Even if you try to look at the situation from a detached POV I think you can't help but be baffled at how much influence the US is giving up for no apparent reason. It always felt like a house of cards here in Europe - we rely on defense from the US, we store so much of our data there, and almost all of our stuff comes from China or its area of influence.

Now there's a guy at the top of the US who doesn't understand human interactions beyond anger, disgust and mindless loyalty. Or diplomacy beyond simple monetary transactions. He and his rich friend are getting rid of anything they don't understand (or that they don't understand to be of value to them right now), and apparently that's almost everything.

We're living in interesting times.

I wonder what game theorists are doing right now. All I know is that old joke about economists can't be true, about blindly assuming that everyone acts in their own best interest. People do factor in stupidity, right? But there must have been limits, and we're clearly far beyond those.