Comment on dear republicans, what's the point of alienating every single ally of the US?

• chicken@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨4⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

  Not accelerationist, I think tariffs are genuinely a good direction to go, and so is reducing US military influence.

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  • sifr@retrolemmy.com ⁨4⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

    How do you know they are going to reduce military influence? How are tariffs going to help people who are struggling to afford anything as it is? If the goal is to get people to buy American, what is stopping everything from only being controlled or made by corrupted people or corporations who set up on American soil?

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    • chicken@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨4⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

      How do you know they are going to reduce military influence?

      I don’t, but it seems like other countries are getting the message that they can’t count on the US to defend them and their alliance is shaky, which seems like it could lead to working towards replacing our role and becoming less dependent, which would be great, because again, we’re the bad guys.

      How are tariffs going to help people who are struggling to afford anything as it is?

      They are not going to help with that, unfortunately. A worse economy is the price of cutting back on free trade, and the current administration will put as much of that price as they can on the people least able to afford it. Done right, it would be in combination with redistribution to the people who are worst off.

      If the goal is to get people to buy American, what is stopping everything from only being controlled or made by corrupted people or corporations who set up on American soil?

      To me, the desired outcome of inevitably mutual tariffs isn’t getting people to buy American, it’s reducing the leverage and influence of international corporations, which are malevolent and can use that influence in harmful ways. If local companies have a built in advantage, divide and conquer tactics shouldn’t work as well (ie. cut safety regulations or face retaliatory job loss). The typical corporate pattern of building up a monopoly and then using that leverage to extract money by fucking everyone over shouldn’t work as well on an international scale. Free trade agreements that give companies rights at the expense of people will hopefully have less appeal and make less sense.

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