I see it more like the mafia. It's a "protection" racket. They make up a threat and then demand protection money from that threat. The threat may be real and grossly exaggerated like what they do with infectious diseases, or created out of whole cloth (muh white supremacist domestic terrorism). And if you don't comply, then they create a real threat either by having goons show up to make your life miserable or the government does it with lawfare. Meanwhile, they're running guns (the US supplies ~75% of the world's arms sales) and drugs (who do you think runs the cartels? why did we stay so long in Afghanistan where 70% of the world's opium poppies grow?) and selling anything else of value they can steal and resell (civil asset forfeiture).
The "rules-based liberal order" is a mafia run by a few families who buy off the politicians we all whine about being corrupt, but never seem to ask who's doing the corrupting?
I see it more like the mafia. It's a "protection" racket. They make up a threat and then demand protection money from that threat. The threat may be real and grossly exaggerated like what they do with infectious diseases, or created out of whole cloth (muh white supremacist domestic terrorism). And if you don't comply, then they create a real threat either by having goons show up to make your life miserable or the government does it with lawfare. Meanwhile, they're running guns (the US supplies ~75% of the world's arms sales) and drugs (who do you think runs the cartels? why did we stay so long in Afghanistan where 70% of the world's opium poppies grow?) and selling anything else of value they can steal and resell (civil asset forfeiture).
The "rules-based liberal order" is a mafia run by a few families who buy off the politicians we all whine about being corrupt, but never seem to ask who's doing the corrupting?