Post #2613345

2026-05-12 05:26 UTC

@petrillic@hachyderm.io @robpike@hachyderm.io The recent Timothy Snyder essay on "Superpower Suicide" was posted/re-posted a lot this weekend. "Empires have risen and failed before, but to my knowledge no state has ever chosen to kill its own power, and succeeded with such rapidity." I hate to be susceptible to trying to make everything-look-like-everything-else but these two rots feel related if not foundationally then at least spiritually. https://snyder.substack.com/p/on-superpower-suicide

Replies (3)

@paulschoe@mastodon.world 2026-05-12 08:27

@sstrader@masto.ai From this essay: #Trump announced his main weapon would be tariffs, but then lost his trade war with China ... It would serve the USA for Ukraine to win; but Trump switched to support Russia ... Ukraine has performed ever better. The US failed to see its own interests ... Trump left Iran with uranium in the hands of a more radical regime which holds new economic power ... Instruments to influence Iranian society were willfully demolished in early 2026. @petrillic@hachyderm.io @robpike@hachyderm.io

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@williampietri@sfba.social 2026-05-12 12:24

@sstrader@masto.ai To me the connection is the triumph of hype over substance. And in some sense I think we did it to ourselves. We heard the line about a lie getting half way around the world before the truth got its shoes on, and then we built a machine that sped that up drastically. I expected a different outcome, of course. I thought that once people had ready access to the facts there would be little room for lies. How wrong I was! @petrillic@hachyderm.io @robpike@hachyderm.io

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@JonChevreau@mstdn.ca 2026-05-13 12:21

@sstrader@masto.ai @petrillic@hachyderm.io @robpike@hachyderm.io Calls to mind the Economist cover story after 47 beat Kamala: the Statue of Liberty pointing a gun at its own head

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