There are people who say Israel blackmails Americans politicians to get what they want. Others, say Israel is a puppet state owned by the US.
You can argue, that lobbyists and interests groups have a strong impact on domestic politics and foreign affairs. I watch the series Ghost in the Shell currently. It is a sci-fi anime. And the author is pretty politically savvy. The female prime minister is only a puppet of other powerful elites in Japan.
And to an extent I would say this can apply to many states but it depends.
Let's take Trump. Trump is most likely the most powerful person on the planet, But his agenda is writen by his friends of the Heritage foundation. There are the transhumanist tech elites who try to influence him. And the postliberal intellectuals like Patrick Deneen, Curtis Yarvin, J.D. Vance. There are arguments about how interventionist the foreign policy should be. There were arguments how migration politics should look like. I think Trump does not care enough about all of that. He is not an ideologue. He has his ego, wants to make as much money as possible, cares about attention and admiration. The details are up to other people. On paper Trump is the most powerful person but the strings are controlled by for example Susi Wiles, Russ Vought or Stephen Miller. They are not very present in the media. The media usually concetrates on erratic Mr. Trump while other steer the country and agenda. Of course Trump's personality plays a huge role. Most other foreign leaders try to please his ego and compliment him. But when they get what they want, they are actually the one's who manipulate Trump. So Trump is quite a weak person. Someone who is that transactional with no real values is only a byproduct and symptom of this hyerindividualistic end-phase capitalism. And an accelerator of the demise of the Western world. But he is not the one who leads and envisions a new utopia or dytopia. He was the one pleasing the people prior to the election with his charisma and language that should give him the facade of an American that knows the sorrows of the average Joe and Jane hidding the true agenda.
On a metaphysical level, most people were only symptoms of their time. There are historians that say even if Hitler did not exist someone similar would have taken his place in the Weimarer Republic in the 20s. If we act like Hitler was this special person, the only person who was capable of seducing the German people into facism we are falling for Nazi propaganda. Hitler was a pathetic loser, not very gifted in art, full of resentment, uneducated, pretty bad in strategy and planning. In most cases he would have had a pretty medicore life surviving from week to week because he is unable to hold a job. But his charisma, his skills in holding speeches, the right-circumstances, and powerul allies made it possible that he could take over the country and led the world into a second world war. Maybe not everything would have happened completely in the same way. I don't pretend that. But there was already a lot of antisemitism in Germany. At the same time, I have to say there were chances that history played out differently. A Nazi governmet could have been prevented. But Hindenburg, von Papen and many democrats acted in the wrong ways. They were weak and acted opportunistic in a naive way. My point is don't mystify Hitler. He was not this unique person in history who was the only one capable of doing this.
In a close sense there are many puppet governments in the world. Many massively influenced by the US, some by Russia.
In Germany I don't know. I live there. I have the feeling Friedrich Merz does not have a huge scope only looking at his person. He is the one who determined the leading figures of the Chrsistian Democrats. He made some severe strategical mistakes like lying to the voters prior to the election his government would never pay new investitions with debts. All of that is true. He is not a good communicator. But most people in the CDU who were candidates for being chancellor would be driven by the fear of the rising far-right too. I have the feeling it is pretty difficult to steer the direction against the zeitgeist. Many strategical decisions were taken a long time ago and you can for some issues only manage the mistakes of the past in the best way possible. For example, Germany's dependency on US military or the dependency on Russian oil and gas. I would not call him a puppet. But a chancellor of Germany has way less power than a US president looking at the different constitutions. There are many veto players who have an own agenda. It is a complex interplay of many factors. And there is a strong path dependency in our system. But I think this also applies to the US.
What do you think?
You can argue, that lobbyists and interests groups have a strong impact on domestic politics and foreign affairs. I watch the series Ghost in the Shell currently. It is a sci-fi anime. And the author is pretty politically savvy. The female prime minister is only a puppet of other powerful elites in Japan.
And to an extent I would say this can apply to many states but it depends.
Let's take Trump. Trump is most likely the most powerful person on the planet, But his agenda is writen by his friends of the Heritage foundation. There are the transhumanist tech elites who try to influence him. And the postliberal intellectuals like Patrick Deneen, Curtis Yarvin, J.D. Vance. There are arguments about how interventionist the foreign policy should be. There were arguments how migration politics should look like. I think Trump does not care enough about all of that. He is not an ideologue. He has his ego, wants to make as much money as possible, cares about attention and admiration. The details are up to other people. On paper Trump is the most powerful person but the strings are controlled by for example Susi Wiles, Russ Vought or Stephen Miller. They are not very present in the media. The media usually concetrates on erratic Mr. Trump while other steer the country and agenda. Of course Trump's personality plays a huge role. Most other foreign leaders try to please his ego and compliment him. But when they get what they want, they are actually the one's who manipulate Trump. So Trump is quite a weak person. Someone who is that transactional with no real values is only a byproduct and symptom of this hyerindividualistic end-phase capitalism. And an accelerator of the demise of the Western world. But he is not the one who leads and envisions a new utopia or dytopia. He was the one pleasing the people prior to the election with his charisma and language that should give him the facade of an American that knows the sorrows of the average Joe and Jane hidding the true agenda.
On a metaphysical level, most people were only symptoms of their time. There are historians that say even if Hitler did not exist someone similar would have taken his place in the Weimarer Republic in the 20s. If we act like Hitler was this special person, the only person who was capable of seducing the German people into facism we are falling for Nazi propaganda. Hitler was a pathetic loser, not very gifted in art, full of resentment, uneducated, pretty bad in strategy and planning. In most cases he would have had a pretty medicore life surviving from week to week because he is unable to hold a job. But his charisma, his skills in holding speeches, the right-circumstances, and powerul allies made it possible that he could take over the country and led the world into a second world war. Maybe not everything would have happened completely in the same way. I don't pretend that. But there was already a lot of antisemitism in Germany. At the same time, I have to say there were chances that history played out differently. A Nazi governmet could have been prevented. But Hindenburg, von Papen and many democrats acted in the wrong ways. They were weak and acted opportunistic in a naive way. My point is don't mystify Hitler. He was not this unique person in history who was the only one capable of doing this.
In a close sense there are many puppet governments in the world. Many massively influenced by the US, some by Russia.
In Germany I don't know. I live there. I have the feeling Friedrich Merz does not have a huge scope only looking at his person. He is the one who determined the leading figures of the Chrsistian Democrats. He made some severe strategical mistakes like lying to the voters prior to the election his government would never pay new investitions with debts. All of that is true. He is not a good communicator. But most people in the CDU who were candidates for being chancellor would be driven by the fear of the rising far-right too. I have the feeling it is pretty difficult to steer the direction against the zeitgeist. Many strategical decisions were taken a long time ago and you can for some issues only manage the mistakes of the past in the best way possible. For example, Germany's dependency on US military or the dependency on Russian oil and gas. I would not call him a puppet. But a chancellor of Germany has way less power than a US president looking at the different constitutions. There are many veto players who have an own agenda. It is a complex interplay of many factors. And there is a strong path dependency in our system. But I think this also applies to the US.
What do you think?
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