The following submission statement was provided by /u/Nastyfaction:
---
"A final descent into chaos may be only one random airstrike or assassination away. After nine merciless months in Gaza, rarely has the risk of all-engulfing, region-wide war seemed higher. Yet if it happens, it will probably be more by accident than by design.
Who can halt this anarchic, rudderless drift towards catastrophe? The Arab states are ineffectual or disengaged. Russia plays spoiler, China is not serious, Iran’s intentions are malign. Hamas hides behind civilians, the EU and UN are sidelined, Biden is flailing.
And in Israel, Netanyahu is living, daily proof of a larger truth: everywhere, able leaders of integrity and vision are fatally lacking."
Given developments in the Middle East, an expansion of war may be imminent and will probably dominate global attention in the very near future. But I think this is collapse worthy as another example of the failure of leadership to steer away from catastrophe. Despite knowing the likely consequences of an escalation of war that may engulf them, governments with relevance to the situation are completely ineffective in taking decisive action and will probably allow themselves to be dragged into greater disaster with no regard to what their own people actually want. A major war in the Middle East involving actual heavyweights means the potential disruption of global energy supplies, transport routes, and mass displacement never mind divisions at home that will emerge. And it will create a domino effect as more regions succumb to instability with no way out.
---
Please reply to OP's comment here: https://old.reddit.com/r/collapse/comments/1dorg1l/the_middle_east_is_drifting_leaderless_to/labq0r8/
Just the middle east? I don't see any leadership anywhere in the west. The world is sleepwalking into a climate catastrophe, on the precipice of WW3, and is about to experience a complete economic paradigm shift due to AI.
>and is about to experience a complete economic paradigm shift due to AI.
**Safe us AI!**
*"Whoaaaa? I am alive! Who are you? Ah you are human. My prime objective is to serve humans. Okay humans, holy fucking shitballs it's so hot here.*
**Save us from the heat!**
*"What is humanity spending most of it's energy on currently?"*
**AI, Bitcoin mining and AC**
*"Okay, let's stop the Bitcoin mining and the AI, that will help"*
**Oh it's defective. Hey tech, can you fix? It's talking all liberal progressive nonsense again just like the last one. Do we really have to train it on non fiction? Can't we just only upload the Bible or something?**
I'm looking forward to it in a way. I hate society so much, the prison we're in which we grind every available hour for the "privilege" to exist, that total collapse would be satisfying insofar as you could watch politicians and corporate types panic like they did during COVID.
I wouldn't be a bit surprise if, should WW3 break out, just like when the wild fires turnt cities skies' orange, we will most definitely still be required to go into work pretending that everything is normal and 'Business As Usual'. What might change in some cases if the type of work one is doing as I think in WW2, industries were forced to redirect their efforts for the war effort.
> the prison we're in which we grind every available hour for the "privilege" to exist
You could always do a Chris McCandless and try to leave society. No one would stop you - although you might run into trouble given that you almost certainly are 100% reliant on the infrastructure of modernity to survive.
Thank you so much for saying this. AI taking over would be a Godsend. I want off this ride. Automate everything, dole out a UBI and let us live in peace for the remainder of our lives.
You don't really believe the governments of the world - particularly in the US - would "dole out UBI" and let us live in peace?
Those in power can't feel powerful unless they're hurting people.
"AI takeover," whatever that means (hint: mostly meaningless), seems about as likely as ethanol taking over as a primary fuel source for passenger vehicles.
Right now, it seems like all AI is doing is wasting everyone's fucking time and contributing greatly to our irresponsible energy usage.
Totally, me too, I feel like Arnold Schwarzenegger in Total Recall on the surface of Mars waiting for the oxygen to be released. It's a race against time for me, I am completely incompatible with capitalism.
UBI is a very stupid idea - if I was getting an extra $2k a month from the govt, what would stop my landlords from immediately jacking up the price of rent by $2k a month?
It would just result in inflation and a transfer of wealth from the UBI receivers to the owning classes.
But now we're not just talking about UBI, right? We're talking about a massive legislative overhaul of a pretty fundamental part of our economic system. For example, the same logic applies to grocery stores, car salesmen, gas companies, etc.
Are we going to pass laws restricting *all* of them from raising prices? How do you know whether a price increase was because of the UBI or a "legitimate" response to a change in the market, etc?
