• BelieveRevolt [he/him]@hexbear.net
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    61
    ·
    edit-2
    8 months ago

    Second most powerful country in the world? Powerful self-own.

    Imagine bragging about being the second best at anything, Pepsi doesn’t call itself the second most popular cola drink in their ads.

        • FunkyStuff [he/him]@hexbear.net
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          32
          ·
          8 months ago

          Yeah that’s what I meant. I wouldn’t call Germany stronger than the UK since they don’t have their own nukes, but I’d definitely say France is a stronger world power than the UK and still maintains hegemony through neocolonialism, while the UK barely has any colonies/neo-colonies left.

          • mar_k [he/him]@hexbear.net
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            16
            ·
            edit-2
            8 months ago

            Germany is less powerful in terms of raw strength but more powerful in economy and soft power. I mean they’re basically leader of the EU and the manufacturing engine of Europe with the the biggest GDP by far, TERF island has nothing going for it now.

            Also, germany-cool has around the same number of active military members and has been increasing their military budget to be around the same as the UK

            • 7bicycles [he/him]@hexbear.net
              link
              fedilink
              English
              arrow-up
              8
              ·
              8 months ago

              Also, has around the same number of active military members and has been increasing their military budget to be around the same as the UK

              This isn’t gonna go anywhere as far as power goes, it’s just throwing money into the bottomless pit. There’s no more actual structure to handle this money in any way that would yield results.

              The Bundeswehr was never that far behind in budget compared to some other nations with way more capable armed forces and all the money in the world is not going to fix this. About a decade of McKinsey consultants telling the Bundeswehr to send their paid soldiers home and then hire some minimum wage civilian to guard bases, presumably it makes sense on an excel spreadsheet, has left that entire organisations in absolute disarray compared to other western forces, to which I say; critical support for McKinsey for doing the best job at demilitarizing germany after the allies

    • mar_k [he/him]@hexbear.net
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      21
      ·
      edit-2
      8 months ago

      Are they saying they’re more powerful than China? Fucking joke lmao they barely crack the top ten atp