Control it how? The US is as close as anyone has come to being a global hegemon and even then they can only do so much to nuclear states.
They get strong enough quick enough that they become geopolitically unstoppable. I don’t trust those guys to rule the world, or even have it sort of within reach.
regul@lemm.ee 4 months ago
CanadaPlus@lemmy.sdf.org 4 months ago
Yeah, the “sort of within reach” thing is more plausible. China in the role of 1970’s America still scares me. Hell, 1970’s America scares me, and they were to busy boomering to commit all that much to world domination.
regul@lemm.ee 4 months ago
Yeah but I’m still not clear on what the fear is exactly.
Like how do you envision it changing your life having China “in charge” vs the US?
CanadaPlus@lemmy.sdf.org 4 months ago
I expect they’d treat us like we (the British empire) treated lesser foreign powers. They kind of already do, on the rare occasion they pay attention to little Canada. If they managed to gain direct power here, they’d treat us like the British treated their colonial subjects, or like the Chinese have already treated their westernmost minorities, and you can ask the Natives what that’s like.
Unlike America, they’re autocratic and openly, officially ethnocentric. That’s bad news for anyone not an elite Chinese person, and in the long term it’s bad news for even them, because purges.
SnotFlickerman@lemmy.blahaj.zone 4 months ago
But you trust “Weapons of Mass Destruction” and “Tuskegee Syphilis Experiments” and “COINTELPRO” and “PRISM” US government?
CanadaPlus@lemmy.sdf.org 4 months ago
Actually, I agree. The US has had the opportunity to go rogue for decades, though, and so far has opted to ignore the outside world instead (with occasional forays to the desert or jungle to feel like a big man). That’s probably down to their political system.
SnotFlickerman@lemmy.blahaj.zone 4 months ago
Thanks for the well considered reply. I agree that the US’s political system is part of what has held it back from going rogue, but the problems I referenced were all growing cancers that may very well lead to an autocratic Trump empire.
Just the Trump cases alone are absolutely destroying any credibility the legal system had left, and when people in a nation start to lose trust in their “justice” system… well, things tend to get pretty bad when people stop trusting authority and turn to Mob Justice.
Even without Trump as President, that’s where we’re headed because he has firmly shafted regular people’s trust that the legal system is in any way fair or just. We all know for fucksure now that the only thing that matters in the US is having money and connections.
That’s not going to end well, Trump as President or not.
wildncrazyguy@kbin.social 4 months ago
While I agree with your sentiment regarding people losing faith in their government, we have been on this road before a few times (antibellum era, William Jennings Bryan era, Joe McCarthy era). After a time of painful soul searching, we've always come back from these low periods. I have no reason to believe we won't overcome it again.
CanadaPlus@lemmy.sdf.org 4 months ago
Really, most of my hope for the mid-future is tied up in Europe. They have far-right movements there too, but it’s totally different in a lot of important ways, and possibly less catastrophic.
Failing that, I dunno. The world is a very scary place indeed.