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0 pointsstackghost3d ago0 comments

This is interesting and poignant less because of the digital currency aspect and more because of the geopolitics. In a world where technology touches everything, tech itself becomes political.

The boulder that is de-Americanization has rolled too far downhill now and gained too much momentum; it can no longer be stopped.

The two thirds of Americans who either voted for Trump or couldn't be bothered to vote against him because they aReN't PoLiTiCaL are going to have to come to terms with their new place in the world one way or another. The US is no longer seen as a stable military partner[0], nor a stable economic partner as evidenced by TFA. It's easy to blame Trump but he is merely a symptom of the root cause, which is the attitudes shared by a huge number of Americans.

America will cease to be (and in some cases already has ceased to be) the world's epicenter of geopolitical soft power, scientific innovation, and financial clout. Treaties to which the US is a signatory are not worth the paper they're printed on. The foundations have already been laid, and the de-Americanization trend can't be stopped. For a people so accustomed to feeling like a privileged special class of world citizens, I honestly wonder if the American psyche can handle it. Probably we'll see a wave of people who "never supported Trump in the first place", just like tons of Germans were "never Nazis in the first place" once it became socially unpalatable.

So, congrats, I guess. At least you guys got some people with brown skin deported.

[0] https://www.readtheline.ca/p/matt-gurney-we-will-never-fucki...

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4 comments · 1 top-level

omnimus3d ago· 3 in thread

Don't underestimate how much in bed are many of the european politicians/oligarchs with US neocon class. Trump is also problem for them. If Trump gets replaced by some moderate neocon on wave of “good old times” every one of these lobbied politicians will jump back hail comming of the golden age, buy everything american again and delete all this sovereignity out of the sky.

Trump moved overton window so much we will be fed story about how we shall be glad for the corrupted but not vulgar politicians that do barely minimum.

stackghostOP3d ago

>If Trump gets replaced by some moderate neocon on wave of “good old times” every one of these lobbied politicians will jump back hail comming of the golden age, buy everything american again and delete all this sovereignity out of the sky.

I don't think so. In fact I think you, like the American delegation in the article I linked to, are dramatically underestimating the degree to which a lot of US allies feel betrayed.

tialaramex2d ago

Yeah. This is also a threshold thing. There was a reluctance to accept that the US isn't as big a deal as it once was. The numbers weren't good during Obama's presidency†, but there wasn't much reason to ask "Is this still OK?" a decade ago and plenty of reasons to avoid stirring. Trump provided an impetus to ask the question in a circumstance where the numbers continue to look worse and there's political will to re-assess.

† The US has far too much debt, far too much poverty (despite all those billionaires) and it doesn't look great by comparison to peer nations on lots of fronts such as health access and educational attainment.

pjc502d ago

Wasn't CPAC literally being funded by the Hungarian government (and thence ultimately Russia)?

Oligarchy is definitely a global problem. Every billionaire is an unexploded political liability.

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