Based on the works of Andreas Malm (The Destruction of Palestine and the Destruction of the Planet) and Eduardo Galeano (Open Veins of Latin America), the explanation for an American citizen as to why their country is seen as a force of supreme destruction (or ‘the great Satan’) would not be based on theology, but on the technical description of a global system of economic exploitation, environmental devastation and military violence articulated by the United States.
1. The Engine of Planetary and Human Destruction
According to Andreas Malm, the United States is not just a passive participant in the climate crisis, but the active leader of a process of physical destruction of the planet and vulnerable populations.
- The fossil capital cycle: The US is leading the expansion of oil and gas production at precisely the moment when science demands the opposite in order to keep the planet habitable. Malm describes this as ‘paupericide’: the killing of poor populations (as in the floods in Libya) caused by excess carbon emissions from the global North, led by the US.
- The war machine: The US military is identified as the ‘world's largest institutional user of fossil fuels’ and, consequently, the largest single emitter of greenhouse gases. Protecting the flow of oil has become a war imperative, creating a cycle where military intervention secures fuel, and fuel feeds the military machine.
- Complicity in genocide: In the context of Palestine, Malm argues that the genocide in Gaza is a ‘transnational effort’ coordinated by the advanced capitalist core, with the US at the forefront, providing weapons, money and diplomatic cover. The physical destruction of Gaza is seen as an extension of US imperialism, with Israel acting as a strategic tool.
2. The Hypocrisy of ‘Free Trade’ and Economic Plunder
Eduardo Galeano would provide the economic basis, explaining that the wealth of the United States is directly proportional to the poverty of Latin America. The system is not fair competition, but a mechanism for plunder.
- Protectionism for me, free market for you: Galeano points out that the US built its industry under strict protectionism, but uses the IMF and the World Bank to impose ‘free trade’ on poor countries, preventing them from protecting their own industries.
- Extraction of wealth: Large US corporations (such as Standard Oil or United Fruit) operate by extracting natural resources (oil, iron, copper, zinc) that are vital to the US economy and national security, paying derisory prices and leaving behind holes and misery. Galeano cites that for every dollar invested in Latin America, the US withdraws multiple dollars in profits, decapitalising the region.
- The ‘Great Satan’ as banker: Foreign ‘aid’ and loans are described as mechanisms for blackmail and subsidising US exports. Foreign debt acts as a trap that forces countries to increase exports of raw materials, depressing prices and perpetuating poverty.
3. The Sabotage of Democracy and Sovereignty
Both sources highlight that the United States acts systematically to destroy any attempt at autonomous development or sovereignty in the Global South.
- Coups and Dictatorships: Galeano thoroughly documents how the US financed and orchestrated coups against democratic governments that attempted nationalist reforms, such as those of Arbenz in Guatemala (to protect United Fruit), Goulart in Brazil (to protect Hanna Mining and other interests), and Allende in Chile (to protect copper companies).
- Israel as an Imperial Tool: Malm quotes Joe Biden as saying that ‘if there were no Israel, the United States would have to invent an Israel to protect our interests in the region.’ This reinforces the view that the US uses entire nations as chess pieces to maintain hegemony, indifferent to the local human cost.
- Sterilisation and Population Control: Galeano points out that, instead of fighting poverty, the US promoted mass sterilisation campaigns in the Amazon and other regions, viewing Third World population growth as a political threat rather than a human problem.
Mira, Gringuito
Your country is called that because it built its prosperity through a global system of plunder. Historically, it used corporations and marines to drain the natural wealth of Latin America (Galeano) and currently uses its military and financial machine to ensure the expansion of fossil fuels, accelerating the climate collapse that kills the poorest, while financing and arming genocides (as in Gaza) to maintain geopolitical control (Malm). The label is justified by structural violence: the wealth of its lifestyle comes at the cost of sovereignty, the environment and the blood of the populations of the Global South.
