Minus the fact that most Germans did not have weapons in the Weimarer Republic
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Minus the fact that most Germans did not have weapons in the Weimarer Republic
That’s a valid point, but i think it’s mute. There are pretty much two options, soviet, planned economic style or further open capitalism. The U.S. doesn’t have all resources and the world moves on without the U.S. if it has to. Not only that: Most of the innovation comes from progressive states. If those people just pack up and go somewhere else, things are looking rather bleak for increasing trade. So if there’s nobody to be able to pay for it and nobody to design it…things aren’t going to increase anything, they are going to decrease “all around”.
I mean, “change” per se isn’t necessarily something bad. Meaning, stuff needs to last longer (again) in those cases. Planned Obsolescence is a real thing, that’s however only economical as long as raw materials are relatively cheap. But it would be nice if companies just did that change, instead of being forced in to it…
Short term, though, would be similar to a collapse of civilization.
Would it? Civilization doesn’t depend on bleeding edge high tech. Sure, it depends on tech, but look around who’s making ICs or basic processors that are in machine control panels and all the millions of appliances. AMD, Intel, Qualcomm, Broadcom do the “heavy lifting” in terms of monetary value, but in overall quantity? Samsung, SK Hynix, STMicroelectronics, Infineon, Sony, Renesas and NXP are the ones that make the world go round. Infineon is German, NXP is Dutch, Renesas is Japanese, STMicroelectronics is Swiss. The thing that’s really going to hurt is Foxconn, but they are probably global enough to withstand that. There’s also many, many more local players. BOSCH for example has very high capacities for everything up to 80 Nanometers (Pentium 3/4, Athlon 64…)
Civilization would crack, sure - but i don’t think it would collapse. Society on the other hand…that’s a different paper.
Meh. The U.S. probably are also going to be one of the most affected and if Trump enacts all his economic ideas, the U.S. Economy will tank HARD, meaning the contribution to climate change will shrink regardless.
US military power already far exceeds that of every other country on Earth.
That isn’t entirely true. Looking at soldier numbers in general, NATO without the U.S. has ~ 1.2 Million active, the U.S. as a whole over all branches has roughly 1.4 Million - that’s however including National Guard. Without that, it’s 1.1 Million. Most NATO countries however do reserves different, Germany alone has 930k in Reserves (meaning, they either had military training or are receiving it on a rotational basis), the U.S. has ~ 300k. All of that combined gives Europe roughly 2.5 Million Soldiers that can be put in to service very fast. Since organizational structures are very similar on all accounts, if need be, that would happen fast. Remember, the EU also has very similar guarantees as NATO, meaning if one is attacked, the others vowed to help. If Europe actually tried with their military spending, we’d be able to outspend the U.S. by a lot - easily. Keep in mind…we’re (=Europe) supplying Ukraine with more than the U.S. does, and most of our arms industry is still not even trying. Airbus, Rheinmetall, BAE, KMW, Navantia, Safran, ThyssenKrupp…they are all “trotting along” right now. Except Nuclear Threats, the U.S. hasn’t got much to “best” others, IF Europe actually kicks in to gear (granted, that all needs the European Union not to crumble as well…) even technology wise the U.S. isn’t that “overwhelming”. Look up U33 and U32 - they both sank entire U.S. Carrier Groups in many simulations regularly - they still do. Hell, they even put two Los-Angeles class U-Boats to shame, they sunk them too. Most of the European U-Boats are pretty similar on that aspect as well, the Italians actually have the same and the French Triomphant-class isn’t that bad either.
Germany’s “collapse” of a Coalition is not necessarily something unprecedent. It has happened a few times and is also a sign for a very healthy democracy. In Germany, most of the governing power comes from ministries and state secretaries - those do not change with the collapse of a coalition. Our system is more robust than that of the U.S. against those kinds of issues (it isn’t when the truth just get’s thrown out of the window) - however, i also believe that the U.S. System is more robust than most of you give it credit.
And i agree, it’s unfair, but as an educated immigrant, actually wanting to work and putting the effort in to learn the language and be considerate of the culture - you’ll be fine, even with more right leaning governments throughout Europe.
