the latest in geopolitics

6/13/2025

In the event that the current geopolitical climate erupts into what later comes to be known as World War III, I thought I might record what it feels like to live through this interlude—the frog in the pan of water being brought slowly to a boil, as it were. I have never been more disappointed in humanity or convinced of our imminent extinction. The world wasn’t perfect before, but it was humming along pretty smoothly, until certain people went out of their way to ruin things. This kind of deliberate shooting oneself in the foot takes effort, forethought, and planning: an intricately designed system as vast as a galactic filament constructed to undo everything we have achieved as a species. The word “evil” feels too flat and childish to describe this phenomenon. Just today I learnt that under the █████ Administration, 250 million acres of protected National Forest and public lands were up for sale so that mining and other companies can get their greedy little hands on them at long last.

 

6/22/2025

It’s happened. We’re at war with Iran. I am incredulous. Even though I’ve previously stated that nothing would surprise me at this point and that I believed that everything bad that could happen would happen, I suppose a small part of me clung to the vain hope that it couldn’t possibly get that bad, right?  Wrong.  I genuinely wouldn’t be surprised if the skies above Seattle lit up tomorrow with Iranian missiles. Iranian missiles might be a stretch, given what has been reported about their nuclear program or lack thereof, but WWIII would mean Russia or North Korea might have a go at us. Meanwhile new reporting came out that the Earth’s on track to heat up by 1.5°C in three years’ time, taking us past the point of no return, whereupon we can expect to see even more once-in-a-lifetime weather phenomena, including the possibility of entire weather systems collapsing. Even if all of humanity banded together and did everything we could to forfend this fate, 3 years is too little time to change anything. And of course I expect that most people aren’t going to do anything about this, especially not climate change-denying politicians who suckle at the teat of oil companies, greedily lapping up their black ooze as their pockets get filled to bursting. It seems pointless to try to do anything about it. Why even bother to recycle? It’ll make fuck all difference at the end of the day.