As I understand it, this wave of US policy change is inspired by a combination of white supremacy and US exceptionalism. But rest of the world is effected by few different things, for example, xenophobia in the case of EU and UK, expansionism in Russia, zionism in Israel, nationalism in China (and Japan, really) etc. It looked the same if you stand far, but they're all different, so I wouldn't call it "global".
There is a documentary from Deutsche Welle titled "The rise of the ultra-right in the US": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jrhREluLdBs. Maybe worth a watch if you want to see an "outside" perspective on this.
The right wing of the US is not driven by white supremacy. It's driven by a belief in a variety of mostly false grievances, about immigration, the economy, the wealth gap, etc. Those bogus beliefs are held by white and non white people.
Consider that Trump won almost 50% of Latino male voters. As a percentage of the vote, Trump did better with racial minorities and women in 2024 than 2020, and much better compared to 2016.
White supremacy is real and it has some effect in US politics, but it's not a driving force anymore. I say this as someone who has lived both in and outside the US. The outside perspective is not always better. Germans may be seeing the US through the lens of their own history.
Well, I would like to clarify that I was not criticizing any country. To me, all of those examples are just nations learning and exploring what's good and what's bad again under this new age. The world will adjust and slowly but surely get better. See? This time, so far no body is getting burned for claiming that the Earth is not the center of the universe.
And for all the other points, only time will tell.
BTW, I don't hate Mr. Trump either. When he was elected, I brought in some financial products anticipating his unconventional method (and most importantly, I did not buy in some other products). Now I seeing ~5% return in just half a month. I thank that man for his straightforward.
So if I'd say, fearmongering is useless and opportunity for goodness is still reachable.
Yes the US is uniquely fucked, really. At least the previous global hegemon fought two world wars to lose its place. The US is basically committing geopolitical suicide at the top of its powers because of gender neutral toilets and the price of eggs. A rather pathetic country and people, sadly.
Then share the reasons. We are witnessing the end of the era of American global dominance. The four years of Biden were but a reprieve. Trump 2.0 is here to finish the job and end it all once and for all. The American Experiment has failed.
Triggered. If we are pathetic, then look forward to our enlightened successors.
I don't know what will happen in American politics, nor what effect it will have on the world or the permanence of those effects, but there are demagogues everywhere, America is not exceptional.
America is exceptional in that it is the global hegemon self destructing before our eyes and for largely nonsensical domestic reasons. That is exceptional.
And I don’t know about triggered, but rather just sad, because I was one of those people who really believed in the US at one time!
My mom was born in late 1930s Germany. She remembers being bombed out of her appartment. She came to US and is not happy with the way things are going here.
The USA is currently experiencing an autocoup prosecuted by an unholy alliance of tech industry elites and dominionist christian white supremacists. Its president, who presided over an attempted violent coup in 2021, has called for the annexation of Canada and Greenland, ethnically cleansing Palestine and acquiring it as US territory, military incursions into Mexico, seizing Panama, and suggested the annexation of the United Kingdom.
He is openly aligned with radical white supremacist militias that are entwined with our sheriffs, police, and military. He's installed a white supremacist as Secretary of Defense with the support of congress and numerous others in powerful positions throughout the remnants of the US government.
No, I hear what you are saying. Nevertheless — I don’t think my hypotheticals are unreasonable. All these people want money. And there is so much more money to be made not going to war.
Because they have zero connection to reality? Can I have a pony in this hypothetical too? How do we get to any of them while having to climb over the additional hurdle of a far right anti-science government?
> The USA will likely address climate change directly through technology (geoengineering) vs rapid degrowth (the only two plausible means of stabilizing the climate)
How is "rapid degrowth" a solution to climate change? we have "degrowth" in population in basically every industrialized country already anyway, but more extreme rates like South Korea are already destabilizingly low, and still not even close to enough for keeping CO2 emissions in check: That would probably require us to slash population by at least 60% (and quickly, even if we kept enacting CO2 reducing measures).
There is already a "solution" for climate change on the table-- electrify everything, de-carbonize electricity generation and help roll out this change globally, but all the major players are dragging their feet because this is obviously not free...
>The American scientific establishment and education system are likely to be transformed to create massive jumps in productivity (in the age of AI)
And this presidency will ensure that this jump in productivity only benefits the wealthy. Proposed tax cuts by Trump would make middle class people pay more and wealthy people pay less
>There are very few ways to compete with China without very strong leadership — and now, it seems, we have that chance.
