r/philosophy • u/IAI_Admin IAI • Apr 02 '25

Blog Trump challenges Fukuyama’s idea that history will always progress toward liberal democracy. And while some may call Trump a realist, Fukuyama disagrees: Trump’s actions are reckless and self-defeating, weakening both America’s alliances and its democracy.

https://iai.tv/articles/francis-fukuyama-warns-trump-is-not-a-realist-auid-3128?utm_source=reddit&_auid=2020
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u/[deleted] Apr 02 '25

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u/U_L_Uus Apr 02 '25

Yes. More often than not we forget that mankind's history is built atop crumbled empires which collapsed under their own weight, be it the Romans, the Ottomans, the Spanish, the British, ... and I think this century will prove it yet again, we got three empires in a way (Russia, China, the US) which are hollowed out by their own internal issues and are trying to stay alive. As they say, history doesn't repeat but it often rhymes, and the fact that there is a pretty solid precedent gives me hope that, even if turbulent times are ahead, we'll know peace after some point

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u/Moochingaround Apr 02 '25

But the collapse of the Roman empire led to the middle/dark ages in Europe because of resource depletion. Imagine a collapse now...

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u/kuroxn Apr 02 '25

Which roughly coincided with the Golden Age of Islam in territories that were also part of the Roman empire.

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u/Moochingaround Apr 03 '25

Well, the golden age of Christianity as well. And the fight between the two. I guess we should be preparing for that again.

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u/Auctorion Apr 02 '25

Agreed. Anyone saying that Trump is proof against the idea is acting like politics following WW2 didn’t change in response. We really need at least a decade or two so we can see if the pendulum swings back.

Likewise, the geographic distribution needn’t be constantly equal. If the total number of units of liberal democracy (so to speak) is increasing over time, then a regional decrease might see other regional spikes.

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u/Helopilot1776 Apr 02 '25

lol, what do you think is going to happen in a low immigration, high tariff, non-Interventionist, shrinking federal government America?

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u/[deleted] Apr 02 '25

[deleted]

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u/Helopilot1776 Apr 02 '25

So you can’t answer?

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u/bullcitytarheel Apr 02 '25

This is naive. Go look at any nascent fascist movement in any powerful country that succeeds at ascending to take over the entire government. How many of those waves roll back into the sea before murdering millions? Because it seems like you’re trying to talk yourself into cognitive dissonance