We don't really have to be the world cops, that's just a pattern of behavior which has set in from over a century of too much concern for the outside world, and too little concern for what's going on in our own nation. I'm not saying that we should never go to war for any reason, but if we're being honest, we could have stayed out of both world wars, and most of our current conflicts had we decided to be more insular.
This is true, but in WW2 Japan had been our ally for many years prior, and we cut them off from oil, which to them constituted a betrayal. In WW1, we decided to only trade with one side which indicated we were taking a side in the conflict, and we were ultimately breaking an embargo. Had we in either conflict just stayed truly neutral, we could have stayed entirely out of it.
I have to admit it would be a much different world had the USA stayed out of both world wars. Had they stayed out of WW1, Germany would have most likely won and been ascendant in Europe, and WW2 would likely never have happened, nor Hitler ever come to power. He would have just been one more beer-hall ranter. The Soviet Union probably wouldn't have happened either, though the Romanov Dynasty would still likely have fallen, Russia had had enough of Imperial rule. England and France would have been much weakened, and Germany the main European world power for the forseeable future.
Had they been involved in WW1 as it happened historically but NOT WW2, it's a bit dicier. I think the world would have been a much worse place had they never embargoed Imperial Japan, and thus got Pearl Harboured and declared war on the Axis. Essentially Germany and Japan would have divided Europe and Asia among themselves. Canada might well have offered to become the 51st to 60th states had Britain been actually invaded and pacified by Germany, but it might not have come to that. Still, mainland Europe would be German, a crippled Soviet Union would never have had the hegemony to try to become a world power, the remains of the Commonwealth besides Canada (India, Oceana) would have liked joined the Japanese Empire in the Asian co-prosperity Sphere along with China and fuck knows if we'd ever have Atomic weapons (or reactors) or an Internet to shitpost on today.
But there would be no more 'Jewish Question' in the middle east, that's for sure.
Yeah, let's hand the reins over to soyboy Canada and see what happens.
America not only has to be the only superpower, but is the BEST option to be a superpower. China and Russia (and India for that matter) don't give a shit about their own citizens rights, so what makes you think they'll care about ours?
I'm not saying our politicians care for our sake - they sure as hell don't and are just as corrupt and evil (if not more) than China or Russia's. The difference is we have a bill of rights and constitution that limits their power and (sadly enough for them) the citizens are aware of this. Every American KNOWS they have a right to free speech and protection. It's hard as shit for them to be tyrannical when these two vital things stop them.
It's also hard for them to also fuck other nations over. Americans are patriotic, but Vietnam and Iraq will forver be looked upon as failures. The American people now more than ever are sick of pointless wars and don't take kindly to the government bombing innocent nations. The whole democratic party was against this in the 2000's. The government will never be able to stop unpopular opinions about wars or other unethical government actions because we have freedom of press. It's pretty hard to brainwash a whole nation like Nazi Germany if you have that.
America is the only country that can do this. There's a damn reason we're living during the most peaceful time in the whole history of the world.
It's also hard for them to also fuck other nations over. Americans are patriotic, but Vietnam and Iraq will forver be looked upon as failures. The American people now more than ever are sick of pointless wars and don't take kindly to the government bombing innocent nations. The whole democratic party was against this in the 2000's. The government will never be able to stop unpopular opinions about wars or other unethical government actions because we have freedom of press. It's pretty hard to brainwash a whole nation like Nazi Germany if you have that.
Hitler didn't rise to power by brainwashing Germany. Authoritarianism, anti-Semitism, lust for any land where Germans lived to be brought under a single Reich, and a willingness to do whatever it took to bring down the Reds and become the world's to superpower were part of the consciousness of the time regardless of what Hitler did.
Every Catholic school student was taught to hate the Jews for killing Jesus. Every Catholic and Lutheran congregant was taught to hate the Jews for killing Jesus. Orthodox Christians tended to vary more, but a lot of 'em, especially the Greeks, hated the Jews for killing Jesus. The Red line wasn't much help either, given that they opposed separate cultural identities within nations by default; and Stalin was at best suspicious of the Jews, and at worst planning his own Final Solution (which was only narrowly avoided due to what may or may not've been a stroke).
America has a long tradition of human rights, federalism, and freedom of expression. It'd be very difficult for things to even get as bad as an average Latinamerican military dictatorship, let alone the barbarism of most of Europe during the Red, Brown, and Black Terrors. But it's not impossible if our existing problems are left to fester and metastisize rather than treated and managed responsibly.
