
The Geopolitics of American Fear - handedness
https://zeihan.com/the-geopolitics-of-american-fear/
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axguscbklp
Zeihan is an interesting counterweight to the "America is a declining empire"
crowd of analysts, but IMO he goes too far in the other direction even while
he makes some good points. This article doesn't even feel objective to me - it
feels like a paroxysm of America-worship.

Statements like "America has a near-infinite capacity to act, a near-immunity
to blowback, and a near-zero concern for consequence" are silly given that
there are multiple independent nuclear powers in the world which are capable
of striking the US mainland.

~~~
handedness
The US can elect the less-qualified candidate almost every time, wage
simultaneous, ill-defined, decades-long wars, all while passing some of the
worst laws on the planet, yet somehow still enjoys unprecedented levels of
domestic peace and prosperity the vast majority of the time. Its margin of
error is the biggest on the planet and by a very, very large margin.

No other significant power could do any of those things for terribly long
without experiencing consequences, much less all of them simultaneously for
extended periods.

While Zeihan's style may tend a little towards the hyperbolic, his
counterweight is to the endless number of commentators who talk about China as
if it's a cohesive entity, Europe as thought it's one big happy family that
hasn't spent nearly all of its history at war with itself, and Saudi Arabia as
an actual country with more than one asset, and not as a landed family with a
large payroll of disgruntled house help.

In that context, his statements are more instructive than they seem out of
context.

~~~
elsurudo
Interesting perspective. The Homer Simpson to the rest of the world's Frank
Grimes.

