honestly, i don't think even conscientious and well-meaning people can comprehend the unfolding polycrisis (tooze again).
'everything under heaven is in utter chaos', and all that pseudo-maoist rhetoric.
you have a president who is either simply incompetent or too unintelligent to grasp the global financial system, or he's maliciously trying to shake the tree and see what falls out.
you have the gathering storms of AI which are going to make tonnes of service workers and bureaucrats unemployed very soon, adding to the pile which have been dismissed according to political diktat from the white house/DOGE.
climate change and increasingly crazy weather patterns, including conflicts over water and mass movement of peoples to the rich northern world, are only going to get worse and worse in the coming decades. we have flown past every 'red line' set out by the IPCC or UN bodies. 1.5 degrees is already a pipe-dream fading in the rear-view mirror of an american SUV.
putin is gaining ground in ukraine, slowly but surely. sanctions haven't worked in any way. europe has been abandoned by the post-WW2 defense aegis and is now remilitarising. the baltic states, germany, poland, etc. are very realistically preparing their citizens for war. they have long centuries of experience with a belligerent russia on their doorstep. it's not just 'strong man' posturing in that part of the world, as the game may be perceived by trump and his cronies.
there's an ongoing genocide in gaza which shows no signs of abating. trump seems to have lost interest or the will to engage with it. israel has carte-blanche, presumably up until they cross the ultimate red line for the arab world and/or iran. at which point, who knows. another major world conflict is very possible.
china, taiwan. enough said. what happens with russia/ukraine and israel/palestine are all in a way 'connected' to this looming geopolitical threat. xi is an extremely prudent planner and a good strategist by any measure.
then to add to this the american people really seem to think the best course of events is to send everyone back into sweatshops and factory conditions, like those their 19th century forebears escaped (minus a few limbs, fingers, eyes, etc. and plus a few long-term chronic illnesses). like that's their best choice. all to 'own the libs' or 'show who is world number one baby' or something or other. who knows.
a massive global realignment is under way, that is for sure. the thing is, it's going immeasurably better for the non-western powers than ever putin or the CCP could have hoped for. i think the CCP were all planning to assume top position by the middle of the century. instead, 25 years ahead of schedule, america is committing some act of economic self-sabotage, apparently fuelled by a strange combination of rage and resentment.
the saddest thing about it, to me, is that the billionaire class have precipitated this crisis. the entire liberal world order was set up for their convenience for the last 40 years. the pinball machine was full-tilted in their direction. they have hoovered up immense amounts of wealth from the productive energies, labour, genius and invention of their societies and workers. cosied up to the state/government and benefitted from immense tax deductions, federal grants and dispensations, access to publicly funded R&D, etc. whatever, you name it. they have just taken it all ... even after the global financial crash, which should have put half of them in jail and straitjacketed the rest of their excesses, they went straight back to 'business as usual', refusing credit to crippled workers and small businesses after being bailed out, etc.
and now they're the ones in the white house administering 'medicine' to the population. it's fucking sick. eat the rich!
Last edited by uziq (2025-04-08 05:51:10)
