The U.S. has dominated the UN to the point where the UN is no longer credible. The U.S. staunchly promoted the authority of the Hague over everyone else while simultaneously denying its jurisdiction over U.S. corporations and citizens. The U.S. sat idly by while it's own corporations triggered famines and genocide, all to make a buck. The U.S. actively deposed unfriendly democracies and propped up friendly despots. The U.S. even failed to meet it's obligations in trade treaties, making any country who has signed a free trade treaty with the U.S. look foolish for allowing themselves to be made less "equal" than the U.S. is.
If China supplants the U.S. as the world's preeminent superpower only a small percentage of the world's populations will really notice. Ask yourselves this: If the U.S. was such a great brother to the world, why is that world so eager to deal with "the dreaded communist enemy"? China and Russia are both countries with dubious records in many respects, but the U.S. has behaved badly enough that the devil the world knows is no more appealing than the devils they do not know. Russia and China are probably torturing their prisoners, just as the U.S. is, but are they eavesdropping on every single conversation of entire nations? Are they trying to reforge the internet so that their corporations can make a few more bucks? Are they pressuring other nations to enact draconian anti-piracy laws that stifle innovation?
I'm not anti-American. The U.S. has explored more of space than any other nation. The U.S. is the world's longest surviving democracy, even if that democracy has been perverted into a plutocracy. Despite how the country is run and the dubious quality of its own students, the U.S.'s post-secondary academic institutions are still second to none, largely because they attract the world's best and brightest. However, the notion that U.S. control of the world is a fundamentally good thing is ridiculous, and it's past time even americans dropped it. Quite frankly, americans have squandered the gifts of their forefathers and desperately need to earn their place in the world again. The U.S. simply has not been a beacon to the world for a good long time.
"but are they eavesdropping on every single conversation of entire nations?"
China is, almost certainly. They have legions of hackers, spies, and sniffers in a constant state of attack on almost every communications system in the industrialized world.
The only difference between our program and theirs is that theirs isn't (yet) as effective. But it'll get there. In the meantime, their authoritarian system controls for leaks more effectively than our government does. There are fewer would-be Edward Snowdens in China, and any that do exist are locked up in camps somewhere.
I'm not here to justify any of the charges you're (quite correctly) leveling against the US. But let's not be naive. Any of the things you mentioned we're doing -- surveillance, corporatism, internet protectionism, etc. -- China is doing, and Russia would do if it had the capability.
Nobody's hands are clean here. I think that's your main point, and to a large extent, I agree. But we shouldn't weaken that point by attempting to argue degrees of it. Especially when those degrees are largely a matter of technical capability, not ethical inclination. Any dirty deeds we're doing that Russia and China aren't, Russia and China can't yet do. They would if they could.
> Ask yourselves this: If the U.S. was such a great brother to the world, why is that world so eager to deal with "the dreaded communist enemy"?
The world is not eager to deal with Russia or China on any sort of strategic level. Repressive regimes like Iran, Assad's Syria, and North Korea are the only nations who have strong strategic alliances with China and Russia. Everyone else is happy to trade when them when they get a good deal, but that's it.
This is also why I doubt that the U.S. place in the world is endangered any time soon.
For genocide, try looking up the 1954 Guatemala coup, in which case the CIA got involved directly at the behest of Coca-Cola and the United Fruit Company (now Chiquita).
I haven't read this book yet, so I don't know about "triggered" vs. "enabled," but it seems relevant (came up in a talk about American companies providing deep packet inspection / internet censorship tools to, eg., Iran.)
If China supplants the U.S. as the world's preeminent superpower only a small percentage of the world's populations will really notice. Ask yourselves this: If the U.S. was such a great brother to the world, why is that world so eager to deal with "the dreaded communist enemy"? China and Russia are both countries with dubious records in many respects, but the U.S. has behaved badly enough that the devil the world knows is no more appealing than the devils they do not know. Russia and China are probably torturing their prisoners, just as the U.S. is, but are they eavesdropping on every single conversation of entire nations? Are they trying to reforge the internet so that their corporations can make a few more bucks? Are they pressuring other nations to enact draconian anti-piracy laws that stifle innovation?
I'm not anti-American. The U.S. has explored more of space than any other nation. The U.S. is the world's longest surviving democracy, even if that democracy has been perverted into a plutocracy. Despite how the country is run and the dubious quality of its own students, the U.S.'s post-secondary academic institutions are still second to none, largely because they attract the world's best and brightest. However, the notion that U.S. control of the world is a fundamentally good thing is ridiculous, and it's past time even americans dropped it. Quite frankly, americans have squandered the gifts of their forefathers and desperately need to earn their place in the world again. The U.S. simply has not been a beacon to the world for a good long time.