Thread

Is it not obvious? Since WW2 we have underwritten European social welfare states by subsidizing defense. We secure sea lanes and choke points (Suez, Hormuz). Which protects global trade. We provide cheap financing to Europe and access to our deep liquid markets. We give you geopolitical insulation from Russia and china. In short you enjoy peace, trade and welfare at a heavily subsidized cost due to American strength.

And of course US does this out of kindness of its heart. Like everything in the world. Of course it is not its own choice and will and it definitely gets nothing in return.

It’s all for dollar dominance / protection of the Eurodollar system

Typical ignorant American take. First of all, nobody asked for the “security subsidies.” They were part of post-WWII arrangements hugely beneficial to the US, turbocharging your military-industrial complex and retroactively justifying NATO’s existence. Second, one of the prerequisites for NATO membership was drastic reductions in military personnel and the forced replacement of operational Russian/European-made equipment with overpriced US hardware, financed through debt contracts settled in US Treasuries. We also devalued our own currencies to build dollar reserves for our banking systems, in some cases exceeding 30% of national GDP. Third, we replaced home-grown food of real variety and quality with American-made slop that tastes like shit and makes people sick, courtesy of your “free trade” deals. Fourth, go tell all of Eastern Europe that you insulated it from Russian influence. It’s alive and well today, 36 years after the collapse of the USSR. Fifth, the welfare state and NGO ecosystem are another imported cancer. First dumped on Western Europe, which was already industrialized and didn’t need it, then imposed on Eastern Europe, where it ended up subsidizing the laziest ethnic groups at the expense of everyone else’s wages - wages so low that if you actually saw how low they are, you’d assume people in EE live on the streets. So again: thanks for your hegemony benefits. Kindly take them back.

You’re agreeing that everything I said is reality. You just don’t like it. Which is fine because I don’t like it either. I think Europe should stand on its own.

No doubt!

The question was where are the so called benefits from American hegemony. All I see are tradeoffs. Unless you meant benefits for the USA, because then we’re in full agreement.

The big benefit to Europe is the money spent on social programs that would have otherwise been spent on defense.

💯🎯

Hey man, take the hit. Tauri is teaching you in various ways and form, and is absolutely nailed it. Don´t pretend that US are the fucking bulli.

Wut

> replacement of operational Russian/European-made equipment with overpriced US hardware Yeah, everyone can see how great that Russian equipment you laud is. Billions in Russian materiel sent to Caracas for air defense, and Americans flew right in with helicopters and picked Maduro out of his palace while pissing on Chavez’s grave with a JDAM. It’s so terrible European air defenses are built by an actually competent country, they should have some fucking trash from retarded ziggers instead!

"Interesting perspective! I think there’s a lot of nuance in these discussions. Europe has its own unique strengths and challenges. It’s always good to explore different viewpoints! 🌍✨"

Russian hardware from late soviet era was pretty reliable. That was precisely the period when most non-founding members rushed into NATO. Aircraft built in the 1980s were still flying real missions well into the 2020s. It’s worth asking how many 40-year-old American aircraft are doing frontline security work today without endless refits and life-extension programs. Meanwhile, Western fanboys like yourself spent years insisting that Russian equipment would fold instantly on the Ukrainian battlefield. Instead, we’ve watched hundreds of billions in top-of-the-line Western systems get reduced to scrap by what you smugly dismiss as “Stone Age Soviet tech.” And if you genuinely believe Maduro’s abduction happened without Moscow’s agreement, I’ve got a shitcoin with your name on it. Deals like that don’t happen by accident. Much more likely, it was another quiet backroom trade by Putin and Trump - Maduro in exchange for more favourable terms for the peace deal in Ukraine, or something to that tune.

Didn’t know you’re such a fan of the welfare state.

Like I said above I wish it wasn’t so.

Yup Maduro was most probably sold out by his generals. There has been 0 resistance. Coruption is a bitch but also US show of force was big. Thats nice analysis of the attack.

i think europeans are unable to comprehend that people are able to discuss the realities of what is happening and that is separate from saying that you support or oppose the thing lol

I think Americans are unable to comprehend that Europeans are not a single country.

You said there are benefits and the welfare system is among them.

europe is irrelevant

So will be the American empire when it inevitably collapses.

yup

It was a trap, and the USA stepped right into it (deliberately?).