zazen

It’s more a reflection of Western hegemony in decline. Some empires fall backwards and inwards, others forward and outwards in a last attempt - US is falling forward. I’m seeing some seemingly intelligent people on Twitter declare how the US is “so back” lol. All these imperial bootlickers including Musk commenting FAFO (fuck around and find out) to Trump supposedly putting many nations (allies included) and institutions on “notice”. Everyone’s like “omg who’s Uncle Sam gonna come after next and put in place” meanwhile it’s the US who has lost its place as the centre of the world. They’re reframing posturing as strength and a L as a W. This empires lashing out because it’s dying out.

@Jodistrict Shahid is awesome. Not sure how often people click on videos that are shared on the forum but his are just next level. This one is also very good on Trump and the late stage of empire:

Two great videos from two intellectual giants with moral clarity - both covering the state of the world: Jeffrey Sachs Chris hedges

Kushner and his fund want to build plush resorts there. Trump prob getting a hard on thinking of his tacky gold plated skyscraper there. Never mind the billions in gas reserves just off the coast. He will cement himself almost as a prophet amongst Israel. Rather than follow the principles of prophet Jesus of Nazareth - Zionists will lick the ass of Trump and not even wipe the orange off. He loves nothing more than ego stroking, even if that means signing off on drone striking innocents in the Middle East.

A interesting comment from a Canadian - the boycotting of US products itself would be impactful. Trumps under the illusion that US can just create everything itself and be self sufficient - of the major imports from Canada potash would be the hardest to get elsewhere at cost and is used as fertilizer for US agriculture. US oil refineries are configured to process Canadian crude. Re-configuring them would be a 5-10 year process and huge investment. Same with lumbar which is used for housing - to get the same quality and quantity with the environmental protections in place is another 5-10 year process. Pretty ballsy to go after something that will cause inflation in two essentials such as housing and food. Energy, in this case oil, basically seeps into the cost of everything. When it comes to Trump it’s best to go by the heuristic : take him seriously but never at his word. Anything he says may just be and often is just a bargaining tactic for other goals. Other than that, he simply wants to reframe the status quo as a win for his own ego, or to posture American strength to the world. This is why the whole game of calling upon troops with Canada and Mexico which had already been agreed upon. Even with Panama, the whole rhetoric of China controlling it is utter nonsense. They simply operate there as any other country can. Imagine crying about international commerce - what a sign of weakness dressing up as strength. It’s like complaining that the kid who opened a hot dog stand on your street is gonna steal your kitchen. With Greenland too, as if the US can’t operate there when Denmark is the most on team loyal partner to the US. They can simply just ask if they want to do something..lol I think in the macro the US empire wants to consolidate control of its hemisphere as it’s lost control of much of the world. This usually happens with empires - they rise on protectionism, liberalise into laissez-fare free trade at their peak, then defensively become more protectionist in their decline against rising powers, by which time it’s too late to reverse the trend. Same thing happened with Britian. The reason they want free trade at their peak is because they have developed enough productive capacity and are confident they can dominate the free market - so they want open markets to sell all their production to.

From 6-8min below: Ex Finance Minster Yanis Varoufakis talking about Europe being a vassal of the US and the US / Ukraine being behind Nord Stream sabotage, to which the Germans just look the other way: Brilliant take on the state of the world from Colonel Douglas McGregor from the 8 min mark below: No wonder he got multiple applauses from the audience compared to others on the panel parroting empire talking points.

It’s one thing for Gazans to move temporarily while they clean up the place of undetonated explosives and rubble, so they can build temporary housing until permanent housing is built which will take much longer. But these fools are calling for a permanent move. Even if they said they need it to be temporary so they can clear up, we all know they wouldn’t take them back. The irony of Trump saying the place has been full of destruction and blood for decades - while sitting next to the man who’s caused it and who’s state has been a behind it..while he grins. They want to bring Kushner and his fund in with the UAE to develop the strip into plush seaside resorts. Not sure the Palestinians are going to just move that easily to begin with, and Egypt / Jordan aren’t going to concede to that either because it will destabilise them also - not to mention that they don’t want to be accomplices in ethic cleansing or lay the groundwork for a future fight with Israel.

