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https://www.thebulwark.com/p/we-are-the-bad-guys-now-trump-venezuela-maduro-machado-opposition-oil-democracy
Wir sind jetzt die Bösen
https://www.thebulwark.com/p/we-are-the-bad-guys-now-trump-venezuela-maduro-machado-opposition-oil-democracy
38 Kommentare
When you have a nation with this unhealthy, over-the-top patriotism, where they see themselves as almost divinely chosen, a shining beacon, the biggest, the best, blah blah blah, mixed with insane inequality, a downright inhumane system, and a weird obsession with guns, it’s a recipe for disaster. America is full of decent people, but it’s never really figured out how to build a decent society.
From a global perspective, the big decay of the U.S. began in 2001. What is happening now is the result of a series of events that have already taken place. Nothing occurs in a vacuum. Putin invaded Georgia in 2008 after witnessing the U.S. carry out a similar action in Iraq just a few years earlier. The war in Ukraine can be seen as an escalation of that dynamic. Now the U.S. is going full bunker mode, taking whatever it believes is theirs. The significance of 9/11 cannot be underestimated. It marked the beginning of internal unrest that gradually spilled out into the world. It also represented the peak of American power.
The immediate terror and shock from the attacks were significant, but they were not the main or lasting effect. The long-term consequences, including political division, mistrust, and societal polarization, came from how society responded, from the decisions we made, the leaders we elected, and the conflicts we allowed to grow. Osama Bin Laden’s broader goal was not just to kill people, but to weaken the U.S. internally by creating division, chaos, and loss of trust. In a sense, society unintentionally helped achieve that goal through its own actions after the attacks.
In the end, Bin Laden won.
For all intents and purposes: Always have been.
80 years of printing money to pay your weapons shareholders for bombs to drop so they can reinvest in the aftermath is no different than what’s happened here, except that the post-WW2 situation has evolved such that our ruling class is more timid nowadays, looking inward to exploit us and increasingly hungry for low hanging fruit.
That was after WW2, which was facilitated by the wealthy business elites of the US and UK at the time who buddied up to Hitler, got him diplomatic cover and favorable press in the NYT and papers of record. Some like Henry Ford were on board enough to publish The International Jew and build their war machines, some like JD Rockefeller were just fans of fascism and continued shipping oil thru the eve of Pearl Harbor + entire tankers of the chemicals to synthesize their fuel after the British blockade became effective, some like Leslie Urquhart had lost out on collectivism in the new Soviet Union, while others like Prescott Bush just wanted to make money off of the war and money printer.
The pre-WW2 period being no better, we invaded about 30 other nations including Nicaragua 11 times before there was a Soviet Union, so obviously that had nothing to do with it. Before that we industrialized on the backs of plantation slavery, and the proceeds of our elites‘ opium trafficking which built the Lowell plants and academic institutions including Harvard and Yale which pumped out the likes of Dick Cheney and the later Bushes. All settled atop the largest genocide in history of the Native Americans.
Tbh the only difference is that Trump no longer cares to pretend.
If you look at US involvement since WW2 you need to be particularly ignorant to paint the US as the good guys.
Sincere greetings from your new old adversaries in Germany
Always have been
Always have been
The US always had the best PR team, so the thuggery has never been as obvious as the orange clown and his cronies.
Now?
Ask the people of the countries you’ve destroyed over the years how long you’ve been the bad guys for.
It’s becoming nakedly apparent now because you are talking about attacking Europe.
„America was always bad“ comments are nonsense in an attempt to self-soothe for the modern rise of fascism.
America was always America. Like any country with power it has many atrocities in its history, but it also has genuinely contributed a lot of good to the world. The value of the rules-based international order that has held off another World War for nearly 100 years can’t be understated.
America recently made the decision to doom tens of millions of innocent people to death by ending aid efforts. You can’t doom tens of millions of people to death if you didn’t previously have a program to save tens of millions of people.
American has been better and can be better, don’t let anyone tell you it has to be this way. They’re just trying to get you to accept the current state of things as inevitable.
„Now“ Did you guys think you were the good guys pre Trump?
We suck.
I’ll be honest, seeing some of the commentary on here, obviously the MAGA / conservatives are masturbating in their own grim psychopathy, but on the other side, you seem more focussed on the rest of the world dealing with the problems that you (the people of the US) have created. Pretty much no talk about mass protests (granted the ’no kings‘ protests were a great start, but, like there’s been ?2). No talk of general strikes. No calls to influence your representatives etc etc. Lots of excuses. Lots of „why don’t the Europeans stop us“ etc.
Perhaps you don’t deserve your democracy? You don’t seem to care for it.
Actually, been the bad guys since 2016 but the credits keep rolling somehow, tsk
We no longer get to judge average Germans during Nazi Germany.
Now? Please. The US has been a cancer on Earth for longer than I’ve been alive.
As I said in a previous comment, about to cut ties with the US [business] on the basis of his Greenland comments.
Figure it out guys. Time’s running out for your country, fast.
I know you didn’t ask for the problem but it is your job, now, to fix it.
Voted for someone that said they’d be a dictator, yet shocked he’s a dictator?
Sometimes it feels like, we literally coup’n countries for sport and still lose the olympics, fucking embarrassing
Insert astronaut shooting astronaut in the back meme
Every country has its flaws and bloody history that is utterly true, no nation is built on flowers and good will.
Post WW2 however America shifted its role to becoming the worlds biggest narcissitic bully, stockpiling arms and fighting communisim. As others pointed out the extreme patriotisim America has had has proven to be a detriment. Which to a degree warped a lot of its own populations views into thinking America is the worlds main character. That it is the greatest country in the world and that the American way is the way of freedom and the rest of the world should follow it. While America have been the bad guys for some time, its never felt quite as dire as it is today.
People tell a lot of us Non americans to stop watching or commenting on your politics or your country. Its hard to avoid watching on in horror when one wrong person in charge of a country that has a massive stockpile of weapons could start a world breaking conflict. Whose values and advancements have helped shape western culture as we know it. I sincerely hope America can go back from this road but it is seeming like history repeats itself and the country will cannabilise itself
And have been for far longer than anybody wants or desires
not „now“ since 2001
Same as it ever was
the problem with america is that it’s wars don’t touch it’s mainland.
europeans understand bombs and death.
america walks around like a rich kid that’s never had the humility that a good square punch in the nose brings you
Yeah, you’re not a trustworthy ally at all.
Now?!
We’ve been the bad guys for a lot longer than people think.
America was always the bad guys. The country was founded as a settler colonial entity built on genocide and slavery, all so wealthy landowners could be kings themselves.
Always were lmao
Now? Since post WW2 the US has been the single biggest bad guy in the world.
You’re late to the party if you’re only just realising this.
Only NOW?? We’ve been the bad guys for decades.
Now? I think USA has been the “bad guys” for a long time, all your wars for oil or your coup’s to assist the interest of the administration’s donors.
Now the pretence of world peace or justice and freedom is not there.
„now“, lol
Now?
As a left-of-center European voter, I’m finding myself in the rather confrontational position that I’ve gone from protesting against nuclear weapons in my youth, to arguing that a nuclear strike on Thule Air Base in the case of an American invasion is exactly what is needed to remind the US of that oh so important lesson we learned after WW2: In a world where might makes right, nuclear weapons are the great equalizer.
I thought we’d learned our lesson. How naive of me.
Now?
We have been for over 60 years, its just mask off now.
„Now“