Shit is about to get real- for the US and the world- whether it is a Biden Presidency or Trump.

After the presidential debate between Donald Trump and Joe Biden last night, humanity woke in terror this morning to the grim realisation. We are fucked.

The news media, political pundits, and government spokespeople aren't able to conceal as they did in the past that mediocrities and cynical opportunists are navigating the State and economy of the USA.

Photo by Colin Lloyd on Unsplash

It's not only the US that is controlled by chancers, spivs and entitled class incompetents but every one of America's allies because neoliberalism has become as busted a flush as medieval feudalism.

This should be a moment- when the tide returns to left-wing politics to solve its economic and societal crises.

This won't happen because of the greed of the 1% and the control they still exert on the structures that maintain the state: the corporate news media, a consumerist-driven society, The arms industry, the military, NATO, the police, the courts, education and good paying jobs means they have chained to many of us to the oars of a galley that is doomed to sink in a dark sea of authoritarian fascism.

The young are a hopeful exception because over the last years, they have taken fights to save our environment and reform neoliberalism out onto the the streets of our cities.

Demonstrations against the genocide in Gaza are proof of this. This week, Kenyan citizens are rioting over draconian taxes imposed on them by the IMF is more evidence that the younger generations are mad as hell and won't take it anymore. Still there are disturbing trends of young people joining the extreme right and protesting against refugees as well as immigration from developing nations into the EU zone of countries.

But the political winds don't favour a return to socialism despite that being the best remedy to fix our troubles. A perpetual cost of living crisis pulverises hope and common sense in our ordinary populations, the way a wood pulper shreds a fallen tree into sawdust. There's nothing left but terror, anger, confusion and shame, which neoliberal trade unions or left-wing political groups are incapable of remedying.

Instead, that angst becomes the materials needed to sow fascism and turn a democratic people into a mob of black shirts.

The past winter and spring were lean seasons for many of us. Even with summer's arrival, everything is still too expensive.

Rent, food, or- the cost of transportation- take most, if not all, of someone's income.

I can't remember when I last ate meat that wasn't marked down because it was near its expiration date or fruit that was not reduced in price because it was on the cusp of spoiling. Anxiety is in abundant supply, and it is free for the taking if you are struggling during a cost-of-living crisis.

In Canada, more than half of the adult population is only $200 away from defaulting on their bills.

I am probably about 50 dollars away at any given moment. Going without necessities is our factory default setting because of the rigged system we live in.

In America, 40% of their citizens struggle to make their minimum monthly payments on credit cards and other debts they owe to be a bit player in the game of unfettered capitalism. Britain is no different; half the population is frantically thrashing about in the deep waters of debt and over-extension.

Millions of us exist in a state of being scared shitless from morning to night. They are terrified and ashamed of slipping and ending up living in a homeless tent city because the 21st century is run for and by the 1%, who indoctrinated us to believe wealth is wisdom and poverty degeneracy.

Things like food, housing, heating, electricity, prescription drugs, dental care, health care, eye care,  and transportation are so costly many citizens feel they are on the cusp of becoming destitute.

Relationships, friendships, family dynamics and physical health have all been harmed by austerity for the many and excess for the few.

People now cut corners by the most primitive and brutal means because they don't have enough money.

In Britain, some pull out their abscessed teeth with pliers for want of an NHS dentist and the high cost of private dentistry.

Canada is the same despite an ineffectual, "universal dental care" plan that is another Potemkin Village for neoliberalism, which is being used to prove to wealthy "liberals with dental plans "that they care a lot."

But go to any bargain shop or grocery store, and you will see customers and employees with rotting teeth, missing teeth or toothless as if they were from the 19th century.

There is so much human suffering in our communities and so little empathy, respect or solutions for that anguish from those who could change things.

The populace doesn't trust its politicians, journalists, and many of its trade unionist leaders to be striving to improve their standard of life.

Democracy can't function when a large percentage of its citizens can't pay their rent, meet their debt obligations or afford a dignified old age.

Living in that type of society ensures democracy becomes an enclave for its top-income earners and a joke to everyone else.

Right-wing demagogues like, Trump, Nigel Farage, France's Marine Le Pen, Italy's Giorgia Meloni or Canada's Pierre Poilievre come to power in times like ours. Hitler didn't happen because the people failed democracy but because a democracy run by the entitled will always fail the people.

This cost of living crisis has left many wounded and dead on its field of battle. The well-heeled don't see this because, in their life, they don't have problems with affordability.

People like us know that authoritarianism is around the corner. We are like the steerage passengers on the Titanic who knew- before first-class passengers their ship was doomed because the lower decks flooded first.

Last night's presidential debate should have been a clear signal to everyone to have, if possible, an escape plan because normal is something from the Before Times. Shit is about to get real- for the US and the world- whether it is a Biden Presidency or Trump.

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