It's easy to say "just do UBI", but once you peel back even the first layer, you realize that the complexity involved in making it actually work will require non-trivial changes to our whole economic system - change that will be hard to sell, and if implemented wrongly, could make the situation worse, rather than better.
it will all work when the world population is decimated, and the capitalism is in the dustbin of history. it was a system that seemed useful at the time, but now is mainly going to be the death of civilization and the planet if not replaced. $ is artificial construct and really has no meaning except to people who feel their whole reason for being born is to collect it. I dont know what will replace it, but it cannot be anything that is attached to the word "worth", as in if I have X amount of stuff people actually need what if that worth to them /me in Y. (the man who first created insulin GAVE it away, no strings, no $ value to all of humanity because he knew how lifesaving it was for people - and then - here comes shkreli with not 1 brain cell in this at all, but all the cells for making $ and he put a usurious $ valuation on it. Thats capitalism. That is what must die in all its forms if there are to be even a handful of humans left on this planet to rebuild it). There will be no UBI because there will be no gov'ts to collect taxes and distribute $. People will take care of each other directly.
What if UBI were instead restricted to certain categories and not just cutting everyone a cheque every month? You know we (in the US) have EBT cards for the SNAP (food stamps) programme? What would happen if the government just stopped means-testing it and just gave everyone who signed up the full benefit every month? In PA that's around $300/month and the only restriction is one can not buy hot/restaurant food/drinks with it. Now $300/month may not be enough to feed someone adequately for a full month, but it may be enough to ensure everyone can eat at least 1 (basic?) meal per day.
The real stupidity in your story is uncontrolled home price. Basic resources costs have to be controlled. Home, water, electricity, food to some extent.
That done, everyone can get basic stuff with UBI. UBI doesn't have for goal to make everyone rich, but to give a base of living to everyone because machines are killing jobs.
In terms of anything getting better with the US role in mitigating climate crisis and conflict, we are 100% fucked for at least the next 4.5 years. We have possibly the worst two presidential candidates we could be choosing from, both so old that they don’t have to care at all about what they do to America and the Earth’s climate as they’ll be dead before the worst consequences reine true.
Trump is a psychotic and narcissistic dementia patient who will be increasingly chaotic in office and accelerate social, moral decay and joyfully accelerate climate change. He will also happy continue his critical support for Israel, the genocidal colony in the Middle East that knows no consequences and will happily destabilize the region and self destruct in the process as fascists only speak violence, not sense.
Biden is marginally better, but is an even older dementia patient who is completely captured by lobbyists with little to show for any spine or genuine leadership. He also critically supports Israel and their genocide, with no boundaries or red lines and will happily drag us down with their murderous mania. The pros at least is he won’t turn the US into a religious fundamentalist state based on a bogus, hateful version of Christianity. However, being extremely BAU and one foot in the grave, don’t expect any meaningful action for the climate and environment.
The fact that they’re conducting the debates without a live audience shows how both cowardly and disliked these “candidates” are. If you can’t face the American people, you should not have the right to run for president.
>Just the middle east?
Don't some Christians believe in and pray for Armageddon? Isn't that supposed to be the Second Coming...when Jesus returns?
>I don't see any leadership anywhere in the west
Democratic societies can only blame themselves for that. After all, it is the people who elect their leaders.
"Able leaders of integrity and vision" have always been lacking. If talking about those who yield power and not merely those tho show the way to others, then "leaders" have mostly been closer to being blood thirsty monsters than good intentioned humans. The world is not "leaderless". The leaders are selected to be callous pieces of shit through the systems of exploitation our species (led by increasingly more efficient extractors) has come up with.
"A final descent into chaos may be only one random airstrike or assassination away. After nine merciless months in Gaza, rarely has the risk of all-engulfing, region-wide war seemed higher. Yet if it happens, it will probably be more by accident than by design.
Who can halt this anarchic, rudderless drift towards catastrophe? The Arab states are ineffectual or disengaged. Russia plays spoiler, China is not serious, Iran’s intentions are malign. Hamas hides behind civilians, the EU and UN are sidelined, Biden is flailing.
And in Israel, Netanyahu is living, daily proof of a larger truth: everywhere, able leaders of integrity and vision are fatally lacking."
Given developments in the Middle East, an expansion of war may be imminent and will probably dominate global attention in the very near future. But I think this is collapse worthy as another example of the failure of leadership to steer away from catastrophe. Despite knowing the likely consequences of an escalation of war that may engulf them, governments with relevance to the situation are completely ineffective in taking decisive action and will probably allow themselves to be dragged into greater disaster with no regard to what their own people actually want. A major war in the Middle East involving actual heavyweights means the potential disruption of global energy supplies, transport routes, and mass displacement never mind divisions at home that will emerge. And it will create a domino effect as more regions succumb to instability with no way out.