Oh yes, the guy that wanted to have a say in what the fed does. The guy who proposed and eventually rolled back tariffs on its neighboring countries, sending a lot of companies (both in usa, Canada, and Mexico) in panic. I could go on for hours
> 1. The USA will likely address climate change directly through technology (geoengineering) vs rapid degrowth (the only two plausible means of stabilizing the climate)
That climate change can be addressed through technology is of course true, but equating that with geoengineering is pure insanity. Also, there's _nothing_ that indicates that the US will address this area at all, especially not now, with an administration that doesn't even believe that there's anything to address!
> 2. The USA will likely avoid war.
I do not understand how you can draw that conclusion after seeing the new president threaten even _allies_ with war in just a few weeks in office.
> 3. The USA will likely experience large-scale economic growth due to regulatory change, efficient government services, compounding industrial ecosystems and robotics
Which efficient government services are you talking about? The ones provided by skilled bureaucrats being replaced due to lacking "loyalty"?
> 4. The American scientific establishment and education system are likely to be transformed to create massive jumps in productivity (in the age of AI)
Transformed by having their funding slashed?
> We already have smarter AI than 99% of humans
You seem to be sampling a very strange subset of humans.
> There is little doubt that this will be applied across society at an unbelievable scale and speed.
There's, in fact, lots of doubt.
> In short, China’s economic model (low-corruption communistic capitalism) is working way better than liberal democratic models.
For certain things, sure. For other things (like freedom of speech, personal liberties): very much not.
> There are very few ways to compete with China without very strong leadership — and now, it seems, we have that chance.
So, you want a "strong leader". How does that go down in history again? Anyway – do you think that in addition to being "strong" there are other aspects of a leader that you might want to have in addition? Like, I don't know, intelligence and compassion? Or are you just going for strength to smack everyone over the head?
> And, with the global distribution of high-intelligence AI, there is plenty of room for distributed, decentralized local growth that can enable all people around the world to participate in economic development and super-abundant resources.
Absolute meaningless dribble. It just needs a sprinkle of blockchain or something.
> Things will continue to accelerate. And the biggest wellbeing challenges will come from overabundance of resources rather than their scarcity.
So when can people suffering under these authoritarian strongmen expect this abundance? How much suffering will they have to take before utopia hits? Or, alternatively, before we can laugh you lot off for a few generations again.
I'm curious if what is happening in the US and what has happened in Britain with Brexit actually ends up slowing some of these marches towards illiberalism in other places. Like when people are upset at the direction of a country or current policies, they may take a "throw the bums out" attitude even if the alternative is far worse. But perhaps they're looking at the complete shit show in the US and how unproductive Brexit was and are thinking "OK, maybe not like that..."
I mean, it sounds like Canada is more united than it's been in a long time in its shared opposition to Trump.
Ask Hawaii what happened when a bunch of businessmen wanted more profits and less government oversight! Back then it was Dole (the PERSON) and sugarcane companies, today it is auto manufacturers and probably access to the northern sea route that is rapidly becoming de-iced and relevant for shipping to bypass the Panama Canal. Canada better take this threat seriously and treat the USA, at the very least, like a neighbor who is shooting a rifle at a massive tank of propane.
In France at least, Brexit made the idea of leaving the EU obsolete in political discourse, both on the left and far right.
But at the same time French media just repeated the “it's a clumsy handwave from an autistic dude” narrative after Musk's Nazi salute so I'm not sure it will work this time.
Notice that this benevolence and protection by the media is granted to Musk (and Trump) by their complete subservience to Israel's demands and wants. Trump just proposed ethnic cleansing the Gaza Strip and cleaning up the rubble with American money and work so it can be handed over to Israel in a nice shape.
I suspect a large part of the subtext is that considerable real estate holdings, hotels, casinos, apartments, etc. will mysteriously end up slightly off book on some TrumpCo. spinoff or another.
No, that's missing the point. What hotels, casinos and apartments were promised to the Biden administration to flood Israel with money and weapons to flatten the Gaza strip into rubble and kill and maim hundreds of thousands?
It's not important what leverage Israel has used to make yet another US president do exactly what they want, contrary to any idea of justice, international law, basic humanity and common sense. The point is that Israel has that kind of leverage and nobody is able to resist it.
How is the response to Oct 7 a defensive action? Using block sized bombs to take out one terrorist minutes after shooting a missile and has already left the scene when smaller munitions from drones can do the job is defensive? The military threat of Hama'
s is a few RPGs that have barely injured anyone since the war started.
How does Israel even know the ratio, they're not counting deaths.
All Hamas wanted from the beginning to release hostages was for Israel to do the same. Something they've now done anyway so the entire war and all civilian suffering was unnecessary.
> How is the response to Oct 7 a defensive action? Using block sized bombs to take out one terrorist minutes after shooting a missile and has already left the scene when smaller munitions from drones can do the job is defensive? The military threat of Hama' s is a few RPGs that have barely injured anyone since the war started.
