An attack on sovereignty itself
I didn’t think I could be shocked by anything Trump says or does, but the US invasion of Venezuela and snatching of President Maduro and his wife is, quite simply, chilling. I’m no expert on South American politics, but this seems to go beyond what we saw with the Gulf War, as it’s a single country operating in violation of international law, and doing seemingly whatever it wants.
Just as, so the saying goes, criminals learn to be better crooks in prison, it seems like Trump has learned to be more of a bully by being exposed to dictators such as Putin. This article by Paris Marx, the Canadian tech and cultural critic, is a useful primer. As he points out, Denmark should be worried about Greenland and, perhaps to a slightly letter extent, Canadian politicians need to sit up and take notice.
For me, this is another reason to be reducing our dependence on US technology. Thankfully, Marx has a guide for that — and reclaiming the stack is something that I plan to explore more with Tom Watson in 2026.
As Trump addressed the people of the world, he couldn’t help himself from going off-script. After previously failing to overthrow Maduro in 2019, he’d finally got his man — and access to the world’s largest proven oil reserves. Introducing the general who led the operation, Trump declared the invasion of Venezuela was an “attack on sovereignty” itself. Countries of the world should shutter at the implications.
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Many Western countries are reticent to challenge the United States and the actions of the Trump administration too forcefully for a number of reasons. They’re militarily dependent on the United States, through NATO and other alliances, and Trump has already shown he can hurt them economically and continually threatens to tighten the screws. There’s also the technological dimension: they’re not only locked into digital systems controlled by US tech companies and dependent on US technology, but they also fear scaring away investment from some of the largest companies in the world and the deep-pocketed investors who’ve prospered from their rise.
As the sanctioning of ICC, UN, and European officials shows: digital sovereignty is paramount. The United States can cut off anyone from the technological systems its companies control, and it’s willing to use that power against anyone who tries to stand in the way of its interests, those of its client states, and largest companies. The bulk of that work must happen at the government level, to create the conditions, deploy the funding, and create the structures to rapidly build and deploy a new technological infrastructure. But individuals can still make a difference by pulling back from US tech services as much as feasibly possible.
Source: The Disconnect
Image: Jon Tyson