Feel like if it was another country they’d be sanctions or something already.
We’re not going to liberate you. You brought this upon yourselves.
I think part of the issue being brought up here is
- Yes but our policies impact the world stage a lot
- a majority of the people here didn’t bring it upon themselves
They did. Are you guys not a democracy?
Countries need to reduce their dependency on the US first:
- The US is the strongest force within NATO, so with Russia getting more aggressive, Europe and Canada need to quickly build up a stronger army.
- The US is NATO’s largest supplier of weapons, so Europe and Canada need to invest in their weapons industry.
- The US is the worlds largest manufacturer of CPU’s and GPU’s. While there are non-US alternatives, these are not as good and are designed for custom build electronics rather than desktops, laptops and servers.
- Most international payments go via the US (even a lot of international payments within Europe). Countries need to persuade their banks to find new ways to do international payments, but the current system is pretty advantages for the banks, so they are reluctant to agree.
- Most cloud infrastructure is in the US. Other countries will need to move their data out of the US.
- The US is a large provider of humanitarian aid, and the largest exporter of food. Poor countries will have to find a new way to get those resources.
The US is the strongest force within NATO, so with Russia getting more aggressive, Europe and Canada need to quickly build up a stronger army.
Strongest single nation, yeah, but then you address Europe as if it was just one nation, when our combined military might is much more than any single nation is thought to have.
For instance think of how much we Finns fought Russians, when we started with practically nothing to defend ourselves with. Currently we have the largest (and most accurate) artillery in Finland and NORDEFCO and EU defense initiatives. So we got the top of Europe locked down pretty tight.
The US has the largest defense budget and is the most powerful navy, obviously, but we know what to do in our woods. Things even the infamous US marines kinda suck at sometimes. A group of conscripted cooks took down a helicopter of landing marines, that sounds worse than it is, basically the marines just landed and the well camouflaged food group took positions and won the battle or smth some years ago. Now I think it’s been the US helping us, idk how different the Baltic Sea is to ocean operations, and Idk jack shit about navy either as am army. https://yle.fi/a/74-20153073
Anyway wanted to paste something and the older article was now behind paywall so that’s just hyping up Finn US cooperation in helping bust the Russian shadow fleet
Luckily military protocols and treaties aren’t as easily influenced by politics as well, politics. I mean, they are, obviously, but there’s usually just a hint more reason being utilised. That’s what I loved about being in the army. So simple.
For instance think of how much we Finns fought Russians, when we started with practically nothing to defend ourselves with.
I’m sorry, but now I need to tell you my favorite joke about Finns! I promise this one isn’t racist! (Of course as an Estonian I know a few semi-friendly semi-racist Finnish jokes too, but I’m going to keep those to myself)
In the Winter war, a large Russian platoon makes camp near a forest in Finland. As the long northern night starts taking hold, they hear a voice from the forest: “Come and get meeee, I’m all aloneeee!”
The Russian commanders discuss this and decide that they can’t take a risk, so they send ten men out to counter the one. None return and an hour later they hear again: “I’m still alone! Come and get meeeee!”
They decide that the Russian army must not be mocked this way and send a hundred men. None return again. Once they hear the voice a third time another hour later, they get pissed and send a thousand men.
One man returns, scared for his life, all bloody. He yells out: “Don’t listen to him! There’s two of them in there!”
Yeah I’ve heard this one before and I like it.
Lemmy being as small as it is and me liking this joke as much as I do, I may literally have replied it to one of your comments before. If not on this account, then on my old lemm.ee account perhaps
May be, may be. But also the whole “one Finn equals ten Russians” meme has been around longer than living memory.
A group of conscripted cooks took down a helicopter of landing marines
kinda reminds me of this: https://www.theage.com.au/national/collins-sub-shines-in-us-war-game-20021013-gduomk.html
during war games one of australia’s collins class submarines (diesel electric, quite dated at this point) managed to “kill” a los angeles class nuclear submarine (several times over?) when the US sub was also aided by 2 destroyers
Oh yeah a Swedish sub did a similar thing to the largest US aircraft carrier, iirc. Simulated torpedos ofc but they’re as good as real ones in terms of “we got you”
Yup.
100-mil gotland class sub “sank” a 6.2 billion dollar aircraft carrier.
We Finns haven’t been allowed to have subs for a while, and I’m army, so I don’t know much about those, but it’s the same principle yeah.
The American strategy overlooks certain things sometimes. Trusts too much on technology and not enough on training.
Yup. Europe needs to become self sufficient again and move on from WW2 and the Cold War.
I don’t know what you mean by that. No country or federation in the world is self sufficient. Everyone needs global trade.
Not depending on the US for defending them. (NATO)
TLDR The USA is the most powerful country in the world, and the world never prepared for a time when the USA would be led by a fascist asshole.
Someone need to convince the US to invade the US in order to give the US some #Democracy™
I heard the US has oil.
I hear that the US has oil and WMDs
In some universe WMDs stands for Wario McDonalds the bad sibling of Ronald.
Someone need to convince the US to invade the US in order to give the US some #Democracy™
Granted but its for ICE
Don’t you worry. Civil War is still on the horizon. Gotta see how 2026 goes.
