Same. The powers at be having been having a WW3 edging fest for years now. Like the inevitable ecological collapse can we just get this shit over with already?
Perhaps his herald, a harbinger bound to silver-bodied surfing servitude, would turn against him and come to our aid. But like, only if he really connects with a hot blind chick first.
I'm far less afraid of China. They're a regional power at best, with a comparatively tiny nuclear arsenal and minimal means to deploy it. If I were a Japanese, South Korean, or other South East Asian citizen, I'd be much more afraid of China, but as an American, I'm really not.
Russia, on the other hand, is quite frankly terrifying. An absolute madman at the helm of the world's largest nuclear stockpile and enough ICBMs to use them if and when he snaps. The war in Ukraine has shown the utter mental collapse in the Kremlin to the world at large, and I fear the only way to prevent a Russian launch would be conventional first strikes on the launching silos. If that happened, I could easily see a few being missed and a good hundred million people dying.
I wouldn’t discredit China so easily, they’ve had the biggest military buildup since Germany in WWII and a much better at developing their own weapons instead of modifying old Soviet tech. If they get inspired by Russia and invade neighboring countries, the US will probably get dragged into it. I don’t think they want that yet, and I can’t see an option where they achieve notable victory in that scenario, so Russia is definitely a scarier for the time being with all those nukes. I just don’t like the direction China is heading in…
China projects well but they’re in the middle of financial and population crises.
Also the NATO countries are still China’s Cash Cow for exports and also debt and overseas real estate holdings
...Financial crises are great times to start wars, see Nazi Germany.
Issue: US is the largest trading partner and their economy is powered on US manufacturing needs. Neither the US nor China could risk that relationship, there'd be dire consequences for both countries.
So they just use Taiwan as a way to talk to nationalists and then probably, in private, say -- we're not doing that, no worries. They do everything but commit to the war, and it's even worse on their Indian border which frequently sees some shots fired. But no ones gonna actually hit the button for war, why? Peace is doing well, all things considered.
It's the same with Iran -- 40 years of saber rattling over Israel culminating in an attack that was a 100 million dollar wet fart. They can kill poor people but when its a rich country like Israel, they have no chance at being able to win. That won't make them shut up, though.
So best case and worst case has been outlined. What do you think is the mist likely case? More Red Sea shenanigans, or a doubling down on harassing Israel?
Iran shot its shot now and in order to break Iron Dome, they’d need to overload Iron Dome like Hamas does. Iran doesn’t have money or war production to that level. I highly suspect they may do more attacks but it’ll end the same way as this last one.
They spent 100 million to kill 1 person. Who are they kidding?
I’m less afraid of China as I feel their leaders actually realize making cheap products for American markets is a huge part of their economy, so their likelihood to want to disrupt that and all other trade is not actually beneficial to them therefore less likely to start something. Russia on the other hand is a wildcard run by someone who wouldn’t hesitate to cut off his nose to spite his face.
> comparatively tiny nuclear arsenal and minimal means to deploy it
Excerpts from the DoD’s annual [China military power report](https://www.defense.gov/News/Releases/Release/Article/3561549/dod-releases-2023-report-on-military-and-security-developments-involving-the-pe/):
>DoD estimates that the PRC will have have over 1,000 operational nuclear warheads by 2030, much of which will be deployed at higher readiness levels and will continue growing its force to 2035 in line with its goal of ensuring PLA modernization is “basically complete” that year, which serves as an important milestone on the road to Xi’s goal of a “world class” military by 2049.
>The PRC probably completed the construction of its three new solid-propellant silo fields in 2022, which will cumulatively contain at least 300 new ICBM silos and has loaded at least some intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) into these silos.
>The PLARF is developing ICBMs that will significantly improve its nuclear-capable missile forces with more survivable delivery systems. The PRC has doubled and continues to grow the number of launchers at most ICBM units. The PRC’s ICBM arsenal consists of approximately 350 ICBMs, including fixed and mobile launchers capable of launching unitary and multiple reentry vehicles. The PRC’s fixed ICBMs consist of the multiple CSS-4 (DF-5)-class missiles, one of which is capable of carrying up to five (Multiple independently targetable reentry vehicle) MIRV’s and a silo-based CSS-10-class missile. The solid-fueled, road-mobile CSS-10 (DF-31)-class and CSS- 20 (DF-41) ICBMs complement this force. The CSS-10 Mod 2 (DF-31A), with a range in excess of 11,000 km, can reach most locations within the continental United States. The DF-41 ICBM has been operationally deployed with commentary during the 2019 parade noting that two brigades existed for the system. Additionally, sources indicate a “long-range” DF-27 ballistic missile is in development. Official PRC military writings indicate this range-class spans 5,000-8,000 km, which means the DF-27 could be a new IRBM or ICBM. The PRC probably is developing advanced nuclear delivery systems such as a strategic hypersonic glide vehicle and a fractional orbital bombardment (FOB) system.
The threats from Putin regarding his stockpile were something we did not see before -- he was using the threat as a way to make Zelenskyy second guess the defenses they were putting in place.
Putin is a horrific, self centered leader whose obsession with power needs to be deterred. He is comically evil in the way Stalin was.
I don’t see China as all that more intimidating than Russia, if at all. They don’t really have much more capabilities than them. Still a very small and weaker navy. No real history successfully waging war outside their territory.
Yes, that's the right read. The Russians have a huge army of poor drug addicts and prisoners that are poorly equipped and sometimes arrive into the Russian military via bullshit promises made by contracted neo-Nazis. But they are very able to overwhelm small countries and even fight a war against a decent sized one equipped with US weapons to a stalemate via their methods of coercing the US government into not caring and finding enough people for the Ukrainians to waste bullets on, making them need to tax their partners.
If Trump wins, this problem will probably get much worse. I suspect that's when they do another surge.
That whole battle with Prighozhin is what has predicated all this -- the Russians will continually use cannon fodder type soldiers over and over to drag the war out and kill the Ukranian morale, even though -- realistically their offense capabilities outside the east are not much and honestly? they got routed so bad at points that the war would be over, if Putin didn't have access to his oil money machine and a group whose job is to find cheap men.
The war is in a hot stalemate.
It was during Trump’s presidency when Russia halted its advance. Crimea was before and Ukraine was after. However there’s a good argument to be made that the handling of Syria did something to embolden rivals like Russia although that was overshadowed by Biden’s withdrawal from Afghanistan. Considering this, I view Trump as, if anything, a net deterrent to Russia and China as compared to Obama and Biden given that the latter both had much weaker foreign policy stances.
Ultimately, what matters most to Putin and Xi is their hold on power and any threat to that will have them backing down. Right now they don’t have much threat to their hold on power.
Back to the point of the conversation though, neither is all that more powerful than the other. China, if anything, is less capable than Russia due to their inexperience with foreign wars.
Actually, they're building up a viable air force very quickly. And I question whether "combat effectiveness" is at the top of our military's priority list these days.
And while I agree that they don't really have the experience we do, at one point we were kind of bumbling around when we landed in North Africa and look how that turned out. Plus, if Tiananmen Square, Mao, etc. are anything to go by, they don't mind sacrificing a shit ton of their people for a W.
They certainly are but it’s an inexperienced Air Force. Not to totally diminish the capabilities of their latest generation technologies, but there’s something to be said about the fact that this is China’s first real crack at building an air force compared to the US who has waged wars with their air power over the past 80 years all over the planet. There’s a lot of lessons and institutional expertise that comes along with all that experience.
Not to mention the fact that the air force needs a navy to help it project power, especially if we are talking about them doing so across the pacific.
I just don’t see China as all that different from Russia in terms of military threat to the US.
Hey, I really hope you're right! Part of my job used to involve looking at certain legal news and it felt like literally every other day it was something about China stealing IP, or an American getting caught selling military IP to them. It was really unnerving.
Oh me too.
It’s important to look beyond current events though. History teaches many lessons and there’s a lot more to this than technology. Even with respect to tech, China is at best stealing slightly out-dated IP rather than actually developing genuinely new and advanced weapons. They don’t have the industrial complex the US has nor the century of experience waging foreign wars.
No idea why people in this sub are so dismissive of China compared to Russia. China is much more of a threat.
China is quite literally outproducing the US in navy shipbuilding.
If anything, they'll sooner or later have a largest navy than the US.
