Post your funny pictures here!!! part Deux

[Unbeliever]

Well, America is almost twice as large as the Roman Empire was at its peak.

[Baruch]

Well, America is almost twice as large as the Roman Empire was at its peak.

Depends on if you count the water in the middle.

[Shiranu]

It takes a full blown quibble-thon to qualify the US as an Empire.

Uh, no, it doesn't.

MW Definition: "a major political unit having a territory of great extent or a number of territories or peoples under a single sovereign authority."

That is the textbook definition, and it clearly defines what America is. The United States is made up of *gasp* States that either belong to unique regions with their own distinct linguistic, cultural, social and historical traits that are vastly different from other regions within the States, or in some instances like Texas, Hawai'i, California, New Mexico, Utah and several others were and are their own cultural entities that were either sold, won through war or had their governments overthrown to become part of the Union. All of these unique peoples and regions answer to one federal government above them.

That is about as textbook empire as you can get, expecially if you consider an emperor or empress is not a necessity (even if historically a given) to be one. And I am leaving out territories like Puerto Rico, Guam, American Samoa, etc.

That didn't require any tweaking of the textbook definition of an empire, and that is using the most concrete definition of what an empire even is. If you go into the less literal translations of empire we become even more apparently one.

[Gawdzilla Sama]

LOL

[Hydra009]

Empires are essentially a conglomeration of different nations/peoples under a single authority (as opposed to a nation-state or city-state or confederation, etc).

A key feature of empires is that they are heterogeneous - there are many nations (i.e. tribes) under the same government.  This is quite literally the case in the US mainland.

And when you factor in the US's various island holdings, especially Hawaii and Puerto Rico (neither of which volunteered for the honor of joining the US, to put it mildly), there's definitely a case to be made for calling this an empire.

Wikipedia has an interesting little blurb on the subject:

Characterizing some aspects of American foreign policy and international behavior as "American Empire" is controversial but not uncommon. This characterization is controversial because of the strong tendency in American society to reject claims of American imperialism. The initial motivations for the inception of the United States eventually led to the development of this tendency, which has been perpetuated by the country-wide obsession with this national narrative. The United States was formed because colonists did not like being under control of the British Empire. Essentially, the United States was formed in an attempt to reject imperialism. This makes it very hard for people to acknowledge America's status as an empire. This active rejection of imperialist status is not limited to high-ranking government officials, as it has been ingrained in American society throughout its entire history. As David Ludden explains, "journalists, scholars, teachers, students, analysts, and politicians prefer to depict the U.S. as a nation pursuing its own interests and ideals". This often results in imperialist endeavors being presented as measures taken to enhance national security. Ludden explains this phenomenon with the concept of "ideological blinders", which he says prevent American citizens from realizing the true nature of America's current systems and strategies. These "ideological blinders" that people wear have resulted in an "invisible" American empire of which most American citizens are unaware.

Any of that sound familiar?

[Gawdzilla Sama]

"That is the textbook definition, and it clearly defines what America is." The definition fits Canada, Australia, Brazil, India, China...

[Hydra009]

The definition fits Canada, Australia, Brazil, India, China...

The Han ethnic group makes up 91% of China...

[Gawdzilla Sama]

The Han ethnic group makes up 91% of China...

And the first Qin emperor gathered all seven Chinese nations into one empire.

Are we on ping or pong? I've lost track.

[Baruch]

The Han ethnic group makes up 91% of China...

Empires require a large army and the willingness to use it ...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sjVgX0A8Jtc&list=PL8E9572F9101B50C9&index=2

Beautiful movie.  But don't forget, Shi Huang Di was a genocidal psychopath.  Big ideas require big craziness.

[Hydra009]

To stop predation, all you have to do is teach the animals to not eat meat.  Super simple stuff.

[Munch]

I vote for allowing vegans into lion and tiger enclosures to teach them first hand, while we fill the results

[Shiranu]

"That is the textbook definition, and it clearly defines what America is." The definition fits Canada, Australia, Brazil, India, China...

I would agree with that.

[Gawdzilla Sama]

So we wind up with "everybody is special in their own special way" thinking.

Be honest. If you want to hate the US, that's fine.

[Unbeliever]

OK, I need a clue: what does any of the preceding have to do with hating the U.S.?

[Shiranu]

So we wind up with "everybody is special in their own special way" thinking.

Be honest. If you want to hate the US, that's fine.

No, we wind up with recognizing what modern states generally are and thus having a clearer understanding of the world we live in. All water is wet, that doesn't somehow make the glass sitting on my table "less" water than it was before stating that.

A concrete example of this is our treatment of Puerto Rico, who has had it's economy decimated by American politics and companies as well as is dependent on the federal government (to whom they do pay federal taxes) for aid in situations like Hurricane Maria and the recent earthquake and yet is not given any actual voice within the federal government.

Another example would be the white-washing of Hawai'ian history to erase any memory that they were a sovereign nation who were forcibly overthrown by U.S. Marines and American businessmen to become a state. By accepting the train of thought that the United States is a nation, rather than an empire, it gives a false impression that all the states joined of their own free-will and willingly at that, when that is not true for a large handful of states.

Trust me, if I wanted to find reasons to hate the US, calling it an empire would probably be #403928 on reasons I could think of to do so.

You brought up Canada, and they honestly are another great example of how modern states are often imperial in nature. Look at their (along with essentially all other modern states in the Americas) treatment of the Native American populations; it is literally textbook subjugation and cultural destruction as you would see practiced by empires of the past, if not always taken to the extreme. 

If anything you are only making me more confident in that statement, because you aren't actually refuting anything I say and the more I research it... the more right it appears I am. So... thanks, I think.