I disagree with this framing.

I’ve travelled and lived for several years in many countries across NA (including the US) Europe and Asia.

One thing that I’ve learned is that it’s important to keep an open mind, to look at the good things in a given society/culture and to not be overly judgemental. It’s important to not frame thing in terms of expectations from another environment.

That being said there are limits to everything. Looking at the trajectory of American society, it is not unreasonable to speculate that their march towards a chauvinistic, corrupt plutocracy is not going to stop.

I would love to be wrong (it’s a disaster that the US has essentially turned into a mafia state), but to deny reality is the definition of cope.

I think the Americans are going to leave NATO soon. It seems like a logical outcome of their current trajectory (among many other things). As things stand, it is unlikely there will be any true change American society; ~40% are committed to a chauvinistic, pro-crime, pro-corruption direction and even many in the “far right lite” (what is marketed as “moderates” in the US) or even the centre right don’t have any appetite for real anti-crime reform (for example arresting and charging Zuckerburg and other senior Meta executives for a pre-meditated multi billion dollar fraud scheme, and that’s one tiny example out many).

The victory of the centre-right in elections for the lower house isn’t going to change anything. Even a hypothetical win by someone like Michelle Obama (or one of Biden’s cabinet ministers) is just going to lead to more shallow and meaningless “Courage, Hope and Change!” rhetoric and no action. I really hope I am wrong, but can you really blame me for taking such a less than charitable posture?

Europe should have started re-arming and preparing as far back as 2008 when the russians invaded Georgia (let alone the annexation of Crimea in 2014 and the full scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022). Merkel was warned by multiple EU members what the (overwhelming majority) of russians are like, yet to this day, even in retirement, she continues to promote russian narratives.

Say what you want about the current situation, but it’s Europe’s Carpe diem moment. Almost a unique opportunity.

That’s a fair point, but with software platforms, I don’t think you can make a seamless migration tool without Google’s cooperation. And there a lot of roadblocks and malicious compliance type strategies that US oligarchic institutions can adopt. There is also the issue of monopoly-like network effects.

Considering their administration’s behaviour and the current course of American society, I think it’s better to make a permanent break with US. I do not think they will be able to address corruption and criminality. Even if the centre-right comes to power, it will be some variant of Obama, perhaps competent, but with zero desire to reign in corruption, oligarchs and prosecute criminals. Just like Obama refused to prosecute the financial industry oligarchs, a hypothetical centre-right leader won’t address Meta’s $16 billion raised via conscious enablement of fraud.

Then there will be another election, they’ll seed in some more propaganda about “freedom” and “destruction of America” and you’ll have JD Vance elected or perhaps someone even far worse than Vance or Trump.

To hell with that.

I’ve lived in the US for several years and travelled extensively, I feel confident in what I am saying. A large portion of American society is obsessed with ostentatious posturing about how they are the biggest supporters of “freedom” in the world (and similar self-aggrandizing polemics), that they cannot be engaged with in good faith.

Blacklist of senior US regime collaborators is also a must.

Would help if Russians were banned too.

Sometimes it’s best to deal with an issue early rather then letting it simmer.

Not to mention they could always a implement a Fediverse based foundation (for every country) before implementing a ban. Literally re-direct instagram.com to pixelfed.nl (if you are in the Netherlands). Move all government accounts and let businesses know that it’s in their interest to setup Fedi accounts or other non-US networks (and help them with it).

They should start with banning US tech services, first insta/FB/Twitter/Reddit and then slowly kicking out MS/Amazon/Google and other enterprise providers.

One thing worth considering, is that on a global/historical basis it is not unheard of for whole societies (strong majority if not overwhelming majority) to descend into degeneracy, chauvinism and corruption.

In a sense, this is not something specific to the US. These things unfortunately happen.

I see where you are coming from, but I think it’s dangerous to give too much benefit of the doubt and to look at things as we want them to be, not how they are.

I would disagree (not from the US, but I have lived there, travelled extensively and have American friends who I speak to pretty regularly).

The “low information” environment is a choice (especially nowadays). Scapegoating is a choice. A two party state is a choice. Even the unaddressed material and social grievances is a choice. US is rich enough to solve all these issues with no problem at all.

The real issue is that a significant portion of Americans support corruption, crime and believe lying is good. While at the same time parroting tedious polemics about “freedumz and shiiit”.

And on top of that the majority of the voter base of the centre-right opposition is fundemantely opposed to anti-corruption, anti-crime and governance (in terms of real outcomes, not words). Most of them are simply too well off to risk rocking the boat (until it’s too late).

While this is a gross generalisation, there is a reason why the following stereotype is applied to Americans:

There are no poor people in the US, just soon-to-be billionaires

From my experience living in the US, I would say “dim” is an incorrect characterization. Supportive of corruption, crime and dishonesty is IMO a much more accurate characterization.

EU has been super weak, when arguably they have more at stake.

It didn’t help that Merkel de facto supported russian genocidal imperialism (even though she framed this in a more PR friendly manner).

I hate how western news service constantly quote the russian “opposition” and spread fake narrative such as the following:

“Peace is now an almost universal desire in Russian society. There was an upsurge of hope with the entrance of the Trump administration: An end of the war was finally in sight, but this hope did not materialize,” Schulmann said, saying that she believes Russian society took a psychological hit.

This is false and it is backed up preference falsification adjusted research (i.e. you can’t claim that “they are all afraid”).

Schulmann does not even recognize the annexation of Crimea and the invasion of Donbas as a war (or a big deal).

From what I remember Biden won with a small margin in 2020 (I remember messaging my American friend about this before the votes were fully tallied).

Trump is a symptom, the cause is American society (not only the far right, much of the centre-right voting public too).

The US is comically corrupt!

12 years, not 4. The russian invasion of Ukraine began in 2014 with the invasion of Crimea.

No electricity at all from 8:30 am to sometime around 9 pm (sometimes a lot later). If you live on higher floor, no heat or water either since the pumps don’t work without electricity.

The russians tried something similar in previous winters, but all three of them were very mild. It’s going to be around -15 for weeks on end.

All countries need to develop a strategic plan to get rid of all American products and services. I am not saying it has to happen in one day, but step by step.

Americans are unlikely to address corruption any time soon. The centre-right party leadership are too corrupt themselves and most of the party base is too well off to risk taking down the oligarchs.

The 40% approval rating is damning for the American socio-political system.

At some point one has to realize that over time political systems cannot survive without major reforms.

Good luck! All the best for your health!

I was wondering why he only got 5 years:

Separate trials will consider other charges, including the charge of masterminding insurrection, for which prosecutors have called for Yoon to be sentenced to death.

Imagine showing this news article to someone in 1998 or 2000.

Or perhaps even 2015, which wasn’t that long ago.