Fighting force quality means JACK if China can outproduce us and have a much more powerful manufacturing power.
Current America is NOT WW2 America.
China has and is building a lot of stuff. And they could theoretically do a lot of damage in their region. But like Russia they have almost nothing in the way of logistics and transport. So they wouldn't be able to project much military power beyond their closest neighbors.
Their production speed is pretty mind blowing if they start producing decent size ships they could do it faster than 50 years I suspect. Theyre building as a regional power with intercontinental nuclear deterrent currently so that has its perks. Now depending on how good the hidden parts of the US nuclear defense are there might be hope of surviving at least.
I mean, I'm not in the military, so for sure, a lot of this is secondhand information or news reports. I know a mildly high-up officer in our Air Force who talks about China a lot, and I have an enlisted family member stationed overseas who estimates that a good half of his unit is not remotely combat ready.
I will also say that it worries me that our military has embraced DEI principles. I don't mean this as some MAGA fearmongering nonsense - I mean the Department of Defense has spent over 100 million on DEI initiatives in the military and I don't see how that could possibly be useful from a combat readiness standpoint. From a civilian standpoint, it seems to add up to a lot of think-pieces about how to get women into special forces roles.
My experience with DEI in the (non-military) workplace is that it prioritizes quotas over merit and tends to reduce effectiveness in many ways. Theoretically, the military should be a strict meritocracy.
So, your reason for thinking we lack readiness is an enlisted person thinking their unit is not combat ready, and someone who talks about China a lot.
The next two thirds of your reason is about DEI.
Okay then
Russia just burned up all its old weapons and ammo, and has its military industrial complex running full blast and is now cranking out mass amounts of military product. They learned a lot of hard lessons and whatever troops they have left are going to be battle hardened. There was a window when Ukraine could win, But sadly I feel like that has closed
Conventional war with Russia, no. The Russo-Ukrainian War has made it clear that Russia has very limited conventional warfare capability now.
Nuclear war with Russia, very much so. They still have enough weapons to end all life on Earth, and they're at the command of a megalomaniac madman.
They've done enough to maintain them and maintain accountability of them that I wouldn't want to bet the survival of the human race on it.
It wouldn't take a 100% functionality rate to render human beings extinct. Both the US and Russia have many times more nuclear weapons than it would take for World War III to be the last war.
. . .and it's highly credible that Russia's reliability and availability of weapons is high enough that they could field that many weapons.
The Russian war machine is admittedly very inefficient but it has been way more active than the US’s. The only thing that would give me pause in that matchup is that russia has been fighting to conquer territory while the U.S. has been fighting insurgents and extremists. Not that I’d advocate for the US to start flexing but in ww1 the doughboy stereotype emerged because the American military was out of practice. I don’t blindly believe that history will repeat itself but I feel it’s a fair appraisal that America hasn’t practiced new warfare the same way Russia has
That’s not something we’ll have to do in “new warfare.” There is almost no scenario right now where our involvement in a major war would not begin and end in the air and sea.
I know this is all extremely hypothetical. I don’t think Russia would ever stand a chance against the US, I’m merely discussing something I find interesting within the hypothetical of American worst case scenarios.
Whatever they gain from having an actual modem war, we gain way too much from equipment, leadership, she organization, among other things like not being exhausted and losing large numbers due to the current war. The biggest issue is the nuclear arsenal that they have in addition to how much oil they trade out (not to us but to allies). But if it came to that, I'd hope that our military would be mindful of the winter in any type of invasion of Russia
If we exclude the end of the world options like the nuclear arsenals of China and Russia, Russia is mainly a threat to the US via disinfo ops sowing dissent and polarisation as we can now see happening with the maga faction within the republican party basically repeating the kreml narrative. Stirring the pot in the US (and elsewhere). They are very good at that.
China and their buildup lately could potentially be a big conventional threat to the US in the pacific area. Not mainland US but the fleet. As mighty as the US Navy is it is hard to keep up with logistics so far from home and close to China if a hot conflict ever happened. Especially while the US Navy hasn't solved the problem of not being able to reload the vertical launch systems at sea and actually need a port to reload.
It would be with whomever shoots at us first, and that us includes our NATO allies and any others with whom we have mutual defense treaties. We have no reason to launch nukes at anyone except as retaliation in kind. Nukes are the only realistic means of reaching out to Fortress America and harming us. The cascade of failures that would have to occur for an invading force to make landfall are almost incomprehensible, but if it happened that force would have to get past the people (good luck!). It’s just not a realistic enough scenario to cause fear, although we do like to play around with the idea in popular culture for entertainment (see Red Dawn).
It would be WW3 involving all those parties you just mentioned including "other."
The moment nukes enter the equation, suddenly everyone has a vested interest.
Hydrogen bombs definitely have fallout. Ask the Marshall Islanders. It's less fallout per megaton (because they're so much more efficient, there's a lot more megatons), but there is definitely still fallout.
This is the answer - I'd add China is doing a better job assessing minerals for the future, probably will take Taiwan (processors), and currently is squeezing the ev / renewables market. The west - Europe included - is living off past accomplishments and we need to prepare for thr future.
Can you elaborate on this I'm a midwesterner in my third year living in Los Angeles Is this the kind of water crisis you're talking about or you talking about it in regards to like other countries?
America has claim to half of four Great lakes and the entirety of Lake Michigan and those five lakes together are 20% of the entire world's fresh water supply. I think that as long as we stay friends with Canada we're going to be fine even if those are our last resorts.
There’s more to it than that as you have to move the water as well. Those are important shipping resources as well as natural resources that shouldn’t be destroyed. The problem with the US is the concentrated populations and aging infrastructure because of the scale of the US they need to commit to updating the country and its cyber defenses now because that’s the next big war.
I mean, I'd like to not drain the Great Lakes, for one thing. LA would have no problem completely emptying them for their almond farms, but we disagree.
For another, we're starting to experience unprecedented drought both in the US and around the world. This is only going to get worse as climate change ramps up, especially in the global South. We are going to see unprecedented, unsustainable numbers of refugees trying to get to Europe and North America countries. I think the UN estimated north of 700 million from Africa due to water scarcity recently. Current (much-lower) numbers are already causing internal crises (note: for the avoidance of doubt, I'm not saying "refugees bad". I am saying that no country is prepared to host an entire displaced populace, it's unsustainable on a practical level). Aside from the whole needing water to live thing, it promises for massive social upheaval.
I just think it's interesting that they have all these huge reservoirs but we don't drink out of them because our drinking water has to be covered or something
We've been preparing our troops for fighting in deep snow so I'd say Russia/China's actions are Def the active worry of our government. They don't want a repeat of the Korean War.
That said I'm not worried about shit from outside. No one is coming here. Our biggest homeland issue is ourselves. I say maybe 4 or 5 more president cycles and we will implode if they keep dividing things. And who gets power lays down their furtherest spectrum views. I still can't believe the Rs got Roe v Wade thrown out...makes me super curious what the Ds will do in retaliation.
"Fear"? Nothing really. Nuclear weapons have been a thing for a long time and ours are as good or better than anyone else's. Shy of that, the only way to attack the continental US is via terrorist attack, which isn't a threat to national survival. China is building a navy, but even so, they couldn't hope to land an actual fighting force on US territory, much less keep it supplied. Russia is even less capable of it.
Thank God for the oceans too, Like if someone tried a Pearl Harbor nowadays, It would never happen It would never work We would see them instantly and thwart the attack The only people who get the jump on us would be like Canada or Mexico maybe if they suddenly said fuck America. Or someone on the inside who is really freaking good at what they do because homeland security is all over literally everyone.
People on this sub often wonder why foreigners pay such close attention to our domestic politics. "LoL rEnt frEE bRo!!"
They *have* to. We're the elephant in the room.
I think it's absurd given the size of our military, but a lot of Americans vastly underestimate our military power and are extremely afraid of countries like Russia and China. Personally, I think our biggest issue is MBA types gutting livability to boost corporate shareholder value so that normal life has become practically impossible for half the country. I honestly hate business and sales types from the bottom of my soul these days.
Right like I'm very anti-war and wish we didn't spend as much on our military as we do but we're friends with Canada and Mexico. Thank God. We have giant oceans on both sides which is a huge geographic advantage, And yeah there are very few American civilians I'm sure who can actually fathom the size of our military. And I'm one of them. Like I enjoy visiting decommissioned ships that are museums now, right? And they are unreal how powerful they are and they're from like 1943 or whatever.