We don't really have to be the world cops, that's just a pattern of behavior which has set in from over a century of too much concern for the outside world, and too little concern for what's going on in our own nation. I'm not saying that we should never go to war for any reason, but if we're being honest, we could have stayed out of both world wars, and most of our current conflicts had we decided to be more insular.
Not really... The idea was (plausibly) that both Germany and Britain both still had imperialist designs in the New World and both would have started encroaching on South America if they'd stayed relevant. America didn't want any European powers in this hemisphere, period.
We did pretty much stay out of WW2 except sending people free shit to shoot each other. America loves the good life, is very squeamish, hates to lose lives and won't send its people into a meatgrinder. It was both compassionate to US citizens and a coldblooded master strategy by Roosevelt to give all our rivals enough rope to hang themselves and make America the ruler of Earth for a century.
This is true, but in WW2 Japan had been our ally for many years prior, and we cut them off from oil, which to them constituted a betrayal. In WW1, we decided to only trade with one side which indicated we were taking a side in the conflict, and we were ultimately breaking an embargo. Had we in either conflict just stayed truly neutral, we could have stayed entirely out of it.
They wanted to expand and colonize China, and we made selling them resources conditional on them staying out of China. They didn't stay out of China, so we stopped selling them stuff, and then they attacked.
We didn't want them to colonize China because a Japan-administrated China could easily conquer Europe, America, and Western civilization by combining unbelievably hyper badass disciplined militarism with unlimited manpower beyond belief. The Japanese don't fuck around.
The benefits of america being the world superpower are not easily determined by statistics, because the real benefit of the Burgers being the world police is that the world police isnt China or Russia. If the claps went completely non-interventionist, Russia and China would immediately start taking whatever they wanted. Reminder that Russia has invaded two countries and annexed territory from them and nobody did anything. They did that WITH the ever present threat of war with Murica, imagine what they would do otherwise.
Hitler didn't rise to power by brainwashing Germany. Authoritarianism, anti-Semitism, lust for any land where Germans lived to be brought under a single Reich, and a willingness to do whatever it took to bring down the Reds and become the world's to superpower were part of the consciousness of the time regardless of what Hitler did.
Every Catholic school student was taught to hate the Jews for killing Jesus. Every Catholic and Lutheran congregant was taught to hate the Jews for killing Jesus. Orthodox Christians tended to vary more, but a lot of 'em, especially the Greeks, hated the Jews for killing Jesus. The Red line wasn't much help either, given that they opposed separate cultural identities within nations by default; and Stalin was at best suspicious of the Jews, and at worst planning his own Final Solution (which was only narrowly avoided due to what may or may not've been a stroke).
America has a long tradition of human rights, federalism, and freedom of expression. It'd be very difficult for things to even get as bad as an average Latinamerican military dictatorship, let alone the barbarism of most of Europe during the Red, Brown, and Black Terrors. But it's not impossible if our existing problems are left to fester and metastisize rather than treated and managed responsibly.
Nazi Germany heavily censored its people. A nation that wants to control its population in thought, heavily needs that to happen. You look at any horrible dictator country (Russia, Cuba, North Korea, China, etc) and they all had to do that in order to keep the people in line. Unlike those countries, we have a first amendment which is a major hurdle if our government wanted to do that.
If our government wanted to invade Japan for no damn reason, do you think the American people will look the other way? Fuck no. We'll write articles, make videos, petitions and other things to argue our point and American politicians will listen solely to keep their seats in congress or else lose it to people who are against it. We've had presidents who ran solely on ending wars because the people wanted them to end.
Also, the Jews are very tribal people. The problem with people who look back at history today is they make it seem the Jews did nothing to deserve the hatred from the Germans. That's simple not true and as uncomfortable as it may be, we have to look at the other side as well. The Germans didn't like the Jews because many did have bad personal experiences from them. The Jews didn't do too well intergratting with German culture and many didn't treat the German people as the if they were their equals. Jews believe they are the chosen people of God for Christ's sake. Of course there will be times they treat non Jews like crap and people even today experience it with them.
Of course this doesn't justify any of the disgusting acts the Germans did, but many people ignore this. I only paid attention to it when I read a comment once from a woman whose great grandmother (who was German during that time) tried telling her, "You don't understand what it felt like. When I was neighbors with a Jew and they never talked to us or wanted anything to do with us Germans."
Gentle reminder that "we" are currently having trouble agreeing to defend our own border. Also, the megacorps are constantly bashing on us to pass garbage like the TPP which would make us all serfs to Walmart.
People need to get it through their thick skulls: Not everyone on Earth can have a good standard of living, so look after your own team. It's obvious that Americans these days should be both pro-labor union and pro-border security, but of course "you can't be both" because mysterious reasons.
