>Typical run of the mill USAer mindset. Ah yes, we are "better" than them, so our problems don't really exist.
No, we just have higher level problems to deal with. Running global trade, providing the reserve currency, generating nearly the entirety of high tech IP, outputting the vast overwhelming majority of culture and media, and continuing to provide the only real sustained economic growth in the entire developed world is a lot more complex and nuanced than LARPing as a 19th century imperial power bullying neighbors or submitting their citizenry to full obedience and worrying about grain imports. It requires more complex systems with greater levels of feedback and autonomy than any centrally commanded ideological fantasy regime could ever provide. The drawbacks of such a system are that they end up seeming messy and imperfect from the outside. But it's the only way such an organization can actually work in the modern world.
Oh glorious child of freedom, heir to the beacon of liberty and burger-fueled enlightenment! I kneel before your radiant stars and stripes, humbly begging your divine intervention in my lowly, uncivilized land. Please, O harbinger of freedom fries and democracy, rain your benevolent drones of cultural superiority upon us! Invade my country, shatter my outdated customs, and replace them with the gleaming perfection of Walmart aisles, NFL Sundays, and pumpkin spice lattes.
I yearn to sing your anthems while sipping on a 64oz soda and binge-watching reboots of shows that ran better in the '90s. Let your Hollywood blockbusters teach me the true meaning of heroism, your fast food teach me the joys of high-fructose corn syrup, and your reality TV show me the deep complexity of human emotion.
Oh merciful dispenser of freedom, take pity on my backwards existence. Supersede my wretched culture with your superior one—bless me with the gift of questionable foreign policy decisions and an uncanny ability to add cheese to everything. Only then can I ascend to the higher plane of existence that is AMERICAN EXCEPTIONALISM™.
Please, I implore you, invade us swiftly and mercifully. Turn my humble homeland into a shining franchise of your illustrious nation, and I shall forever pledge allegiance to the flag, even as I drown in the sweet nectar of Diet Coke. Amen.
No, we just have higher level problems to deal with. Running global trade, providing the reserve currency, generating nearly the entirety of high tech IP, outputting the vast overwhelming majority of culture and media, and continuing to provide the only real sustained economic growth in the entire developed world is a lot more complex and nuanced than LARPing as a 19th century imperial power bullying neighbors or submitting their citizenry to full obedience and worrying about grain imports. It requires more complex systems with greater levels of feedback and autonomy than any centrally commanded ideological fantasy regime could ever provide. The drawbacks of such a system are that they end up seeming messy and imperfect from the outside. But it's the only way such an organization can actually work in the modern world.