I’d also like to add that, as far as I know, USA (and to a lesser extent Canada) are the only two states in the Americas that are still actively colonizing other places, including other parts of the Americas.

Its not a perfect term. Changing language is difficult and messy.

Do you have suggestions for something better (not meant to be snarky, I genuinely would like to find a good alternative and I bet cowbee would like input as well)?

I have some severely dedicated haters

Then you must be doing something right.

Also, I respect your insistence on using a term other than American to describe people from the US.

Growing up in the US, calling ourselves American is a hard habit to break, but I recognize how dismissive and insulting it is to the rest of the people living in North and South America.

Perhaps.

Side note - you don’t deserve all this down voting. You’re engaging in good faith and making reasonable statements (more reasonable than my initial comment deserved, frankly). Its unfortunate that attempting to bring nuance to an online discussion usually results in hateful backlash. That’s not a .ml or .world problem. Just an Internet problem.

Obviously I’m generalizing and don’t think everyone on either instance is such a simplistic thinker. But I’ve been on the receiving end of plenty of insults from .ml accounts implying that ALL Americans are indistinguishable from Jefferson Davis.

.world is full of apologists and denialists for western imperialism

.ml is full of tankies who think that ALL Americans are fascists (even those of us currently being terrorized by fascists).

FSM help you if you ever try to inject sanity into one of their “debates”

I’m done trying to argue around your strawmen. You clearly have no interest in even trying to comprehend what I’m saying. Toodles

I know all about how Gaddafi died and how the Clintons are sociopaths. Doesn’t change the fact that unilaterally kidnapping Maduro is a new level of brazen, because it removes even the weak normative barriers that were in place before, when the US at least tried to manufacture consensus for its bullshit. You will undoubtedly claim that doesn’t matter, but it does. Trump has lowered the internationally accepted barrier to foreign fuckery in a way that will have lasting ramifications.

Most of the people ICE has killed this year alone aren’t white.

I’m not white.

Again, saying Trump is worse doesn’t mean America was good before.

AKA, threatened white countries instead of the other guys. This is worse somehow.

Not instead. In addition to. Which, yes, is worse.

Remember when Obama murdered Gaddafi and turned Libya into a slave-state? America’s history of regime change has its own Wikipedia…

Yes, I know my government loves regime changing other countries. Trump has escalated the level of brazenness with which we’ll do it, which makes him worse. You seem to think that saying Trump is worse implies that our past leadership wasn’t bad.

Most “foreign aid” provided by America is used to make the global south dependant on their help and further entrenches colonialism.

Yes, USAID was primarily a vehicle for soft power, and much of our “aide” was actually just propaganda (Voice of America, etc). But cutting off food and medicine to millions of poor people is objectively worse than not doing that.

Breaking treaties is probably the most American thing in history. How do you think the country was founded?

You seem to be a victim of binary thinking. Are you incapable of recognizing that breaking ALL the treaties all at once is different from breaking some treaties some of the time, even if the latter is also bad?

Your argument is petty and unsubstantiated.

I didn’t make any of that up. Go reread your comments.

Obligatory disclaimer: I am anti Imperialist and anti Capitalist. The American Empire has been a force for oppression and destruction since its founding.

OK, now, saying that Trump is basically the same as other presidents on foreign policy is ridiculous. In just a little over a year into his second term he has continued to brutalize the same people and countries that the US has historically but has also:

• engaged in economic warfare against nearly every country on the planet
• threatened military action against the US’ closest allies
• kidnapped the democratically elected leader of a sovereign country
• cut off virtually all foreign aide
• Unilaterally pulled out of just about every treaty to which our government was a party

He is objectively worse than our status quo bad and arguing otherwise is just petty and ignorant.

Well, based on what you’ve said so far, your position is that

• Saying Trump is worse than the average American president somehow implies that The USA was never bad until Trump arrived
• All Americans are responsible for what our government has done, including shit it did before we were born
• Being upset that our current president is terrorizing us at home means we are immature

I contend that your position is asinine.

Convincing random internet dickheads that they’re being dickheads is exhausting and demoralizing.

Are you always such a prick?

ICE has killed at least 9 people just since the beginning of the year. US bombs have slaughtered thousands of Palestinians, Iranians, Yemeni, Russians, etc, since Trump took office.

Maybe you should grow up?

My concerns were never extinguished, so they can’t really be reignited.

That’s not a game worth winning. The reason its called “filthy rich” is that you can’t get rich without being dirty. And I don’t mean in the fun way.

Get enough to be comfortable, if you can. Then let others have a turn. Use your excess to help those who aren’t as fortunate. That is a real win.

Fuck “that’s not capitalism”

And fuck money too

You’re thinking of Immigration and Customs Enforcement. They’re talking about the Inbred Christo-fascist Enforcers