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Comment by fosk | Hacker News Reader

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Does the US have total control? They sure have wide influence, but influence is different from control. The power to take something diminishes when you use it.

Yes. When the rubber meets the road, they have total control because what is anybody going to do about it?

What are you going to do to keep the American tech sector up? Point guns at people so they post on Instagram?

We are talking about geopolitical and financial power, not Instagram.

That power has been given because there was trust that the US would not fuck you over. That agreement seems to have been canceled by the US, therefore that power can be removed, too.

The EU didn’t give power to the US. The US took it after the European states got decimated after WWII. Power is not given, it’s taken.

Of course power is given. If enough people decide to ditch YC and HN tomorrow because the CEO said something stupid, it will sink into meaninglessness.

Obviously that depends on the amoount of people and how far something has to fall, but it can happen. Other things will fill the void. Same goes for nations if you look at former superpowers like France, Spain or the UK. Everything can break.

You would be surprised what 96% of the mankind can do to a perceived bully. Just keep doing what you're doing

Europe is both financially bankrupt and incompetent, with poor governance continuously hindered by the ambition of each country within the “union”. It will take decades at best for the EU to be competitive, assuming it won’t disintegrate before which is also a very real outcome.

And I say this as an European.

So, as a European, what would you want to see happen? Do whatever we can to appease Trump, living as a subject, all because resistance is futile?

Don't overestimate the US military industrial complex. Their biggest skill is lobbying, and selling massively expensive 'super weapons' that are too expensive to use.

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