You're absolutely spot on about the inability to change someone's opinion, especially online. That's frustrating for sure and sad to see. Unfortunately, our new sites and media are so entrenched in their position for the fear of appearing weak to their base that they refuse to report facts and say anything negative about their party. Personally, I would like to see people spend a lot more time listening instead of trying to change people's opinions. It has to start there. When I get together friends and colleagues and sit around a table playing card games and drinking beers we seem to be able to have very civil conversations even though some are are staunch Republicans and some are very left liberals.
I disagree with your other points about the US and Russia and the golden image the US had. But that's okay to disagree. I believe we were at the point that the deficit could no longer be ignored and empowering terrorists... Since WWII aren't we the global terrorists?
We have taken on the burden of being the world protector while other countries standard of living and social benefits leapfrogged ours because they didn't have to pay their fair share in defense of the globe, and many other things. I don't see a problem with asking, and then demanding, that they begin to do so.
A million percent agree on other countries needing to carry their weight when it comes to defense spending including Canada, Our defense spending is a joke like most other NATO countries.
I also never had problems while talking with people in real life, but the internet seems to bring out the worst out of people. Acting the way people are acting on the internet in real life would get you ostracize and or beaten up real quick.
I disagree on the U.S being the global terrorist. You can't be both the world protectors and global terrorist to the same group of people. Protector of the west and democracy while being the bad guys to well, what we the west, consider bad guys. And that's where your golden image is being wiped off. Trump is acting like a bully to not just foes, but to allies as well. Instead of negotiating, he's trying to intimidate everybody and seems like coutries are calling him out on it. It severely weakens the nice but tough guy image the U.S enjoyed in the world and is pushing people away, much to the benefits of China and somewhat Russia. Not as much for Russia now, as it's busy dealing with a war.
It also doesn't help that from an exterior point of view, your democracy appears to be in shamble and on the verge of imploding. The U.S has a president that is trying to remove everyone at the highest level of government and replace them with his cronies. This is the beginning of a dictatorship, but it's not only limited to just doing that, there's a whole list of actions that are extremely concerning.
- That same president is being heavily influenced by what appears to be social media influencers, a mad billionaire and a group of ultra hardcore conservatives.
- He's also de-funding the public education system in a time of disinformation and pushing back on news agency that do not portray him in a good way.
- On top of that, he's trying to completely disregards the U.S justice system and play down significant classified information leakage, again...
- The final cherry on top of the sundae is menacing traditional allies with economic war while getting no real concessions or improvement out of them.
- No countries have committed anything significant to the U.S while the cost is being directly passed down to U.S citizens.
- There's no easy replacements for the goods and raw materials coming from other countries with the way capitalism works today, everything was setup to be the cheapest possible.
- This is bringing the country into a recession with a massive boost to inflation with no real gain for either the average Jo's, the defense complex or the companies.
At the same time, it's not all bad, there are some gold nuggets that can be found.
- The tariffs on China are good as it highlights the current heavy China dependency for most goods.
- The argument about other countries needing to spend more on defense.
- The non-sense that DEI is/was
Unfortunately, right now, it's being overshadowed by all of the things mentioned above.
Again, this is from the perspective of someone that is not a U.S citizen, is looking from the outside and is concerned about you guys.
