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Then how did we get there? Military power alone isn't sufficient; we never conquered Europe. US GDP wasn't orders of magnitude greater that Europe's in the late 20th century. America became the Shining City Upon a Hill by producing film, TV, literature etc proclaiming itself to be so. No, cultural output isn't a geopolitical 'I WIN' button, but it's a piece of the puzzle.
I imagine it was a bit harder to spread propaganda in the age of sail, but who knows? Maybe you're right. I admit I'm ignorant as to what soft power the empire could wield in her day.
Yes, if we were playing a game of risk and you offered me a choice of a 7.5 million person city state that makes kung fu movies versus a 1.3 billion person police state I'd also choose the police state. Life isn't a Foundation novel.
But America is not HK, and...well...I guess China actually is China, but my point stands. I'd take America's soft power stat over China's any day.
Because if there's one great and terrible thing about the USA, it's that it's optimized for giving you what you want. You can have a big house in the suburbs with your own yard, you can have a giant car, you can do drugs, you can play video games for 16 hours a day, you can hire a tutor for your kid, you can get rich playing arcane financial games or spend your life moving bits around instead of manufacturing hard goods. Broadcasting that to the world makes people want to come here. People who explicitly do not want anyone else to come here are tarnishing that image because it furthers their goals.
I resent the accusation of podophilia. Feet are gross.
Regardless, it was just a joke that I thought you would find funny. You had a line 6 or 7 years ago about the tweet about BLM by some San Francisco teen thundering? trumpeting? across the Atlantic or something along those lines. I thought you'd also find it funny how quickly the child prodigy becomes the prodigal child (less the repentance) when a fickle crowd stops liking what you have to say.
As for the rest, why Argentina man? Aside from the aforementioned tango, what is there? A woman? Your other line that stuck with me was 'women demand, men provide.' Provide her the white picket fence and large backyard.
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