Trump fundamentally misunderstands how power really works. Power doesn’t mean others kiss your boot and give you peace prizes. People hate being ruled over. They absolutely hate it. So you have to hide your power through, ideology, laws and institutions. Galeev explains it well [1].
This is how American imperialism works. The American led western liberal order was an unprecedented alliance and America was the house. The house doesn’t win all the time, but everything is rigged in its favour.
The issue is that there is no 4d chess at play here. Trump has a narcissistic personality disorder combined with dementia and has surrounded himself by yes-men.
I agree that there is no 4d chess here but I disagree that Trump actually does or decides anything.
At this point I'm suspicious of any viewpoint that posits Trump as a president/person with an agenda. I'm pretty baffled by the serious policy "experts" analyzing his actions and trying to determine cause and effect.
It's pretty clear to me he's a demented old man reading off the teleprompter. I'm sure he finds all these duties of presidency pretty hard and tiring on his body and mind. I feel that all he really thinks about is golfing, his estate business, increasing his wealth through other means like crypto scams and the like, and always getting more attention which he desperately craves.
The White House administration, intelligence services and the Pentagon collectively decide what to do, be that invading Greenland, Venezuela or the like. Trump has occasional stupid demands as well, like the FIFA Peace Prize which I'm sure the admin staff find very hilarious but comply regardless to make his little boy wishes happen to preserve the status quo.
Even more spicy takes: The only reason the societal divide exists in the US today is Meta. Facebook and Instagram. When people are exposed to entirely separate spheres of content for hours a day every day their opinion changes slowly but surely and there's pretty much no escaping it.
I don't use any social media besides HN (which no doubt also does this covert influencing). I can spot a person's social media app of choice is in 5 minutes. They literally change a person's character and the way they speak.
--> I can spot a person's social media app of choice is in 5 minutes.
I find this sadly hilarious. What are the current tells you see? I'm similar in that I read a lot of HN and don't have other social media accounts. But I couldn't even guess at what a person's preferred social media is.
I can spot it because I used the various social media apps in the past for a time.
X users will start intensely talking about societal/political issues in the first 5 minutes of introduction.
Facebook users will often belong to the conservative political party of any given country and will start talking about one of the numerous conspiracy theories that provide a simplistic and satisfying yet false explanation to the complex reality of the current world.
Instagram users will almost always have the implicit belief that the most important thing in life is to be rich or a celebrity. The platform just implants that into their mind. It takes a bit getting to know the person to see that.
Snapchat users are teens/college/youth who are usually very social.
Reddit users? I can spot them by their looks, the way they talk, or their writing. Obviously not %100 accurate but Reddit is by far the platform with the highest hypersocialization effect.
Tiktok users have a secret language constructed of a large repertoire of memes among them and will constantly reference them when talking. Some of the memes they talk about are 10+ years old. As a young person who have always avoided social media honestly it's hard to communicate with some of my peers because I don't get the memes.
This is how American imperialism works. The American led western liberal order was an unprecedented alliance and America was the house. The house doesn’t win all the time, but everything is rigged in its favour.
The issue is that there is no 4d chess at play here. Trump has a narcissistic personality disorder combined with dementia and has surrounded himself by yes-men.
[1] https://kamilkazani.substack.com/p/might-makes-right