Link: https://responsiblestatecraft.org/us-empire-americans-war/

As Bessner explains, "Imperialist Realism” comprises three main features: cynicism (few people actually believe the U.S. effectively “spreads democracy”); missionism (despite this cynicism, Americans believe they need to continue to act); and tragic guilt (the emotion that results from the tension between cynicism and missionism).

...

But the “structure of feeling” that is Imperialist Realism doesn’t just affect our leaders, it infects our culture. Take for example, the superheroes in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. In Captain America: Civil War, there is a civil war between superheroes who will accept being regulated and superheroes who won’t. When the superheroes who won’t go on the lamb, the pro-regulation team allows them to escape, as if to say: sometimes you need to exist outside the law. That’s imperialist realism in a nutshell.

What would it take to change this grim reality that we’ve resigned ourselves to, where America is always at war? A lot of work, no doubt. Bessner suggests meaningfully reforming the national security state would be an enormous undertaking that would require extraordinary expenditures of political capital, credibility and courage.

No, they won't.

Core Americans, other immoral Westerners and race/culture larpers in America have fully accepted "might makes right", "both reality and morality are negotiable and fluid" and "the bag is all that matters" (and this starts at least since the days of the OG Anglo-Saxon settlers). Most of their issues and political decisions stem from these cultural standards and as long as the biggest plurality in the States stands by them (whether they tacitly accept them because thinking is hard or vehemently support them), nothing will change in earnest.

There's a future where America is more than a Western colonizer turned global hegemon through the power of violence and fear, but it will require a brand new set of core Americans.

Only way to get through to a might makes right type is to knock their teeth out.

People can be reasoned with, but not those who behave like predators and follow the law of the jungle, sadly. Their children might be able to be actual human beings though.