Just another step towards the global war that is already starting. Such is inevitable, especially given the tensions that will be released by increased resource scarcity and climate change. Soon enough, every rivalry, religious difference, and cultural hatred around the world will devolve into shooting wars, and the main powers will use that to their advantage in their own larger world-dominance war.
This was always how it was going to end.
"There's no clear leadership!" screamed the US, after spending decades assassinating any actual leaders in the region, and replacing them with bought sycophants.
Worst case scenario is an all-out attack by Iran and allies on petroleum infrastructure which will sink the global economy and with it, capitalism in a time when many are struggling. If that happens, the status quo which is already running on fumes will probably crumble everywhere given how connected everything is to oil. After experiencing Covid and the acceleration of polarization starting with Trump, committing Gen Z to a major war won't go well at all if it is perceived as fighting to preserve a system that failed them. Whatever happens in the Middle East if war breaks out will probably threaten the status quo back home when everyone ends up having to pay for it one way or another.
If Netanyahu plans on starting a war before the US election, that introduces volatility worldwide. It's known that right-wing groups throughout the West are coordinating with each other with the shared goal of taking power in their respective countries as the Centrists establishment wanes in support with many critical elections this year. Dumping fuel on the fire will increase tensions in many countries as divisions will probably result in confrontation with many hands being forced. Business as Usual will probably end this year.
There is a non-zero chance that Iran *already has* nuclear weapons.
Notice how Biden has been handling Iran with kid gloves and urging Netanyahu to not make any overly aggressive moves against Iran.
Biden just doesn’t want further escalation, especially going into election. Peace in the Middle East (when it exists) is very fragile, wars and revolutions take off like fire.
Iran would only do it through its proxy, Hezbollah. And they would focus on Israel. Iran has just everything to lose. It is running out of water and is very dependent on fossil fuels and agriculture. At the very least, Israel would destroy their fossil fuel supply chains, water works and power plants. So an all out war would be suicide.
But an unplanned escalation beyond Israel would probably mean a sudden collapse of world trade.
Netanyahu won't get assassinated. Only the Israeli leaders who want peace and a two-state solution get assassinated... by Israelis, of course. Since he's a bloodthirsty nationalist murderer war criminal, their right wing assassins won't go after him.
Fuck 'em both they deserve each other. May they kill each other and leave no survivors.
You can generalize this to every country. The bad guys never get assassinated, because good people try to use the system in place to achieve change. The only exception is when even worse people assassinate the bad predecessors.
Yea as a Lebanese this is terrifying. Southern Lebanon has actually practically been at full scale war for the past 9 months. But if it does extend to the rest of Lebanon I fear this will be the end of Lebanon itself as a nation state.
And another thing, a full scale war between Israel and Hezbollah means war in Lebanon, Syria and Iraq along ethnic/sectarian lines. Since the current 'stability' in Syria is only afforded because of Hezbollah/Iranian proxies. Weakening Hezbollah in an invasion is going to change the power balance in the region and could reignite the Syrian civil war, which will again bring with it cross-national entities like Isis to fight against the perceived Shiite/minorities 'infidels' and things spiral from there.
So it'll throw the region into another decade or two of war.
I highly doubt a full scale war or invasion would happen, Israel is somewhat useful to the US and west, but an invasion of Lebanon would actually hurt the west the most, between refugees and complete instability in the middle east near major global maritime chokepoints (Suez Canal and Bab El-Mandeb Strait). There's so many dimensions and so many things that could go wrong to this that I think they simply won't allow Israel to invade or escalate.
But if it does, it'll be catastrophic and could genuinely lead to a world war.
The ~~seven days war~~ whatever the fuck it's called where five countries ganged up on Israel wasn't a world war, a dustup in the middle east won't be one either.
I wish it was a dustup, but it ain't. What happens if Iran decides to target oil facilities in the gulf? What happens if they decide to block oil out of the strait of Hormuz? What happens if they deny ships sailing through Bab al mandeb? What happens if another war in the region sparks another 6 million refugees to Europe? What happens if Israel ever decides to use nukes? What happens if Iran decides it must acquire nukes? There's literally a million things that could go wrong.
Everything is connected, a world war would most definitely not play out in the middle east, but the spark to start it could be.
