Empire is a stool with three legs — military, financial, and cultural. Right now, American Empire looks like the other kind of stool, going down the toilet on all counts. Russia has made them look like fools militarily, China has made them look broke, and Palestine makes them look like absolute ghouls. What’s even left anymore? It's taking a couple of flushes, but this Turd Reich is going down.

The Military Leg

The latest incarnation of White Empire, America, has somehow maintained the illusion of military power despite getting its ass kicked by peasants for decades now. In some weird way losing to guerilla armies doesn’t count, but now America has lost against an actual peer power, which a superpower isn’t supposed to have at all.

In their proxy war against Russia, America A) couldn’t even field their own army and B) got their proxy army destroyed at least three times over. In an apples-to-apples fight—tanks vs. tanks, air defense vs. air defense, artillery vs. artillery—NATO equipment got turned into apple sauce. The illusion of military power is completely broken now.

The largest (active duty) army in the world is Russia now, and they’re battle-hardened on something more than killing poor civilians. America no longer has the best technology either. Russia, China, and Iran have better weapons in many categories, and the ability to manufacture them at scale, which is what counts when you’re throwing this shit at each other. The only domain America still leads in is military spending, which is just another way of saying they’re the most corrupt. Teddy Roosevelt said ‘Speak softly and carry a big stick,’ but America today is speaking loudly and carrying a limp dick around. It’s not a good look.

Everybody knows there’s blood in the water. Quite literally, they’ve lost control of the Red Sea to Yemen, a country that was almost genocided just years ago. The brave Ansar Allah government of Yemen has almost completely blocked shipping there in the Red Sea, until humanitarian aid is allowed to reach Gaza. Despite having multiple carrier groups there, America has just let this happen because they’re weak and everybody knows it. America can still punish the Yemeni people, but Yemen can sink their ships and burn the oil fields of Satrapy Arabia in response. America can’t actually escalate this without consequences. America inherited a naval empire from the British (it’s one White Empire) and lost it much the same way, through the Suez Canal. Just as the Suez Crisis marked the end of Britain as a great power, the Yemeni blockade marks the end of American Empire.

Afghanistan was the graveyard of the White Empire, Ukraine is its tombstone, and Yemen is the guy standing over the grave, giving the peace sign and taking a photograph.

The Financial Leg

America has also maintained the illusion of being the richest country in the world, despite its people living like shit for decades now. America already has a lower life expectancy than China and if you count what counts (purchasing power) they’ve been much poorer for years now. As noted communist rag the Financial Times says:

Measured at PPP, the latest IMF data shows China’s GDP exceeded that in the US around the time Donald Trump was “making America great again”. It is now 22 per cent larger. The figures make sense when you look at corroborating evidence. China’s electricity generation, for example, overtook that in the US in 2010.

In truth, the American economy collapsed in 2008 and never really recovered. They just printed enough fake money to cover it up. All the real components of a working economy—resources, manufacturing, education, health, housing—are completely fucked. America’s zombie economy can still eat brains, but it’s just a dead man walking.

The only thing that keeps the zombie lumbering is their status as a reserve currency. No matter how useless their real economy is, other countries still buy USD and prop them up. It’s the modern form of imperial tribute, countries buying dollars and treasuries. The deal is that if you hold American coin you can get energy (the petrodollar) and a reliable savings account. But that deal is falling apart.

The United States has kicked out energy producers like Russia, Iran, and Venezuela out of the dollar system entirely. Now they’ve lost control of the Red Sea that oil is shipped through. Countries are already pricing energy and trade in their own currencies, like oil for yuan or rupees or rubles. Slowly, but that’s how it starts.

At the same time, America has outright stolen the reserves of Afghanistan and Russia, making USD an unsafe savings account. Countries are actively de-dollarizing, and America is making things worse by kicking pushing huge countries like Russia and China out.

The Empire cannot guarantee energy flows, it cannot guarantee your money, so what’s the use of paying tribute anymore? Once the dollar is just another currency America will be just another country, suddenly waking up next to itself and not liking what it sees at all.

The Cultural Leg

The last leg of Empire is cultural power. You can’t just kill and rob people, you have to tell a good story about it to make it look justified and imperial even. Americans have been great storytellers above all. American cultural power, in all its forms, is based on the fundamental idea that they're the 'good guys', but who believes that now?

Despite the Soviets winning most of World War II, the Americans (and British) made the most movies about it. They made the global occupation and forever wars that followed look like little more than ‘just helping out, aw shucks.’ They spread wildly racist tropes about Russians and Arabs and whoever their enemies are, to justify abusing them. America is constantly telling stories about scary terrorists and aliens and all this shit to justify having this giant military occupation, and to get us to be thankful for it.

At the same time, American stories about American life are increasingly science fiction. People in American movies work normal jobs, have decent apartments in big cities, and have time for children and love affairs. This is pure science fiction. The average American is in debt their whole life, struggles to stay healthy, and an increasing number are food insecure (ie, hungry). But nobody wants to watch movies about that. Their culture continues selling the American dream long after it’s become a living nightmare.

Homeless in Philadelphia, They Didn't Want it This Way. September, 2023

At the same time, the media and Hollywood industry that pushes this propaganda has become fractured and diversified. American youth is using a Chinese app, TikTok, rebel groups are using a Russian app, Telegram, and the world has their own news channels and satellite stations, notably Al Jazeera.

American propaganda was based on repeating one big lie — that they were the ‘good guys’ — across news, entertainment, and media in general. They repeated that lie so often it felt like truth, but now they’ve lost control of the narrative completely. Whatever’s left of the American reputation is buried under Gaza now.

You can’t be the ‘good guys’ while killing children, bombing hospitals, and burying refugees alive under bulldozers. This is all stuff the White Empire is doing, through its most violent colony of ‘Israel’. The entire world is watching millions of people being starved to death and they’re rightly horrified. The central lie of American propaganda — that they are the ‘good guys ‘— has completely fallen apart. Once the story collapses, all that’s left is the obvious killing and stealing. Then you don’t have a leg to stand on.

Falling Down

The Empire is a loose, baggy thing. A collection of relatively independent places held together by military force, financial coercion, and a story to make it look like something else. Empire has to be able to vilify its enemies, lionize itself, and make it all stick with raw violence. But America just can’t hack it anymore.

America has been a creaky stool since at least Vietnam, and now it’s just a turd that refuses to flush, offending everyone. Barbarians crashed the gates on 9/11, they crashed their own economy in 2008, and ‘Israel’ is trashing their image now. The mandate of heaven is clearly withdrawn. Death to America, as wiser people than me said long ago. It’s coming soon enough. Historically speaking, it’s already done.

Written by indi.ca