I mean climate change

Unfortunately, this particular leopard will eat everyone’s face.

Yes, that’s why we’re doomed if we don’t manage to cooperate instead of competing. Especially with the election of Trump as US president, I unfortunately think that’s completely hopeless. So…

Europe is increasingly losing influence in the global economy, which is why I do not think that the euro is a likely candidate for an alternative reserve currency. If at all, it is more likely to be a dispute between the US and China or an eastern bloc imo. Or perhaps a system that is more decentralized and no longer requires a central trading currency in the sence of a national currency. Either way, I think an attack by the USA on Europe is out of the question - for many reasons, but if only because the US benefits from NATO and France is also a nuclear power.

What I mean is unbridled self-enrichment, corruption, greed, hubris and hedonism (in the negative, not the philosophical sense) of the elites of a given empire, which often had a certain share in the decline of formerly effective administrative and economic structures, legal systems etc. The excessive abuse of power by the powerful for selfish purposes. For a long time the ancient Romans were very aware of the creeping danger that came with considerable power in the hands of just a few. For example the expression “memento mori” (remember that you will die) likely comes from this context: The Romans used to say that to generals when they returned from a successful campaign as to remind them that they are not almighty gods but just mortals like everyone else. The late Roman elite however seems to have forgotten this as they became more greedy and selfish instead of being somewhat humble servants of their empire - they became decadent. But yes, if anything, that was of course just one factor among many in the decline of former empires. My point is just that even today, the excessive greed of a few very powerful people threatens not only their own power base, but even the survival of humanity as a whole. I simply think that we need to change fundamentally and urgently if we want to mitigate the foreseeable consequences of climate change to some extent - Trump is not going to do that at all.

Yes, most empires have perished because of their decadence. This is certainly also a danger for the USA, especially under Trump. If it comes to that, we can only hope that the US will not drag us all into the abyss with them. They will certainly use all means at their disposal to maintain the status quo - even with nuclear weapons, which the Romans, for example, did not have. I hope it goes well. In any case, the world would be better off if we did not continue to destroy our common habitat with our eyes open because of the excessive neoliberalism of the US.

If the dollar were no longer the international reserve currency, the US would be in serious economic trouble, if not bankrupt. However, I don’t think that will happen because the US will probably not shy away from preventing it by force with its gigantic military machine. I don’t think that’s very far fetched, considering what happened to Iraq after Saddam announced in 2000 that he would sell oil in euros instead of dollars. It is of course difficult to prove that this was actually the reason for the US invasion of Iraq - but weapons of mass destruction, the alleged existence of which was put forward as a reason for the war by the US, were in any case demonstrably non-existent.

Life as a shorty shouldn’t be so rough.

I don’t really want to accept it, but you’re probably right.

I think they don’t want to and there is probably nothing much a ordinary citizen can do to make them. Probably best to start from scratch.

I’m from Germany and here, too, the fascists are unfortunately on the rise again - despite our terrible past. I realize, of course, that you can’t talk sense to them because they simply ignore arguments and cling uncritically to the lies of their leaders. Nevertheless, I think the situation in the USA is somewhat different, because Trump was already president in pretty much everyone’s lifetime and has only made policy for the super-rich; he has also been convicted of fraud several times and has also enriched himself from the general public (the list goes on). You would think that those who are not die-hard fascists, of which there are probably many, would take this as an opportunity to see through his lies about a better life for the little people. But unfortunately that didn’t happen, I can’t for the life of me understand why not. I mean if you understand stupidity as the inability to learn from mistakes, it seems extremely stupid to me to vote for Trump even a second time.

I think one factor is that Democrats and Republicans actually hardly differ in many fundamental positions. I think the fact that an unscrupulous business man like Trump, who was once a member of the Democratic Party, can switch party affiliation just like that illustrates what I mean: there are no real alternatives, which is why election campaigns in the US need to be emotional rather than rational. That favors baseless fear mongering and empty finger-pointing that misses the real problems. I supect that many US citizens have become so accustomed to these empty election campaigns that they lost the ability to identify the lesser evil in this charade of mutual accusations far away from rational discourse. So in short I think Trump was just the better demagogue which is pretty much all that matters when reason or actual arguments are not part of the “election show”.

I’m sorry if you took my comment that way. I’m really the very last person who wants to lump an entire country together. My point was simply that this election has once again shown that there are significant problems in the US (education, racism, corruption, inequality, etc.) that have allowed Trump to deceive the population yet again. To relativize now by pointing out that things are just as bad or even worse elsewhere in the world only distracts from the real issue in my opinion. Nevertheless, I wish you all the best and very much hope that you can somehow put a stop to Trump’s greed and his terrible ideology.

Yes, I get that of course. I’m sorry for you and every other US citizen that did not vote for him. I’m from Europe and still posted some anti-Trump stuff because I despise him and everything he stands for. I think he is a threat for the whole world.

No, of course not. It’s just that even people from other countries are pissed because the US elected Trump a second time. Now we have to deal with his horrible policies again. I personally think the man is a threat for the whole democratic world and because of his horrible positions on climate change and other issues even for the whole world.

OC said America was full of stupid people. I can’t see how that means that the US would be the only country full of stupid people. Of course there are lots and lots of stupid people elsewhere. Pointing that out in the context of the US election sure sounds like whataboutism to me. My only point is that it does not make things any better just because there are other countries with similar issues. But I see what you mean and think you are right: maybe other countries can learn something from this debacle - I don’t have much hope anymore in that regard but we will see.

That’s true, but whataboutism doesn’t help much in a thread about the US election. Besides, in hardly any other democratic country in the world is the far-right or fascist candidate so obviously completely unsuitable: Trump has already been president and has previously made policies contrary to the interests of the idiots who voted for him; he has a criminal record for fraud and has been found guilty in various proceedings for many other crimes, such as sexual harassment, defamation and fraud amounting to millions. It doesn’t get any more obvious than that.

Yes, Einstein had to flee Nazi Germany. And yes, I’m not too sure about the last part of the quote either. Dark times are to come I guess - and probably not just for the US but for the whole democratic world.

The majority of the stupid is invincible and guaranteed for all time. The terror of their tyranny, however, is alleviated by their lack of consistency.

Albert Einstein

The PACs. I think this practice should be considered blatant corruption in any democratic system as it enables large corporations and wealthy individuals to predetermine which candidate or party has even the slightest chance in elections. In my home country, of course, there are private political funds as well but those are not nearly as important in our system as there is solid public funding for political parties based on past election results. I might be wrong but I always thought that the insane amount of private money that fuels US elections boils down to the US being a plutocracy rather than a democracy.