Nocturtle posted:

This was basically how I saw it. However the context of the recent completely unnecessary unilateral US tariffs (or Brexit!) highlights that modern states won't always try to seek consensus and avoid unnecessary conflict, even to their own detriment. 20 years from now a competent fascist could plausibly become US president with a gerrymandered Republican Congress and Senate. If he orders the military to dump sulfates into the atmosphere, who will really stop him? Isolationism and the objections of the international community play well with the authoritarian demographic ("America will save the world by itself!"), and no-one is going to war with America. It's not clear whether US domestic institutions would be any real constraint, given that the President apparently can apparently order all sorts of terrible things if it's superficially to ensure national security.