From dead thread:

re: #87 Anymouse 🌹

When the world looked around after World War 2, the only major power that was not smashed into rubble was the United States. At that moment, we were effectively an empire (even if we didn’t call ourselves such).

Actually, that’s similar to what Immanuel Wallerstein has been saying for ages, albiet from a more geopolitical sense: that the US has been an empire (He uses the term “hegemon”.) since the end of WW2.

However, the difference is: he’s been arguing since I don’t know when- I first came across his work in the early 2000s- that the US actually lost it’s hegemony at the start of the 1970s, and has since been fighting a rear-guard action to mitigate the effects of this, and the most effective Presidents have been the ones that mitigate the effects well, and the Presidents that fight against mitigating the effects are in fact accelerating the decline of the US’s geopolitical power.

He’s also arguing that capitalism, as it is, is reaching its limits, and is becoming increasingly unstable.

I don’t always agree with what he says, but I find his bi-monthly commentaries are definitely an interesting read.