> The world is complicated, but I honestly believe that last 70 years or so of geopolitics makes more sense if I start with the assumption that the USA are "the bad guys."

The world makes more sense if you assume there are no good and bad guys, but just self-interested actors. USA does good things when it benefits them but also bad things when it benefits them. Same with everyone else, usa just is slightly more incentivized to take a soft power approach.