If the USA is so powerful, how is it that it failed to crush Russia? What about Iran? Or, in extremis, Venezuela? Yet, even the the last case, the βbestβ this supposed World Hegemon did was send a few clueless ex-special ops to get caught and give case of hysterical laughter to the entire Latin American continent!The inability of the empire to yanno...be imperial is a slow poison, much like the factions I speak of in the previous post.
The market for cruelty is a real thing. It is one special case of the market for power. As everyone has known since Gutenberg was a little boy, people like to read and believe things that make them powerful, or make them feel powerful. These powerful ideas experience a selective advantage in the Darwinian marketplace of ideas.Important. I said much the same in "no market for liberty" -- there is no desire for freedom, but for "justice" AKA vengeance and cruelty.