Important: wellness check
Studying and discussing societal collapse can be absolutely disasterous on ones emotional health and overall well-being. I believe it’s important to preface any discussion on these heavy topics with an acknowledgement that it’s important to ensure that you have the energy available to process this before moving forward. If not - it is okay to take a step back, center yourself, and recharge. That is not admitting defeat or giving up on the struggle to build a better world, but giving yourself what you need to continue the fight for all of us.
If you’re struggling, the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline is available to talk with you 24/7 at 1-800-273-8255. Stay strong. I love you.

I recently found community in the /r/collapse subreddit, dedicated to discussing “the potential collapse of global civilization, defined as a significant decrease in human population and/or political/economic/social complexity over a considerable area, for a extended time.”. As a result, I’m starting to put the pieces together between the anxieties I’ve been feeling about the state of the world for most of my adult life, which has only escalated along with the extended COVID-19 pandemic.

I remember watching the 2016 US Democratic Party primary unfold while living in my college dorm room. I remember the information flooding into my newsfeed about how procedural changes, fraud, and corruption from the neoliberal elites stole the nomination from Sen. Bernie Sanders (sound familiar?). I remember losing faith in the party. I (partially) remember election night, and the turning in my stomach as I prayed my act of “voting my conscience” for a third-party candidate wuold not have the outcome it did. I remember how the toxicity that erupted killed any desire I previously had to engage in politics or complete my degree in the field. I remember the fears of thermonuclear war that 2018-19.

All that pales in comparison to what has been going through my mind from 2020 to the present day. Between the pandemic and the lack of any reasonably effective government intervention, the protests and threats of state-sanctioned race wars in Minneapolis and other major cities, escalating geopolitical conflicts as the United States readies for war (cold or hot, TBD) with the People’s Republic of China, and a domestic economy that increasingly appears to be on life support, one thing has been made abundently clear. Help is not coming.

The government does not care about you, your family, or your well being. “Get back to work, citizen. We don’t care if you can’t pay your bills.” If a movement for changes in labor and production relations grows and gets too powerful, the propaganda networks can bring that to a halt with one short interview.

We’re told that democracy is under threat. That this election, just like every one before it, is the most crucial one in our lifetimes. That if we all elect the same Democrats™ that have continually left us to die, things will be mariginally better than if the Republicans™ kill us.

screams into void

Biden, come on man! Student loan forgiveness and UBI is all it would’ve taken, bro. Fully unionize the American workforce. Maybe add a few high-speed rails into the mix. You could’ve been the most popular President of all time, buddy.

Instead we got told to go back to work, even if infected with COVID, while they prepare for wars against China and Russia.

If you’re feeling up to it, there was a great docuseries that aired on Vice last year titled While the Rest of Us Die. I thought this would be a be a interesting, somewhat out there, conspiracy theory show, but ended up being one of the most sobering looks at the potential for apocolyptic collapse. I recommend giving it a watch if you feel the need to have justification that we are, in fact, not fine.