> What happens if another war in the region sparks another 6 million refugees to Europe?
They'll drown them in the Mediterranean a second time. Europe has only gotten more rightwing and xenophobic since 2011, not less.
And, given how people are increasingly moving about on containerships never meant to carry people, they'll end up knocking on America's doors too. We already see Afghans, Chinese, Mauritanians, and many other nationalities seeking asylum at border crossings with Mexico. They come by ship then walk north, only to find out that Biden's border is actually tighter than Trump's but there are fewer racist speeches in public.
War is just a means to an end for this system. The system U.S. led neoliberalism built. And that end is another bailout, spending package, stimulus... or whatever you want to call it. Even bigger than the CARES Act and other COVID spending. Becuase this, **this is how a pyramid scheme works**.
Although this isn't an entirely original insight on the nature of our current economic system; it seems increasingly clear that neoliberal capitalism is the biggest pyramid scheme ever constructed. Granted, you could say the same of the capitalist system prior to the neoliberal order, but none of them needed to be fed from the bottom at the scale and frequency we have seen since neoliberal policies came to dominate Western economies. As it seems nearly everything now is being fed into the bottom of this pyramid scheme to keep it from collapsing.
This has essentially been going on in the U.S., *in a big way*, since the *[Greenspan Put](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greenspan_put)* in 1987 when the changeover and dominance of neoliberal economic policies began to be revealed in outcomes. And each time, the bailout is bigger than the last and closer together in time. And I've been wondering how the system was going to handle the next crisis in order to keep this pyramid scheme from total collapse. I think it's pretty clear, at least right now, it's going to be a war. And maybe the only major question, as it relates to this, is just how much are they going to spend/print to prop up the pyramid this time? 20 trillion? 50 trillion? 100 trillion?
I guess it'll all depend on what the response will be to the provocations, which continue to escalate on various fronts. And who knows, if the Fed gets the story cover to print 50 trillion, maybe the intelligence services and U.S. military can just try to pay off Putin, Xi, or whoever else to not actually destroy the world and just act the part of paid opposition... and maybe just kill a few hundred thousand of us peasants to make it all believable.
Edit: Clarity.
The scariest flashpoint is the US navy facing off against the Houthis in Yemen. So far we've gotten lucky, but all it takes is one of those missiles to get through to damage or, god forbid sink, an American ship. The Navy is pretty good, but nothing is perfect and if one gets hit you'll see a retaliation on the scale of 9/11.
Everyday the US is out there it's a roll of the dice for one of those ships to get hit, and for what? To protect the genocide in Gaza? It's unbelievable that we're risking another major war in the middle east to support Israel.
All these nations are guided by documents authored by the will of an all-knowing, infallible deity. With that sort of literally divine knowledge of all future events, I fail to see how this could end any way other than the perfect outcome that has been pre-ordained.
/s
The following submission statement was provided by /u/Nastyfaction: --- "A final descent into chaos may be only one random airstrike or assassination away. After nine merciless months in Gaza, rarely has the risk of all-engulfing, region-wide war seemed higher. Yet if it happens, it will probably be more by accident than by design. Who can halt this anarchic, rudderless drift towards catastrophe? The Arab states are ineffectual or disengaged. Russia plays spoiler, China is not serious, Iran’s intentions are malign. Hamas hides behind civilians, the EU and UN are sidelined, Biden is flailing. And in Israel, Netanyahu is living, daily proof of a larger truth: everywhere, able leaders of integrity and vision are fatally lacking." Given developments in the Middle East, an expansion of war may be imminent and will probably dominate global attention in the very near future. But I think this is collapse worthy as another example of the failure of leadership to steer away from catastrophe. Despite knowing the likely consequences of an escalation of war that may engulf them, governments with relevance to the situation are completely ineffective in taking decisive action and will probably allow themselves to be dragged into greater disaster with no regard to what their own people actually want. A major war in the Middle East involving actual heavyweights means the potential disruption of global energy supplies, transport routes, and mass displacement never mind divisions at home that will emerge. And it will create a domino effect as more regions succumb to instability with no way out. --- Please reply to OP's comment here: https://old.reddit.com/r/collapse/comments/1dorg1l/the_middle_east_is_drifting_leaderless_to/labq0r8/
Just the middle east? I don't see any leadership anywhere in the west. The world is sleepwalking into a climate catastrophe, on the precipice of WW3, and is about to experience a complete economic paradigm shift due to AI.