Nice tallyup, thanks
Woah woah woah, we’re not here to fix your fuck ups, that’s your problem to get rid of, we’re just trying to not get nuked by a pants shitting pedophile Nazi.
The corrupt politicians of the world want to enable his idiocracy to make their own poor behaviour seem more socially acceptable internationally.
well, here in canada, we kinda don’t want war atm.
Other countries are learning how to separate themselves economically from the US more.
they haven’t even take poland by now, the world will act once they attack france
Why? US foreign policy hasn’t changed since manifest destiny so threats to attack are literally nothing new, it’s still ““aiding”” a lot of western countries with stationed soldiers in case some countries outside the western bloc decides to attack, nuclear tests is a bit more iffy after the cold war, but can easily be justified by wars breaking out, trade war isn’t in the interests as well given how they have a very large economy and losing American products from all their companies would be horrible (imagine all the tech for instance)…
There’s genuinely no reason to cut ties with US for any country, doing so would just shoot it in the foot since you lose one of the largest economies for trade.
The same has happened in something like 25 % of countries, and they haven’t gotten sanctioned for that.
Most of our diamonds and cobalt and cocoa come from countries that have similar problems as USA now does.What the rest of the world is mainly doing is jockeying for position while watching America rapidly lose global reserve currency status.
It is happening far more quickly than I think the vast majority of people without privileged information imagined. Trump wants a weakened dollar and is getting it. No one wants this to happen overnight; the instability this process is allowing and will cause is risky enough. Everyone wants to avoid simmering global conflict erupting into WW3. Well maybe Putin is up for it, I don’t know. The US is a belligerent ally, and has the biggest military in the world so it is about treading lightly and hopefully preparing.
It is about minimising risk, eating shit giving in to Trump’s pathetic demands for fealty, while preparing for the new economic order to emerge. America cannot pay its military without everyone trusting it enough to buy its debt. America cannot pay its debts without its military supporting the dollar. So it is a tricky unwinding of decades of geo-political norms. It is clear to me that very few Americans I came into contact with online ever appreciated this balancing act, or how important their vast military spending was to their country’s wealth post ww2.
I feel bad for the average non-Trump voting American because as a Brit I can tell you that there is always resentment that plays out once a country loses that reserve currency status. A people can make a mistake, but a second Trump vote is unforgivable. It is America throwing itself off a cliff economically, over the longer term. The world cannot rely on who America is going to vote for every four years for global stability, so it is done. Billionaires are clearly getting stuck into filling their boots - this collapse is going to make some people very rich.
As a Trump-hating American working in defense, I always tried to tell people that our economic dominance was enforced with the barrel of a gun. Friends working in international relations would also reference books like “Confessions of an Economic Hitman” that also pointed to usage of the CIA and international lending terms to enrich ourselves at the expanse of the 3rd world, especially Latin America. I completely agree that a capricious, bi-polar US is an untenable world leader.
But in general, it’s very hard to get most Americans to care about our relationships and interactions with the rest of the world, much less acknowledge the ways we are dependent on it. There is some US-centric vanity involved, as well as some stubborn ignorance due to never interacting with the rest of the world at all. But I think in part it’s also due to the hyper competitive nature of simply trying to live in the US, such that there is no brainspace for anything not directly affecting you. Stressors include corporate expectations that everyone should live to work, so many people a few paychecks away from losing their homes and lifestyle with no social safety net, the struggle to afford to live in areas with good schools for your kids, etc etc. In some ways, I’m hopeful that losing global pre-eminence could make life easier for us, especially if it brings about government reform (I don’t mean the MAGA version of this, obviously).
China, the obvious successor to American influence, assuming a more commanding role on the world stage is a mixed bag. On one hand, they certainly prize stability above almost everything, and an authoritarian state run by technocrats indeed seems more effective at addressing climate change than a Corporatocracy that profits from destroying the planet. On the other, there’s not even acknowledgement of unethical practices (e.g.: labor conditions in Chinese companies in DRC, Zambia, and Zimbabwe) when there is no free press. As the US spread it’s influence and democracy after WWII, I kind of worry that the entire world may be forced to get in line with the CCP.
There are bigger and worse threats than the USA out there, and it’s more beneficial to trade with the USA than to not trade with the USA. You could rationalize that the USA might be more likely to fix itself while sanctioned, make them realize their mistakes, but you would at the same time be severely lowing the West’s military capabilities in a time of eastern aggression.
Making Trump realize his mistakes? Yeah, somehow I dont see that happening…
The insinuation is that the USA citizens would learn and then somehow magically overthrow the world’s most powerful military.
The rest of the world has been trying to do something and has received threats from Trump in return.
Doctorow’s as usual excellent take also touches on this:
https://pluralistic.net/2025/11/01/redistribution-vs-predistribution/#elbows-up-eurostack
TL;DR: it’s not so much only the US, it’s corporate (quasi-)monopolies, and those operate in a lot of countries.
Strong bullies are not easy to deal with without stronger authorities imposing common sense… it is a wild regime were the strongest impose their will without significant consequences
They respect other nations sovereignty plus there is a mad man with his finger on the nuke button who is very jittery.
They respect other nations sovereignty
Uhhhhhhh???
Must have missed a “dont” on his keyboard.
