I'm an American, but I do not think the American government being strong helps me or my fellow Americans. The less America can project its cultural and military power on the rest of the world, the better.

There are different kinds of strengths. There was a past American government that was strong enough to stamp out inequality and fight for civil rights. To overturn oppression and give everyone an equal opportunity to succeed. That's a strong American government I could get behind.

That is quite a take, but I guess it's the perspective that the American education system indoctrinates.

Economic inequality is higher than it's ever been in the US. The reforms you're talking about largely happened in the single term of LBJ, I don't think it can be extrapolated to the "US government"

> There was a past American government that was strong enough to stamp out inequality and fight for civil rights.

this is a hilariously naive rewriting of history, the government was very reluctant to make those changes. It's thanks to popular movements that those changes were made.

I'm thinking specifically of the Little Rock Nine in 1957 where President Eisenhower took charge of the national guard so that nine Black students could attend high school. The government isn't one monolithic entity. It's a bunch of people doing different stuff, and some of them suck, and some of them are awesome.

> The government isn't one monolithic entity

Ok but when you said "There was a past American government that was strong enough to stamp out inequality" you did not make that distinction. The US government in 50s and 60s was not responsible for giving you civil rights, it was popular movements.

Yes. We can go into a whole history lesson and you can call me naive some more if it makes you feel bigger but doesn't seem like fun. To go back to my original point, a strong American government is a good thing in the places where it can do good, and is a bad thing in places where it will do bad. I would like the government to step in a build more housing, for example. A weak government can't do that. The market's failed to do that for all sorts of reasons.

I see this narration repeated here, but to me it seems Americans are actually one of the most self-cynical nations. Here in Poland we still actually believe in the superiority of the western values of freedom, democracy and individualism. "People roughly like us" vs "insect hivemind" is the simplest choice ever.

Please reconsider this comment. Calling one side superior and the other side insects really doesn't help with the discussion, and dehumanizing a whole swath of people really has dark consequences.

Yeah, sorry for being edgy. But remember the understanding of universal human dignity your comment is stemming from is not shared globally.

At least not shared by you, apparently.

That's why I'm inferior!

Speak for yourself, in Italy we are also closer to US "culture", but I do see the US as a bigger threat than China, simply because it's closer and it directly affects our politics.

This sounds like you are urging people not to disregard racism when comparing superpower regimes.

Dont pretend americans dont need to be afraid of american government. look at the state of the place. A lot of them arent exactly thrilled with their current environment, job market, education, prisonsystem, gun laws, food industry, healthcare etc. etc.

the question is valid for anyone who cares for more than their own ass

The American government has caused the death of a lot more Americans than China has.

Cultural revolution?

How many Americans were killed during the Cultural revolution?

> The American government has caused the death of a lot more Americans than China has.

COVID came from a Chinese lab and killed millions. I had a loved one die. I’ll never forget.

Ironically funded by US taxes, if you believe this hypothesis to be true.

What does that have to do with anything? If I pay the salary of a driver and they decide to drink and run over a family it's in no way my fault.

If you pay a researcher to do gain of function research on dangerous viruses, and that research end up causing a global pandemic, you are absolutely to blame.

that is not correct in the slightest. It would only be your blame if you built and managed the lab. The lab is not US owned or managed, it's up to the lab who claims they can safely work on dangerous viruses to ensure that they keep it contained. They still own and manage and are responsible for the lab, the US just paid them for research. It's no different than the US contracting space onboard SpaceX rockets, the US isn't then suddenly responsible if the rocket misdirects and hits someone's house.

The client is absolutely responsible. If they fund the lab, they are absolutely responsible for how the lab is conducting it's research.

I can't believe I have to type this out.

This has gotta be a troll man. They aren't responsible for poor security measures. They are only responsible for what is outlined in the thing they pay for. I'm gonna mute this thread purely because I'm pretty certain you're trolling for the sake of it. If for some reason you aren't trolling, take a business ethics and responsibilities course, there's some free ones online, or you could talk to a lawyer you might know, either one should help you understand.

XD business ethics and lawyers, sure mate.

Have a nice day.

After all of these years, no link between China and CoV2 virus was found[1][2]. Evidence points out that virus was originated few months earlier (September-October 2019) and outside of China. Wuhan was first city where CoV2 meet Swine Flu, which raised both infection rate and death rate (from 1.1% for CoV2 and 0.1% for Swine Flu to 5.4%).

Evidence points to Russia, where major incident happen at Sep 16, 2019[3] "Vector" BSL4 lab in Koltsovo (Novosibirsk), where unprotected first responders entered BSL4 lab and stole lab equipment. Then virus transferred to Wuhan by Chinese military police after joint training with Russian military in Koltsovo few weeks later after the incident.

[1]: https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-024-03982-2

[2]: https://www.cell.com/cell/fulltext/S0092-8674(25)00353-8

[3]: https://thebulletin.org/2019/09/an-explosion-rocked-a-russia...

Considering who has been their president for 2 terms, and most likely a third one, I really wonder.

All my life I heard American boasting their constitutions but now it's as worthy of my toilet papers.

Turns out the whole system is quite fragile when faced with people who have no interest in anyone besides themselves