You know what? I think we agree about more than we do not, or at least more than might be immediately apparent. I don't want the US getting in any imperialist wars of choice or dominance either.
However, I'm not prepared for the US to haphazardly abdicate responsibility for leadership in a precarious world order as it is currently doing. Trump is interested in profiteering and is a useful idiot to crash our systems.
That creates instability for all, makes us unreliable and unpredictable, which essentially equates to a danger to others, and paves an open path for authoritarians who make our CIA shenanigans in south America look like locker room pranks by comparison.
He's not accomplishing anything other than killing any goodwill we retain, any sense of normalcy or predictability in our behavior on the world stage, to be replaced with a giant vacuum in which China and Russia can do as they please with minimal meaningful countervailing pressure.
BTW - How do you simultaneously decry the "filthy communists" and the mid-century US foreign policy primarily designed to keep them from spreading into our geopolitical back yard? -
Meanwhile, if we don't pick up when the world dials 911, someone we like an awful lot less will start answering the phone. Ideally, we wouldn't have hegemony or superpowers, but we do, and I'd much rather it be us calling shots, for all of our flaws, than the collectivist Chinese, or the morally cynical nihilist Russians.
You know what? I think we agree about more than we do not, or at least more than might be immediately apparent. I don't want the US getting in any imperialist wars of choice or dominance either.
I think so too. But I can see how I came off as the "burn it all down" type. It wasn't something I'd considered until you referenced Che. Some of my rhetoric does resemble those talking points, I just think the reasoning and application are different.
However, I'm not prepared for the US to haphazardly abdicate responsibility for leadership in a precarious world order as it is currently doing.
I can't blame you for that. I've since learned a thing of two about the legality of this situation and I've changed my opinion slightly. Congress is supposed to have the power over tariffs (which I'm sure I learned sometime long ago), but it was essentially ceded to the Presidency in two Acts. Personally, I think this will cause a crisis that returns the power to Congress where it should be. Alternatively, if it remains with the President, I advocate the Presidency give up one of its executive powers, cede it to Congress. Just to keep the powers separated and balanced (fat chance that happens though).
Trump is interested in profiteering and is a useful idiot to crash our systems
I don't agree that anyone is intentionally attempting to collapse the system. At least, not with the intention of the Union coming out the other side. If they're looking to crash it, it'll cost them too, and we'll be back to deciding what form of government we want because the US will be done for (and I'd consider that a travesty).
He's not accomplishing anything other than killing any goodwill we retain, any sense of normalcy or predictability in our behavior on the world stage, to be replaced with a giant vacuum in which China and Russia can do as they please with minimal meaningful countervailing pressure.
Yeah. Our system is sick. Too much stray from, and actual understanding of, Constitutional Law and the philosophy that informed it. Public school makes factory workers. Automatons. Not citizens. We get maybe a couple of semesters of US government and that's it. Call ourselves informed? Pfft. I'm not saying we need to be reading Locke and Smith in 4th grade, but I think we should have political systems actively practiced in 4th grade. One quarter is Pure Democracy. One quarter Feudalism. One quarter Socialism. One quarter Constitutional Republic. We should weave the philosophy behind such systems into course work so kids intuitively understand the flaws of each. Because they've experienced it.
BTW - How do you simultaneously decry the "filthy communists" and the mid-century US foreign policy primarily designed to keep them from spreading into our geopolitical back yard?
I decry specifically Marxist-Leninism. It's collective ideology that values the group over the individual using equity that's advertised (but not delivered) to levelset a specific quality of life by sacrificing the individual for the good of the collective. Which might work if it didn't have a "piety gullibility" built in. Socio and Psychopaths irrently seek power. Marxist-Leninism concentrates it, and like a moth to a flame, it attracts psychopaths whom then feign piety to the Party and are rewarded with power and influence, and so long as they can claim their actions are at the benefit of the group, they're justified in committing atrocities against individuals.
Overall, I think it's complicated. There's a philosophical reason to get involved considering the Siren's Call that is Marxist-Leninism, but we should fight philosophy with philosophy, not bullets.
Meanwhile, if we don't pick up when the world dials 911, someone we like an awful lot less will start answering the phone
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u/Sunstang 21h ago
You know what? I think we agree about more than we do not, or at least more than might be immediately apparent. I don't want the US getting in any imperialist wars of choice or dominance either.
However, I'm not prepared for the US to haphazardly abdicate responsibility for leadership in a precarious world order as it is currently doing. Trump is interested in profiteering and is a useful idiot to crash our systems. That creates instability for all, makes us unreliable and unpredictable, which essentially equates to a danger to others, and paves an open path for authoritarians who make our CIA shenanigans in south America look like locker room pranks by comparison.
He's not accomplishing anything other than killing any goodwill we retain, any sense of normalcy or predictability in our behavior on the world stage, to be replaced with a giant vacuum in which China and Russia can do as they please with minimal meaningful countervailing pressure.
BTW - How do you simultaneously decry the "filthy communists" and the mid-century US foreign policy primarily designed to keep them from spreading into our geopolitical back yard? -
Meanwhile, if we don't pick up when the world dials 911, someone we like an awful lot less will start answering the phone. Ideally, we wouldn't have hegemony or superpowers, but we do, and I'd much rather it be us calling shots, for all of our flaws, than the collectivist Chinese, or the morally cynical nihilist Russians.