Uh, yeah, not like this.
If you're sitting around waiting for the empire to fall, then it's never going to fall. Empires fall because people make them fall.
And it's going to be achieved with blood...
this post was submitted on 04 Jul 2025
758 points (93.6% liked)
Memes
51464 readers
692 users here now
Rules:
- Be civil and nice.
- Try not to excessively repost, as a rule of thumb, wait at least 2 months to do it if you have to.
founded 6 years ago
MODERATORS
Empires don't end, they fizzle out.
Real empires go for much longer.
The US will not be more than a shitstain in the pages of history.
It's funny to imagine our descendants in whatever America becomes defending the empire by saying it wasn't America's fault it collapsed, it was Israel's; hopefully though one of the things they admit is it's also because of culture war idiocy and other arbitrary, fabricated social divisions; EDIT: Also the empire's insistence on capitalism and wasting the talents contained in around 350 million people; China capitalizing (haaaaa, see what I did there?) on their population with excellent access to really good education and health services has turned their one billion people into its most powerful asset, meanwhile in America humans are also an asset, but in the form of slavery (wage slavery and actual slavery).
I want to believe
Thankfully, nothing lasts forever.
Despite all the and suffering it has caused and will cause, Trump admin has at least handed us the beginning of a breakdown in US hegemony as trust has eroded with other nations who are all busy pivoting away from it right now.
Unfortunately upon breaking the gridlock, other nations are scrambling to maintain the status quo rather than leaning into the future by redoubling commitments to address human and climate crises before it’s too late for the humans.
I hate to be nitpicky about a meme but I love to be nitpicky. This claims is based on bullshit statistics that the author made up or bent to his will. The Ottoman empire alone shows this to be incorrect but Rome too stands out. Besides, what would an arbitrary amount of time have to do with the collapse of complex economic systems. Its bullshit idealism and I hate seeing it.
I am begging the US to collapse though
Average. It's just an average. I haven't verified whether the number is accurate (and often it's probably debatable what qualifies as an empire and at what point it fell) but some empires lasting way longer does nothing to disprove 250 years being the average lifespan.
The second part of what you said is still entirely correct of course, that number has no real predictive capabilities for the collapse of the USA.
It isn't though, I have seen the original source of this claim and its bs. The author just picks and chooses when empires begin and end so that it fits their claim. I would concede the point if it were ever actually an average.
It's not just Glubb. The Changing World Order by Ray Dalio also arrives at the 250 year number.
Cliodynamics and Structural-Demographic Theory suggests cycles of 200-300 years as well.
load more comments
(1 replies)
load more comments
(2 replies)
Pic unrelated
(I'm /j)
When someone says "death to America", they aren't saying "death to Americans". A government/state is a regime, not all it's people, despite how much as nationalists love to stoke that sort of patriotism. So I have no problem with the slogan, I call for the fall of the US imperialist regime.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_to_America#Interpretation_and_meaning - has some confirmations from various Iranian politicians and a travel writer.
OK, so what's the plan for bringing death to the USA without killing a single American?
load more comments
(3 replies)
Usians: "hate the government not the people"
Usians when hearing someone else say "hate the government not the people" about USA: "we're gonna kill you"
The 250 year thing is basically completely made up BS
Indeed. The empire you left to make your own with blackjack and hookers was nearly double that. If you want to be facetious too, then probably triple.
It's not correct, but would be nice.
Of course this is incorrect, go look up an empire and see.
... Roman empire got over 1000 years, Ottoman's got 623 years, Mongol empire only got 162.
...and Italy, Turkey, and Mongolia are still around, they're just not empires anymore. They're Nations.
“Average”
Mean, median, or mode?
I take preference to the “Russian method” cut off the high and low score and mean them.
Yes.
load more comments
(6 replies)
these where the first versions of empire that existed on this world and full of equal parts flaws and dumb luck as a result
the modern hybrid euro-colonial versions also have flaws and luck on their side, but, more importantly, they learn and adapt from each other and, as a result, have a pattern that we can now identify.