Words, Wars, and Fiddles

Choice of words matters. If you cut away euphemisms and hedging, here is how it is.

Russia is waging war on America and has launched a series of attacks that are still ongoing (e.g. recent “walkaway” tag amplification by Russian bots). Russian organized crime controls the Russian government since 1990-s, and is now taking over control of the US government. White supremacism, white nationalism, nativism, alt-right extremism are euphemisms for fascism and have directly caused a sharp increase of terrorist attacks within US. ICE and Border Patrol are kidnapping children, putting them in baby jails, and selling them for adoption. Republican control of the government that has started these and other atrocities would not have been possible without active support from foreign foes and domestic terrorists.

I hope this explains why I am concerned enough about American politics to fill my timeline with updates and opinions about this crisis. I am trying to make sure all of you fully understand the significance of these events and the consequences of silence and complacency. Yes, you there in the back row, your silence and complacency!

In a few short years, United States of America will be suffering from the second Great Depression (which along with its trade wars will drag the rest of the global economy down with it), engaged in a protracted and bloody war with Iran, mired in escalated violence in Syria, Afghanistan, Korea, and Venezuela (while China solidifies its control over Africa; while Russia, encouraged by America’s withdrawal from NATO, invades Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania, and reignites its wars with Ukraine, Moldova, and Georgia), and on a brink of civil war and total collapse of government.

Wars and depression will freeze global trade and create shortages of fuel and industrial goods in some places and food in others. Combined with increased frequency of heatwaves, wildfires, hurricanes, and floods, food shortages will turn into famines. Hundreds of millions of refugees from war, famine, and natural disasters will increase poverty and conflict even in places that somehow manage to remain stable and self-sufficient. Millions will die, and all human development indicators, from democracy and literacy to poverty and child mortality, will roll back to the levels of early XX century.

Keep playing your fucking fiddle as the world burns.