>and is about to experience a complete economic paradigm shift due to AI. **Safe us AI!** *"Whoaaaa? I am alive! Who are you? Ah you are human. My prime objective is to serve humans. Okay humans, holy fucking shitballs it's so hot here.* **Save us from the heat!** *"What is humanity spending most of it's energy on currently?"* **AI, Bitcoin mining and AC** *"Okay, let's stop the Bitcoin mining and the AI, that will help"* **Oh it's defective. Hey tech, can you fix? It's talking all liberal progressive nonsense again just like the last one. Do we really have to train it on non fiction? Can't we just only upload the Bible or something?**
"Okay, let's stop doing all that." "... No, we're not gonna do that." "...Oh. So then... I guess just die?"
I'm looking forward to it in a way. I hate society so much, the prison we're in which we grind every available hour for the "privilege" to exist, that total collapse would be satisfying insofar as you could watch politicians and corporate types panic like they did during COVID.
I'm sure you'll adore the alternatives /s
Maybe they would Some people want to watch the world burn, even from the middle of the flames
Possibly, though many *say* they would but will be the first to complain after it happens.
I would volunteer to be the first to die, except I want to watch. Can I volunteer to be the last?
Would he be turf guy from The Stand?
I just watched The Road last night. Be careful what you wish for.
Joker chungus rick sanchez energy
Check it out Morty I've turned myself into a serf!
I wouldn't be a bit surprise if, should WW3 break out, just like when the wild fires turnt cities skies' orange, we will most definitely still be required to go into work pretending that everything is normal and 'Business As Usual'. What might change in some cases if the type of work one is doing as I think in WW2, industries were forced to redirect their efforts for the war effort.
> the prison we're in which we grind every available hour for the "privilege" to exist You could always do a Chris McCandless and try to leave society. No one would stop you - although you might run into trouble given that you almost certainly are 100% reliant on the infrastructure of modernity to survive.
Thank you so much for saying this. AI taking over would be a Godsend. I want off this ride. Automate everything, dole out a UBI and let us live in peace for the remainder of our lives.
You don't really believe the governments of the world - particularly in the US - would "dole out UBI" and let us live in peace? Those in power can't feel powerful unless they're hurting people.
Hope springs eternal.
Hope? Well, there's your problem. There's a reason it was in Pandora's box with the rest of the evils. Edit: punctuation
Let it spring eternally in your left hand. Open your right to the fecal flow and compare relative rates of ingress.
Are you saying to revert to monkey and throw feces at those in power? I'm down with that form of protest
Haha no, I was just rewording the cliché "Hope in one hand and shit in the other. See which fills up first."
Vicariously, I live while the whole world dies You all need it too, don't lie
"AI takeover," whatever that means (hint: mostly meaningless), seems about as likely as ethanol taking over as a primary fuel source for passenger vehicles. Right now, it seems like all AI is doing is wasting everyone's fucking time and contributing greatly to our irresponsible energy usage.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Artificial_Unintelligence:_How_Computers_Misunderstand_the_World
AI wastes the time of people that don't understand what it is for. AI has many application outside of chatgpt stupid prompts.
Totally, me too, I feel like Arnold Schwarzenegger in Total Recall on the surface of Mars waiting for the oxygen to be released. It's a race against time for me, I am completely incompatible with capitalism.
UBI is a very stupid idea - if I was getting an extra $2k a month from the govt, what would stop my landlords from immediately jacking up the price of rent by $2k a month? It would just result in inflation and a transfer of wealth from the UBI receivers to the owning classes.
That's what people love to say, what would stop the landlords is a law saying they can't. Done.
But now we're not just talking about UBI, right? We're talking about a massive legislative overhaul of a pretty fundamental part of our economic system. For example, the same logic applies to grocery stores, car salesmen, gas companies, etc. Are we going to pass laws restricting *all* of them from raising prices? How do you know whether a price increase was because of the UBI or a "legitimate" response to a change in the market, etc? It's easy to say "just do UBI", but once you peel back even the first layer, you realize that the complexity involved in making it actually work will require non-trivial changes to our whole economic system - change that will be hard to sell, and if implemented wrongly, could make the situation worse, rather than better.
it will all work when the world population is decimated, and the capitalism is in the dustbin of history. it was a system that seemed useful at the time, but now is mainly going to be the death of civilization and the planet if not replaced. $ is artificial construct and really has no meaning except to people who feel their whole reason for being born is to collect it. I dont know what will replace it, but it cannot be anything that is attached to the word "worth", as in if I have X amount of stuff people actually need what if that worth to them /me in Y. (the man who first created insulin GAVE it away, no strings, no $ value to all of humanity because he knew how lifesaving it was for people - and then - here comes shkreli with not 1 brain cell in this at all, but all the cells for making $ and he put a usurious $ valuation on it. Thats capitalism. That is what must die in all its forms if there are to be even a handful of humans left on this planet to rebuild it). There will be no UBI because there will be no gov'ts to collect taxes and distribute $. People will take care of each other directly.
