Remember, civilisation didn’t stumble into this shit hole called 2023; it was pushed into it by the elites of this world.

In 2023, you don't have to travel far to see how fucked up things have become. The Great Democracies of the West are down for the count and uttering empty talking points whilst prostrate on the canvas. The creeping sense that things are near their end rather than at the beginning or even middle is right outside your front window unless you live in a tony part of town.

Photo by Kayle Kaupanger on Unsplash

Every day, I stumble or brush past democracy in decay. It's been rusted away by the twin corrosive elements of neoliberal politics and the corporate right-wing news media that preach the righteousness of market forces. We are told by them inflation is our fault rather than the 1%. They are always held harmless despite higher prices benefiting their bottom line. You would almost think that owning the news media confers special privileges when it comes to what news is reported.

Grocery Prices reach for the skies, and many can't afford to eat healthy meals. Malnutrition is a thing now in the world's richest economies while debates are waged over free school luncheon programs. Yet despite our oligarchs making untold billions in profit from the cost of living crisis, the news media shade the crisis as a problem caused in part by Putin's war in Ukraine, supply chains and changes to our climate. It is seldom if ever referenced by the news media that the collapse of our environment is the direct result of a capitalism that benefits most the wealthy few rather than us. 

Any talk of a wealth tax on our own billionaires to alleviate the crisis in affordability is treated by mainstream politics and punditry as treason to the golden goose of capitalism.

Our suburbs and downtowns teem with homeless people, like it was 1933, and Brother Can You Spare a Dime was top of the record charts. And like it was the 1930s, the middle class of 2023 want the “tramps, bums, hobos, drug addicts" put out of sight and out of mind. When the best solution that neoliberalism can offer to combat homelessness is to endlessly fund studies on the efficacies of building "tiny homes," for them. You know the next plan will be to find a third country willing to take our homeless for a cash payment, free tanks or a get out of war crimes indictment. They will be put on boats in the same way we ship rubbish to developing nations and then have our politicians tell us "It's a sustainable solution."

My sarcasm might seem outrageous now. But consider how Britain's conservative government is doubling down on sending non-white refugee claimants to concentration camps in Rwanda to have their cases for sanctuary adjudicated. Everything that is cruel and unusual is on the table as a solution to all of our problems to protect those who possess wealth from loss of assets.

Just watch- what will happen on The USA's southern border over the next few months. It's brutal now for refugees there. But soon, I have little doubt, America will start building concentration camps in third-party nations similar to Britain's Rwandan model to put out of sight and out of mind a refugee crisis created by America.

It's like everything- Joe Biden and the Democratic Party do at the moment is as if they are channelling Nicholas Romanov's political acumen. America in a years time isn’t going to pull itself from the brink of fascism but bear hug it.

Since COVID-19, the World's elites have conditioned its citizens to accept mass death at home and abroad. They have conditioned us to accept less happiness in our lives. They have conditioned us to accept the dismantling of public healthcare. They have made us believe the housing crisis can be solved whilst housing remains a core wealth asset for the middle classes. They have convinced us that climate change can be stopped without changing capitalism's eternal need for growth. We were led to this dystopia we now call home in 2023 by a series of lies told to us by our betters. If we don't wake up to the realisation; we are beasts of burden for the richest in our society and oppose it. Our future will be worse than that of the working classes in the 19th century's gilded age because we will be under the boot of an authoritarianism Stalin could only dream about. 

Remember, civilisation didn’t stumble into this shit hole called 2023; it was pushed into it by the elites of this world.

Hi All:

Thanks for reading my substack. You have been great all this year and my subscription numbers have grown. I do really need your help during this end of the year, if you are able. I am rent short and want to remained housed and continuing to sustain and grow the legacy of my dad and his Last Stand Project. I think it is worthwhile and necessary. I am looking for 18 new yearly subscribers to keep the lights on. It’s 30 quid a year or $50 and I think it has value. Substack and the payment platform take around 20% of that because capitalism is the gift that keeps giving to the wealthy. So if you can thanks and if you can’t it’s all good because you in solidarity with the work and projects ahead.

Take care, John