• nBodyProblem@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      7
      ·
      1 month ago

      Can you imagine the Italians running everything? Sure there’d be plenty of good pasta and wine worldwide but I doubt we’d stay productive with three-hour wine lubricated lunch breaks every day

      I say the USA needs to have a proper go at an empire. People could serve in the legion (navy) for citizenship and everything

      • PugJesus@lemmy.worldOP
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        9
        ·
        1 month ago

        I say the USA needs to have a proper go at an empire.

        Please no. As Teddy Roosevelt once noted, we lack the interest in it. Let’s just not.

        • nBodyProblem@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          11
          ·
          1 month ago

          Hard to argue we don’t have the appetite after spending our first 150 years conquering territory roughly double the size of the Roman Empire at its peak

          • PugJesus@lemmy.worldOP
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            5
            ·
            1 month ago

            That was more ethnic cleansing than traditional imperialism. Not that I disagree that describing it as imperialism is valid, but it’s not what TR was talking about. The point was that Americans lack serious interest in foreign affairs or a desire for distant prestige projects. Our every overseas acquisition, temporary or permanent, has been marked by a noted uncertainty of what to actually do with any of it. Not that that makes any of the folk getting crushed happier, but it does reflect a lack of interest in the whole topic.

            • nBodyProblem@lemmy.world
              link
              fedilink
              English
              arrow-up
              6
              ·
              1 month ago

              Perhaps we just need to generate a little excitement.

              Gladiators worked nicely for the Romans, maybe we could generate similar hype with a reality show to choose the governor of each new province. I think “Love Island, Argentinian Governor Edition” would be a real hit.