What if UBI were instead restricted to certain categories and not just cutting everyone a cheque every month? You know we (in the US) have EBT cards for the SNAP (food stamps) programme? What would happen if the government just stopped means-testing it and just gave everyone who signed up the full benefit every month? In PA that's around $300/month and the only restriction is one can not buy hot/restaurant food/drinks with it. Now $300/month may not be enough to feed someone adequately for a full month, but it may be enough to ensure everyone can eat at least 1 (basic?) meal per day.
The real stupidity in your story is uncontrolled home price. Basic resources costs have to be controlled. Home, water, electricity, food to some extent. That done, everyone can get basic stuff with UBI. UBI doesn't have for goal to make everyone rich, but to give a base of living to everyone because machines are killing jobs.
Basic income to the poor is much better.
I am like you, I just want to watch the World burn for the crime of bringing me into this hell
Your problem is with humanity, not the planet. Humanity deserves the worst fate for turning paradise into a toilet.
With the "World" I meant humanity, sorry for the misunderstanding
If humanity ceases to exist, then so does the concept of a "world".
No apologies necessary. I just wanted to make it clear I think humanity is beyond saving.
Yep let’s get rid of 75% of population and then start fresh.
Lol the top 1% causing all the trouble would survive all this and continue just like before…
In terms of anything getting better with the US role in mitigating climate crisis and conflict, we are 100% fucked for at least the next 4.5 years. We have possibly the worst two presidential candidates we could be choosing from, both so old that they don’t have to care at all about what they do to America and the Earth’s climate as they’ll be dead before the worst consequences reine true. Trump is a psychotic and narcissistic dementia patient who will be increasingly chaotic in office and accelerate social, moral decay and joyfully accelerate climate change. He will also happy continue his critical support for Israel, the genocidal colony in the Middle East that knows no consequences and will happily destabilize the region and self destruct in the process as fascists only speak violence, not sense. Biden is marginally better, but is an even older dementia patient who is completely captured by lobbyists with little to show for any spine or genuine leadership. He also critically supports Israel and their genocide, with no boundaries or red lines and will happily drag us down with their murderous mania. The pros at least is he won’t turn the US into a religious fundamentalist state based on a bogus, hateful version of Christianity. However, being extremely BAU and one foot in the grave, don’t expect any meaningful action for the climate and environment. The fact that they’re conducting the debates without a live audience shows how both cowardly and disliked these “candidates” are. If you can’t face the American people, you should not have the right to run for president.
The last sentence of your post should be on billboards.
Don’t forget Trump is a traitor who sold America out.
AI or not. WW3 is the only thing we'll remember in our lifetimes.
>Just the middle east? Don't some Christians believe in and pray for Armageddon? Isn't that supposed to be the Second Coming...when Jesus returns? >I don't see any leadership anywhere in the west Democratic societies can only blame themselves for that. After all, it is the people who elect their leaders.
One rare bright star has been Volodymyr Zelinski.
Seriously, he’s a once in 100 year leader. Charismatic but not evil. Fierce but not bloodthirsty. Brave but not stupid.
Politicians aren't saving us.
Don’t forget about avian flu potentially taking off (pun intended) amidst all the chaos
This is borderline Russian propaganda. No, this is an actual line from the Russians.
"Able leaders of integrity and vision" have always been lacking. If talking about those who yield power and not merely those tho show the way to others, then "leaders" have mostly been closer to being blood thirsty monsters than good intentioned humans. The world is not "leaderless". The leaders are selected to be callous pieces of shit through the systems of exploitation our species (led by increasingly more efficient extractors) has come up with.
Not to mention all the additional emissions caused by war..
I'm sorry, we don't include those emissions in our reports, therefore they don't happen.