Great vid, I subbed to the guy. Trump said UK was workable - perhaps it will be a Atlanticist alliance of US, UK, Canada - with UK and Canada as subordinates, Australia too. Basically the Anglo speaking world. UK and EU will try to balance between US and China/Asia/Middle East as they are in a weaker position and need whatever investment / cheap energy they can get. Australia will balance because they’re literally in Asia itself. US would rather have their partners isolate themselves to the West in order to check mate China - but they seem to be waking up and realising they need a backbone in order to not get stuck between competing super powers and US wanting to vassalize them totally. So if Trumps Mexico and Canada rhetoric is largely posturing over nothing, what about Panama: This is basically a power in relative decline. The US has lost its global dominance so wants to at least consolidate regional dominance in its own backyard - while it can. It’s like a ex champion no longer able to compete for world titles so they settle for defending their local belt. Nothing shows this more than below:

https://m.jpost.com/international/article-840500 It’s tricky with polls because it can depend on the sample size and who was selected etc. Sometimes these polls are used to shape public perception by creating a false sense of consensus. Despite that, a flawed poll can still signal a disturbing dominant narrative in a society - which this shows.

A different opinion:

@Raze with the razor sharp facts and logic as usual. Let’s see what Trump and Bibi come away with in their meeting this week.

@PurpleTree They aren't conclusive or confirmed by the German prosecutor. First vid from 1:55 sec on wards, as the guy says - it's a development that may get them closer to the truth. Seems more like a scapegoat to avoid facing the reality of the situation. We have to look at the motive, means and incentive. - They lack the incentive: their survival hinges on Western support - especially NATO of which Germany is a major player. Meanwhile, the US weakens Russia’s economic leverage over Europe, forces the continent to pivot to American liquefied natural gas, and tighten NATO’s stance against Russia who they want to weaken. - They lack the motive: Why would Ukraine risk alienating one of its most important backers in the middle of an existential war. Meanwhile, Biden had openly threatened to “end” Nord Stream 2 if Russia invaded Ukraine, making the US motive more clearer and more transparent. - They lack the means: The pipelines buried deep beneath the Baltic Sea and closely monitored. Ukraine doesn't have the stealth capability, specialized diving teams, or precise coordination to avoid detection in waters patrolled by NATO allies like Denmark, Sweden, and Germany. Especially not in the middle of a brutal land war where their resources are stretched. The CIA is exactly the kind of organization specialized in covert operations like this. Sabotage, subterfuge, and destabilization are in the agency’s DNA.

There is something to be said about this possibly helping US re-industrialise over the longer term - but it’s not a guarantee and it does cause short term pain via inflation. Not to mention a damaged relationship with its neighbours. This is a interesting short vid on it: By the time all this happens even at best estimates of 3-5 years - wouldn’t the rapid advancements of AI which the US also want to speed run, end up swallowing the jobs they hope re-industrialising would have created? Many variables at play which makes it hard to predict outcomes. 80% of avocados come from Mexico - so for sure that guac gonna be extra lol

If it wasn’t so clear before - Denmark just gave Russia permission to carry out patch up work on Nord Stream 2. https://www.offshore-energy.biz/denmark-gives-permission-for-preservation-work-on-damaged-nord-stream-2-pipeline/ If Russia really blew up its own multibillion dollar energy infrastructure, why would it be scrambling to preserve what’s left of it? And why would Denmark, a NATO member, sign off on it? The silence from Germany, Sweden, and Denmark about their investigations into the sabotage only makes it more obvious who was really behind it. If even a tiny piece of evidence pointed to Russia, they’d have no issue shouting about it, as they already do so against Russia actions regarding Ukraine. Instead, they’re staying quiet because the truth points in a direction they’re too scared to confront: Washington. This in the backdrop of tensions over Greenland. Europe is finally realising where the true disorder is coming from: across the Atlantic.

Tit for tat now https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/feb/01/trump-tariffs-canada-mexico-china “The leaders of Canada and Mexico have hit back after Donald Trump signed an order authorizing drastic tariffs of up to 25% on their exports to the US, while China said it would complain to the World Trade Organization after it was also targeted by the president. Canada’s prime minister, Justin Trudeau, on Saturday night made a televised address announcing concrete measures including a tit-for-tat 25% tariff phased in across C$155bn ($107bn) worth of American products. Trudeau said Trump had put at risk US consumers’ and industries’ access to much-needed Canadian critical minerals and resources including oil, energy and timber. The prime minister promised to work with Canada’s provinces to review dealings with the United States.”

