By Cory Doctorow (GPG 0xBF3D9110957E5F4C) @doctorow.pluralistic.net · 22/07/2026The "international rules-based order" that gave America oversight and control over the world's militaries, finances, trade, and communications was *always* a better deal for America than it was for the rest of the world. 5/ 124444
By Cory Doctorow (GPG 0xBF3D9110957E5F4C) @doctorow.pluralistic.net · 22/07/2026The long persistence of this system doesn't mean that other countries liked it. The reason the American century endured for as long as it did was that the toll that America extracted from the world was always lower than the cost of making a new system. 6/ 119339
By Cory Doctorow (GPG 0xBF3D9110957E5F4C) @doctorow.pluralistic.net · 22/07/2026Just as people stay on FB because they love their friends more than they hate Zuck, the nations of the world let the US control their systems because they feared the cost and difficulty of building new systems more than they resented letting the US dictate and tax their politics and economies. 7/ 222349
