In Reply to: Thought experiment posted by amadbruin on August 29, 2026 at 11:21:58
to revive old school gunpoint imperialism on its own in a multi-polar world, but in practical terms, it comes down to who's gonna stop that power? In the past, this was the kind of stuff that triggered world wars, i.e., the act of divying up the world among imperialist powers that leaves some of those powers not happy with what they ended up with as their share. Today? That's the kind of thing that Trump is trying to revive, leaving Europe to Russia, Asia and Africa to China, and taking over the Americas from Canada and Greenland to Patagonia, but really .... would China rather go to war with the US over Venezuela when they obviously have a chance to grab Taiwan without any major fuss? Kinda doubt it.
The world we came to know in the late 20th and early 21st century may be leaving the stage in favor of a different one. One in which we are unambiguously among the forces of evil, to the extent that you can define evil reliably.
(I'm not sure if I'm responding to your point or off on some tangent. )