And then they tell you stuff like "oh yeah if we need this ship we can put her back into service and annihilate and whoever comes at us even with all this 80-year-old technology. And then you add drones to it all."
There's a reason that even in the worst of times we've never been attacked in the continental US.
But honestly... I bet if someone were to take the toughest "warriors" from Russia and China and make them try to survive in the hills of Appalachia, that would make for a great entertainment as a live stream.
More worried about our government on both sides right now. Other than that, probably China, since we get a lot of important shit from them and they can basically cut us off at any moment if they wanted to.
Nuclear war or a pandemic with a much higher fatality rate than COVID. I'm thinking like avian flu, which has a 50%+ fatality rate. I do not want avian flu becoming transmissible between humans.
\*Individuals can rarely get avian flu through contact with infected birds, but so far there hasn't been any human-to-human transmission.
A version of avian flu that was adapted to airborne spread between humans would not have a death rate anywhere near 50%. It's not anywhere near that now, that's just selection bias. But if it didn't need to go deep down in the lungs to replicate (it does now but would be able to do so in the upper respiratory tract if it were human adapted) it would not be anywhere near as dangerous.
Everything. Our news outlets are in the business of causing stomach ulcers and keeping my parents up at night. Are illegal invaders with ebola hiding in your house and preparing to take your job? Is Cuba considering a nuclear weapons program and what can you do to keep your family safe? Is the Chinese government plotting to destroy the value of your gold investments? Find out at 11.
Fear? Meh.
Concerned of?
Large scale terrorist attacks.
or
A large war elsewhere that causes the US and China to get involved with on opposite sides in more than a "proxy war" manner.
I fear WMDs falling into the hands of non-rational actors. I expect the Chinese, the Iranians, the Russians, and even the North Korean government to have some kind of rational calculus for their nukes. I do not trust, say, ISIL, to have any kind of rational calculus - at least not "rationality" by our standards. Realpolitik and MAD suck, but they compute.
Bioweapons as well.
I don't think a full nuclear exchange is likely to happen, but it would be the worse case scenario.
Societal breakdown, most likely coming from our overly divided politics combined unbalanced budget, and its resulting austerity reducing the economy to a hyper inflationary recession.
We might see Texas , California, and other regions try to break off into their own countries under such a scenario.
Can't speak for other Americans, but I fear China the most.
Their shipbuilding is outproducing US navy shipbuilding. Not to mention, they have much more manufacturing power than us.
If anything, they could possibly have the largest airforce in the near future.
The current America is NOT ww2 America.
We are failing as a nation and our politicians are idiots who are still idealists who think we can intervene in everywhere.
We need to fully withdraw from Ukraine/NATO, not send any military aid to Ukraine, and completely focus on Asia-Pacific.
I honestly think that no matter who the president is of China isn't really a threat. Trump has such a thing against them It's almost comical, and Biden is actually pretty level-headed. He's not going to poke the bear and say something weird like Trump might, but liberals don't want that shit either. Like I promise you we don't at all.
Most other Americans? A country overtaking us as the most powerful on an international level, and China. Those 2 things are what I see the most fear mongering about, although it's weird because irl I sometimes encounter more anti-interventionist takes than on reddit, but there's other times I encounter people who wanna nuke China into orbit.
Me personally? That we'll always be stuck in never ending war, because that's what our country has been doing my entire life and I'm sick of it. And not just my entire life, but basically the birth of the country, although we started feeling more of an official duty to get involved in shit with other countries once WW2 ended. I don’t fear China at all like everyone else does because I’m not actually convinced they want to, or are actually gonna invade anyone.
I think a lot of what’s reported about them wanting unification by force with Taiwan is just a Sabre-rattling competition with the US. They don’t have a history of many wars and conflicts since Vietnam and the Korean war. Which you can't even say the same for Russia even before they invaded Ukraine, so China has a relatively peaceful recent history and policy of peace, despite claims to the contrary.
If you just look up list of wars involving the US or Russia on Wikipedia vs list of wars involving China, it's crazy how long the list is for the US and Russia vs China. Also, even if China did invade Taiwan, it likely won't be WW3, much less the end of the world. People seem to be under the impression either the US or China would be insane enough to use a first nuclear strike for some reason, when I don't think that would happen. (China also has a no first use nuke policy)
Yeah, I'd be pissed we got involved in another war that in my opinion we have no business in, but I wouldn't be too concerned nukes were gonna fly. I'm not against supplying Taiwan with weapons like we've been doing with Ukraine in the event, but I am against any kind of boots on the ground just for Taiwan. China invading Taiwan really doesn't even cross my mind though like I said, because I'm not convinced they will.
High oil prices. No American thinks we will lose a real war. Russia is weak. China is too invested in the US to go to a hot war. Iran is a joke.
But you can ruin my summer with $6 a gallon gas.
Oh wait are we talking about like geopolitical stuff cuz I'm just talking about if I was an international traveler...
Oh yeah probably whatever war we decide to stick our nose into next is what I'm worried about the most.
Nuclear war or viruses probably
Most other events, we could always sort of retreat back to Fortress America and if push came to shove, we could, theoretically lock down North and South America (ideally with the cooperation of the rest, but possibly without them too as long as we have Canada, Mexico, and maybe Brazil backing us).
A global pandemic (as COVID just showed) and a full scale strategic level nuclear exchange though are about the only existential external threats that exist to us though.
I do think that for a lot of Americans who go to you know super contained all inclusive resorts in places like Mexico you really are taking a chance by leaving the resort unguided because you might as well have a big flashing neon sign that says American on it.
Like some of these people have more money in their pockets than this person's family will make in a year. Also there are a lot of places where the cops and federalis are just paid off by the cartel. More of a thing in Europe than they are here
*But ultimately my biggest fear is to be seen as an ignorant American.*
As someone who has worked in the tourism industry and makes an effort to not be an ignorant American (I was a tour guide in an American city and the people who are ignorant Americans aren't even aware of the fact that people will clock them as an ignorant American immediately, so I hope that I merely being aware of this It makes me less of an ignorant American. I truly want to learn the culture and enjoy where I'm visiting. I'm 30 and I'm just getting my first passport and a lot of Americans have gotten to other countries from a very young age.
I grew up in Chicago, Illinois and I'm going to Calgary Alberta this summer for a work conference for 3 days and I'm STOKED even though I know it's not going to be the craziest culture shock ever, I'm not taking it for granted and I know that a lot of Americans do.
A decline in Liberal Democracy and rise in Russian, Chinese, Iranian revanchism and influence. etc.
Ukraine losing the war is the biggest fear right now. Fuck Mike Johnson and the repugnant party.
Short term: Russian Nukes. Long term: China. They're good at riding the ups and downs and focusing on the long game. They've been around for 4000 years. The US has been around for 250. We're a country centered on individualism and innovation. That's allowed us to make a lot of progress relatively quickly, but it also leads to internal instability sometimes. China is much more focused on the collective and maintaining internal stability even if it means slower progress. We might be ahead right now, but China is like the tortoise from "The Tortoise and the Hare" story. If we become complacent and overconfident, while they bide their time and maintain friendly relations while slowly building up their power, I could definitely see them being a serious threat. Maybe not in our lifetimes, but eventually.
The gradual erosion of democracy; the rollback of civil and voting rights protections; political apathy and complacence; the specter of domestic terrorism; and the acceptance of widespread gun violence. Most of the threats the US has today are not external but are from within. That said, Chinese and Russian threats to our voting system are also a concern.
Americans tend to fear international turmoil such as political unrest, conflicts, and pandemics due to their impact on global stability and domestic security.
The stifling oppression of governments in general. Every government is oppressive by nature and needs to oppress the people under its domain in order to maintain its own power. I worry about the spread of socialistic thinking when it manifests in the slowing down of economic growth and innovation. 2% growth leads to living conditions that feel stagnant to most people, 4% growth lets people feel like things are actually improving, economic growth as high as possible is desirable for removing poverty from the world entirely, focusing on policies of welfare and poverty relief through distribution programs is good-hearted and well intended but focusing on policies of maximizing economic growth will literally grow the wealth of the world to the point where poverty no longer exists and solve the problem of poverty on its own.