Nazi Germany heavily censored its people. A nation that wants to control its population in thought, heavily needs that to happen. You look at any horrible dictator country (Russia, Cuba, North Korea, China, etc) and they all had to do that in order to keep the people in line. Unlike those countries, we have a first amendment which is a major hurdle if our government wanted to do that.
If our government wanted to invade Japan for no damn reason, do you think the American people will look the other way? Fuck no. We'll write articles, make videos, petitions and other things to argue our point and American politicians will listen solely to keep their seats in congress or else lose it to people who are against it. We've had presidents who ran solely on ending wars because the people wanted them to end.
No government can get away with things made from thin air. Only by exploiting situations that already exist.
German militarism, a fear of Communism, and hatred for the Jews already existed in what would become the Third Reich before Hitler came along. I'm not even getting into which bits of which were justified, the fact is, they were there.
Also, the Jews are very tribal people. The problem with people who look back at history today is they make it seem the Jews did nothing to deserve the hatred from the Germans. That's simple not true and as uncomfortable as it may be, we have to look at the other side as well. The Germans didn't like the Jews because many did have bad personal experiences from them. The Jews didn't do too well intergratting with German culture and many didn't treat the German people as the if they were their equals. Jews believe they are the chosen people of God for Christ's sake. Of course there will be times they treat non Jews like crap and people even today experience it with them.
Of course this doesn't justify any of the disgusting acts the Germans did, but many people ignore this. I only paid attention to it when I read a comment once from a woman whose great grandmother (who was German during that time) tried telling her, "You don't understand what it felt like. When I was neighbors with a Jew and they never talked to us or wanted anything to do with us Germans."
I'm well aware of how tribalism works. There are plenty of similar situations in America today among many groups.
As well aware that for most of history, all groups thoughout of themselves as the only truly civilized or sensible group. White guilt is a recent phenomenon, and it's already on the wain as grievance studies professors prove every day how full of horeshit they are.
The difference was that the Jews were the only such tribe to be blamed for deicide by every other tribe in Europe. That was the doctrine of every major branch of Christianity until the mid-20th Century, and your outright ignoring it.
Jews also were not allowed to own land in Europe for most of history, but were allowed to charge interest to non-Jews. This made them even more hated, and provided all the fun of hating the powerful with hardly any of the risks. This is also an important detail you're ignoring.
I won't pretend that Christianity and Judaism are fundamentally the same. They're not. No religion is fundamentally the same as every other. I also won't pretend that the Jews liked Jesus while he was alive. What he was preaching was incompatible with Jewish tradition, and Jewish critiques of Christianity from the pre-Constantine years are indeed scathing.
But neither will I pretend that the reason the Jews got all the heat for the Crucifiction because they were the only ones who wanted it. Pontius Pilate was a notoriously brutal governor, who never hesitated to use violence. The idea that he would wash his hands of the matter is laughable. But the Romans had their own empire, and the Jews didn't, so it's no mystery why the deicide was shouldered around the neck of the non-ruling group.
Gentle reminder that "we" are currently having trouble agreeing to defend our own border. Also, the megacorps are constantly bashing on us to pass garbage like the TPP which would make us all serfs to Walmart.
People need to get it through their thick skulls: Not everyone on Earth can have a good standard of living, so look after your own team. It's obvious that Americans these days should be both pro-labor union and pro-border security, but of course "you can't be both" because mysterious reasons.
Open borders were a corporate-interest platform 'til Donald Trump (who had illegals working his properties his entire life 'til last year) came along. Bernie Sanders ran opposed to open borders for the exact reason you cited.
They're still a corporate interest platform. What we need to do is reform the asylum process, crack down hard on human traffickers, and butt-rape the people actually responsible for hiring illegals; but that'd be too sensible for the '10s.
Personally I don't like it when the government of my country (I live in the U.S.) starts a war in some country that no one gives a shit about because of my government's interests in their resources such as oil. I think that the last war that was truly worth fighting for was World War 2 where the United States went to war in Europe to ensure freedom for future generations.
But with this said, I think we benefit as a superpower because we're the only nation in the world at the moment that is willing to stand up for freedom and fight for it. No other country in the world is willing to take on this responsibility that makes the world a better place. I'd rather have the United States lead the world than having a country like China or Russia to lead the world. Not even many European counties are willing to fight for freedom as much compared to the United States anyway.
The United States is not a perfect country by any means but I think that the United States is the greatest country in the world as we are the guardians of freedom and we will stand up to those that want to take that freedom away from us and others.
