Thread by @TheDailyMao

BTW, this permanent US "state of exception" over its own rules-based order and "right to fracture your elites at will" as the price for a given country participating in the US-led global market creates a system that requires undisputed US hard power primacy to remain stable

https://twitter.com/TheDailyMao/status/1355771091877130240

The US funding of current consumption via capital appreciation predicated on continued "feudal rights" of its corporates and government abroad also means US prosperity at home is at risk if the US system breaks down

This is why, in one sense, the longer telegram is accurate.

The ability for US elites to finance current consumption via capital appreciation would fall hard if the US did not lead the global system. The author simply chose to dress up that argument behind emotive rhetoric.

But remember that this leadership - this system - relies on hard power advantages that dissipate faster the more they are used and a state of exception abroad that erodes respect for the law inside the US.

Remember those two things, look at the last five years, and it becomes apparent US hegemony is choking on its own internal contradictions

I'm pretty sure Jake Sullivan (the longer telegram's intended audience) is smart enough to realize all this, but I doubt he has the balls or the stubbornness to actually shift the paradigm.

As a result, my likeliest prognosis is the US doing more of the same, to less and less effect, at greater and greater cost. When does the system break? Who knows.

/end