this post was submitted on 06 Apr 2026
203 points (88.6% liked)
Political Memes
11889 readers
1962 users here now
Welcome to politcal memes!
These are our rules:
1) Be civil
Jokes are okay, but don’t intentionally harass or disturb any member of our community. Sexism, racism and bigotry are not allowed. Good faith argumentation only. No posts discouraging people to vote or shaming people for voting.
2) No misinformation
Don’t post any intentional misinformation. When asked by mods, provide sources for any claims you make.
3) Posts should be memes
Random pictures do not qualify as memes. Relevance to politics is required.
4) No bots, spam or self-promotion
Follow instance rules, ask for your bot to be allowed on this community.
5) No AI generated content.
Content posted must not be created by AI with the intent to mimic the style of existing images
founded 3 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
It can take a long time like Rome or it could be short like the third reich. It will be violent though. The "graceful" British decline hasn't been anywhere close to peaceful. I think the best explanation for this relatively low magnitude of violence is that the British empire never died, it just lost rank. It was supplanted. It still benefits heavily from imperialism, just in a different form and to a lesser degree. The Suez Canal crisis is a great case study on how the British empire came to understand its lost of supremacy and accept its new place in the world hierarchy.
The big difference with America (and the collective Western imperial system) is that should China succeed in dominating the world economic hierarchy, it could be the end of that hierarchy. At least that's what capitalist leaders are currently thinking will happen. I believe this decline has to be violent because it is the last flail of a system that knows it is dying rather than a country accepting second best. They think if China wins the jig is up basically.