via Reddit:
“I am a historian and political scientist. You need to understand, this time is fundamentally different.
The existence and proliferation of drones, mass surveillance tech, and AI means that the cost of maintaining a surveillance state has been reduced by _ orders of magnitude_ . Moreover, since many of these items are controlled by non state actors (aka corporations ), there is no democratic means to stop them, especially since public preferences on US policy have nearly no effect of Congressional activity ) due almost entirely to money in politics)
Add to that the profound influence of intelligence community institutions from around the world, such as the CIA, Mossad, Russian intelligence, Chinese intelligence, etc, and even when you have a govt that is legitimately trying to do things right, they can be subverted. J Edgar Hoover literally blackmailed a Justice on the Supreme Court, used COINTELPRO to destroy the Civil Rights movement. Russia interferes with US elections, almost certainly is the reason we have Trump in office- and very likely has had Trump as an asset since the 1980s. Mossad , by the estimation of many including the current Vice President of the United States,is almost certainly behind the entire Epstein scandal , and backed his operations for decades to get leverage on leaders, politicians, and people in positions of influence across the world.
And this is just what we know about.
The result is a situation where even if people want to fight back, either through mass protests, general strikes, or by violent revolution, it becomes almost impossible to accomplish. The concentration of media means half a dozen corporations comtrol what most people see, and this can control perspective and the ‘acceptable’ window of discussion. Foreign, Intel, and corporate influences will have an outsized effect on what that window includes.
And even when there is something the overwhelming majority agree on and want, those levers of power just…. Refuse to do it. Witness the ongoing struggle to release the complete Epstein files.
The democratizing effect of the Internet becoming common is neutered by the mass of voices, all screaming for attention – and many of them lying or deceived or just plain crazy. The constant message of doom- either real, or false- bombards the senses, and renders us depressed and resigned to the horror.
All.of this on a planet quickly becoming less welcoming to life due to our own actions.
I made the choice to have no children decades ago. I have never been more thankful for that decision, nor more certain it was the right one, than in this past decade. I despair for our species. I despair for the kids, the youths, anyone under 50 really.
I am of the certain opinion that we – that is, _all of humanity _ -are all well and truly fucked, and at this point the only thing that might- _might_ – save us is a coronal mass ejection from the sun , big enough, strong enough, and lasting long enough to burn out every item of technology more advanced than a vacuum tube on Earth, and in our orbit .
Sure, a couple billion will die. But it would reset the parameters of the game to zero.
That’s my ‘good outcome’. You cannot imagine how terrible the ‘bad outcome’ I fear to come is.”