China Escalation Assures America’s Unmitigated March in the Direction of Stupidity Will Continue

What began as a unique quirk of Donald Trump has morphed into a bipartisan consensus — and freedoms at home will ultimately pay the price

“Three crises, three horribly destructive responses. This entire century has been an unmitigated march in the direction of stupidity”

Since a few things became clear to me last year, I’ve consistently forecasted a significant worsening in U.S.-China relations and remained adamant that all the happy talk of trade deals and breakthroughs is just a lot of hot air.

What first appeared to be a unique quirk of Donald Trump has morphed into bipartisan consensus in Congress, and clear signs have emerged that the general public has likewise become alarmed at China’s growing global clout.

Due to this, as well as a litany of other factors outlined in prior posts, it’s highly unlikely the current trajectory will reverse course and result in a return to what had been business as usual. Instead, we’re probably headed toward a serious and historically meaningful escalation of tensions between the U.S. and China, with what we’ve seen thus far simply a prelude to the main drama.

If I’m correct and the ship has already sailed, we should focus our attention on how we respond to what could quickly become a very dicey scenario filled with heightened emotions and nefarious agendas. There’s a good way to respond and a bad way.

In our individual lives we face various daily challenges, but every now and again something really big hits us, a personal crisis of sorts, and how we respond determines much of our future. The same thing happens to nation-states, particularly in the current world where virtually all human governance is structured in a highly centralized and statist manner.

When such an event hits nation-states the public tends to be easily manipulated into a state of terror and coerced into granting more centralized power to the state, an unfortunate state of affairs that accurately summarizes the reality of 21st century America. With each crisis, the empire has grown stronger, the public weaker, and two decades later we find ourselves in a neo-feudal oligarchy where one half of the public is at the other half’s throat for no good reason. This is what happens when you respond poorly.

Three major crisis events have rocked the U.S. this century, and much of the public has embraced, or at least accepted, the worst possible response in all cases.

The first was the attacks of 9/11, which officially ushered in the modern national security surveillance state and all but obliterated the 4th amendment.

The second was the financial crisis, where the response from Bush/Obama was to bail-out the criminals, destroy any semblance of the rule of law by jailing zero Wall Street executives, and to ensure the Federal Reserve (and mega-banking institutions in general) became stronger and more powerful than ever.

Finally, there was the shock election of Donald Trump. Rather than take his ascendance as a warning about centralized power, the faux “resistance” has been obsessed with removing him, celebrating intelligence agencies/military aggression, bemoaning free speech, and rehabilitating George W. Bush.

Three crises, three horribly destructive responses. This entire century has been an unmitigated march in the direction of stupidity.

I’ve become convinced the next major event that’ll be used to further centralize power and escalate domestic authoritarianism will center around U.S.-China tensions. We haven’t witnessed this “event” yet, but there’s a good chance it’ll occur within the next year or two. Currently, the front runner appears to be a major aggressive move by China into Hong Kong, but it could be anything really. Taiwan, the South China Sea, currency, economic or cyber warfare; the flash points are numerous and growing by the day. Something is going to snap and when it does we better be prepared to not act like mindless imbeciles for the fourth time this century.

When that day arrives, and it’s likely not too far off, certain factions will try to sell you on the monstrous idea that we must become more like China to defeat China. We’ll be told we need more centralization, more authoritarianism, and less freedom and civil liberties or China will win. Such talk is nonsense and the wise way to respond is to reject the worst aspects of the Chinese system and head the other way.

If you’re horrified by China’s human rights abuses, then push for an end to murderous U.S. wars/coups abroad based on lies. If the Chinese surveillance panopticon concerns you, we should move in the exact opposite direction with less corporate and state surveillance. If China launches a state-sanctioned digital currency system designed to monitor, and if desired, restrict transactions, we should reject this and embrace open, decentralized and permissionless systems like Bitcoin. We should fight lack of freedom with more freedom.

Given our track record this century, I’m skeptical Americans will respond in a positive and productive way to increased tensions with China, though I hope we can finally face a challenge without cowering in fear and surrendering more freedom in order to feel safe and powerful.

I hope we can recognize that empire is not an asset, but a liability. That empire strengthens the state and weakens the public. I hope we can be wise enough not to embrace further authoritarianism to defeat authoritarianism. For once this century, I hope we can respond in a thoughtful and intelligent manner.

