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How the US has hidden its empire

theguardian.com

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Re: How the US has hidden its empire

#101

Post by 0x262d »

slededit wrote: post #70
0x262d wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

this seems like a valuable point: the collective misremembering of WW2 as some sort of "noble war", at least by the Allies, should probably be completely reassessed. but it is tied in very closely to the non-empire myth, and so it isn't.

What really was different was conquering territory and then giving it back to the governments in exile. Contrast this with the other players in the war who kept territory they acquired. Even the soviets who were on our side.

land was given back to other imperialist states but not in actuality to territories under US control. the pattern has been establishment of neocolonial, subordinate client states since WW2, continuing to today in Venezuela. it’s true that we pretend not to have an empire formally but our winning WW2 in large part was about establishing the dominance of American empire.

Re: How the US has hidden its empire

#102

Post by maxxxxx »

newen wrote: post #100
maxxxxx wrote: post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"A lot of people are now trying to figure out how to combat fake news and this has been on the news and this website for the last few years." You are pretty naive if you think this nonsense will be fixed in a substantial way. Platforms like Facebook and Twitter are dependent on outrage and will not do much to stop it. Yes, there are some people here and in the news discussing these issues but at the same time there a…

Yes, it's been 2 years since the problem has been publicised and discussed but fake news is still widespread. So clearly it is a difficult problem that is hard to fix. But stop talking about it like you just discovered that fake news exists. I'm not sure what kind of discussion you were trying to start by doing that.

What makes you think that I just discovered fake news? Are you always that aggressive?

Re: How the US has hidden its empire

#103

Post by herewulf »

astura wrote: post #38
WA wrote: post #13

> Besides Guam, American Samoa, the Northern Mariana Islands, Puerto Rico, the US Virgin Islands and a handful of minor outlying islands, the US maintains roughly 800 overseas military bases around the world. Germany has a few US military bases. It’s a bit of a micro cosmos. People pay in USD and can buy American products there. I think even the VAT is added on checkout to the price (whereas in Germany, prices in sto…

Do they charge foreign VAT at all overseas? In the US the exchanges (PX/NEX) don't charge state sales tax (and advertises the fact). Unless you're talking about privately owned stores.

PXs and Commissaries don't charge sales tax anywhere. Source: 12 years in the Army.

Re: How the US has hidden its empire

#105

Post by JeremyNT »

stronglikedan wrote: post #57
lewilewilewi wrote: post #28

Killing Hope ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Killing_Hope ) is a write up of all major US efforts at controlling other countries. I don't know what Americans think of it, but it's fascinating as an outsider.

I haven't read that book, but on the topic of US foreign policy in general, most people I know here in America realize it's a lose-lose effort that we must continue to lose. When it comes to helping other countries, we go from "not enough" to "too much" seemingly overnight, but there never seems to be a "just right".

So fundamental to American propaganda is the notion that imperialism is born of a desire to "help" other countries. It is true that it is often packaged and sold this way, and in some cases it may even be a contributing factor, but our adventurism is largely driven by the military industrial complex and capital looking for "new markets" or "cheap labor" or even just a desire to strangle competing ideologies in their infancy.

Re: How the US has hidden its empire

#106

Post by stronglikedan »

JeremyNT wrote: post #105
stronglikedan wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I haven't read that book, but on the topic of US foreign policy in general, most people I know here in America realize it's a lose-lose effort that we must continue to lose. When it comes to helping other countries, we go from "not enough" to "too much" seemingly overnight, but there never seems to be a "just right".

So fundamental to American propaganda is the notion that imperialism is born of a desire to "help" other countries. It is true that it is often packaged and sold this way, and in some cases it may even be a contributing factor, but our adventurism is largely driven by the military industrial complex and capital looking for "new markets" or "cheap labor" or even just a desire to strangle competing ideologies in their…

That may sound like a good fit for a common narrative, but it's certainly not rooted in fact. Being a superpower, America is often asked to help, and other times forced to help. There's no desire to do any of that stuff you mentioned, for the reasons you seem to think. Unfortunately, it's impossible to please everybody all the time, which creates the propaganda that leads you to think the way you do, so I certainly don't fault you for being wrong.
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