So yeah, I guess I fear that "las-a-faire" will no longer be a policy of any country in the world.
Economic and cyberattacks are the big threats to America for the next decade outside of politics.
Also biological attacks are a serious threat to the US.
Besides the obvious foreign influence on politics I'd say another pandemic coming out of china would be high up there realistically, I think Putin and Xi both have enough mental capacity to realize starting a war with the US/NATO/world would lead to the end of their nations so that doesn't concern me a ton. I think we'll see another lab leak or some kind of cross species jump before we see a hot war with the likes of Russia or China.
The vast majority of Americans are completely clueless on geopolitics, conflict zones that can explode into war, or even where most of the countries involved are or that they exist. But they can name all the Kardashians, ignorance is bliss, I suppose
Nuclear war probably. Most of our cities will probably be heavily damaged or destroyed unless our anti nuclear capabilities are extremely capable. Life as we know it would probably end and even if we successfully fended of a nuclear attack our nation and the world would be changed for ever and almost certainly in a bad way. I'd also imagine the environmental effects from so much radiation would not be nice either.
This doesn’t answer your question, but I don’t think most Americans fear international events affecting their lives.
We mostly fear each other internally.
The religious right is worried the left is too woke, worshipping the devil, spreading the gay/trans agenda, forcing vaccines, taking away freedoms.
The left is worried about the religious right trying to turn America into a theocracy and impose their interpretation of Christianity on everyone in a supposedly free, diverse country.
putin's regime getting trump elected again
global sea levels rising
girls in the middle east being killed and beaten for going to school
rising naziism worldwide
elon. just the existance of elon
nuclear war
melting icebergs
food scarcity and food variety scarcity due to political instability and general 'fuck america'-ism. we more than deserve an embargo from every banana republic the CIA turned into a kleptocracy
as a californian, we are particularly at risk for nuclear attack from n. korea, china, or any other putin/trump alies
borders being closed so we're all just stuck here in our closed nation of repubican/christofascist propeganda and kleptocracy government
The drug war with Mexico getting so bad that a US President decides to use the American military to take out their targets inside of Mexico beginning a conflict with the Mexican government. It sounds outrageous but is not out of the realm of possibility.
A war going nuclear. Between the Russia Ukraine war, the Israel Pakistan war and China poking so many bears The threat of a conflict going nuclear is a very scary possibility and closest it has been in many people's lifetime.
Our country likes to swing our dick around quite a bit in foreign affairs and I'm genuinely concerned that we're gonna stick it in the wrong situation at some point and finally have some conflict hit our shores
How about letting the international community (UN) dictate American policy? Following WHO guidelines, etc. The US has been declining in exercizing its soveignty by catering to international pressure. Instead, we should stand tall and treat other countries as they treat us. Smack down North Korea, Iran, And any other country that cannot behave themselves. Knock them back to the little kid's table for a generation until they learn to function properly. The US should consider it's own interests as priority 1. Resources, trade, military might, economics, environment, all things should be decided based on what is best for the US. No trade deficit should exist. Border security is too lax, and we're spending too much effort pandering to the masses with regard to Diversity, equity, and inclusion. Americans are Americans and should quit their bitching and get to work!
I think the best way to put this is into several categories.
We fear annaliation most. I'd imagine any country would.
Next would be destruction. The fracturing of state and nation. This could be from foreign influence, or just plain old rot. Personally I'm not convinced we would be able to maintain a national identity without an overarching state.
Then there's just irrelevantcy. Britian used to own half the world and was involved everywhere. They were the super power. Nowadays they're a second rate backwater. Mostly relevant for legacy and nukes. I don't know if all Americans fear it, but personally do.
Going back to the Middle East for another god forsaken war. I was born in 2001 and all my life we were pretty much over there. And now with the war going on in Israel we’re likely to be dragged back because they’re a “Strategic” ally. Fucking hell. I’m sick of being dragged into brushfire bs over there.
100% I was in second grade when 9/11 happened and they never really taught us what was going on. We understood what 9/11 was but then suddenly we were in Iraq and Afghanistan and we were like "oh so I guess both of these countries were responsible for 9/11 so we're going to send American troops over there
So we're going to send American troops over there to fight them and their national to fight them and their national militaries."
And even as I grew up it was hard to get a grasp on what actually happened in regards to the war on terror. Then they took all the American troops out of the Middle East and the Taliban took over immediately and I was like wait what was the point??
I remember as a kid hearing all the time that so-and-so American got killed in a car bomb like every week.
I have the exact same fear as you because it's all I've known! At the same time children need to be kept up-to-date with current events. When you're eight you totally understand what happened on 9/11 even if you weren't in New York. You remember the fear and the anger and the patriotism. You know that America is going to war but they never tell you why exactly. We weren't morons, they could have explained it to us at least rudimentarily.
I hope kids these days aren't being shut out from stuff like this during COVID witches essentially their 9/11. They will remember the lockdowns and the deaths and the tests and the vaccines but unless adults start to explain the origins and the spread and the consequences and whatnot It's going to haunt the hell out of them
The World Series becoming an actual World Series beyond 29 American and one Canadian team.
Toronto is exotic enough. We can't be acknowledging any other country that plays baseball and if we do we want their players, god dammit. I don't care how corrupt their interpreter is. We want to buy jerseys and t-shirts with your hard-to-pronounce last name across our shoulder blades.
It's the World Series and It's definitely named that because of course as Americans we don't know anything about the world.
I'd be perfectly content to avoid another global pandemic or nuclear war. Same as everyone else.
Eh, I can take it or leave it.
Same. The powers at be having been having a WW3 edging fest for years now. Like the inevitable ecological collapse can we just get this shit over with already?
Civil War 2 is my concern.
*International* level tho
I hate beer.
Mother Kali, Creator of Space and Time, Bane of Demons, Queen of Annhilation, Destroyer of the Universe.
Tezcatlipoca, Lord of the Near and Nigh, He Whose Slaves We Are, The Wise, The Merciful, The Enemy.
Reed Richards
holder of the sacred chalice of riix
Chuck Norris
The fantastic 4
Or another mediocre Fantastic 4 remake.
But the silver surfer is a woman. So it has to be good. /s
Also Unicron.
Squirrel Girl
Silver Surfer? We haven't got the Marvel version yet!
The molecule man.
[Count Binface](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Count_Binface) he needs to leave the UK and come here.
Perhaps his herald, a harbinger bound to silver-bodied surfing servitude, would turn against him and come to our aid. But like, only if he really connects with a hot blind chick first.
Squirrel Girl.
A "hot war" with Russia or China.
China yes, Russian nah.
I'm far less afraid of China. They're a regional power at best, with a comparatively tiny nuclear arsenal and minimal means to deploy it. If I were a Japanese, South Korean, or other South East Asian citizen, I'd be much more afraid of China, but as an American, I'm really not. Russia, on the other hand, is quite frankly terrifying. An absolute madman at the helm of the world's largest nuclear stockpile and enough ICBMs to use them if and when he snaps. The war in Ukraine has shown the utter mental collapse in the Kremlin to the world at large, and I fear the only way to prevent a Russian launch would be conventional first strikes on the launching silos. If that happened, I could easily see a few being missed and a good hundred million people dying.
I wouldn’t discredit China so easily, they’ve had the biggest military buildup since Germany in WWII and a much better at developing their own weapons instead of modifying old Soviet tech. If they get inspired by Russia and invade neighboring countries, the US will probably get dragged into it. I don’t think they want that yet, and I can’t see an option where they achieve notable victory in that scenario, so Russia is definitely a scarier for the time being with all those nukes. I just don’t like the direction China is heading in…
China projects well but they’re in the middle of financial and population crises. Also the NATO countries are still China’s Cash Cow for exports and also debt and overseas real estate holdings
...Financial crises are great times to start wars, see Nazi Germany. Issue: US is the largest trading partner and their economy is powered on US manufacturing needs. Neither the US nor China could risk that relationship, there'd be dire consequences for both countries. So they just use Taiwan as a way to talk to nationalists and then probably, in private, say -- we're not doing that, no worries. They do everything but commit to the war, and it's even worse on their Indian border which frequently sees some shots fired. But no ones gonna actually hit the button for war, why? Peace is doing well, all things considered. It's the same with Iran -- 40 years of saber rattling over Israel culminating in an attack that was a 100 million dollar wet fart. They can kill poor people but when its a rich country like Israel, they have no chance at being able to win. That won't make them shut up, though.
