Post #2832722

2026-05-13 21:08 UTC

@jklowden@mastodon.social and yet here's Charlie Stress talking about the British Equivalent https://wandering.shop/@cstross/116568895741504344 You are correct in that this is not the output of some war. But we don't fight all of our wars with guns today. The US has been the world's leader for more than five decades on the back of a multi-pronged approach to supremacy. They had the most powerful military, the most advanced technology, the best financial system, World leading productivity, leadership roles in all of the most important governing committees of the world. Those leadership positions are all falling. They have the most expensive military, but it is not obviously the most powerful. They are no longer the world technology leaders, that's China, by a tremendous amount. The financial system is based on a mountain of government debt whose interest payments are becoming non-sustainably high, while the president enriches himself with cryptocurrency schemes. They've stepped down from the governance of important institutions... /1

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@gatesvp@mstdn.ca 2026-05-13 21:15

@jklowden@mastodon.social China has now taken over several of those prongs of power. Stepping up in governance. Leading in technology. Matching in Military might. They've even started a significant amount of oil trade in local currency, to avoid the US Petro dollar. Countries in need have stopped receiving packages from USAID. People who need help don't see US flags anymore, they see Chinese ones. The fall of the Empire does not always look like burned up capital cities, sometimes it's just the collapse in relative power. And I just listed multiple examples of that happening. And if you don't think that's what's happening, then you can go along your Merry Little way and ignore all of the experts giving this the 👍🏻. We can set a calendar event to talk in two more years. //

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