But yeah, US had a very lucrative soft power setup going on after the rest of the world rebuilt and/or modernized. It's insane that the Trump administration has all but virtually destroyed that in the span of 1 term and only a few months into a second term. I don't even understand why his billionaire fuckwad cronies are enabling it, as this will only hurt them long-term. Then again, the majority of these dip shits are incapable of thinking long-term sustainability.

[–] shawn1122@lemm.ee 1 points 5 hours ago* (last edited 5 hours ago)

The US managed to horde 80% of global reserves of gold by selling weapons to allied nations during WW2.

Being the greatest beneficiary of WW2 is a story that rarely gets told.

I mean kudos is deserved for rapidly industrializing into a weapons manufacturing hotspot when the demand was skyrocketing but a lot of Americans are taught that US ascension post WW2 was entirely self determined which is brain rot level propoganda.