Fascism in America Means Destruction Elsewhere
I’ve had some awkward convos in Asia along the lines of: “Aren’t you glad you have a strong man as president?” My response is, “I didn’t vote for that rapist. I voted for the prosecutor who put rapists in jail.”
This administration is literally stealing our financial data and enforcing White rule.
Meanwhile, distress from my Canadian, European, and Australian friends. Germans and Italians in particular who know what this all could mean.
Despite so much of Asia under the US’s security shield, the general lack of teaching critical thinking in Asian education systems, authoritarian and patriarchal tendencies, and a lack of shared identity around defeating the Nazis and Soviet Union lead to odd conversations.
I can’t really blame people. A lot of this is just ignorance and people’s own agendas. After all, there wasn’t an external occupying pressure to teach about the horrors of the Nazis after Asia had to fight its own wars against the horrors of expansionist Japan. People live in relatively homogenous societies and aren’t really taught about racism in a nuanced way. The average person thinks fundamentally differently about ethnicity and the nation state. People are also justified in not wanting to live in an American-led world and have different values. I don’t personally subscribe to the idea that the US should ever have been “trying to spread democracy.”
However, I do personally believe in the ideas of fairness, equality, free enterprise, and the pursuit of happiness. What I wish people would understand that what is happening is the opposite of that, and that cruelty is the point. I miss a lot about living in the US. I’ll be super excited about so much whenever I move back, but I’m not going to enjoy and will resist those trying to enforce a racial caste system.
I actually don’t doubt Americans and America surviving the Trump administration, though it might take at least a generation to rebuild and the costs will be heartbreaking. Love it or hate it, and despite the avaricious greed of the ruling class, we are a warrior culture. When I think of the cultural differences between me and the average Taiwanese person, seeing violence and conflict as legitimate ways to solve problems ranks high on the list.
The America I knew as a youth is probably one I won’t see again in my lifetime. It’s likely the end of imperial power even as most Americans are ignorant of how much we benefit from being a maritime empire. It’s ironic because so much of this is motivated by how expensive things are. Just you wait.
I think the rest of the world could end off a lot worse. I think the inward turn goes beyond this current political cycle and could be generational. The average American voter is unlikely to make the connection of how the Ukraine conflict has reverberations back to their own pocketbooks. They’re focused on the fentanyl crisis literally on their doorstep. A vibe swath of the electorate sees Ukraine and the near unconditional military support of Israel as an example of the military taking away our resources for foreigners. The sentiment that “there’s homeless outside while Ukraine and Israel get bombs” has become a compelling narrative.
Russia and China could never win against the United States economically or militarily, but unleashing propaganda tools against a divided public for them to act against their material interests, weaken society, and destroy our alliances has proven devastatingly effective.
Korea, Japan, Taiwan, and the Philippines are going to have to figure it out. Europe — in particular Germany which has its own serious problems — is going to have to figure it out. From a foreign policy perspective, Israel is the priority of the Christian Fundamentalists (the reasons are more insane than you think) that support the Trump-Vance administration, not Europe or Asia. The American people or a peaceful world order are not the priority of this administration, enriching themselves and their cronies at any cost are.