@Leo Gura True, it definitely has its pitfalls and risks. Maybe Russias version of multi-polarity is its polar bears eating us alive. PS I accept your sites cookies 😁

A governance system isn’t inherently good or bad except by those that make it so. Let’s see corporatocracy relinquish its power over the US. Then we can talk about how good a corporatocracy cosplaying as a democracy is. In China, faces don’t change, but the policies do to meet the changing needs of the people. In the US, the faces change in a political musical chairs of who gets to keep the seats warm, while no policy challenging the deep state corporate power structure ever shows its face. In China , the state directs capital. In the US, capital directs the state. In China, the state evolves for and with the people’s development. In the US, the state revolves around and for capital. Being politically centralized doesn’t translate to being unable to be pragmatic in geopolitics ie being multi polar. Internal governance is how you run your household, international relations is how you behave in the neighbourhood. You can be a strict parent at home but still shake hands and exchange cookies with the neighbour.

Darwinism (nature) is a constant in all time and place - but how Darwin the monkey is socialised (nurture) differs across time and place. Ideally, the raw nature of power is nurtured and refined through principles. Darwin is the hardware, physical, natural state of survival and competition. The social aspect is the software, psychology and cultural narrative that runs on top of that hardware. Social Darwinism is a fact of reality. But bad actors use this truth not as description but as prescription and license to indulge their power fantasies because “it’s just nature”. They turned Darwin into their personal hype man for empire. Different civilizations, different socialization of Darwin.

@Bobby_2021 I agree. Nothing wrong with countries striving to be dominant economic players - they just shouldn't economically dominate others which delves into economic imperialism, through coerced one sided deals that are extractive rather than productive. The Western sense of universal supremacy causes them to want primacy. If there’s a notoriously crazy driver (US) on the road, that incentives others to get bigger cars with better airbags and bumpers for survival. Imagine if instead of drivers needing to waste money on their cars (military expenditure) they could have spent it on their children's education (national development). Perhaps its better if the crazy driver gets off the road and goes to driving school or rehab. Instead of spurring on the world into militarization just to keep up, we should just rehabilitate the problem at its source. My response to Leo and Inleytened below reinforce your points about multi-polarity. @Inliytened1 It's a trap to conflate human nature with Western behavior - or to assume the Western worldview is universal. No nation is uniquely bad, but the West has been typically so if we examine history up to the present. Conquest and war have been the norm, but not all conquest and war were the same. The way power is exercised matters. Human nature is the same everywhere, including the nature of power - but nurture isn't the same everywhere. Not everyone in the same positions of power act the same way. John Mearsheimer style realism is only "real" about the nature of power - but completely blind to the power of nurture. While leftist naivety is blind to the power dynamics of survival, the realist view is blind to principles being able to nurture nature and power towards better ends. The belief that humans live only by power is Western nihilism disguised as realism - a projection of the Western psyche. Westerners are raised within a power structure where they have only ever seen power wielded as dominance, conquest, and supremacy. We project this assumption onto all other civilizations, believing that power can only function in a zero-sum game. This view is deterministic and fatalistic. It's no surprise that every major realist thinker comes from the West - because a civilization detached from the soul, shaped by atheistic materialism and Darwinism, cannot conceive of anything beyond the struggle for survival and domination. Western civilization has been dominance driven since its pagan origins. That harsh, cold and scarce environment shaped the psyche to value material accumulation, conquest and war as survival mechanisms. When Christianity arrived, it served as a counterpoint to that ethos - but the Western mind never fully internalized it. Instead of the principles of Christianity transforming the West, the West weaponized Christianity to serve imperial ambition and astro turfed it on top of the pagan ethos. This is why Nietzsche spoke of the tension in the Western soul between “master morality” (pagan dominance) and “slave morality” (Christian humility). The dominant ethos was never overturned, only temporarily restrained. Christianity became a tool of empire rather than a force that changed empire itself. As Christianity has declined in the West, its been replaced with Social Darwinism - survival of the fittest is treated as principle. The West never truly abandoned "might is right" - it only changed its justification. First it dressed up raw power in Christian language (Divine Right of Kings, Manifest Destiny). In modernity it dresses up power in the language of natural selection, competition, and market forces. Nationalist Christian neocons are larping as Christians. They use Christianity to cover their impulse for domination - their worldview is far closer to pagan tribalism than the teachings of Christ. Meanwhile, the secular left, despite rejecting and even mocking religion like rebellious teenagers - unknowingly inherit their moral compass from Christianity. Values like equality, justice, and human rights were not natural to pagan Europe but were introduced to the continent and injected into its bloodstream. Today the West is caught in a deep internal struggle between these two paradigms. A pagan, power driven ethos that prioritizes domination above all else VS a lingering Christian ideal that principles should transcend power and check its excesses. That tension manifests in politics, economics, and culture. This is why some elements reduce morality to power dynamics, and dismiss cooperation as naive. This is why some elements (who are unfortunately in the driving seat) within the West are so deterministic and fatalistic. It's not a universal law of human nature - it's a specific cultural conditioning that views power as the only reality and views the reality of power as only being dominating rather than liberating. The Western psyche mistake its own cultural psychology for universal truth. Civilization doesn't have to be a constant war of all against all. Multi-polarity can lead to anarchy due to corrupt actors, but uni-polarity inevitably corrupts the hegemon, which then abuses its position - causing anarchy anyway. As we have seen by the US’s actions in the last century. Multi-polarity is a system where multiple poles of power can act as checks and balances on one another. This is the same principle behind why democratic governance is considered superior within Western politics - so why not extend that logic internationally. In a world where power guarantees mutually assured destruction (MAD), survival itself can enforce cooperation. We don’t have to rely on ideals or principles for coexistence if self-interest alone compels it. That’s why the world hasn’t collapsed into total war since the Cold War. Mutually assured destruction has forced restraint, which is why on the contrary we "have nice things" at all. The question is, if arms races are so bad, why is the US sprinting toward doomsday? And who is the US even racing when it spends more on militarization than the next nine countries combined - include three times more than it's ''rival'' China. In reality, the US is just racing itself in a frenzy. It’s trapped in its own bubble imagining phantom enemies and boogeymen to justify its expansion. Multi-polarity means being arm in arm. Uni-polarity means arms up, flexing muscles. One is based on mutual security, the other on perpetual escalation. Not all arms races are the same. A system where multiple powers keep each other in check is far safer than one where a single, overarmed hegemon dictates terms until it collapses under its own weight - or traps itself (Thucydides's Trap) when it inevitably faces a rising power.

