These are still capitalist countries and thus the incentive for fascism still remains even if it gets delayed a bit.
The US is the largest, most dangerous military superpower the world has ever seen and it has shown time and time again that it’s willing to use that might to bully other nations into economic submission. No country is really safe if it decides to start going after them. The US hasn’t always won these wars, but even when it fails like in Vietnam or Korea, it does enough damage on the way out to cause massive destruction and suffering which has long lasting consequences. I seriously doubt the rest of the world is just gonna get to sit this one out and watch America self destruct.
For 1., also don’t forget that major labour movements spring up during and after WW2, it’s hard to say how much of a repeat that will be this time around, but the potential is there
And 2., I agree, I am concerned myself, especially with nukes these days
But on the other hand, economy, and reliance on globalized production chains, is so much more central to the core of a nation these days. It’s not possible to just produce everything locally anymore, not like it was during WW2, anyway. everything is too hyper specialized for that now
So there is the potential that, if the US really does something very stupid and gets a complete embargo from the rest of the west, they’re just going to get completely fucked (and so will the rest of the west, but you know). So the amount of damage they end up being able to do might end up being limited
Of course, China would benefit massively from this, as they do actually go heavy on self-sufficiency, and then there’s the risk of Russia exploiting this as well, but the silver lining is that the US simply might collapse before it manages to do some real damage
In the end, I think the future of how the world will look like will be up to China. I really really hope that they end up having a massive democratic movement for the sake of the world, but we’ll see. At least China so far still seems like a rational actor on the world stage, although still ruthless and self-serving, of course
I have less hope for two reasons:
These are still capitalist countries and thus the incentive for fascism still remains even if it gets delayed a bit.
The US is the largest, most dangerous military superpower the world has ever seen and it has shown time and time again that it’s willing to use that might to bully other nations into economic submission. No country is really safe if it decides to start going after them. The US hasn’t always won these wars, but even when it fails like in Vietnam or Korea, it does enough damage on the way out to cause massive destruction and suffering which has long lasting consequences. I seriously doubt the rest of the world is just gonna get to sit this one out and watch America self destruct.
For 1., also don’t forget that major labour movements spring up during and after WW2, it’s hard to say how much of a repeat that will be this time around, but the potential is there
And 2., I agree, I am concerned myself, especially with nukes these days
But on the other hand, economy, and reliance on globalized production chains, is so much more central to the core of a nation these days. It’s not possible to just produce everything locally anymore, not like it was during WW2, anyway. everything is too hyper specialized for that now
So there is the potential that, if the US really does something very stupid and gets a complete embargo from the rest of the west, they’re just going to get completely fucked (and so will the rest of the west, but you know). So the amount of damage they end up being able to do might end up being limited
Of course, China would benefit massively from this, as they do actually go heavy on self-sufficiency, and then there’s the risk of Russia exploiting this as well, but the silver lining is that the US simply might collapse before it manages to do some real damage
In the end, I think the future of how the world will look like will be up to China. I really really hope that they end up having a massive democratic movement for the sake of the world, but we’ll see. At least China so far still seems like a rational actor on the world stage, although still ruthless and self-serving, of course