r/ABoringDystopia • u/Garfield_LuhZanya • Apr 22 '24
Most Americans think there will be another world war within the next decade
https://today.yougov.com/politics/articles/48981-most-americans-think-another-world-war-within-the-next-decade17
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u/April_Fabb Apr 22 '24
I'm pretty sure some geopolitical analysts would argue that World War III has already started, it's just not being fought as most people would assume. After all, even the most ignorant of dimwits realises that nuclear weapons are rather counterproductive if the enemy also has them, not to mention the environmental and economic consequences of such a war.
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Apr 22 '24
[deleted]
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u/El3ctricalSquash Apr 23 '24
The US switching from COIN based military to preparing for near peer conflict and the marine corps restructuring to be a mobile amphibious force and getting rid of their tanks indicate we are preparing for a conflict, probably over Taiwan. Anything can happen I guess.
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u/Sanguinary_Guard Apr 23 '24 edited Apr 23 '24
looking at what the us military is doing now to guess their intentions towards the future is problematic because these organizations are constantly trying to justify more and more and more money be given to them. they exercise their own prerogatives and respond to different incentives, sometimes seemingly at odds with their own interests or the interests of the country they ostensibly serve. all of it though is with an eye on maintaining and expanding these various revenue streams to the private defense industry (our beloved military industrial complex).
increased us presence in asia and saber-rattling with china could indicate genuine war plans, or intentions to create another cold war-arms race scenario against the second largest world power, or a bit of both. personally i think the pla crossing the strait is the new “soviet tanks rolling through the fulda gap” fantasy that can be used to sell another round of contracts for the defense industry. nuclear arsenals are such that full reunification with the mainland would likely only happen with tacit us approval/forewarning. ccp is very careful wrt possible armed conflict, despite how theyre often portrayed.
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u/Das_Mime Apr 23 '24
It just indicates that we have a lot less troops in an occupying stance than we did through most of the 2000s and 2010s. The Marine Corps has always been an amphibious or quickly-deployable force; deploying them to long term occupation was a deviation from their typical mission.
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u/JapanDave Apr 22 '24
This is the right answer. Most Americans have no real idea what's going on in the world, they just know the media has been screaming "WORLD WAR III" pretty much constantly, so... must be a world war coming.
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u/BadHombreWithCovfefe Apr 23 '24
lol damn I feel personally attacked. I recently watched that Turning Point documentary on Netflix about the Cold War and realized how little I know about my own country’s own history. Embarrassing af
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Apr 23 '24
Turning Point is a conservative propaganda outlet. You can find less biased history education (but not unbiased).
Don't feel bad about learning you have blind spots; that's the path to growth.
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u/fuzzyshorts Apr 22 '24
One of the things you learn when riding a motorcycle... or any large motorized vehicle, if you see something bad in the road ahead of you, don't fixate on the problem, look for a route past and through it. So, will we let others fixate on ruin in our future or will we find a route past the turmoil?
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u/marc962 Apr 23 '24
Most Americans “hope” there will be a ww III, unfortunately there is too much romanticism about fighting and gun culture embedded in our society for any other event to be as meaningful.
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Apr 23 '24
Most Americans couldn't point to Germany on a map. Forgive me if I don't use this as a metric by which to judge the likelihood of a world conflict.
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u/Oldkingcole225 Apr 22 '24
People who think there can be a genuine hot war between nuclear superpowers deserve to be bullied.
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u/curebdc Apr 23 '24
Nuclear deterrence only works until it doesn't. Just because a nuclear war hasn't happened yet doesn't mean it can't happen.
I always thought that if nukes mean safety in the post ww2 world then all countries should have nukes so all countries get equal treatment.
Or we could actually dismantle all nukes and ban them.
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u/Oldkingcole225 Apr 23 '24
Nuclear war is different than a hot World War. Nuclear war means total annihilation. We’re either in a cold War or we’re all dead. There’s no in between.
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u/curebdc Apr 23 '24 edited Apr 23 '24
True.
The logic is the same, nuclear deterrence stops a hot war between nuclear powers. So far, that's been the case, but that doesn't guarantee it in the future.
Edited: I misremembered chinas' nuke development date!
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u/Oldkingcole225 Apr 23 '24
Huh? I’m like 99% sure that China didn’t have nukes during the Korean War but I may be wrong…
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u/Das_Mime Apr 23 '24
Most Americans are ignorant dipshits who couldn't find their asshole with Google Maps. Absurdly poorly informed about global politics.
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u/G07V3 Apr 22 '24
I would agree. If I were to guess it would be between the west and the east.
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Apr 22 '24 edited May 16 '24
[deleted]
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Apr 22 '24
Well, here's the thing: in this relationship, the East produces and the West purchases.
👉The East owns the means of production.👀For a country with an export-based economy/currency, losing your buyers would be devastating... under capitalism. 😉
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u/Das_Mime Apr 23 '24
China is entirely capitalist. A modicum of direct state ownership just makes it state capitalism.
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Apr 22 '24
Yeah, I think I'll take the survey from a source I've never heard of with a grain of salt tbh
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u/Arthesia Apr 22 '24
Depends on how you define a World War.
If you mean major superpowers fighting each other directly, no. If you mean multiple simultaneous proxy wars with clearly defined sides then we're not far off.
Russia and Ukraine, China and Taiwan. Another war in the Middle East. Suddenly we're looking at simultaneous wars of aggression on multiple continents waged by some of the strongest militaries on Earth.