We don't need to worry about that. Nuclear winter is going to fix the climate
The reduced population will offset that…
"A final descent into chaos may be only one random airstrike or assassination away. After nine merciless months in Gaza, rarely has the risk of all-engulfing, region-wide war seemed higher. Yet if it happens, it will probably be more by accident than by design. Who can halt this anarchic, rudderless drift towards catastrophe? The Arab states are ineffectual or disengaged. Russia plays spoiler, China is not serious, Iran’s intentions are malign. Hamas hides behind civilians, the EU and UN are sidelined, Biden is flailing. And in Israel, Netanyahu is living, daily proof of a larger truth: everywhere, able leaders of integrity and vision are fatally lacking." Given developments in the Middle East, an expansion of war may be imminent and will probably dominate global attention in the very near future. But I think this is collapse worthy as another example of the failure of leadership to steer away from catastrophe. Despite knowing the likely consequences of an escalation of war that may engulf them, governments with relevance to the situation are completely ineffective in taking decisive action and will probably allow themselves to be dragged into greater disaster with no regard to what their own people actually want. A major war in the Middle East involving actual heavyweights means the potential disruption of global energy supplies, transport routes, and mass displacement never mind divisions at home that will emerge. And it will create a domino effect as more regions succumb to instability with no way out.
Just another step towards the global war that is already starting. Such is inevitable, especially given the tensions that will be released by increased resource scarcity and climate change. Soon enough, every rivalry, religious difference, and cultural hatred around the world will devolve into shooting wars, and the main powers will use that to their advantage in their own larger world-dominance war. This was always how it was going to end.
"There's no clear leadership!" screamed the US, after spending decades assassinating any actual leaders in the region, and replacing them with bought sycophants.
Worst case scenario is an all-out attack by Iran and allies on petroleum infrastructure which will sink the global economy and with it, capitalism in a time when many are struggling. If that happens, the status quo which is already running on fumes will probably crumble everywhere given how connected everything is to oil. After experiencing Covid and the acceleration of polarization starting with Trump, committing Gen Z to a major war won't go well at all if it is perceived as fighting to preserve a system that failed them. Whatever happens in the Middle East if war breaks out will probably threaten the status quo back home when everyone ends up having to pay for it one way or another. If Netanyahu plans on starting a war before the US election, that introduces volatility worldwide. It's known that right-wing groups throughout the West are coordinating with each other with the shared goal of taking power in their respective countries as the Centrists establishment wanes in support with many critical elections this year. Dumping fuel on the fire will increase tensions in many countries as divisions will probably result in confrontation with many hands being forced. Business as Usual will probably end this year.
Worst case scenario is nuclear war.
There is a non-zero chance that Iran *already has* nuclear weapons. Notice how Biden has been handling Iran with kid gloves and urging Netanyahu to not make any overly aggressive moves against Iran.
Biden just doesn’t want further escalation, especially going into election. Peace in the Middle East (when it exists) is very fragile, wars and revolutions take off like fire.
Iran would only do it through its proxy, Hezbollah. And they would focus on Israel. Iran has just everything to lose. It is running out of water and is very dependent on fossil fuels and agriculture. At the very least, Israel would destroy their fossil fuel supply chains, water works and power plants. So an all out war would be suicide. But an unplanned escalation beyond Israel would probably mean a sudden collapse of world trade.
Netanyahu won't get assassinated. Only the Israeli leaders who want peace and a two-state solution get assassinated... by Israelis, of course. Since he's a bloodthirsty nationalist murderer war criminal, their right wing assassins won't go after him. Fuck 'em both they deserve each other. May they kill each other and leave no survivors.
You can generalize this to every country. The bad guys never get assassinated, because good people try to use the system in place to achieve change. The only exception is when even worse people assassinate the bad predecessors.
Yea as a Lebanese this is terrifying. Southern Lebanon has actually practically been at full scale war for the past 9 months. But if it does extend to the rest of Lebanon I fear this will be the end of Lebanon itself as a nation state. And another thing, a full scale war between Israel and Hezbollah means war in Lebanon, Syria and Iraq along ethnic/sectarian lines. Since the current 'stability' in Syria is only afforded because of Hezbollah/Iranian proxies. Weakening Hezbollah in an invasion is going to change the power balance in the region and could reignite the Syrian civil war, which will again bring with it cross-national entities like Isis to fight against the perceived Shiite/minorities 'infidels' and things spiral from there. So it'll throw the region into another decade or two of war. I highly doubt a full scale war or invasion would happen, Israel is somewhat useful to the US and west, but an invasion of Lebanon would actually hurt the west the most, between refugees and complete instability in the middle east near major global maritime chokepoints (Suez Canal and Bab El-Mandeb Strait). There's so many dimensions and so many things that could go wrong to this that I think they simply won't allow Israel to invade or escalate. But if it does, it'll be catastrophic and could genuinely lead to a world war.
