Is it? The US routinely avoids direct conflict with other nuclear capable nations due to the potential retribution being one of the few things (other than a terror attack) that has the physical capability of damaging them at home. And you’re correct, the US does use global financial leverage over other state, because they have been the global financial power. But as this article points out, that once mighty flex is currently teetering on phasing out. Their deficit is larger than their GDP and the oligarchs are playing the stock market like a fiddle while double-dipping on profiteering by gambling on their manipulation on betting apps. Techbros are aggressively pushing for the elimination of large sections of the human workforce, not to liberate people from tedious, dangerous working conditions so they can seek life fulfillment, but because it’s cheaper. They turned to global exploitation of resources in order to preserve their own wild spaces but are now looking inward again to privatize and profiteer by carving up what public lands are left. Decades of racism meant that the backbone of their most unappealing jobs were performed by exploiting migrant labor; they are gutting their workforce. At what point does the US cease to be viewed as powerful empire versus called out as a wounded animal lashing out as it succumbs to it’s self-inflicted injuries?
Is it? The US routinely avoids direct conflict with other nuclear capable nations due to the potential retribution being one of the few things (other than a terror attack) that has the physical capability of damaging them at home. And you’re correct, the US does use global financial leverage over other state, because they have been the global financial power. But as this article points out, that once mighty flex is currently teetering on phasing out. Their deficit is larger than their GDP and the oligarchs are playing the stock market like a fiddle while double-dipping on profiteering by gambling on their manipulation on betting apps. Techbros are aggressively pushing for the elimination of large sections of the human workforce, not to liberate people from tedious, dangerous working conditions so they can seek life fulfillment, but because it’s cheaper. They turned to global exploitation of resources in order to preserve their own wild spaces but are now looking inward again to privatize and profiteer by carving up what public lands are left. Decades of racism meant that the backbone of their most unappealing jobs were performed by exploiting migrant labor; they are gutting their workforce. At what point does the US cease to be viewed as powerful empire versus called out as a wounded animal lashing out as it succumbs to it’s self-inflicted injuries?