I'm reminded of this part from Indi's article on the US military: https://indi.ca/nothing-to-see-here-just-the-wheels-falling-off-empire/
The American war Ponzi is the perverse inverse of their domestic one. At home, they defraud money by at least building infrastructure. Abroad, they make money by destroying it.
This is the great innovation of American Empire. Figuring out that there's more money in losing wars than winning them. Only America attacks other places to loot their own treasury. They spent an absolutely soulless $2.3 trillion destroying Afghanistan and didn't 'get' anything much in return. So what do you do when you're running a Ponzi and one scheme goes belly up? You have to get the sucker into a new con, quickly. As that Wolf Of Wall Street said:
"You get another brilliant idea, a special idea, another situation, another stock to reinvest his earnings and entice him, and he will, every single time, 'cause they're addicted."
To cover up the loss of Afghanistan America invaded Iraq. When that went screwy they invaded Libya, then Syria. That wasn't enough so they went even bigger, provoking Russia by corrupting Ukraine. The Ponzi Empire leaves a trail of destruction wherever they go, but the jig is only up if they stop. So they never stop. This is a big reason America keeps starting war after war after war. They've got to keep the scam going. As Marohn says, “like any Ponzi scheme, as soon as the rate of growth slows, it all goes bad very quickly.” Which is the point we're getting to now. America is pushing up against countries like China, Russia, and Iran that it cannot actually intimidate like the innocent civilians and weddings it's used to bombing from afar. We have finally reached the end of this fatal Ponzi. The scams are getting closer and closer together and running into each other. People are beginning to see, and soon they'll start withdrawing their money.
The reason I think of it is: some of it may be drinking their own koolaid and some of it may be a sort of desperation to keep the con going.
I think the con started before the people in charge now were born and their parents never taught them its a con so they fell for it too. Theyre continuing a con without realizing its one, and without understanding the consequences.
I'd argue that as of 2024, a whole lot of Americans actually do realize it's a con. Hence a big part of the support for Trump, since there's this weird perception that he's anti-war. That perception is based less on anything he's actually said, and more on the fact that everybody associates foreign wars with Bush and the neocons and the whole class of professional politicians that has sprung up over the past few decades; that political establishment dislikes and tries to smear Trump, ergo Trump must be anti-war. It doesn't make a whole lot of sense. But it's an idea which has gotten itself into the heads of a lot of Americans, working-class Americans in particular.
I'm reminded of this part from Indi's article on the US military: https://indi.ca/nothing-to-see-here-just-the-wheels-falling-off-empire/
The reason I think of it is: some of it may be drinking their own koolaid and some of it may be a sort of desperation to keep the con going.
I think the con started before the people in charge now were born and their parents never taught them its a con so they fell for it too. Theyre continuing a con without realizing its one, and without understanding the consequences.
I'd argue that as of 2024, a whole lot of Americans actually do realize it's a con. Hence a big part of the support for Trump, since there's this weird perception that he's anti-war. That perception is based less on anything he's actually said, and more on the fact that everybody associates foreign wars with Bush and the neocons and the whole class of professional politicians that has sprung up over the past few decades; that political establishment dislikes and tries to smear Trump, ergo Trump must be anti-war. It doesn't make a whole lot of sense. But it's an idea which has gotten itself into the heads of a lot of Americans, working-class Americans in particular.