What is the current trajectory of the United States?

First thought is a second channel project shared between three creators: Hakim, Second Thought, and Yugopnik. It initially functioned as a weekly news channel from a Leninist perspective, but after a few months, they shifted to general current events essay videos. All three of these creators (the hosts of the Deprogram podcast) contribute to it, but Second Thought (JT) is the frontman, and this channel (First Thought) shares the aesthetics and editing style of his personal channel (Second Thought).

Afghanistan was a huge mistake.  The problem with standing up artificial governments by force is that there is no exit strategy possible.  Getting out always turns into a morass, undoing any gains and  causing widespread chaos.  Poiting guns at people and telling them what todo never makes you any friends.

52:48 exactly I don’t know why people think economic sanction countries is gonna to make them rebel against their own government if anything, it’s gonna make them more unified against a foreign enemy

Just to throw in another weird US thing: The national debt of Argentina is by the major part caused by the US. There was a catastrophic lawsuit which fleeced the almost stabilized economy dry. The last funny thing linked to it: A monthly video game subscription was previously paid in the local currency. They swapped over to Dollar payments. The problem is the heavy conversion rate which puts it on about 70% of the average monthly wage. For them linking anything to US Dollars is an impossible task. So it's nor just the far away countries suffering from this. It's way closer than they think.

Only an American would call these videos ‘left wing’. Your whole country has shifted so far to right that now honesty is considered ‘left’.

Keep in mind what he said at around 22-23:00 Wheat, the primary food used to currently feed the world and our livestock, became too cheap, and threatened PROFITS. Nothing else, just the idea of profits. Thats why we have world hunger today. Its the same rehashed feudalism over and over the kings just pay us now so we dont flay them.

Politically, I'm inclined to believe most of the video's thesis. I'd probably emphasize the growing wealth gap in the United States more. Real wages have been flat since 1978, which means that all of United States net income growth and wealth creation has gone to the wealthy investment class since then. This probably has increased discontent among the working class, and resentment towards immigrants. I'm not sure that this is going to bring the end of the American empire, but I do believe we are in a crisis era even though most of the working class still have enough income to eat.

As DOGE apparently seeks to rebuild SSA's codebase (which really doesn't seem necessary?), that threatens people's benefits across the country and their ability to pay bills and buy groceries.

That's going to cause a ripple effect if anything happens to threaten those benefits.

The thing with the stock market is, that when it goes down the money is going somewhere else it isn't disappearing.  As with all magic tricks once it vanishes, it returns.  The stock markets in a simplistic way are a measure of confidence and hope.  To see if there is a real decline then we need to look at what the 'every-man' is spending in the shops and what they can or can't afford.  What wastage is there, is farming declining, manufacturing etc.  What are the "George's" of this world doing? Just my 2 pence. Love you channel Mr Terry 👍

Wow, thank you for such detailed explanation of a lot of off hand comments

39:37 It has to become a threat to their profits or their shareholders before they'll do anything about it

You place a great deal of effort into adding value and new substance to the content you react to and I really respect & appreciate that.

I would love it if you watched a UAP Gerb video—he’s a true US historian for a subject that has been hidden. It would be fascinating to get your thoughts on it and have some more historical context added

Being from Spain, I have to comment some context on how the Spanish Empire came into being. Namely, it was due to three factors that happened at the same time: the unification of Spain by the dynastic union of Castilla and Aragon under Isabel I and Fernando II, the establishment of more modern institutions (both for the civil Administration and the military) and the exploration (and colonisation) of new territories. During the reign of Isabel and Fernando, they modernised their countries (united under the banner of "Spain") reforming the feudal system into one in which the crown had far more authority, and turning the old feudal army in which the monarch only had control over the Royal retinue into a centralised Army organised around companies ("Capitanías"/Captainships) and regiments ("Coronelías"/Colonelships) with strict chain of command and proper standarised formations. This Army was the basis for the later Tercios (which were basically formed by expanding the older Coronelías), and was a force to be reckoned with due to said organisation and the good training standarts of the troops. It was also extremely expensive to maintain, to the point that there were jokes about it, such as the "Cuentas del Gran Capitán" (Great Captain's Budget), which were a parody of the budget general Gonzalo Fernández de Córdoba had sent to king Fernando during the Italian wars against the French (in which the Spanish forces time and again defeated a French army that was originally twice the size of the entire Spanish military). This was a situation that couldn't be sustained on the long term, as Spain just kept punching above its weight, and the country simply lacked the population within its core territory to keep such actions going forever, and the atrittion took its toll. There were even poems about it, such as Quevedo's "Miré los muros de la Patria mía" (I watched the walls of my Fatherland). The high inflation was also mocked by Quevedo in another poem, "Poderoso caballero es Don Dinero" (A powerful Gentleman is Sir Money).

Keep up the great work!

In the add he means elin musk's goons stole it from the treasury

35:30 while i agree a revolution didnt materialize out of the great depression but union and labor hit there peak and were able so secure many gains in the work place that we still appreciate today. But small reforms aren't proof this will be different but rather to say the momentum swings towards the workers and away from the capitalist class. If you dont listen to the workers they starve or eat you. This is my analysis not an ideal mind you.

Check out another video about America's fall: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V5KP0507160
Vote in Historical March Madness! https://www.polltab.com/bracket-poll/8Hvrz_pFF4FG

40:24 in Florida I had to explain what a union was to an electrician. They rely on word association and it works because he brought up the civil war initially and unions are viewed negatively.