Thank you Paris for saying what the rest of the world outside the US is thinking. The US has been a hegemonic global power for the best part of 40 years now but due to its own internal failings (pollution, crime, self-inflicted opioid crises, gun massacres) it blames the rest of the world for its own failings and lashes out as declining powers often do.
With Trump at least the mask is off and we can see them for what they are. An oligarchy built on genocide and exploitation that doesnt give a fuck about democracy, human rights or any other kind of justice.
It's time for the rest of the world to wake the fuck up and get as far away from them as possible. Fortunately for those of us not in the Americas this will be easier than for those of you located there.
Please just keep in mind, not all Americans are power hungry lunatics. Millions oppose Trump and is broligarchy goon squad. We’ll continue to fight from within.
THIS is what must be done. We need to force politicians to it. There will surely by intense lobbying from IP rentiers on this side of the border to NOT do it, but it's an order of magnitude better than retaliating with tariffs, which might not even work.
Agree. Technology has entwined us and has made many of our economic, social and governance systems more fragile. Think of what happened during the COVID epidemic. Autocratic countries such as China, Russia, Israel, Saudi Arabia, Hungary and now the US, control information to rewrite history, undertake hybrid warfare and stifle internal dissent. Remaining democracies need to ensure that their social, political and economic values are not poisoned by disinformation and propaganda from autocratic regimes. It may be time to shut the bullies who disdain human rights, fair play, transparency and science out of those multilateral organizations, with rules that the bullies choose to ignore. (These organizations include such as NATO, the UN, the WHO and the WTO, etc.) Disentangling from autocratic regimes and protecting our democracies may mean cutting off all economic, technological and military ties to limit the resources (financial , natural, technology and military) that these autocratic regimes will use to expand their power, spread disinformation, substandard products, corruption, pollution and disease outside of their borders. It is darned hard to seize territory or spew out pollution if the autocracies' economies grind to a standstill because of a lack or resources or customers or because businesses which prefer to operate outside of autocracies have migrated their businesses to democracies. By making these changes, democracies will be charting new territory. But remaining in the "car" with Trump and Musk driving, will give us all the autocratic virus and kill most of us by going over the climate change, pestilence or the "World be damned" cliff.
Thank you Paris for saying what the rest of the world outside the US is thinking. The US has been a hegemonic global power for the best part of 40 years now but due to its own internal failings (pollution, crime, self-inflicted opioid crises, gun massacres) it blames the rest of the world for its own failings and lashes out as declining powers often do.
With Trump at least the mask is off and we can see them for what they are. An oligarchy built on genocide and exploitation that doesnt give a fuck about democracy, human rights or any other kind of justice.
It's time for the rest of the world to wake the fuck up and get as far away from them as possible. Fortunately for those of us not in the Americas this will be easier than for those of you located there.
Please just keep in mind, not all Americans are power hungry lunatics. Millions oppose Trump and is broligarchy goon squad. We’ll continue to fight from within.
Cory Doctrow has an idea how Canada could handle this: https://pluralistic.net/2025/01/15/beauty-eh/#its-the-only-war-the-yankees-lost-except-for-vietnam-and-also-the-alamo-and-the-bay-of-ham
THIS is what must be done. We need to force politicians to it. There will surely by intense lobbying from IP rentiers on this side of the border to NOT do it, but it's an order of magnitude better than retaliating with tariffs, which might not even work.
Agree. Technology has entwined us and has made many of our economic, social and governance systems more fragile. Think of what happened during the COVID epidemic. Autocratic countries such as China, Russia, Israel, Saudi Arabia, Hungary and now the US, control information to rewrite history, undertake hybrid warfare and stifle internal dissent. Remaining democracies need to ensure that their social, political and economic values are not poisoned by disinformation and propaganda from autocratic regimes. It may be time to shut the bullies who disdain human rights, fair play, transparency and science out of those multilateral organizations, with rules that the bullies choose to ignore. (These organizations include such as NATO, the UN, the WHO and the WTO, etc.) Disentangling from autocratic regimes and protecting our democracies may mean cutting off all economic, technological and military ties to limit the resources (financial , natural, technology and military) that these autocratic regimes will use to expand their power, spread disinformation, substandard products, corruption, pollution and disease outside of their borders. It is darned hard to seize territory or spew out pollution if the autocracies' economies grind to a standstill because of a lack or resources or customers or because businesses which prefer to operate outside of autocracies have migrated their businesses to democracies. By making these changes, democracies will be charting new territory. But remaining in the "car" with Trump and Musk driving, will give us all the autocratic virus and kill most of us by going over the climate change, pestilence or the "World be damned" cliff.
Only four years? An optimism I don’t share. The only way he’ll leave the Oval Office is in a casket.
I can't like this enough...even as an American!
Hear hear!