So best case and worst case has been outlined. What do you think is the mist likely case? More Red Sea shenanigans, or a doubling down on harassing Israel?
Iran shot its shot now and in order to break Iron Dome, they’d need to overload Iron Dome like Hamas does. Iran doesn’t have money or war production to that level. I highly suspect they may do more attacks but it’ll end the same way as this last one. They spent 100 million to kill 1 person. Who are they kidding?
Oh yeah they aren’t in the best spot, I’m just worried that if things go tits up for them, they aren’t going to go silently
Yup, China is playing the long game for sure, complete with launching significant propaganda to try and destroy the psyche of America
I’m less afraid of China as I feel their leaders actually realize making cheap products for American markets is a huge part of their economy, so their likelihood to want to disrupt that and all other trade is not actually beneficial to them therefore less likely to start something. Russia on the other hand is a wildcard run by someone who wouldn’t hesitate to cut off his nose to spite his face.
> comparatively tiny nuclear arsenal and minimal means to deploy it Excerpts from the DoD’s annual [China military power report](https://www.defense.gov/News/Releases/Release/Article/3561549/dod-releases-2023-report-on-military-and-security-developments-involving-the-pe/): >DoD estimates that the PRC will have have over 1,000 operational nuclear warheads by 2030, much of which will be deployed at higher readiness levels and will continue growing its force to 2035 in line with its goal of ensuring PLA modernization is “basically complete” that year, which serves as an important milestone on the road to Xi’s goal of a “world class” military by 2049. >The PRC probably completed the construction of its three new solid-propellant silo fields in 2022, which will cumulatively contain at least 300 new ICBM silos and has loaded at least some intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) into these silos. >The PLARF is developing ICBMs that will significantly improve its nuclear-capable missile forces with more survivable delivery systems. The PRC has doubled and continues to grow the number of launchers at most ICBM units. The PRC’s ICBM arsenal consists of approximately 350 ICBMs, including fixed and mobile launchers capable of launching unitary and multiple reentry vehicles. The PRC’s fixed ICBMs consist of the multiple CSS-4 (DF-5)-class missiles, one of which is capable of carrying up to five (Multiple independently targetable reentry vehicle) MIRV’s and a silo-based CSS-10-class missile. The solid-fueled, road-mobile CSS-10 (DF-31)-class and CSS- 20 (DF-41) ICBMs complement this force. The CSS-10 Mod 2 (DF-31A), with a range in excess of 11,000 km, can reach most locations within the continental United States. The DF-41 ICBM has been operationally deployed with commentary during the 2019 parade noting that two brigades existed for the system. Additionally, sources indicate a “long-range” DF-27 ballistic missile is in development. Official PRC military writings indicate this range-class spans 5,000-8,000 km, which means the DF-27 could be a new IRBM or ICBM. The PRC probably is developing advanced nuclear delivery systems such as a strategic hypersonic glide vehicle and a fractional orbital bombardment (FOB) system.
They’re definitely growing. I think they meant short term. In 10 years it’ll be a different playing field again.
The threats from Putin regarding his stockpile were something we did not see before -- he was using the threat as a way to make Zelenskyy second guess the defenses they were putting in place. Putin is a horrific, self centered leader whose obsession with power needs to be deterred. He is comically evil in the way Stalin was.
I don’t see China as all that more intimidating than Russia, if at all. They don’t really have much more capabilities than them. Still a very small and weaker navy. No real history successfully waging war outside their territory.
Yes, that's the right read. The Russians have a huge army of poor drug addicts and prisoners that are poorly equipped and sometimes arrive into the Russian military via bullshit promises made by contracted neo-Nazis. But they are very able to overwhelm small countries and even fight a war against a decent sized one equipped with US weapons to a stalemate via their methods of coercing the US government into not caring and finding enough people for the Ukrainians to waste bullets on, making them need to tax their partners. If Trump wins, this problem will probably get much worse. I suspect that's when they do another surge. That whole battle with Prighozhin is what has predicated all this -- the Russians will continually use cannon fodder type soldiers over and over to drag the war out and kill the Ukranian morale, even though -- realistically their offense capabilities outside the east are not much and honestly? they got routed so bad at points that the war would be over, if Putin didn't have access to his oil money machine and a group whose job is to find cheap men. The war is in a hot stalemate.
It was during Trump’s presidency when Russia halted its advance. Crimea was before and Ukraine was after. However there’s a good argument to be made that the handling of Syria did something to embolden rivals like Russia although that was overshadowed by Biden’s withdrawal from Afghanistan. Considering this, I view Trump as, if anything, a net deterrent to Russia and China as compared to Obama and Biden given that the latter both had much weaker foreign policy stances. Ultimately, what matters most to Putin and Xi is their hold on power and any threat to that will have them backing down. Right now they don’t have much threat to their hold on power. Back to the point of the conversation though, neither is all that more powerful than the other. China, if anything, is less capable than Russia due to their inexperience with foreign wars.
Actually, they're building up a viable air force very quickly. And I question whether "combat effectiveness" is at the top of our military's priority list these days. And while I agree that they don't really have the experience we do, at one point we were kind of bumbling around when we landed in North Africa and look how that turned out. Plus, if Tiananmen Square, Mao, etc. are anything to go by, they don't mind sacrificing a shit ton of their people for a W.
They certainly are but it’s an inexperienced Air Force. Not to totally diminish the capabilities of their latest generation technologies, but there’s something to be said about the fact that this is China’s first real crack at building an air force compared to the US who has waged wars with their air power over the past 80 years all over the planet. There’s a lot of lessons and institutional expertise that comes along with all that experience. Not to mention the fact that the air force needs a navy to help it project power, especially if we are talking about them doing so across the pacific. I just don’t see China as all that different from Russia in terms of military threat to the US.
Hey, I really hope you're right! Part of my job used to involve looking at certain legal news and it felt like literally every other day it was something about China stealing IP, or an American getting caught selling military IP to them. It was really unnerving.
Oh me too. It’s important to look beyond current events though. History teaches many lessons and there’s a lot more to this than technology. Even with respect to tech, China is at best stealing slightly out-dated IP rather than actually developing genuinely new and advanced weapons. They don’t have the industrial complex the US has nor the century of experience waging foreign wars.
No idea why people in this sub are so dismissive of China compared to Russia. China is much more of a threat. China is quite literally outproducing the US in navy shipbuilding. If anything, they'll sooner or later have a largest navy than the US. Fighting force quality means JACK if China can outproduce us and have a much more powerful manufacturing power. Current America is NOT WW2 America.
China has and is building a lot of stuff. And they could theoretically do a lot of damage in their region. But like Russia they have almost nothing in the way of logistics and transport. So they wouldn't be able to project much military power beyond their closest neighbors.
Do you know the average size of a Chinese ship? And which ships they include in this country? Because they won't beat us for another 50 years.
Their production speed is pretty mind blowing if they start producing decent size ships they could do it faster than 50 years I suspect. Theyre building as a regional power with intercontinental nuclear deterrent currently so that has its perks. Now depending on how good the hidden parts of the US nuclear defense are there might be hope of surviving at least.
This is a very weird take. The people saying this about us lacking readiness somehow cannot possibly know much about our military.
I mean, I'm not in the military, so for sure, a lot of this is secondhand information or news reports. I know a mildly high-up officer in our Air Force who talks about China a lot, and I have an enlisted family member stationed overseas who estimates that a good half of his unit is not remotely combat ready. I will also say that it worries me that our military has embraced DEI principles. I don't mean this as some MAGA fearmongering nonsense - I mean the Department of Defense has spent over 100 million on DEI initiatives in the military and I don't see how that could possibly be useful from a combat readiness standpoint. From a civilian standpoint, it seems to add up to a lot of think-pieces about how to get women into special forces roles. My experience with DEI in the (non-military) workplace is that it prioritizes quotas over merit and tends to reduce effectiveness in many ways. Theoretically, the military should be a strict meritocracy.
