Chinese leaders see America as "decadent, hollow, and in rapid decline", and speeches such as Rubio's "the temper tantrums of the dying throes of a once great power".
Do you think the people in that room had even a moment of uncomfortable selfawareness, or did they just double down on copium?
Didn’t someone here yesterday say they wanted to move from India and refused to consider the US because it was “a war torn nation”?
:data-laughing:
It's the year of our lord 2023. I can use a translation app in real time. I can open my phone and use my camera to translate documents in real time.
My brother in christ, they've never been hiding anything. You don't need a team of translators. This isn't some new revelation. Your temper tantrums are very funny tho. :cope:
Okay but their intentions weren’t being translated in a State Department press release and published on NPR so how was I supposed to know about it?
While people like Rubio have been saying the quiet part out loud he's an american right winger, which means he also says a bunch of stupid shit in between. When he complained that sanctions drove countries to look for emergency alternatives to dollar payment systems he also ended his speech about how america is decadent due to not executing all trans people or whatever.
That video is a good example of this. It's a peptalk about how evil China is, rather than a criticism of how utterly incompetent the american political estabilishment has become. 'They think America is in rapid decline and they want to crush the heads of capitalists' - which cycles back to every other speech on why exactly conservatives think america is in decline. Which is just a gay or racial panic of some kind.
Ultimately people like Rubio are only complaining because the current warchief is of the Democrat brand. The liberals are motivated in the exact same way, which is why even though their politics are different they still won't attack the real material reasons why the USA is choosing to decline right now.
So the copium is self reinforcing. If you're a lib you'll look at Rubio and say he's a chud and in the pocket of Big Global South (Russia). If you're a right wing maniac you'll look at AOC, Sanders or whatever and say 'these people with their death solar panels don't know how economics work'.
When he complained that sanctions drove countries to look for emergency alternatives to dollar payment systems he also ended his speech about how america is decadent due to not executing all trans people or whatever.
Little Marco, Patriotic Socialist :sicko-hazmat:
Chinese leaders see America as it is, while us "leaders" are flying high on American exceptionalism and weapons-grade copium
Common historical-materialist W
Seems like a good time to share one of my favorite word facts:
Until the 1970s decadent meant "in a state of decay or failure". The meaning added/changed to "excessively rich and luxurious, self-indulgent" because people didn't understand an advertisement for dessert.
Specifically something like, "Something so rich has not been seen since the decadence of Rome"
I wonder how true this really is. The US has plenty of issues and certainly has increasing competition like it hasn't had in years, but it still seems a long way off 'dying throes' to me.
Internal politics in America are increasingly batshit but they've been increasingly batshit for decades. Externally American remains much in the same position as the economic and military global imperial power by a significant way.
Just how batshit/decadent/hollow does it have to get before actually receding? Open succession? An actual coup? Paramilitary conflict?
It won't be as dramatic as that the infrastructure will fail more regularly and be privatised, and people will get used to having less and less money and worse living conditions
I think a better way to look at historical change isn't through an either/or situation between rapid change and slow gradual erosion, but through the idea of Punctuated Equilibrium. And I think there are a lot of things lining up right now to suggest that the US is nearing a punctuation.
Once again... “There are decades where nothing happens; and there are weeks where decades happen.” - Lenin
The foreign policy / soft power / diplomacy actions of the Biden and Trump administrations are hard to characterize as anything other than angry flailing being increasingly ignored or decried by nations who used to be wholly under the imperial thumb. I think dying throes might be a little premature but the decline and lashing out are already apparent.
Internal politics in America are increasingly batshit but they’ve been increasingly batshit for decades.
Looking at the historical decline of empires like Rome or the Qing or the Ottomans you see that there's a prolonged period of political dysfunction that goes on foe decades, sometimes even a century or two. An empire gets big and powerful on the back of its government and bureaucracy, which often can survive on inertia for a good while before something breaks irreparably.
We don't have centuries though. Most empires that gradually decayed into death did so under a pretty stable natural environment, but climate change and the inevitable chaos that brings is going to completely upend the current geopolitical situation. There's no way around that and we're already beginning the plunge into it. There has been plenty of research into how even relatively small but rapid changes in climate have caused the fall of past empires.
I would also say that the US has been decaying for decades already and is now well into the phase of coasting on the inertia of the glory days of its imperialism. There's a lot of talk about multipolarity and some have suggested that dedollarization is what could be the irreparable breaking point. I'm skeptical of that last bit personally, but there is imo no way that the US lasts in any recognizable form for another century, or even 3 decades. As an empire, I think it's very safe to say its on its last leg.
Lenin and something about "weeks" and "decades."
