say like "yes Raytheon will make billions if we do a proxy war, but that will harm our ability to coerce other states so we won't be doing that... suck it up, guys" you just have politicians and broadly speaking middle and upper income Americans all going along with it. "If stonk number go up, it good!"
You see similar destabilization in all sectors due to rampant "free market" ideology with no buffers. Housing is permanently fucked because the fix would "harm" homeowners, landlords, and ideologically it would be "socialist" to seize land and build high quality free homes. Can't do that! Similar for college. Going back to no tuition or at least heavily discounted for people in low and middle income brackets would "harm" those capitalists who have now invested into universities as a means to profit for themselves. So, can't do it! Nothing can ever go towards less "free market" and it certainly can never harm investors of any sort at any time for any reason. If that means no homes? Too bad. Etc.
It's just this never-ending spiral to hell and it can't be controlled because, well, who the fuck would be able to? The US government is basically designed perfectly in a dogshit way to NEVER have any sort of effective democratic control (real democracy. Populism). The military can't get contractors to actually build working airplanes (lol). Infrastructure can't be rebuilt because someone has to profit but it's legitimately so expensive to do it that it's only feasible for a government entity to just handle the whole build process... but we can't do that because socialism! Just around and around and around the drain spinning faster, sucking in and killing anyone who was unlucky enough to be closer to the hole and the vortex of the spinning destroying the entire globe as it spins faster. But that suction sound is starting to become undeniable, the water level is low, and we're all seeing the drain hole very clearly now and we don't know wtf happens if we all just get sucked in. All we know is plugging that hole would require the power of government and that sounds like socialism. Maybe our Deities like Bezos and Elon will come save us... we will all them a great, basically non-repayable, debt!
Anyway, I obviously think capitalism is the problem. And more specifically the American religion (because it is just that) of unwavering adherence to "free market" neoliberal capitalism. Just the same as a Christian can't question if Jesus was the son of God, no American patriot ™️ can ever question the philosophy of less government, higher profit, means testing for everything until it's totally useless.
Turns out the centrists were the fringe accelerationalists after all.
Indeed, it was pure hubris and this monumental mistake on the part of the west. Prior to the conflict, few questioned the power of NATO, but now it is clear that this alliance lacks the resilience necessary for a serious war effort and that the west's economy is not as self-sufficient or pivotal as once thought. The economic front of this conflict has created an entirely separate economy outside of western influence, further highlighting the importance of Russian resources. This realization is particularly unsettling from a Western perspective because European countries are now forced to purchase these resources at inflated prices through third parties rather than directly from Russia. As such, there's no turning back from this point and it will undoubtedly be remembered as a significant catalyst for the decline of the western empire in history books.
Yup, the west has screwed itself over in a multitude of ways in this situation. Really even if they had engaged Russia in Ukraine but told Ukraine to concede the Donbas it would still have been fine, but at this point so many mistakes have been made that as you said there’s no turning back. Really the biggest one was freezing and then taking the Russian reserves that were in the US.
For sure, there were many offramps available even after the conflict started and the west chose to take the worst possible way forward each and every time.
We should have an emoji for doubling down that’s a picture of the KFC double down lmfao
Well they didn't officially send US uniformed troops to Ukraine, which might have been the very worst possible way since it would have meant either tens of thousands of coffins heading back or global nuclear holocaust
I mean that's still a possibility.
Well, the French just deployed, so now we know that it's going to be European soldiers dying before US soldiers finally go in
The decline runs so much deeper than that
Yes, but Ukraine has been the biggest blow to American empire in literally its entire history. Before the war the rot was visible if you knew where to look, but now it’s everywhere.
Sorry, but
I should say the failure of Ukraine as a project has been the biggest blow to American empire in its entire history.
The US fucking around in the Middle East for decades then pulling out and changing nothing. Failures in Vietnam and Korea. I think all three of these overshadow Ukraine in terms of demonstrating western failure.
Sure, Ukraine is important but the situation isn't even close to being resolved, and we won't know its full implications for years.
Then you don’t know much about history from a Marxist context because none of those conflicts had any real negative impact on the American empire, they only expanded the American economy by pumping money into MIC and expanding the security state. Ukraine on the other hand in just two years has de armed nato to an astonishingly high degree, allowed Americas enemies to stand up and fight, led to the largest military raid on Israeli soil in generations, pushed nato troops out of Africa, bolstered an entire economic block of emerging powers, and has given incentive for those powers to break off from the USD which is the lifeblood of modern capitalism and imperialism. There’s a mega on the front page that’s been going on for years now talking about it I would really recommend you read it some time.
I don't see the post you're talking about can you link it?
The news mega? The one that’s been going on for years.
Oh I thought there was like a specific one regarding Ukraine
They could've accepted Russia into NATO and the empire would've lasted indefinitely lol
I think this and Trump pulling out of the Iran Deal were the two greatest (relatively non-violent) fuckups on the planet of the last two decades, period. The world where Russia is in NATO and has China sandwiched between Russia, a likely US-friendly Central Asia, Japan and South Korea, and other US-friendly countries like the Philippines - that world is god fucking awful. Thank god we aren't in that one, as bad as this one is. Not necessarily hopeless because it might have prompted China to take more urgent action on anti-imperialism, and the descent into the neoliberal rot would still be weakening the empire from the inside, but good god. Two capitalist nuclear superpowers contesting a single socialist one is not a great time.
Not indefinitely, but it would have bought them a couple decades.
But that would mean Russia and Europe united; a return to the old imperial powers leaving the US behind.