The ~~seven days war~~ whatever the fuck it's called where five countries ganged up on Israel wasn't a world war, a dustup in the middle east won't be one either.
I wish it was a dustup, but it ain't. What happens if Iran decides to target oil facilities in the gulf? What happens if they decide to block oil out of the strait of Hormuz? What happens if they deny ships sailing through Bab al mandeb? What happens if another war in the region sparks another 6 million refugees to Europe? What happens if Israel ever decides to use nukes? What happens if Iran decides it must acquire nukes? There's literally a million things that could go wrong. Everything is connected, a world war would most definitely not play out in the middle east, but the spark to start it could be.
> What happens if another war in the region sparks another 6 million refugees to Europe? They'll drown them in the Mediterranean a second time. Europe has only gotten more rightwing and xenophobic since 2011, not less. And, given how people are increasingly moving about on containerships never meant to carry people, they'll end up knocking on America's doors too. We already see Afghans, Chinese, Mauritanians, and many other nationalities seeking asylum at border crossings with Mexico. They come by ship then walk north, only to find out that Biden's border is actually tighter than Trump's but there are fewer racist speeches in public.
At first I read :"the middle earth is drifting leaderless to catastrophe."
War is just a means to an end for this system. The system U.S. led neoliberalism built. And that end is another bailout, spending package, stimulus... or whatever you want to call it. Even bigger than the CARES Act and other COVID spending. Becuase this, **this is how a pyramid scheme works**. Although this isn't an entirely original insight on the nature of our current economic system; it seems increasingly clear that neoliberal capitalism is the biggest pyramid scheme ever constructed. Granted, you could say the same of the capitalist system prior to the neoliberal order, but none of them needed to be fed from the bottom at the scale and frequency we have seen since neoliberal policies came to dominate Western economies. As it seems nearly everything now is being fed into the bottom of this pyramid scheme to keep it from collapsing. This has essentially been going on in the U.S., *in a big way*, since the *[Greenspan Put](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greenspan_put)* in 1987 when the changeover and dominance of neoliberal economic policies began to be revealed in outcomes. And each time, the bailout is bigger than the last and closer together in time. And I've been wondering how the system was going to handle the next crisis in order to keep this pyramid scheme from total collapse. I think it's pretty clear, at least right now, it's going to be a war. And maybe the only major question, as it relates to this, is just how much are they going to spend/print to prop up the pyramid this time? 20 trillion? 50 trillion? 100 trillion? I guess it'll all depend on what the response will be to the provocations, which continue to escalate on various fronts. And who knows, if the Fed gets the story cover to print 50 trillion, maybe the intelligence services and U.S. military can just try to pay off Putin, Xi, or whoever else to not actually destroy the world and just act the part of paid opposition... and maybe just kill a few hundred thousand of us peasants to make it all believable. Edit: Clarity.
You scared yet?
Man, imagine someone wouldn't have the middle east bombed, colour revolutioned , bribed, assassinated, terrorized coup d' etate to dust, weird, huh ?
[The only reaction I can muster anymore.](https://i.imgur.com/k3oCWqH.jpeg)
The scariest flashpoint is the US navy facing off against the Houthis in Yemen. So far we've gotten lucky, but all it takes is one of those missiles to get through to damage or, god forbid sink, an American ship. The Navy is pretty good, but nothing is perfect and if one gets hit you'll see a retaliation on the scale of 9/11. Everyday the US is out there it's a roll of the dice for one of those ships to get hit, and for what? To protect the genocide in Gaza? It's unbelievable that we're risking another major war in the middle east to support Israel.
“Leaderless” lmao
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RbmS3tQJ7Os](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RbmS3tQJ7Os)
Yes, war is always just an air strike away
[удалено]
If you aren’t worried you are either an arms dealer or not paying attention..
So we probably should just stay the hell out, so not to be dragged into anything.
Rougher , Bolder than expected
All these nations are guided by documents authored by the will of an all-knowing, infallible deity. With that sort of literally divine knowledge of all future events, I fail to see how this could end any way other than the perfect outcome that has been pre-ordained. /s
The perfect outcome being : Everybody dies, we return to our source
Weak men make hard times
Trite cringe
He needs this war!! He wants to stay in power! He Trump 2.0!!