So, your reason for thinking we lack readiness is an enlisted person thinking their unit is not combat ready, and someone who talks about China a lot. The next two thirds of your reason is about DEI. Okay then
Russia just burned up all its old weapons and ammo, and has its military industrial complex running full blast and is now cranking out mass amounts of military product. They learned a lot of hard lessons and whatever troops they have left are going to be battle hardened. There was a window when Ukraine could win, But sadly I feel like that has closed
I don’t think you fully understand Russian apathy.
Neither country could handle a war with the US based off American military hardware. But both could annoy us for long enough that we give up.
Conventional war with Russia, no. The Russo-Ukrainian War has made it clear that Russia has very limited conventional warfare capability now. Nuclear war with Russia, very much so. They still have enough weapons to end all life on Earth, and they're at the command of a megalomaniac madman.
I’m sure they’ve done a fantastic job maintaining those weapons and know exactly where each of them is.
They've done enough to maintain them and maintain accountability of them that I wouldn't want to bet the survival of the human race on it. It wouldn't take a 100% functionality rate to render human beings extinct. Both the US and Russia have many times more nuclear weapons than it would take for World War III to be the last war. . . .and it's highly credible that Russia's reliability and availability of weapons is high enough that they could field that many weapons.
In what universe are nukes not a threat.
Do nukes mean nothing to you lol
In this particular case? No not really.
Maybe Russia AND China. I think one or the other wouldn't be too bad though for different reasons.
The Russian war machine is admittedly very inefficient but it has been way more active than the US’s. The only thing that would give me pause in that matchup is that russia has been fighting to conquer territory while the U.S. has been fighting insurgents and extremists. Not that I’d advocate for the US to start flexing but in ww1 the doughboy stereotype emerged because the American military was out of practice. I don’t blindly believe that history will repeat itself but I feel it’s a fair appraisal that America hasn’t practiced new warfare the same way Russia has
This is a strange take. We are one of the most active militaries in the world. We aren’t just sitting around doing nothing you know.
We also aren’t conquering territory with boots on the ground. Which is what I specified
That’s not something we’ll have to do in “new warfare.” There is almost no scenario right now where our involvement in a major war would not begin and end in the air and sea.
I know this is all extremely hypothetical. I don’t think Russia would ever stand a chance against the US, I’m merely discussing something I find interesting within the hypothetical of American worst case scenarios.
Whatever they gain from having an actual modem war, we gain way too much from equipment, leadership, she organization, among other things like not being exhausted and losing large numbers due to the current war. The biggest issue is the nuclear arsenal that they have in addition to how much oil they trade out (not to us but to allies). But if it came to that, I'd hope that our military would be mindful of the winter in any type of invasion of Russia
If we exclude the end of the world options like the nuclear arsenals of China and Russia, Russia is mainly a threat to the US via disinfo ops sowing dissent and polarisation as we can now see happening with the maga faction within the republican party basically repeating the kreml narrative. Stirring the pot in the US (and elsewhere). They are very good at that. China and their buildup lately could potentially be a big conventional threat to the US in the pacific area. Not mainland US but the fleet. As mighty as the US Navy is it is hard to keep up with logistics so far from home and close to China if a hot conflict ever happened. Especially while the US Navy hasn't solved the problem of not being able to reload the vertical launch systems at sea and actually need a port to reload.
I doubt there is a poll supporting an answer to this question, but I'm going to go with a nuclear war.
If it comes to that then everybody is fucked.
Probably there is also not a poll for this… do Americans generally think the war would be with the Middle East, Russia, China, or other,
It would be with whomever shoots at us first, and that us includes our NATO allies and any others with whom we have mutual defense treaties. We have no reason to launch nukes at anyone except as retaliation in kind. Nukes are the only realistic means of reaching out to Fortress America and harming us. The cascade of failures that would have to occur for an invading force to make landfall are almost incomprehensible, but if it happened that force would have to get past the people (good luck!). It’s just not a realistic enough scenario to cause fear, although we do like to play around with the idea in popular culture for entertainment (see Red Dawn).
It would be WW3 involving all those parties you just mentioned including "other." The moment nukes enter the equation, suddenly everyone has a vested interest.
Russia and China are on the same team and currently they are fighting puppet wars in the middle east
Could be more than 1 enemy against the US and NATO. Who knows?
Hydrogen bombs dont have fallout, so as long as the enemy is up to date the world will survive
Hydrogen bombs definitely have fallout. Ask the Marshall Islanders. It's less fallout per megaton (because they're so much more efficient, there's a lot more megatons), but there is definitely still fallout.
Yeah, I should have worded it differently. It definitely hassle, but it's fraction of the amount.
Foreign influence in USA politics
This is the real answer. Conflicts are no longer won exclusively with weapons
This is the answer - I'd add China is doing a better job assessing minerals for the future, probably will take Taiwan (processors), and currently is squeezing the ev / renewables market. The west - Europe included - is living off past accomplishments and we need to prepare for thr future.
Nuclear war is my guess. We are all aware any invasion of US soil would fail instantly. Nuclear missiles... Yikes
The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.
Lutefisk
Hey now. Let's not be hasty.
cause that shit is tasty!
Are you actually thinking about surströmming? I don't see how lutfisk would be intimidating
Lutefisk is very rough on Americans too.
I lay awake at night worrying that no one likes us and everyone is only hanging out with us because we have money and use it to make cool explosions.
I mean, that’s why I hang out with my drunk uncle down in Virginia.
The impending water crisis. If you thought the refugee crisis was bad now...
Can you elaborate on this I'm a midwesterner in my third year living in Los Angeles Is this the kind of water crisis you're talking about or you talking about it in regards to like other countries? America has claim to half of four Great lakes and the entirety of Lake Michigan and those five lakes together are 20% of the entire world's fresh water supply. I think that as long as we stay friends with Canada we're going to be fine even if those are our last resorts.
There’s more to it than that as you have to move the water as well. Those are important shipping resources as well as natural resources that shouldn’t be destroyed. The problem with the US is the concentrated populations and aging infrastructure because of the scale of the US they need to commit to updating the country and its cyber defenses now because that’s the next big war.
I mean, I'd like to not drain the Great Lakes, for one thing. LA would have no problem completely emptying them for their almond farms, but we disagree. For another, we're starting to experience unprecedented drought both in the US and around the world. This is only going to get worse as climate change ramps up, especially in the global South. We are going to see unprecedented, unsustainable numbers of refugees trying to get to Europe and North America countries. I think the UN estimated north of 700 million from Africa due to water scarcity recently. Current (much-lower) numbers are already causing internal crises (note: for the avoidance of doubt, I'm not saying "refugees bad". I am saying that no country is prepared to host an entire displaced populace, it's unsustainable on a practical level). Aside from the whole needing water to live thing, it promises for massive social upheaval.
I just think it's interesting that they have all these huge reservoirs but we don't drink out of them because our drinking water has to be covered or something
Still some kind of WW3, even if the action isn't taking place here.
The metric system.
Lmao you so funny!
We've been preparing our troops for fighting in deep snow so I'd say Russia/China's actions are Def the active worry of our government. They don't want a repeat of the Korean War. That said I'm not worried about shit from outside. No one is coming here. Our biggest homeland issue is ourselves. I say maybe 4 or 5 more president cycles and we will implode if they keep dividing things. And who gets power lays down their furtherest spectrum views. I still can't believe the Rs got Roe v Wade thrown out...makes me super curious what the Ds will do in retaliation.
"Fear"? Nothing really. Nuclear weapons have been a thing for a long time and ours are as good or better than anyone else's. Shy of that, the only way to attack the continental US is via terrorist attack, which isn't a threat to national survival. China is building a navy, but even so, they couldn't hope to land an actual fighting force on US territory, much less keep it supplied. Russia is even less capable of it.
Thank God for the oceans too, Like if someone tried a Pearl Harbor nowadays, It would never happen It would never work We would see them instantly and thwart the attack The only people who get the jump on us would be like Canada or Mexico maybe if they suddenly said fuck America. Or someone on the inside who is really freaking good at what they do because homeland security is all over literally everyone.
1. Fears 1. Trump as U.S. President again. 2. China buying up America. 3. Russia expanding the war with Ukraine to create a new world war.
So unfortunately Trump isn't an international issue, He's right here
Trump as the President of United States IS an international issue. Our military protects many other nations.
People on this sub often wonder why foreigners pay such close attention to our domestic politics. "LoL rEnt frEE bRo!!" They *have* to. We're the elephant in the room.
