I was just thinking about how most people been hearing America is the number 1 country in the world since they were born. I don't know who the media will blame, but some will start stroking fear.
The average person might not care in the beginning, but once media, and politician starts making people fear I feel people are going to start looking for a "strong man" to save them.
Look at the UK. It's not like the US is ever going to become completely irrelevant (barring it actually breaking apart). It will still be a powerful, globally significant nation with a massive population, huge and varied supply of natural resources, and powerful military. It'll remain a cultural hub. It just won't be a dominant hegemon able to exert its power at will anywhere that doesn't border China or Russia.
That's a cool metaphor but tbh I don't exactly get what it means as a response to my comment
oh god I hope not
honestly I don't think so, the UK is so much more transphobic than the US
More like their center-left is so much more transphobic. Americans freak OUT over trans people
They just won't believe that it's happened. We'll have the trappings of empire and play at being the exact same country as the US was in the mid to late 20th century even American global influence wanes.
It's kinda already losing it's power, and COVID was a huuuge blow that showed the rest of the world (who aren't US toadies) that the empire is falling. Yet we still have tons of people here who still believe in that American exceptionalism BS.
Yep. I have conservative friends who I try to explain to how the way the US government and constitution are built, we are fundamentally incapable to addressing challenges that arise that can't be solved by bombing shit. I don't even address it from a Marxist POV (that it was built this way on purpose not to have a government that is responsive, but one that is built to funnel money and power to capital), I usually just compare it to Rome - how any society that can't adapt to changing circumstances will eventually fail and collapse.
They just stick their heads in the sand at that and refuse to believe our big beautiful constitution could possibly not lead to the best government. Which in turn leads to cope which leads to blaming external forces like the CPC for all the problems associated with COVID.
I think this sticking there heads in the sand is understandable given how I think American culture derives ‘american-ness.’ Anyone can become American which is pretty unusual if you think about it. It’s clearly not any ethnic group even if this comes up in domestic politics about if American is a code word for white republicans. You can have someone immigrate to America at age 65 and become an red blooded “American.” That’s unusual on the world stage.
My theory is on a meta-level American-ness is a submission to a state of political ideals more than ethnicity/family ties, culture or some other meta-construct you see often as methods of justifying nation states. When you look at how most nation states form it’s almost always surrounding ethnic groups. When you point out that that American political system is unable to cope with problems I think you are poking at a third rail because without the system of government/political ideals working you undermine the unity story and If the American system of government isn’t working what’s there to replace “American” as a unified identity. How do you recontextualize that identity when there are not any good alternatives out there right now to do so?
Many average US citizens will probably turn to fascism.
My wild speculation:
When China overtakes the US, many will simply see it as an ethno-authoritarian state beating out liberal democracy. This is an incorrect characterization of China, but it's the line US media has been pushing.
Because of this mischaracterization of China, many will think that the US must become an explicitly ethno-authoritarian state to maintain "hegemony". In reality, the lesson they should learn is that they need to have an effective and trusted central government that can coordinate and discipline capital so that it can plan long term, and in a more pro-social way.
However, that is not in the interest of US capitalists. Their narrow, short-sighted interests would benefit much more from an increasingly authoritarian state (under their control) which justifies increasing tyranny using the idol of western chauvinism. Many US people will support this.
Edit: this is also one of the many reasons why we must organize and talk to people irl
There is nothing official about superpower status. People who want to believe it will be able to tell themselves that the U.S. is #1 for years after they actually aren't. Media and politicians are invested in keeping the lie alive.
Word. Almost got my ass kicked by an E*glish chud that one time because I said the UK doesn't have the strongest navy in the world. Britannia rules the waves is not an analysis of modern naval capabilities, like wtf
(edit: I fairness we'd both been drinking for hours by then and were not ar rational best bu still)
This is scary. If downwardly mobile petit bourgeoisie breeds fascism, imagine that happening on the scale of an entire fucking empire, including even the libs who control the r narrative in media and academia ... :agony-yehaw:
A whole empire of ghouls who are ready to ride the nukes into whatever country they're told to hate and destroy.
Nukes cost quite a bit to maintain. I am hoping the decline is gradual to start with at least so if the shit really hits the fan, whoever is in charge doesn't have enough toys to make too big a problem.
Idk I think Yankees sooner would drop nukes than suffer the indignation of being too poor to maintain them.
Have you ever seen those Turkish nationalists who are in denial that the Ottoman Empire still exists? In a hundred years that could be us, but even less funny.
You're saying that these people still view Turkey as the Ottoman Empire and that it is only a matter of time before it reclaims what rightfully belongs to it?
Yeah they're like the Muslim version of those Deus Vult nerds who want to remake Rome
I feel like superpower status is kind of an outdated term that doesnt account for the fact that countries which are perceived as more powerful/equitable/profitable (such as the US) can always just fake it . like people are still thinking of america as a superpower despite our embarassing covid response because America=superpower will always be engrained in everyone's minds regardless of how and what america is actually doing.
also america was deemed a superpower because of its WW2 response, and although america has done a lot since then to solidify its status as a super power in other decades, it still feels very much tied to this outdated reading of how america handled WW2 (which even then, basing america's superpower status on its ww2 performance isnt really fair considering that the only attach we had on american soil was pearl harbor vs the soviet union getting bombed the fuck out and its economy being strangled)
its kinda like how covid is most likely to be handled forever: always in the background, never going away, but never meaningfully addressed by any political policy because parties get their power from the perception that they are powerful rather than what they actually do.
i feel like post modernism has also very much obscured the line between whats actually happening and whats actually not happening so i fully expect America's superpower status to go the same route
anyway based on this, what the average citizen will do when america loses super power status is absolutely nothing because they wont believe we've lost super power status /will still believe that america is the best regardless of whose in power because those in power should be the white, western, imperialist, hyper capitalist and heavily militarized country
Yeah, it's kind of scary to think about. I definitely believe Trump's won because in the 5-10 years preceding the 2016 election, evangelicals were getting absolutely rolled in the culture war. Like Nazis in 1945 in Eastern Europe level of getting rolled. Not to mention that's around when churches started really noticing the lack of young people in the pews. Badically, they felt like huge losers. And Trump, with his macho bullying, made evangelicals feel like they weren't huge losers anymore.
So that's the response by just one group of Americans to their loss of power and privilege. So what happens when it impacts an entire country?
Yeah Brit here and there's still people in this country, including a few MP's, who seem to genuinely believe and act as though we still have a world dominating military force to back up our govt.s stupid bullshit.
Trump was...a figure that coalesced thae energy.
you're behind the curve on this take, this is in fact old news going back to the first movie star president in 1980 after the oil crisis shook american consumer confidence for the first time since the immediate postww2 period.
the future is here, and it is boring.
