Kinda how they were “last man standing” in WW2. Everybody else got severely fucked and they won them over by with the Marshall aid program which got us to a bi-polar world with NATO in which the US was the hegemony.

After the fall of the Soviet Union and before the rise of China there was only one superpower that could act as such militarily and then US continued their power trip.

Pretty much when the US was the only super power to survive WWII unscathed.

Also, having developed atomic hellfire, and the will to use it (twice), kinda makes you the big kid on the playground.

I’m German and went to the US for a year as a high school student.

My US history teacher literally told us that the US is the world police. Because of that I believe that many Americans think that way.

Because authoritarians convinced the American people that military interventions prevent terrorist attacks to distract them from the reality which is that terrorist attacks are caused by American interventions.

It’s only possible to convince Americans of that because they are shockingly ignorant of history and they believe whatever the warmongers tell them.

I want Finland to rule the world.

The citizens, in general, don’t. We want to do the same thing every other country’s people want - live our lives and hopefully give our kids a good or better one.

I have no fucking clue what the government is doing to make these decisions.

I’m gonna answer from the perspective of someone who believes the world is a better place when it is led by America without reverting to a thin jingoist ideology. These aren’t my views, but a steel man of someone I would disagree with.

Why does America feel the need to control the world?

In the wake of the world wars, we realized that the world is best off with one power to lead the world. No powers and multiple powers will result in another world war. We were the best position to take that role after WW2 and resist the Soviet union’s attempt to gaining that position.

Do what they say?

Many of these countries don’t do what America says because America says it. Heck, many go against what we say. But they believe in a better world and when they remember that, they undtand that America is putting themselves in the most danger by clearing that path for the rest of the free world.

Instead of taking care of their own problems at home?

The problems we have at home are pretty limited. Most of these problems are born out of laziness. But we keep the criminals in check both at home and abroad.

When did the US become police officer of the world and enforcer?

If we didn’t step up after ww2, the world would have slipped into another world war or deem communism run rampant.

I guess my question is who gave the Americans the right?

The civilized world at the end of WW2. And under our leadership, the world is safer and healthier for it.

I say this as an American. But would not the world be a better place if we just minded our own business and quit nation building and stoking non existant fires?

From communism to extreme religious views, we are the only ones who are capable and willing to step up and protect the world against that. It’s a difficult and thankless job.

After WW2 the US became addicted to being the world police and many other countries were happy to have the US cover the cost of their defense or income from hosting US bases. Selling arms is also big business and the DOD justifies it by saying that it keeps personnel and manufacturing lines for weapons running.

No one, powerful countries just assume that they are needed everywhere in the world so they start acting like narcissistic bitch like US.

Nobody gave ‘murica any right, they just imposed themselves. The simple answer is imperialism. USA was always a power and money hungry bitch and has been putting nations, populations and markets under their boots (not always thru military force) for profit since the late 1800s. Yes, they’ve been an evil empire for that long. Latin America as a whole has suffered many hells so uncle sam could keep commodities’ prices super low.

Anybody who thinks about that question enough always realizes they don’t want that kind of power and control. Sometimes people think about it partly, get excited by the promises of power, but only misrepresented by their own misunderstandings, and mistakenly think they do.

Nobody actually does, just not everybody realizes it fully.

America was the standard for a Democratic Republic after WW2.

after the war we helped most of Europe return to normal and even improved quality of life and living standards. part of that help came with stipulations on how the US had control within those countries that had help.

Had the US not stepped in at the time to stabilize Europe, another war would have likely happened and another, and another.

My guess, most of Europe would have fallen under Russian rule, or at the very least heavily influenced by, if the US didn’t step up.

I suppose European’s don’t look at how bad the war left Europe and often just want to forget the atrocities, but that’s not an excuse for blaming the hand that helped you in your time of need.

The main reason is that if we stop being the biggest shark in the tank, the next two biggest sharks (China and Russia) can’t be trusted to not feast on the smaller sharks. And if they do feast, they will become too large for the American shark to deal with.

I have an answer different from the others.

US economy depends on the US intellectual property system, a few US monopolist companies and the US dollar, and the financial system.

Especially the intellectual property system. However different laws can be in various countries, in fact everybody tries to follow US law.

It means that a lot of things produces elsewhere mean royalties to US companies, and a lot of things can’t be produced without permission, control of markets, planned development of microelectronics and tech in particular, yadda-yadda.

So - if, in some hypothetical situation, that IP system is undone, with some countries having similar laws, some more like USSR’s “public domain by default with some fixed payment to patent holders”, and all the intermediate variants, then you’ll just have a second depression. Because a huge part of the economy will shrink.

US foreign debt is a meme subject, but honestly, if USD stops being the world’s most reliable currency, you’ll also probably have a default.

US actual industrial production (what doesn’t shrink as easily) is not so impressive when looking at its size. A lot about US level of life doesn’t really match the efficiency of the economy. Say, if you look at Germany, life there is very different. In some ways better, maybe, but many things normal in the US are not achievable there.

My point is - the American IP laws were spread around by pressure. Not just that, but sometimes the monopoly roles of American companies. Part of that pressure is the military guarantor role.

If that stops being relevant, a lot of things which were a given for your economy for many years will stop existing. And for a few other economies too. It might not look as bad as the USSR’s collapse, but it will probably look as ruined and unpredictable as the 1960s world.

Every empire has those aspirations.

There are many ways to achieve it through the complex relationships between countries and societies (e.g. soft power, cultural influence, militar control, etc) but an empire willing to try it at any cost with any means will always succeed for longer as an empire…