Is this all the beginning of the end of the United States?

Bear in mind in question #3 I'm assuming we never got a chance to balkanize, and we are taken over by China, Russia, etc.

That said if we were already balkanized and China only attacked and defeated Californistan (the entire area of the former U.S. was too much to try to take on) they could indeed impose Mandarin Chinese as the official language, pretty much forcing anyone who wanted to function fully in commerce, business, legal matters, etc. (would not want to be marginalized) would have to learn Mandarin.

It would be rough with several separate militaries! Right now the U.S has one military and trust me they can a rough time coordinating things among themselves. Several militaries would put us at a big disadvantage.

Go fuck yourself.
It's Red Room, you fucking pussy.
All through the Bush years, conserva-forge were the shittiest, nastiest, troll-iest, bullies on the internet second only to fucking 4chan.
And you were always one of the worst of them.
Now you're all a bunch of little piss-babies that can't handle a single DROP of your own fucking medicine.
What a fucking joke.
Fuck you, Marso.
Fuck.
You.
Fuck your alcoholism, fuck your routine of cheering on right-wing political violence, and running to the fainting couch over left-wing political violence.
Fuck your whole rancid pathetic existence.
Why don't you start all your threads in Green Room you fucking cowardly hypocrite?
If you think I'm ever gonna pamper you, you're fucking dreaming.
You're living in a fucking dream world.

I dunno why people suddenly treat you like you're some sad little retard or something that we should pat on the head.
Are you the new Dayton?
Is that the shtick we're going with?
I didn't get the memo.
Someone send me the fucking memo, folks.
Does Marso have a terminal disease?
Did Leatherface kill his dead?
Cuz if it's not something like that, I'm beating this rotten Nazi prick with a bat every chance I fucking get.

His "yay!! Kill Democrats!! ", routine was the last straw for me.
He's opened the doorway to Hell, and I'm fucking Pinhead.

Again, if there's new exonerating info, send me the fucking memo, folks.
Frankly, I dunno if a terminal diagnosis will clean his name for me.

To the OP, no.

I don't believe this is the start of anything, that came long ago. All superpowers are by their nature temporary affairs and whilst the specifics vary the trajectory is always more or less parabolic. The problems you are seeing have been there all along since Independence and have always been a likely factor in the eventual demise of the US, but it was never going to last forever. That being said it isn't over by any stretch and the longer you can maintain some sort of peaceful stability the better.

1. No. I will tear the US a new one without compunction but the collapse of a major power is never a good thing. The instability which comes with it may well lay the groundwork for something else but it is potentially a very ugly process. I don't want my kids living through a world in that degree of turmoil.

2. I would hope a series of peaceful secessions for those states who vote that way and a Federal government with the sense to put the well being of the populations above attempts to centralise power, establish sensible trade deals and points of common interest.

Just like the EU did before we trampled all over it.

In reality, however, I wouldn't rule out more chaotic events and thus see no reason to cheer.

3. No. English as the primary language of international commerce hasn't been driven by the US, it was established long before by the Empire and later the Commonwealth. There would be some serious inertia there.

4. See number 2, Balkanisation to me suggests warfare and state lines would obviously shift immensely before any new paradigm was found. That being said I don't see why a USSR style collapse should be expected here.

This on so many levels.

I honestly do believe when the US formed what really happened was a coup, with the seat of power shifting from London to Washington. The Empire never went away, it just got rebranded.

Come to think of it, I seem to recall that he has me on ignore.
Oh well, at least I feel better having vented.

Yes, there's very much a divide in the real world.

Sadly, too late to stop The Beatles.

You don't like John Lennon?

Something I didn’t touch on earlier but is a good demonstration of the strength and resiliency of the American system and our military.

The Soviet Union was arguably one of the most powerful countries/empires of the 20th century. At the time it and the United States were considered to the two Super Powers of the world.

The Soviet Union fought a 7 year war in Afghanistan, a country that was literally next door. This war strained its military and bankrupted the empire to the extent it could not maintain control over its populous and directly led to its breakup.

America has fought a 19 year war in Afghanistan WHICH IS ON THE OTHER SIDE OF THE PLANET, then fought another war ON THE OTHER SIDE OF THE PLANET at the same time and while there has been a small hit to GDP otherwise the effects have been negligible.

That is some compare and contrast right there.

It's sad that I agree with this post.

The descent into irrelevancy for the USA has only begun; it hasn't gone all that far yet. America is still the most powerful country in the world, militarily and economically. But even to see the beginning of the decline is sad. I weep for "the glory that was Greece the USA and the grandeur that was Rome ours."

But not whilst facing off against another superpower in the way the USSR were at the time.

One could argue that there are still rivals the world stage but when Afghanistan started a fair case could be made that the US was the sole superpower.

Yes, but by now, China and India are right up there.

We’re better at propaganda. We’re better at distracting people with work, with their financial situation, with shiny new technology that promises fun and forgetting their troubles. We’re better at preserving the illusion that despite how bad things are, wealth and success are just around the corner. The real test of the U.S. is happening now, in the age of the internet, where ideas can go global at the speed of light and are harder to suppress.

We are significantly better than we were 100 years ago.

Migrants to the US are integrating at similar levels to 100 years ago despite being predominantly of different race or ethnicity compared to the majority population (majority of earlier migrants were white). We were much MUCH worse at integrating racial and ethnic minority migrants then.

A bounty of research debunks the idea that Latinos are not integrated into American society: Latino immigrants, like other immigrant groups, are completely English dominant by the third generation; their economic mobility rate is almost equal to that of whites; and Hispanics are more likely to marry outside their group than blacks or whites.

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/latino...n-real-problem-facing-latinos-america-n974021

True, America is the sole hyper power and has no invasion threat to our homeland (then again the West wasn’t an invasion threat to the Soviet homeland) but there are regional super powers that threaten our influence/domination in other spheres (China and Iran come to mind, Venezuela tried to organize an alternative in Latin America but that failed, Russia to some extent).

LOL no, you fucking pussy

You should probably take a break from the internet and get some sort of meaningful thing going in real life because it’s blatantly obvious you take this way too seriously

Says the guy scared of a little old hippie lady.
Assclown.

I'm not a Beatles fan period. Wife beating John Lennon isn't any worse than the rest of them I guess.

weird because you slam the fuck out of pretty much everything American quite a bit of the time.

Translation into ordinary words: "You don't agree that everything is great in America. You see its flaws."

Yes, we know that you think no one should ever point out that the USA is not the greatest country in the world.

pointing out flaws is one thing, but you treat America like a red-headed stepchild most of the time. Correct me if I'm wrong but you prefer France to America yet you used to be (or still are) an American citizen.

Is that all you’ve got? I think she’s ridiculous. Just like you

And you’re the only one in the thread doing so, you sad little child.

Yes, this is the serious mature drawing room thread with pipes, and smoking jackets, and Mozart records.
Ew-hew!

To give you, and oldfella, and Lubak, and Marso license to clown it the fuck up in all the other threads.
Sorry, doesn't work that way.

Ohhhh!!

Sorry about un-serious-ing all the serious-ness folks.

But, y'know, it's the beginning of the end, so may as well get started on that....

*Starts ripping up boards with a crowbar*

Fuck tone policing.
Also, fuck the police.