United States President Donald Trump’s tariffs against most of the world tanked stock markets, disrupted the U.S. bond market and destabilized the global economy.
Trump has economically and politically threatened American allies, shattering the unity of the western world. But Trump’s chaos may have inadvertently produced an opportunity to create a better world.
Some western commentators argue that the U.S. has been a benevolent superpower.
That may have been true for a small group of mostly western states that have benefitted from American domination. But much of the Global South was victimized by American military, economic and political interventions.
He’s certainly doing China and Russia some favors.
He better does or he will get an earful from his boss Putin.
Most of the world appreciates what the US has done in many ways, but we see it as a country founded in cruelty and genocide, a country that fought with itself over slavery rather than walking a righteous path, a country that sat out of global conflict until personally threatened while millions died, a country that then waged pointless wars in places where it had no business being because of a pissing contest with Russia and the need to pour money into the military industrial complex to make some rich people even more wealthy
I appreciate the good that the US has done, but I frequently wonder if it outweighs the harm. The proxy wars, the cruelty that is still visited upon its own population in the name of profit
There’s a huge part of me that just wants America to fuck off and sit in the corner until it grows up
I’m an American, and I’ve spent my whole life in the middle of this mess. I’ve heard the speeches, said the pledges, watched the parades. I was taught the usual line: land of the free, home of the brave, a shining city on a hill. But the older I got, the more I started to see the cracks. Not just small ones, but deep structural faults that go all the way back.
This country didn’t start with any grand moral vision. It started as a business deal. Jamestown wasn’t about freedom. It was about turning land into money. They came here to make a profit, plain and simple. Native people were pushed off or killed. Poor Europeans were promised a better life, then worked into the ground. The whole setup was rigged from the beginning to make a handful of men rich while everyone else got used and tossed aside.
The Revolution didn’t fix that. It just shifted the power from one set of wealthy men to another. All that talk about liberty and equality was cover for locking in a new ruling class. They made sure property came before people, and that those at the top stayed there. They kept slavery. They kept hierarchy. They kept control.
We act like we’ve always stood for what’s right, but that’s just the story we tell ourselves. The Civil War wasn’t a moral reckoning. It was an economic fight that got out of hand. And after it ended, this country found new ways to grind the same people down. Jim Crow laws. Convict leasing. Redlining. While that was happening here, we started flexing abroad. We pushed west, broke treaties, and steamrolled anyone who got in the way. Then we exported that playbook overseas.
Even the wars people like to romanticize are full of hypocrisy. We didn’t jump into World War II to save anyone. We waited until we got hit. And when it was over, we didn’t rebuild the world in the name of peace. We built a global order that kept us on top. We funded coups, backed strongmen, and stirred up wars that had nothing to do with defending freedom and everything to do with keeping our competitors weak.
Meanwhile, we let our own people rot. Veterans on the street. Families going hungry. Folks dying from treatable diseases because they can’t afford the bill. We built an economy where most people get squeezed and a handful rake in billions, and we dare to call that freedom.
I know this country has done some good. I’ve seen it. But I’m not going to ignore everything else. The violence. The lies. The way it keeps finding new ways to serve power and punish the poor. I’m tired of the flag-waving and the myth-making. I’m tired of hearing how exceptional we are when we can’t even guarantee clean water or decent healthcare.
There’s a part of me that just wants America to shut up and sit down for a while. No more speeches. No more grandstanding. Just take a hard look at what it chose to be and what it could have been. It didn’t have to be like this. But it is.
And now we live with that.
You’re the sort of person who I’d gladly have a drink with, and help you get a visa out of there
There are more of us than you might think.
There are millions
I know it
I’m not the type who thinks that all Americans are stupid and hateful, but unfortunately I spend a lot of time in the US, and too many are
Most are just beaten down, unable to see that things don’t have to be this way
I wish you could but if I leave I will possibly loose my pension and social security. I am indentured unto death and most are.
I mean, tbh, we’re probably all going to lose our social security sometime soon
Some western commentators argue that the U.S. has been a benevolent superpower.
lmfao
i never cease to be amazed every time i hear this narrative repeated and especially so by anyone calling themselves a democrat or a liberal.