In practice, Multi-polarity leads to anarchy only if one or more actors insist on being on top, which in this case is the West/US - that is for sure not a mindset on par with multi-polarity. Just like how the West was right about needing to tackle the failed worldview of communism in the past, perhaps today the ones actually advocating for multi-polarity such as Russia, China etc are right in tackling the uni-polar hegemonic world view of the West. As mentioned in your first sentence - it's the selfishness and self-absorption of the West, and by extension the arrogance and supremacist worldview - that is a hindrance to multi-polarity, but you imply its the corruption of Putins worldview. I would reflexively think so too - shouldn't a nation with corrupted poor internal governance translate to poor international relations? Not necessarily. The distinction is that just because a actor wants to be on top of their own people, doesn't mean they want to be on top of everyone else - on top of the world. Putins kleptocracy can fail and in its current form it won't compete with the West for sure. That's different from it being unable to share power with others - as you've mentioned before somewhere, you don't think he's acting imperialistic, at least not yet. A leader can be corrupt in managing their own country but still pragmatic in external relations - they can be domestically extractive but not internationally expansionist. Imperialism doesn't just rely on internal corruption but requires a expansionist worldview. The US for example acts as if whatever benefits the US must benefit the entire world. China and Russia act in their own interest, but they don't universalize those interests into a imperialistic worldview that is incompatible with multi-polarity - which by extension is incompatible in the modern era. In the past we could afford to have a uni-polar hegemonic power, because the power to destroy the world many times over didn't exist. But in a world with multiple powers, which each have enough power to destroy the world many times over - there's no choice but to be multi-polar and share power with others, rather than have power over others - which is a worldview not on par with modern times and that the West currently holds.

This is Americas problem too, or more broadly the Wests. As above so below - Musk is the microcosm in the macrocosm of Western civilization. Can’t be at the table of multipolarity, just want to be at the head of it with all the arrogance that unipolarity brings - and is characteristic of the West. US hubris is doing a god job at isolating itself amongst its allies it seems:

Perplexity already incorporating DeepSeek.