To my mind, Russia is just ahead of the curve — it’s a country that underwent wholesale collapse in the 90’s and was ultimately stabilized by Putin and his oligarchs molding the ruins of the Soviet empire to their benefit.
Now the US is teetering on collapse as well, with dollar hegemony drawing to an end and global financial markets in some kind of a hissy fit to reshuffle wealth before the music stops for the AI bubble (and ultimately the real economy crumbling from climate destabilization).
Elon Musk soon becoming a trillionaire is the fourth horseman of the capitalist apocalypse. I have very little faith in the reasoning of anybody who cannot see that a failed car salesman and notorious lunatic being the richest person in the world – by a wide margin – is a sign of an economic system that is profoundly unwell.
Sadly, I think Trump and Putin may be previews for what’s to come when the oligarchs of world use the chaos to impose a new economic order, based on AI surveillance and severe policing of those not ”loyal” to the nebulous interests of the government(s). To my mind, it’s unlikely to be harmonious or pleasant to those in the ever expanding, bottom rung of societies like that.
It’s plain as day and nobody gives a shit. Stunning.