To me, it looks like Americans have been dumping money into their military because of cultural reasons. Fear, but also a sense of superiority and "America should be the best in everything."

Looking at the near $1 trillion American yearly military budget and how many conflicts the military actually engages in, and we can see how much a return Americans are getting on their investment.

[–] causepix@lemmy.ml 6 points 2 days ago

The US dumps money into "defense" because it is under a dictatorship of capital and it just so happens that selling weapons is an extremely effective way of converting public tax dollars into private capital. The US profits from endless violence, plain and simple. "American exceptionalism" i.e. chauvinism is just how they sell it to the people at large in order to appear democratic.

[–] freagle@lemmygrad.ml 13 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Don't forget that the combined US domestic police budgets (ignoring prisons) is something like the 3rd largest military budget in the world and now the Immigration and Customs Enforcement budget is on par with that.

The US isn't building that much violent force because of culture. They do it because they are constantly deploying violence for their own benefits and gains.

Which stands in stark contrast to literally every other nation with the exception of the former Western European colonial powers.

[–] doubtingtammy@lemmy.ml 6 points 3 days ago

The US isn’t building that much violent force because of culture.

OK but,

They do it because they are constantly deploying violence for their own benefits and gains.

That just sounds like American culture to me