You're minimizing Hamas's rocket fire on Israel (which weren't RPGs) because it "barely injured anyone". And that part is true, but you're misunderstanding the costs here. In the weeks after October 7th, Israel was effectively shut down. There were sirens that forced the majority of Israelis into safe rooms 5, 6 times a day. Schools couldn't open, workplaces could barely function.
And of course, the reason these rockets "didn't hurt anyone" is because of millions spent shooting them down.
Now I don't know which of Israel's actions are "justified", if any. And I don't know what is "morally correct response" to a foreign territory ruled by a terrorist organization effectively shutting down your country. But I don't think you can simply dismiss this. It's a real problem.
How many times would you be willing to run into a safe room with your terrified children, before you say "well we need to put a stop to this?".
> All Hamas wanted from the beginning to release hostages was for Israel to do the same.
All Hamas wanted was to invade Israel, shoot massive rounds of rockets at it for weeks, and for Israel to not respond because they took hostages. Had Israel not responded, they would've repeated this again and again. It's also very possible that Hezbollah, whom we now know had massive preparations underway for a similar invasion of Israel, would've carried out that plan and invaded Israel, leading to far more death for everyone.
(btw, if your implication is that the Palestinian prisoners released today are "hostages" in the same sense as the Israeli hostages in Gaza, then I have to disagree with you.)
As much as I hate the Nazis at the top of Israel's government and Western complicity in the ethnic cleansing occurring in Gaza (and more recently the West Bank too), I find your statement disturbing.
Not everything is related to Israel, and there's no good reason to believe that this has anything to do with Israel. French media were pretty critical of Joe Bidden being too old for the job, despite Bidden giving Netanyahu all he wanted.
Edit: OK given that other response of yours in this thread[1], it's quite clear now that you're confusing the fight for the freedom of Palestinians and the hatred of Jews.
In addition to being disgusting, Antisemitic talks like these are actually counter productive: they help the Israelis as it gives them an excuse to victimize themselves once again.
> Not everything is related to Israel, and there's no good reason to believe that this has anything to do with Israel
Netanyahu himself tweeted in support of Elon Musk after his nazi-like salute. This is obviously about Israel.
> it's quite clear now that you're confusing the fight for the freedom of Palestinians and the hatred of Jews
I didn't mention Jews, you are the one confusing Jews and Israel. There are many Jews who are vehement opponents of Israel's nazi government and are denouncing it and its influence on American politics anywhere they can.
You are claiming that Israel has “irresistible leverage” over American presidents, so you're gonna need a lot of clarification to who that this isn't an antisemitic dog whistle. What exactly do you think this leverage is?
No I don't owe any clarification to support what is obvious. At this point, the fact that Israel has almost complete control of US politics is the null hypothesis. It's those who deny it that need to provide very convincing, non-handwavy, alternative explanations of why the US is constantly doing Israel's bidding against international law, the international community and basic human rights, damaging its own standing and authority and going against its own geopolitical interest. And why the representatives of US people fly the Israeli flag outside and inside their offices, and why AIPAC boasts to manage to get elected 95% of those it supports, and why such a foreign interference is even allowed in the country, etc. etc.
You're confusing: “the US has geopolitical interest in the middle East that are fully aligned with Isreal” and “Israel controls the US politics”.
Both have the same visible symptoms, but the causal explanation is different. I can write an essay on the former, you cannot give an explanation of "how" Israel is supposed to control the US (that isn't a conspiracy theory about the Jews, that is), that's the problem.
If you want to change my mind, that's easy, just explain how, by which lever, does Israel controls the US. Not the symptoms like you did, but the phenomenon itself as you think it exits.
In the UK, the political party (which is a actually a privately owned company) owned by the guy who drove the initial wave of Brexit is apparently topping the polls now.
The only policy they talk about is getting rid of all the immigrants because that's what caused all the problems, not decades of right wing government culminating in Brexit.
But underdeath that is the usual US-style Turbo capitalism stuff like destroying the NHS and handing it over to American corporations.
> In the UK, the political party (which is a actually a privately owned company) owned by the guy who drove the initial wave of Brexit is apparently topping the polls now.
Oh god. There I was thinking it couldn't get worse and hoping you'd made a mistake, but no, you're right, somehow it is.
Damn, you're right :( Thanks for killing my attempts at holding on to some threads of optimism! (Being sarcastic, but really I'm just laugh/crying). Oh well, guess I should just stock up on more boxed wine...
I don't think it changes anything on a base level for how humans behave en mass. Unfortunately it looks like we will always be susceptible to populism and propaganda. At best what you're seeing is a temporary inoculation against illibralism.