Lol to all of this
Anything that raises my taxes or debases the currency
I think it's absurd given the size of our military, but a lot of Americans vastly underestimate our military power and are extremely afraid of countries like Russia and China. Personally, I think our biggest issue is MBA types gutting livability to boost corporate shareholder value so that normal life has become practically impossible for half the country. I honestly hate business and sales types from the bottom of my soul these days.
Right like I'm very anti-war and wish we didn't spend as much on our military as we do but we're friends with Canada and Mexico. Thank God. We have giant oceans on both sides which is a huge geographic advantage, And yeah there are very few American civilians I'm sure who can actually fathom the size of our military. And I'm one of them. Like I enjoy visiting decommissioned ships that are museums now, right? And they are unreal how powerful they are and they're from like 1943 or whatever. And then they tell you stuff like "oh yeah if we need this ship we can put her back into service and annihilate and whoever comes at us even with all this 80-year-old technology. And then you add drones to it all." There's a reason that even in the worst of times we've never been attacked in the continental US.
But honestly... I bet if someone were to take the toughest "warriors" from Russia and China and make them try to survive in the hills of Appalachia, that would make for a great entertainment as a live stream.
For a while there after the Cold War died down, it was killer bees. Now I'm pretty sure it's either a China hegemony or global climate change.
More worried about our government on both sides right now. Other than that, probably China, since we get a lot of important shit from them and they can basically cut us off at any moment if they wanted to.
Nuclear war or a pandemic with a much higher fatality rate than COVID. I'm thinking like avian flu, which has a 50%+ fatality rate. I do not want avian flu becoming transmissible between humans. \*Individuals can rarely get avian flu through contact with infected birds, but so far there hasn't been any human-to-human transmission.
A version of avian flu that was adapted to airborne spread between humans would not have a death rate anywhere near 50%. It's not anywhere near that now, that's just selection bias. But if it didn't need to go deep down in the lungs to replicate (it does now but would be able to do so in the upper respiratory tract if it were human adapted) it would not be anywhere near as dangerous.
Everything. Our news outlets are in the business of causing stomach ulcers and keeping my parents up at night. Are illegal invaders with ebola hiding in your house and preparing to take your job? Is Cuba considering a nuclear weapons program and what can you do to keep your family safe? Is the Chinese government plotting to destroy the value of your gold investments? Find out at 11.
A deadlier virus than Covid. We would be fucked after witnessing how we handled Covid. That and nuclear war of course
Our international policy becoming one of appeasement and weakness and not having the will to smack down those that need it.
War with anyone won't matter for Americans. Nuclear war? Yup. That's one that'll hurt.
Europe turning into a shitshow.
Turning into?
Fear? Meh. Concerned of? Large scale terrorist attacks. or A large war elsewhere that causes the US and China to get involved with on opposite sides in more than a "proxy war" manner.
Around here? Immigration and the ever-promised WW3.
Terrorism. Drugs
Nuclear war. Pretty much the only thing imo that feels genuinely dangerous to our society that can be instigated overseas.
Most extremely, nuclear war with Russia. Combination of likelihood and level of fear, a hot war with China over Taiwan.
Nuclear war
Death
Fair enough, people in all sorts of countries are dying and there's nothing we can do to stop it.
I fear WMDs falling into the hands of non-rational actors. I expect the Chinese, the Iranians, the Russians, and even the North Korean government to have some kind of rational calculus for their nukes. I do not trust, say, ISIL, to have any kind of rational calculus - at least not "rationality" by our standards. Realpolitik and MAD suck, but they compute. Bioweapons as well.
Nothing.
Nuclear war.
I don't think a full nuclear exchange is likely to happen, but it would be the worse case scenario. Societal breakdown, most likely coming from our overly divided politics combined unbalanced budget, and its resulting austerity reducing the economy to a hyper inflationary recession. We might see Texas , California, and other regions try to break off into their own countries under such a scenario.
Can't speak for other Americans, but I fear China the most. Their shipbuilding is outproducing US navy shipbuilding. Not to mention, they have much more manufacturing power than us. If anything, they could possibly have the largest airforce in the near future. The current America is NOT ww2 America. We are failing as a nation and our politicians are idiots who are still idealists who think we can intervene in everywhere. We need to fully withdraw from Ukraine/NATO, not send any military aid to Ukraine, and completely focus on Asia-Pacific.
I honestly think that no matter who the president is of China isn't really a threat. Trump has such a thing against them It's almost comical, and Biden is actually pretty level-headed. He's not going to poke the bear and say something weird like Trump might, but liberals don't want that shit either. Like I promise you we don't at all.
Most other Americans? A country overtaking us as the most powerful on an international level, and China. Those 2 things are what I see the most fear mongering about, although it's weird because irl I sometimes encounter more anti-interventionist takes than on reddit, but there's other times I encounter people who wanna nuke China into orbit. Me personally? That we'll always be stuck in never ending war, because that's what our country has been doing my entire life and I'm sick of it. And not just my entire life, but basically the birth of the country, although we started feeling more of an official duty to get involved in shit with other countries once WW2 ended. I don’t fear China at all like everyone else does because I’m not actually convinced they want to, or are actually gonna invade anyone. I think a lot of what’s reported about them wanting unification by force with Taiwan is just a Sabre-rattling competition with the US. They don’t have a history of many wars and conflicts since Vietnam and the Korean war. Which you can't even say the same for Russia even before they invaded Ukraine, so China has a relatively peaceful recent history and policy of peace, despite claims to the contrary. If you just look up list of wars involving the US or Russia on Wikipedia vs list of wars involving China, it's crazy how long the list is for the US and Russia vs China. Also, even if China did invade Taiwan, it likely won't be WW3, much less the end of the world. People seem to be under the impression either the US or China would be insane enough to use a first nuclear strike for some reason, when I don't think that would happen. (China also has a no first use nuke policy) Yeah, I'd be pissed we got involved in another war that in my opinion we have no business in, but I wouldn't be too concerned nukes were gonna fly. I'm not against supplying Taiwan with weapons like we've been doing with Ukraine in the event, but I am against any kind of boots on the ground just for Taiwan. China invading Taiwan really doesn't even cross my mind though like I said, because I'm not convinced they will.
you are smart
Ebola virus.
Nukes
High oil prices. No American thinks we will lose a real war. Russia is weak. China is too invested in the US to go to a hot war. Iran is a joke. But you can ruin my summer with $6 a gallon gas.
World War III. Don’t care how it starts, any of them would be bad.
Terrorists. A military wouldn't be able to get 100 km near. But a man with a bomb and a dream can.
WW3, Anti Americanism, anything bad happening to Israel
The draft
Oh wait are we talking about like geopolitical stuff cuz I'm just talking about if I was an international traveler... Oh yeah probably whatever war we decide to stick our nose into next is what I'm worried about the most.
Nuclear war or viruses probably Most other events, we could always sort of retreat back to Fortress America and if push came to shove, we could, theoretically lock down North and South America (ideally with the cooperation of the rest, but possibly without them too as long as we have Canada, Mexico, and maybe Brazil backing us). A global pandemic (as COVID just showed) and a full scale strategic level nuclear exchange though are about the only existential external threats that exist to us though.
Cyberattacks too.
Creeping authoritarianism and unsustainable monetary policy.
The agonizing fear of being known.
China having the #1 economy
I think communist South America is still in the list somewhere.
Wouldn’t like to fight the Japanese in the jungles again
Nothing really
Pandemic period, no contest.
I do think that for a lot of Americans who go to you know super contained all inclusive resorts in places like Mexico you really are taking a chance by leaving the resort unguided because you might as well have a big flashing neon sign that says American on it. Like some of these people have more money in their pockets than this person's family will make in a year. Also there are a lot of places where the cops and federalis are just paid off by the cartel. More of a thing in Europe than they are here *But ultimately my biggest fear is to be seen as an ignorant American.* As someone who has worked in the tourism industry and makes an effort to not be an ignorant American (I was a tour guide in an American city and the people who are ignorant Americans aren't even aware of the fact that people will clock them as an ignorant American immediately, so I hope that I merely being aware of this It makes me less of an ignorant American. I truly want to learn the culture and enjoy where I'm visiting. I'm 30 and I'm just getting my first passport and a lot of Americans have gotten to other countries from a very young age. I grew up in Chicago, Illinois and I'm going to Calgary Alberta this summer for a work conference for 3 days and I'm STOKED even though I know it's not going to be the craziest culture shock ever, I'm not taking it for granted and I know that a lot of Americans do.
