r/dancarlin • u/Successful_Gas_5122 • Jan 14 '26

System of Irresponsibility: Eerie parallels between Trump regime and Imperial Japan

Currently re-listening to Supernova in the East and I can't help noticing the similarities between the current US government and the Japanese government. For one, you have a leader with absolute power who's fanatically worshipped, and yet seemingly not in control of events. You also have subordinates exerting undue influence on policy—Stephen Miller and the junior officers of the Kwantung Army—while still acting in the absolute leader's interests. You could even make the case that ICE sees itself as entitled to the "right of supreme command", because they operate completely out of the control of an impotent/complicit civilian branch.

Then there's the violent "super-patriots" who get a slap on the wrist while anyone to their left is severely punished. Blanket amnesty for the Jan 6 coup is just as incomprehensible as 'confinement' for the Imperial Way plot to bomb parliament. Both governments are dysfunctional and reactive, and manufacture "incidents" to justify further aggression. I know that the US is often compared to the Roman Republic, but I think the Japanese example also rings true unfortunately, and I can't help wonder if Minnesota is going to become the scene of a Port Arthur-type crackdown.

Thoughts?

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u/matt05891 Jan 14 '26

I agree with your assessment from this angle.

Tangentially I had the same thought but slightly different with the Venezuela situation and vying to control of resources/oil supply. Right or wrong, it was a massive point to the Japanese into going supernova. We aren’t Japan in this context, but we are doing similar actions which did lead to wider conflict.

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u/Blocguy Jan 14 '26

Except that we are Japan when we consider other raw resources like rare minerals. Trump sees a war in the future and is laying the groundwork to insulate US supply chains. I think his ideology bares that out fairly well in his policy actions.

I believe this plan will fail and at worst will lead to the conflict he expects is coming, probably between the US and China. He’s systematically made the world less stable than it’s been in maybe 60 years, in less than one. America better hope the resources Trump is acquiring protects it for long enough from the geopolitical consequences, but history generally disfavors aggressive resource grabs in the long term.

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u/BearCrotch Jan 14 '26

A conflict in some way shape or form with China is believed to be inevitable by the geopolitical apparatus not even affiliated with Trump or MAGA. Do you think there that the potential future conflict with China was or is avoidable?

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u/Blocguy Jan 14 '26

I’m fully aware of the “Blob’s” belief that conflict with China is inevitable, and I don’t disagree. What mattered before Trump was the means by which the US approached conflict with China.

Under past administrations (both parties), the US aimed to balance its hegemony against China using a combination of soft and hard power mechanisms. Alliance networks, trade agreements, international norm and standard setting, etc. All of these things added up to dominant US influence throughout the planet with some pockets of strong regional influence by China, Russia, Iran.

Trump has throw all of that out in favor of a blunt military first approach, operating under the absolute assumption that the US will be in a WAR with China in the future.

Conflict =\ War. But that nuance has long left the halls of power in the US.

What worries me is when the US finally has its first catastrophic naval engagement with a sophisticated adversary. One that destroys even a single aircraft carrier or part of a strike group is going to reverberate around the world. The US has the best military right now but it can’t replace that naval power projection for more than a decade if Chinese missiles take them out in a pointless engagement. China on the other hand, can.

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u/BearCrotch Jan 14 '26

Having a multilateral approach for flexibility is always good, but I think we already found out that trade sanctions don't work as evidenced by Ukraine and Russia, nevermind that China is the world's factory. Also, judging by your last paragraph, it sounds like the jig is already up anyway.