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Edited by Mrph1 on Nov 30th 2023 at 11:03:59 AM
@sgamer: By almost every metric would be more appropriate. Ironically, we got there by sitting out World War 2 as long as politically possible, which left the United States as the stronger by far of the two great powers left standing after the war.
The US is strong, but, in many ways it's quite lacking in regards to how it treats its citizens and citizens of other nations. But that's not a metric that directly factors into the power of nations.
edited 12th Jul '16 7:02:08 AM by CaptainCapsase
WWII America capitalized on nearly 150 years of Hamiltonian development of its industrial base, which, combined with geographical isolation and a wealth of natural resources, allowed us to ramp up our materiél production to levels that Germany and Japan simply could not withstand over time. Based on economic factors alone, our victory was inevitable, and as noted it left us as the sole industrial power that had not seen massive wartime damage to its infrastructure. The Marshall Plan, in turn, guaranteed that the dollar would become the world's reserve currency over the mid-20th century, as most of the post-war reconstruction lending was in dollars. Our global military presence helped to spread our political influence, and our economic power helped to spread our cultural influence.
All of those things helped mask all the internal issues we had yet to address, however, and we're feeling the pain from that now.
"It's Occam's Shuriken! If the answer is elusive, never rule out ninjas!"@Rational: Had the US involved itself immediately upon the star of the war, there wouldn't have been nearly as much devastation in the world's traditional power centers, and the world would likely have remained relatively multipolar, with the British Empire and the Soviet Union and perhaps also Japan (if it didn't throw its lot in with the Axis) remaining credible barriers to American hegemony.
Of course, the geographic isolation of the States is one of the big reasons we remained out of the war for so long. As much as we brag about "stopping Hitler", historians more or less agree that the Soviet Union was the biggest contributor to the allied war effort.
edited 12th Jul '16 7:36:13 AM by CaptainCapsase
One should note that metrics of "greatest in history, ever" are relative. Saying one is greater than, say, the Roman Empire, is easy when said empire had no access to airplanes. Technology changes the baseline, and the baseline is always changing. Which is why the sentiment sounds increasingly hollow, and has since the beginning of the millenium.
Russia won in part thanks to massive food and materiél aid from the United States, so while it certainly bore the largest share of the Allied casualties, it's not fair to say that it won the war by itself.
"It's Occam's Shuriken! If the answer is elusive, never rule out ninjas!"
That's the problem with "greatest empire ever": there's always another one along in a few hundred years. Claiming the same, damn thing.
Even China has a conveyer belt of empires claiming to be of a single, continuous line. Honest. Seriously, guys — same deal. Really. Just ignore all the revolts, revolutions and civil wars around incrediblly major shifts in socio-economic politics. Really, honestly... we're at five thousand years and still going strong, here! Of course we are! Greatest empire, ever!
edited 12th Jul '16 7:50:38 AM by Euodiachloris
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There's no historical mandate for empires to last. If the United States stays a global power, it'll be because we worked to maintain it, not because we sat on our asses. But if some other power does supplant us, well, we'll survive. It might hurt our feelings but we'll get along somehow, as people do.
It's to be expected. In addition to the fact that "Bernie or Bust" was never as large a percentage of the Sanders crowd as some feared, there's also the fact that many of the people who were "Bernie or Bust" were just blowing smoke.
It's easy to talk. Make idle threats, demand your way, etc. It's a narrative that gives a sense of power to disenfranchised folks. "You will accept my candidate, or I will throw this entire country into chaos. It's my way or the highway, baby! I hold the cards! I can damn the world on a whim!"
But when push comes to shove, far fewer people are actually petty enough to hand the nation to a deranged madman out of spite. They might talk it up because - for some reason - people still think that forceful threats will get results, but they don't actually want to pull the trigger. They're just talking out of desperation.
So, naturally, a shrinking population of "Bernie or Bust" supporters is inevitable as we move closer and closer to November. The rage burns itself out, as rage always does, and once they've calmed down, they take a serious look at their candidates and then quietly excuse themselves from the Doom the World Festival.
Some things are worth being angry about. Some things cannot be compromised.
edited 12th Jul '16 8:16:28 AM by TobiasDrake
My Tumblr. Currently side-by-side liveblogging Digimon Adventure, sub vs dub."Some things cannot be compromised."
Some examples of this:
- "Let's just agree to disagree. I'll keep my slaves over here, and you can not keep slaves over there."
- "You can ban rape in your college, as long as you don't mess with mine."
- "You don't want me to hang black people, and I want to hang all the black people. So we'll compromise and I'll only hang half of them."
edited 12th Jul '16 8:31:08 AM by Fighteer
"It's Occam's Shuriken! If the answer is elusive, never rule out ninjas!"What about Indentured Servitude, Wage Slavery, and Questionable Consent?
edited 12th Jul '16 8:25:22 AM by TheHandle
Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.

Strongest economy as well. By far.
Si Vis Pacem, Para Perkele