| ▲ | gchamonlive a day ago |
| In most areas (drug enforcement, basic education, healthcare, gun culture...) nobody should have been taking the US seriously maybe since Reagan. Finance, science and war were the only areas you could count on the US but now they went full Roman on the rest of the world not even that anymore. War is the only thing that's left I think. |
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| ▲ | gota a day ago | parent | next [-] |
| The US also arguably lost the Iran war. So far it can't claim any minor fraction of a victory, at least; seems to be the general consensus. I like to read Bret Devereaux (from the frequently HN posted https://acoup.blog/) takes on this in his Bluesky (https://bsky.app/profile/bretdevereaux.bsky.social) |
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| ▲ | gchamonlive a day ago | parent | next [-] | | It doesn't win wars, but it provides the necessary equipment for carnage and stalemates all over the globe. Remember war is just a pretext, the objective is always profit, so as long as a lost war is very profitable it's a success in their books. | | |
| ▲ | MisterTea a day ago | parent | next [-] | | IMO the last real war the US participated in and helped to win was WW2 giving it a massive ego. And even then it was drawn in via Pearl Harbor. After that it was a bunch of "wars" it fabricated to satisfy its ego with various (often poor) outcomes. | | |
| ▲ | Sabinus 9 hours ago | parent [-] | | I don't think it's fair to characterise the Cold War was an ego thing. Global authoritarian communism wouldn't have been a good time for the vast majority. |
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| ▲ | flossly a day ago | parent | prev [-] | | As long as the profits of weapons contractors go up, it's considered a win. Most senate members are well invested, so they agree... |
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| ▲ | KellyCriterion 7 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-] | | Id say there was not a single chance "to win" from the beginning on? (whatever "winning" in a war may mean) | |
| ▲ | dylan604 a day ago | parent | prev [-] | | If everyone has the same conclusion, how is it an argument? Nobody thinks the US won in Iran except the morons that started it. Maybe bigOil feels like its a win as their profits are soaring??? | | |
| ▲ | gota a day ago | parent [-] | | No, I mean - the US has arguably already lost. It (almost unanimously) has no sign of winning. But it could, maybe, still win in the future. In short the argument is: can the US still win in any sense? | | |
| ▲ | tmnvix 3 hours ago | parent [-] | | If it leads to the US staying away from future wars then it in one sense it could be a win - for regular Americans. But I doubt that very much. The US state is a machine geared to war and exploitation in too many ways. More of the good people in the US need to be aware of this - it's painfully obvious to the recipients of US foreign policy. |
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| ▲ | kreelman 9 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-] |
| With missteps and imperial arrogance in Iran and Ukraine, perhaps the world might not be counting on the US as much militarily either? "An army marches on its stomach"... If things at most soldiers homes aren't as good as they could easily be (financial prospects, opportunities..), maybe they don't have the same drive to fight with the same vision and discipline as they used to? I hope they will employ good vision and discipline. Science is gradually getting gutted too... |
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| ▲ | dgellow a day ago | parent | prev | next [-] |
| > nobody should have been taking the US seriously maybe since Reagan. Finance, science and war were the only areas you could count on the US That was plenty of reasons to take the country seriously! Also, the US has been the most powerful cultural exporter for a very long time. It’s still the case, whenever anything becomes huge in the US we get our local version in each European countries. Our far right parties are parroting American right politics, even copying the terminology as is |
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| ▲ | gchamonlive a day ago | parent [-] | | Have you seen the state of AAA gaming and blockbusters lately? Even music is being utterly destroyed by the streaming platforms and record labels greed, so yeah it might have been in the 80s up until the 2010s, but enshitification got the best of the US I'm afraid so not even culture anymore. It's just decacence. It's not all US, but as you said things start in the US and trickles down across the rest of the world, so that's also true for its decadence. | | |
| ▲ | saturn8601 20 hours ago | parent | next [-] | | Nothing is really replacing this elsewhere though (although I do concede China is trying hard). Lets start with movies: Most top grossing movies are still American based and centric. I was reminded of this recently when Obsession came out and I tried to get my German friends to watch it. They missed so many subtle 'Americanisms' in the movie that it really gave me a new perspective on how ingrained the culture is. 10 years ago living in Europe I was amazed at how much American music French people listen to and sing to. Even on random French shops its nothing but American music playing. I don't believe they suddenly switched to French music. (Is there some pop artist in France stealing the charts right now? Im curious to learn). And this is the country with Académie Française. The Chinese are trying: Ne Zha 2 was quite nicely animated and it grossed an impressive amount but that seemed more like a one trick pony given that it really attracted massive Chinese audiences and they seem to know how important the film was. This is just an opinion but it was not a memorable film like I'd expect from a Disney classic. Then there is food: Its fascinating how Luckin had its massive comeback and has forced Starbucks to retreat in China and other markets. Mixue might do something similar to chains like DQ and Baksin Robbins, (lets see what happens). I have yet to see the Chinese Mcdonalds but maybe its in the shadows waiting for the right moment like a lot of Chinese companies. In terms of Gaming, it still seems like despite all the BS, the market is still treating Western game publishers as the gold standard (and mainly American ones at that). The market dynamics are different for Gaming vs others because gaming is so diverse. Maybe there isnt really a leader given the ease of competition. Same goes for music. Streaming seems like what the market wanted or else they would have stuck with physical media. | | |
| ▲ | gchamonlive 19 hours ago | parent [-] | | Replacement isn't a prerequisite for decadence just as much as decadence doesn't imply replacement. The Roman empire fell without being replaced. If you look at the numbers maybe it's the best they've ever been, but all production has decayed a lot in terms of quality. No wonder enshitification was word of the year in 2023. |
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| ▲ | croon 3 hours ago | parent | prev [-] | | I don't think they're merely referring to media/arts as culture. Enshittification is culture too, and it's certainly spreading. |
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| ▲ | realusername a day ago | parent | prev [-] |
| > War is the only thing that's left I think I would have agreed until the Iran war, the US used up so much of the missile stock that even the army isn't fully intact anymore |
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