And now do some basic Google Foo and find out what is manufactured in Taiwan. If China gets it’s way, because Trump thinks Xi is cool and he’s a good guy, China will just waltz in - TSMC, ASML and Trumpf have some safeguards in place as far as I know to destroy anything valuable. So while you might want to buy shit, you can’t because the Cheeto and his cronies collapsed it.
Hitler had a lot of help, the economic hardships were a lot different and the Weimarer Republik was already weakened thanks to Heinrich Brüning and Paul von Hindenburg. The Weimarer Republik also did not have nearly as much safeguards as both the U.S. and for example modern Germany have. Not only that: There are still people that care and still people to fight. Trump and his cronies still have quite a bit of work to do - not only that, i believe they will stack their cards so badly and defund so many things, many Systems will just crumble. Hackers around the world are licking their fingers right now. ODNI, the FBI and CISA are instrumental in fighting all of that. Tanking them will wreack havoc and open so many doors, i’ll be surprised if the U.S. makes it unharmed to the midterms.
The thing is…what if they are going down the Putin route and start throwing nuclear threats around? Anyone remember Trump trying to nuke a hurricane? Fascism and having a very rough 4 years is one thing…but as a European, that actually scares me a lot more. Because if they decide, well, Europe is unfriendly…we’ll just nuke them…whose going to stop them this time around?
Silver lining could be, they’ll just do a lot of infighting and bickering and do not get stuff done properly. There’s a very slim chance that the U.S. Democracy can withstand that again.
Vaccines and medications help in stopping the spread of diseases. If the rest of the world can’t make sure the US plays after international rules, they can’t let anyone or anything from the US in
Not only are a lot of people going to die, the EU is going to be on some “bad” list very soon, because free travel and any kind of “free” shipping won’t be possible anymore - and I’d say even some Asian, African and maybe even Australia are going to follow that, heck, maybe even Canada. Although I’m not sure if Canada is able to actually do that…
Berlusconi let others do the job of governing…people that lined their pockets as well, but at least we’re somewhat decent at actual governing compared to what Trump’s second cabinet’s probably going to be.
Goof luck for the companies depending on VPNs…but hey, Donnie’s going to crash the economy anyway, so why fret.
I honestly don’t know where we go from here as a nation, and I fear folks like that will be the first casualties if the worst comes to pass.
I mean, as deeply saddening as this sounds, the reality of it is…that issue will resolve it self. Ignorance is bliss…you won’t even know what hit you. And i’m beginning to think i should take that stance and just ignore everything and just carry on. Told a friend that, he immediately said, nope, you’re way too decent of a human being for that…so we’re going to suffer together.
Sitting here in Germany, looking at the shambles of our political landscape, looking over at you, reading this and remembering Trump saying to/about Musk that he’s “a genius” and America doesn’t have many of them left…i can only laugh at the utterly infuriating powerlessness against such kind of disregard for basically anything that has changed since the dark ages and the utter ignorance. My anger is slowly shifting to sorrow…
From my (probably) ignorant European/German viewpoint, don’t many Democrats also own Guns? I still believe the average American has very different viewpoints than the average russian (they had to deal with that kind of shit for over 60 years now) and are a lot less apathetic…i’m not entirely sure if trump goes on a “people falling out of windows” spree you guys are just going to accept it and fall over. Granted, i’ve been moping the last few days probably the same (many of you probably don’t realize how influential the U.S. still is), but i don’t think it’s “Game Over” per se…
So…yeah…there’s still a little glimmer of hope, that glimmer being at least 40% of american people…
At least right now, our checks and balances still work. And they are a lot harder to break down than in the U.S., but the writing is on the wall here as well. I guess we, people who lean more center or left, are going to have to find different ways to combat all that batshit crazy stuff going on in the U.S. that maybe even ended the world as we know it… The Grundgesetz is also a bit more modern than the Constitution, meaning it has more safety features…
That however only works in a sort of sane, trusting and honest environment - basically something to undermine to begin with. If everyone is just utterly hellbend on lying and twisting reality, it becomes just noise and has no impact.
Capaldi and Matt Smith are my personal Favorites. I like Tennant, but the utter “sassyness” of Smith and Capaldis versions where sublime to me…
Do not forget, the Germans didn’t have Weapons at that time AND there was way less to actually organize - you can fight this! And do not let people tell you, Germans just did go with it.