[locknitpicker]

> I think the real difference now, isn't so much that the US is applying more pressure on european politics, but that it's politics is so much further away from most european countries than even five years ago.

No,the difference is not in mere political misalignments.

You have both US governments and US oligarchs openly pushing and directly promoting fascist and extremist political parties, while at the same time threatening with annexation and military interventions.

[benrutter]

> You have both US governments and US oligarchs openly pushing and directly promoting fascist and extremist political parties, while at the same time threatening with annexation and military interventions.

I think the first part of this is political alignment right? What are "fascist and extremist political parties" is not politics with a very different alignment?

I think your second point is a really good one though, the Barack Obama and J D Vance examples are both soft power usage. But in the case of Vance, it comes alongside a state using military force to bully its way through issues, that's a very significant context difference I didn't really acknowledge earlier.

[locknitpicker]

> I think the first part of this is political alignment right?

No, no it's not a mere misalignment. Opposing fascism supported on dehumanizing policies such as racial supremacy is not a mere difference in opinion, as is pushes to invade and annex other countries.

WW2 wasn't fought because people happened to disagree. The problem with Nazi Germany and imperial Japan was not a whimsical difference of opinion. Let's not pretend that the US is any different.

[benrutter]

> Opposing fascism supported on dehumanizing policies such as racial supremacy is not a mere difference in opinion, as is pushes to invade and annex other countries.

I'm not sure, I'd say two things:

- I think "mere difference of opinion" suggests disagreements can't be on serious issues, as if there's something trivial about "x things racism is acceptable a y doesn't". I don't know that I'd agree? Differences in opinion can be on major issues and are important. - Pushing to invade and annex countries is a real thing, which I said in my comment above, I don't know that interferences like Vance in Hungary are pushing to invade countries though? Other things the US doss might be, but I'm not sure it comes into play here?

[locknitpicker]

> Differences in opinion can be on major issues and are important.

Invading Greenland, annexing Canada, and helping Russia invade half a dozen neighboring nations while waging economic war on Europe in the form of tariffs is far from mere "differences of opinion".