[concerndc1tizen]

A simpler explanation is that Americans have succumbed to consumerism to such an extent that the absence of it feels enlightened.

Of course the reality is just that the US has become the axis of evil, and perhaps always was, it just had the best PR.

I think you're doing yourself a disservice by belitting Asian cultures and what insights they may have, that are apparently incomprehensible as more than a trope to Americans.

[jimbokun]

> Of course the reality is just that the US has become the axis of evil, and perhaps always was, it just had the best PR.

Sigh.

Yes, the Soviet Union really was the worker's paradise with free, prosperous, happy people!

Can we get away from the sophomoric idea the USA was ALWAYS the ONLY source of badness in the world, just because right now it's the most powerful nation in the world and also a complete mess?

[concerndc1tizen]

I suspect that the communist project has lived under constant fear of the US, that the economy ultimately was bankrupted from having to defend itself against the US war machine.

The US has waged war in virtually every country around the world, for example Afghanistan, Vietnam, and Korea, which were significant threats to both Soviet and China. China has virtually been besieged since the 1950s, with Americans present in Thailand, Philippines, Japan, Taiwan, and South Korea.

How would you feel if the Soviet installed weapons systems in Canada, Hawaii, Mexico, Greenland, and Cuba? And then started a tariff war to hopefully bankrupt your economy?

[andrepd]

Damn, in 2025 the USSR is still an excuse for the US? x) Come on.

Saying that US-exported consumerism is a blight on the world is a perfectly valid thing to say. No need to invoke "the Reds" to pretend it's not.

[monero-xmr]

America is the best because citizens can do basically whatever they want all the time. The latest complaints are people took it too far (rampant drug use, camping on sidewalks, and shitting everywhere in San Francisco, etc.).

But if you want to buy a rural cabin on a beautiful mountain, it’s available, and cheap. You don’t need to go to Asia to live like a hermit.

[concerndc1tizen]

> America

Obviously America refers to the continent, so I'll use the shorthand country name "the US" instead.

> is the best

That may be true, but I do wonder if it was a lucky accident. What if the Irish famine hadn't happened? What if WW2 had been averted (but maybe the EU wouldn't exist...).

> rural cabin

That's nice, but what value is it if the forest burns down, the lake is polluted, the wild life is dead, and there's nothing left but neighboring land full of fracking wells? Glory to god.