subversive_dev

I’m pretty sure they are referring to imperialism as defined by Lenin, as an evolution and natural consequence of capitalism itself. I think these paragraphs from ProleWiki: Imperialism give a good introduction: Imperialism is the most recent evolution of the capitalist mode of production that began in the late 1800s to early 1900s, in which monopolies and cartels become the dominant economic force of society It is a global system of economic, political, and military domination, with the imperialist powers using a variety of means, including economic sanctions, military interventions, and cultural influence to maintain their dominance over other nations.

I have to agree with you about the substance. All three of those are very much “look at the mysterious cabal that controls us” vs “look at the obvious and well-documented cabal that controls us in the open, the only thing preventing you from seeing it is pervasive media control” I do think it’s probably time to retire “conspiracy theorist” though. There are conspiracies out there and they generally get away with it. The aforementioned media control uses the wacky conspiracies to discredit the real ones right in front of our faces

snek luv boot

If we just belieeeeeeve hard enough the rule of law will appear like Peter Pan

In addition to what others have said the EU doesn’t have fiscal authority (it can’t tax and spend) and relatedly can’t issue “Eurobonds”. Both of those are likely terminal blockers for a would-be reserve currency

First off, the Chinese don’t seek global hegemony like the European powers, no matter what the projection and propaganda says. (This is far too big of a topic for short comment but the Chinese have never done Roman-style imperialism in all of their history. Also, according to my research, China hasn’t made a new territorial claim in over 70 years, since the KMT era) Second off, I did some comparisons on this website. I honestly wasn’t sure what I was going to see but China’s pyramid is better than all the “developed” countries and it really blows their East Asian neighbors out of the water. Therefore, I don’t buy the argument that China is doomed by its demographics, unless we are saying that all the peer comparison nations are even more doomed. I happen to believe that the Chinese are right and we are entering a new Chinese century, with the Middle Kingdom at the center of a prosperous and powerful Asia. They are on the cusp of completely defeating “containment”, and have built an industrial ecosystem unlike anything the world has ever seen.

I totally agree that strategic missile defense technology is very destabilizing and dangerous. However like always, the enemy gets a vote. Myself and others believe that in developing and announcing these weapon systems the Russians have achieved their goal of restoring their nuclear deterrent.

I also completely agree with your analysis. The ignorance of history on display is truly frightening. I didn’t know the Ukrainians were finally willing to concede on the NATO question. As you say, a victory for sanity and realism.

Fascinating question, and highly relevant. A few points: I think it follows from the great power geopolitics logic except they are already too late. They failed to contain Brazil, and they can’t even confidently bully Venezuela. it seems like there is a division between North and South America. The Mexicans and Canadians have offered up essentially no resistance. Lots of failed States and vassals and Central America and the Caribbean. By contrast, it seems like South America is proving more difficult to subdue. By that same geographic logic, I think they will end up with domination over Greenland if they keep pursuing that strategy it’s possible that it is a short-term or rhetorical only shift and the empire will continue overextending trying to control the whole world

So we agree on what is going to happen? Well nobody knows the future but the times are extremely dangerous. I’m not personally yet seeing signs that the logic of MAD is failing, but things could change very quickly, especially if there was a direct hot war and US forces were facing humiliating defeat. I think our best hope lies the in incompetence exceeding the malevolence… Hardly comforting

They are fumbling now because of their hubris, overextension, and the contradictions of the system. In the '90s, they believed that exposing China to capitalism would naturally and inevitably cause the fall of the Communist system, so they threw the doors wide open. 2001 is when China joined to the WTO and also when…9/11 happened, crippling and distracting the Western empire for over two decades. When Hillary neocon Clinton became Secretary of State in 2016, she unveiled with much fanfare the “pivot to Asia”. The Obama administration spent the next 8 years trying to replicate the EU and NATO in Southeast Asia. (TPP and the Quad). Trump-1 came into office and immediately withdrew the US from the TPP. He did some blustering and flailing around with tariffs, which people seemed to think constituted containment of China at the time. Biden came into office and he and the other Western leaders sabotaged and escalated their way into the Ukraine war. (Read up on the Istanbul process before you get annoying in the replies, Libs). You can read The New Atlas for excellent analysis about how this is a substrategy for Chinese containment, which is an argument that I agree with. However, it had the effect of once again paralyzing, weakening, and distracting the Western imperial alliance. Now we are in Trump-2. He committed perhaps the worst foreign policy blunder in the history of the US empire when he went on the attack against India with tariffs to try and separate them from Russia. This blew black in the most spectacular fashion by driving them closer to Russia and kicking off a rapprochement with China that is still bearing diplomatic fruit to this day. Therefore, we can say that Trump spectacularly destroyed the overall strategic plan for the Asia Pacific region by single-handedly preventing TPP and the Quad ever coming into force. At the present day, the empire is struggling to extricate itself from Ukraine without having a Kabul / Saigon moment. The Western armories are bare, having sent everything they can spare and very much they could not spare in a desperate attempt to turn the tide of the proxy conflict. The F35 fighter jet program is STILL NOT OPERATIONAL ACCORDING TO THE PROGRAM’S OWN DEFINITION. By contrast, at the 80-year commemoration parade, the Chinese unveiled no fewer than a dozen new weapon systems, many a generation or more ahead of their US counterparts. They are failing everywhere and cannot admit it. A humiliating defeat in Ukraine is inevitable, now the only question is whether the Russians will end up with Odessa. American warships are powerless against Chinese hypersonic cruise missiles. Japan tried to ramp up the rhetoric on Taiwan only to get slapped down by the US. We are witnessing the death throws of a caged wounded animal with suicidally inflated ego. Unfortunately, this caged animal also has nuclear weapons, so it’s a very dangerous time for all of us.