Source: Liberty Blitzkrieg

11 Comments
  1. Terje M says

    This renewed push against China is not a “unique quirk of Donald Trump has morphed into bipartisan consensus in Congress”. It was decided at least as early as during the Obama period. For the plan to move the bulk of US forces to the Pacific, a ‘pivot to Asia’ see John Pilger’s 2015 film with the same name, available online. https://vimeo.com/277068625

    It is probably the same old post WW2 plans for domination that never went away, but only has hot and cold periods.

  2. JustPassingThrough says

    when did it start?
    certainly not 20 years ago.
    when will it end?
    the process has begun.
    …and hope is not going to change anything.

    Paul Harvey’s 1965 Radio Warning to America – “If I were the Devil..”

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xSC21kRG

  3. Rowdy-Yates says

    What is becoming clear in this economic war between Trump’s America and Xi Ping’s China is not the challenges that Trump throws at China but China’s ability to overcome them.
    America cannot understand how China is overcoming each and every challenge tossed at her.

    1. CHUCKMAN says

      That’s a good point.

      Trump’s America is itself stolid and awkward, quite a different thing to how America is used to thinking about itself as nimble and highly creative.

      No, America comes across as flat-footed.

      And it’s not just Trump. We see it in words and actions from other politicians and very much from the military/security community.

      Too many years of entitlement and unwarranted privilege and belief in the hot-air religion of Patriotism.

      The writer of the article, in my view, has done a poor job of writing about something important and consequential.

      1. Séamus Ó Néill says

        The author has just repeated the tired old mantra ” America good, China bad “. China didn’t start this trade war, didn’t impose illegal sanctions on America, but has played by normal international rules. America hasn’t realised yet, that neither China, Russia nor Iran will or can be bullied. America still believes its own inane propaganda about being exceptional. It can’t win in a trade war because it produces nothing of value, it certainly can’t win in a military war because it’s out gunned, out numbered and far from home. One slight error of judgement and all American bases in the ME etc are dust. Some moronic imbeciles in the US still believe that there’s a nuclear option but the S-500 will negate any missiles heading towards Russia or China and then their hypersonic missiles will ensure that the US will not pose a threat ever again. Someone with a modicum of intelligence needs to grab the reigns in America or that sad place will not see their 250 year “celebrations” !

      2. Rowdy-Yates says

        True. America cannot fathom why China is rising to such levels of power so quickly that she will surpass the US. Americans are not taught to believe non Europeans have that capacity unless it is done by treachery and deceit. It is a form of racism so deeply embedded in American thinking.
        How America got to this way of thinking would be worth studying because it includes Europe. For some reason the Colonial Empires imparted to American leaders only the most negative opinions of Asia and Africa and I do not quite know why.

        1. Canosin says

          China invested heavily in educational institutions for the entire population…. for each engineer coming per year in the US there are 16 to 18 engineers in China per year….. that’s 16 times more brain power working in solving technical problems or creating new stuff…..
          whilst in the US the students are occupied with LGTBQ issues, in China they are not wasting their valuable time with that kind of bs….. besides, the educational system in the US is broke…..
          this should be sufficiently to understand why the Divided States of Zionist America won’t grasp why China finds always a solution to the problem….. China exists since more than 5000 years with lots accumulated wisdoms. …. long term thinking is in their genes…. whereas Trumpistan is thinking only about the next election…..

        2. pooi-hoong chan says

          America got this way of thinking is because of military conquest of the world by the westerners and an innate racism.

  4. AriusArmenian says

    The assassins of Julius Caesar thought they were saving the Roman Republic but were the last act leading directly to the Roman Empire that forever ended the Roman Republic. In a similar manner the neocons and neolibs think they are saving the American Republic but they will also be its last act. Facing decline and disintegration fuels fear, hate, and supremacism that eclipses thinking and the ability to humanly relate to others. Left to itself the US will turn inward and eat itself. The question is will the US do even more damage to humanity before it finally implodes.

    1. Canosin says

      don’t compare the Divided States of Zionist America with Rome…..
      the US exists just about some 240 years…… whilst Rome altogether lasted more than 2000 years…. by the time Caesar was killed, the Roman republic was already there for more than 700 years….
      the US has no class like Rome once had. . . with achievements in civilization that is still influencing in our times…. whilst the rotten and obese Divided States of Zionist America will be soon forgotten…..after its fall…..

  5. Feudal Peasant says

    American Corporations are responsible for creating power house China. This is blow back and Wall Street wants it both ways..

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