lets be perfectly honest bud. in the period between Vietnam and the first Iraq war the US's involvement worldwide could be categorized as tame. Even if we extend that a bit beyond Iraq 1 to Iraq 2, it becomes more stark. We set up nations world wide with our manufacturing to raise them from poverty. We were involved in no full blown hot wars and while the CIA continued to stage coups and assassinate warlords we were mostly an economic force on the world stage. Did we receive love from our shift? Did the world perceive us as a force of good? a shining alternative to the red Kremlin communists? Even in Europe where at the time our staunchest allies benefitted from unlimited security guarantees, where trade imbalances enriched their economies with the US importing far more than we exported to those nations.
Of course not. An empire will never be loved, an empire no matter how benevolent is always hated by the vast majority of people in the world. They'd pick up their belongings and trudge through a dessert at night to get there and live in the empire. But they'll never love them when they sit in their home country. No one lovesdthe British empire, no one loved the Spanish empire, no one loved the Romans or Persians. All empires commit atrocities, just as all empires enrich the land and people they bring into the fold of the empire. It doesnt matter what we do, we weren't loved before, and we wont be loved after the world cup. if you detain 1 or 1,000 it wont change the fact that US citizens have to claim to be Canadian in many countries around the world just to avoid being mistreated. That was true under Bush 1, Clinton, Obama, Trump, Biden, and Trump.
nobody loved any of the empires in your example because those empires were colossal fucking dicks to everyone they were in contact with.
What is it with the American desire to claim to be oppressed? It’s a phenomenon regardless of political affiliation, from privileged college students masquerading as downtrodden undesirables to members of the largest religious monolith in the country feigning persecution. It’s like the country can’t accept that it’s gone soft due to increased standards of living and mostly abundant wealth. Due to this softness, there’s a complete and total lack of perspective on what oppression and persecution actually is.
Like hot damn the absolute cognitive dissonance required to unironically posit that being heckled for your nationality is remotely comparable to, or even justifies the atrocities this country has committed globally is a glowing neon sign post showing how constitutionally weak the average American has become.
I would infinitely rather pretend to be Canadian than have my government overthrown, country split in half, children fire bombed, grandchildren ridden with cancer, family murdered, village slaughtered by extranationally funded militias, economy ruined, or any of the other things the US has historically done to “enrich” the lands it touches.
This post was edited by dubstepmammoth on Jun 12 2026 10:09am