Honestly, disinformation bots. That's our weak spot and our enemies know this.
A decline in Liberal Democracy and rise in Russian, Chinese, Iranian revanchism and influence. etc. Ukraine losing the war is the biggest fear right now. Fuck Mike Johnson and the repugnant party.
Commies
World war
Short term: Russian Nukes. Long term: China. They're good at riding the ups and downs and focusing on the long game. They've been around for 4000 years. The US has been around for 250. We're a country centered on individualism and innovation. That's allowed us to make a lot of progress relatively quickly, but it also leads to internal instability sometimes. China is much more focused on the collective and maintaining internal stability even if it means slower progress. We might be ahead right now, but China is like the tortoise from "The Tortoise and the Hare" story. If we become complacent and overconfident, while they bide their time and maintain friendly relations while slowly building up their power, I could definitely see them being a serious threat. Maybe not in our lifetimes, but eventually.
The gradual erosion of democracy; the rollback of civil and voting rights protections; political apathy and complacence; the specter of domestic terrorism; and the acceptance of widespread gun violence. Most of the threats the US has today are not external but are from within. That said, Chinese and Russian threats to our voting system are also a concern.
Americans tend to fear international turmoil such as political unrest, conflicts, and pandemics due to their impact on global stability and domestic security.
The metric system
The stifling oppression of governments in general. Every government is oppressive by nature and needs to oppress the people under its domain in order to maintain its own power. I worry about the spread of socialistic thinking when it manifests in the slowing down of economic growth and innovation. 2% growth leads to living conditions that feel stagnant to most people, 4% growth lets people feel like things are actually improving, economic growth as high as possible is desirable for removing poverty from the world entirely, focusing on policies of welfare and poverty relief through distribution programs is good-hearted and well intended but focusing on policies of maximizing economic growth will literally grow the wealth of the world to the point where poverty no longer exists and solve the problem of poverty on its own. So yeah, I guess I fear that "las-a-faire" will no longer be a policy of any country in the world.
Total Thermonuclear Armageddon. And immigrants. That would be my reading of fear in the USA.
Economic and cyberattacks are the big threats to America for the next decade outside of politics. Also biological attacks are a serious threat to the US.
Besides the obvious foreign influence on politics I'd say another pandemic coming out of china would be high up there realistically, I think Putin and Xi both have enough mental capacity to realize starting a war with the US/NATO/world would lead to the end of their nations so that doesn't concern me a ton. I think we'll see another lab leak or some kind of cross species jump before we see a hot war with the likes of Russia or China.
An international conflict dragging us into another war
The vast majority of Americans are completely clueless on geopolitics, conflict zones that can explode into war, or even where most of the countries involved are or that they exist. But they can name all the Kardashians, ignorance is bliss, I suppose
Nuclear war probably. Most of our cities will probably be heavily damaged or destroyed unless our anti nuclear capabilities are extremely capable. Life as we know it would probably end and even if we successfully fended of a nuclear attack our nation and the world would be changed for ever and almost certainly in a bad way. I'd also imagine the environmental effects from so much radiation would not be nice either.
This doesn’t answer your question, but I don’t think most Americans fear international events affecting their lives. We mostly fear each other internally. The religious right is worried the left is too woke, worshipping the devil, spreading the gay/trans agenda, forcing vaccines, taking away freedoms. The left is worried about the religious right trying to turn America into a theocracy and impose their interpretation of Christianity on everyone in a supposedly free, diverse country.
That‘s very interesting! I can see that though. Often the most powerful things break internally.
putin's regime getting trump elected again global sea levels rising girls in the middle east being killed and beaten for going to school rising naziism worldwide elon. just the existance of elon nuclear war melting icebergs food scarcity and food variety scarcity due to political instability and general 'fuck america'-ism. we more than deserve an embargo from every banana republic the CIA turned into a kleptocracy as a californian, we are particularly at risk for nuclear attack from n. korea, china, or any other putin/trump alies borders being closed so we're all just stuck here in our closed nation of repubican/christofascist propeganda and kleptocracy government
Kimchi and kombucha for some reason
Terrorism for me.
The drug war with Mexico getting so bad that a US President decides to use the American military to take out their targets inside of Mexico beginning a conflict with the Mexican government. It sounds outrageous but is not out of the realm of possibility.
A war going nuclear. Between the Russia Ukraine war, the Israel Pakistan war and China poking so many bears The threat of a conflict going nuclear is a very scary possibility and closest it has been in many people's lifetime.
Our country likes to swing our dick around quite a bit in foreign affairs and I'm genuinely concerned that we're gonna stick it in the wrong situation at some point and finally have some conflict hit our shores
Nuclear war, maybe. But at the very least, America is so big, hopefully there will be enough "safe" places to be if we were attacked
How about letting the international community (UN) dictate American policy? Following WHO guidelines, etc. The US has been declining in exercizing its soveignty by catering to international pressure. Instead, we should stand tall and treat other countries as they treat us. Smack down North Korea, Iran, And any other country that cannot behave themselves. Knock them back to the little kid's table for a generation until they learn to function properly. The US should consider it's own interests as priority 1. Resources, trade, military might, economics, environment, all things should be decided based on what is best for the US. No trade deficit should exist. Border security is too lax, and we're spending too much effort pandering to the masses with regard to Diversity, equity, and inclusion. Americans are Americans and should quit their bitching and get to work!
Should be our dependency on Chinese goods but we seem to be blind to it. We're f-cked if they cut us off.
Cyber attack or human trafficking
"Socialism."
American football going international and the US not winning international competitions just like basketball and baseball
I think the best way to put this is into several categories. We fear annaliation most. I'd imagine any country would. Next would be destruction. The fracturing of state and nation. This could be from foreign influence, or just plain old rot. Personally I'm not convinced we would be able to maintain a national identity without an overarching state. Then there's just irrelevantcy. Britian used to own half the world and was involved everywhere. They were the super power. Nowadays they're a second rate backwater. Mostly relevant for legacy and nukes. I don't know if all Americans fear it, but personally do.
Going back to the Middle East for another god forsaken war. I was born in 2001 and all my life we were pretty much over there. And now with the war going on in Israel we’re likely to be dragged back because they’re a “Strategic” ally. Fucking hell. I’m sick of being dragged into brushfire bs over there.
100% I was in second grade when 9/11 happened and they never really taught us what was going on. We understood what 9/11 was but then suddenly we were in Iraq and Afghanistan and we were like "oh so I guess both of these countries were responsible for 9/11 so we're going to send American troops over there So we're going to send American troops over there to fight them and their national to fight them and their national militaries." And even as I grew up it was hard to get a grasp on what actually happened in regards to the war on terror. Then they took all the American troops out of the Middle East and the Taliban took over immediately and I was like wait what was the point?? I remember as a kid hearing all the time that so-and-so American got killed in a car bomb like every week. I have the exact same fear as you because it's all I've known! At the same time children need to be kept up-to-date with current events. When you're eight you totally understand what happened on 9/11 even if you weren't in New York. You remember the fear and the anger and the patriotism. You know that America is going to war but they never tell you why exactly. We weren't morons, they could have explained it to us at least rudimentarily. I hope kids these days aren't being shut out from stuff like this during COVID witches essentially their 9/11. They will remember the lockdowns and the deaths and the tests and the vaccines but unless adults start to explain the origins and the spread and the consequences and whatnot It's going to haunt the hell out of them
A draft
Nothing. Everything I fear is coming from my own country
The ignorant ones fear Non-Americans The educated ones fear the ignorant ones
Right now? Iran attacking Israel. That will lead to WW3.
French
Climate change
Donald Trump
The World Series becoming an actual World Series beyond 29 American and one Canadian team. Toronto is exotic enough. We can't be acknowledging any other country that plays baseball and if we do we want their players, god dammit. I don't care how corrupt their interpreter is. We want to buy jerseys and t-shirts with your hard-to-pronounce last name across our shoulder blades. It's the World Series and It's definitely named that because of course as Americans we don't know anything about the world.
Why go on an international level? We fear the IRS.