In three weeks, Donald Trump has imploded whatever positive image the United States might have had internationally.

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[–] 139 points 2 years ago (6 children)

“The empire that defined the last century is falling apart at the seams. People notice.”

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  • [–] 94 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (5 children)

    It's not "falling apart." It's being intentionally dismantled.

    Rubio's statement at his conformation hearing was basically "the Post WWII order isn't working for us, so we're ending it."

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  • [–] 89 points 2 years ago (27 children)

    falling apart ➡️actively being destroyed since RBG passed away

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  • [–] 83 points 2 years ago (3 children)

    If only she had retired when there was a chance to replace her with a progressive instead of hanging in until she died.

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    [–] 78 points 2 years ago (14 children)

    say what you want about the brits, but they wouldn’t have voted for brexit twice.

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  • [–] 20 points 2 years ago (3 children)

    Well to be fair, you can’t exit something twice

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    [–] 73 points 2 years ago (20 children)

    The Roman Empire fell because of a series of invasions by “barbarian tribes.”

    I cannot take this author seriously after they wrote this. It was, you know, just a little more complicated than that.

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    [–] 60 points 2 years ago (1 child)

    Rome eventually fell, All Empires do eventually

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    [–] 44 points 2 years ago (43 children)

    Not fast enough. Look at what it did to Gaza and realize that it can still do that to anywhere else it wants.

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    [–] 42 points 2 years ago (6 children)

    If there was anything the US was good at, it would be marketing. Creating the image that it's the greatest nation on earth, influencing mainstream media to tell their version of the story, keeping up appearances of a strong nation.

    The moment these smoke clears and the mirrors break, that is when we see the real US. I think we have Trump to thank to show it to us.

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    [–] 40 points 2 years ago (2 children)

    It's like watching an old friend sink into senility. The person you know is slowly being replaced by something else and you are powerless to stop it.

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  • [–] 39 points 2 years ago (8 children)

    I feel bad for the innocent Americans who are gonna suffer... people who honestly didn't ask for or want any of this.

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    [–] 37 points 2 years ago (36 children)

    I feel like saying it's normal for empires to fall due to external causes is not accurate? It's usually the exception. Maybe the external factor is the final kick, knocking over a rotting house of cards, but the cause is almost always division, internal conflict, or unsustainable growth. An empire is much more likely to collapse under its own weight than it is to have Alexander the Great kick its teeth in. The Ottoman Empire was called "The Sick Man of Europe" for a reason.

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  • [–] 18 points 2 years ago (4 children)

    It's absolutely not. It's their very internal policies that force them into destroying themselves. They start believing their own propaganda. For both Rome and Constantinople it was wasting huge amounts of it's power on fighting Persia and trying to extend its borders in ways that outran it's logistics capacity. For the Ottomans it was the rise of nationalism and their ham fisted attempts to combat it. For the modern Western imperialists it was the base fact that direct colonial rule was always a monetary drain for the state and only made businesses money. Making these stupid decisions was because each empire had created a web of political commitments and internal propaganda that was unsustainable.

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    [–] 37 points 2 years ago (1 child)

    As it should. The rise of fascism shouldn't go unnoticed. The United States is capable of better but, the rot of capital needs to be expelled first.

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    [–] 29 points 2 years ago (1 child)

    Trump is creating a lot of enemies. Even turning allies into enemies. The reputation usually mostly recovers when there's a Democrat in the WH, but since American voters walked right back into the same chaos again, eyes wide open, it's going to be a lot harder to recover this time around. There's just very little trust and credibility left.

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    [–] 29 points 2 years ago (3 children)

    Its Been falling apart for decades already, it's just being torn apart faster now

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    [–] 27 points 2 years ago* (4 children)

    Not falling so much as being torn apart. We are in no way doing this voluntarily

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    [–] 26 points 2 years ago (14 children)

    In just over three weeks, Donald Trump has been able to redefine the United States’ position in the world from a global power to an international outcast.

    This is exactly what people uttering "Make America Great Again" were asking for when they chose Trump to be the figurehead. None should be surprised.

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    [–] 25 points 2 years ago (3 children)

    America's wealth is tied up in perceptions. When the rest of the world views America the way I currently view Tesla, we're going to have some very big economic problems. And of course we already have huge security and safety issues as blow back for turning on our allies. It's impossible for me to imagine this isn't all a deliberate attempt to destroy America. And we all know which world leader Trump worships who is very very interested in causing that.

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    [–] 21 points 2 years ago (12 children)

    The United States is imploding. The reign of Donald Trump is not only challenging and threatening the very foundations of its constitutional democracy, it is calling into question the U.S.’s post-World War II hegemonic role. Empires or hegemonic powers rise and fall. Often they are defeated by emerging powers. Sometimes their decline takes place over time. But rarely do they self-destruct as spectacularly as the U.S. is doing. The U.S. implosion is dramatic in its intensity and rapidity. In just over three weeks, Donald Trump has been able to redefine the United States’ position in the world from a global power to an international outcast. Despite whatever military and economic power the U.S. still has, its image and global leadership have been undermined by President Trump’s foreign policy decisions.

    I just want to take a short, though probably unpopular, note that while you present it as something negative, to some people on the world, that's actually something positive. There are communities all over the world who have suffered tremendously through the US' global hegemony; and these people (me included) are sometimes actually in a very good mood about the news that have been coming the last few weeks.

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