Ukraine (regardless of who wins the war. Even in any realistic best case scenario it’s not gonna be fun for the people there for decades to come)

Italy. (Rotting for over a decade now, the new fashy government is concentrating on fashy LARP, the left is dead, the opposition wants nothing to change, it’s an area vulnerable to climate change, natural disaster prone)

South Korea (Japan, but somehow doubles down on most of its bad aspects. Has more potential, perhaps?)

Afghanistan (though it probably won’t get much worse than it is now, and it’s mostly peaceful now?)

Armenia (depending on Azerbaijan and Turkey’s hostility and Russia and Iran’s willingness to aid them)

“Italians” - word used to describe people who have not been 100km away from New Jersey their entire life by everyone on this site.

Kinda, but late DS9 and Voyager also leaned into grand stories of war and started “deconstructing” the utopia of Star Trek TNG.

But indeed, it was not how Star Trek was back then for the most part. Even Enterprise, with its underrated (but horny) seasons 1 and 2 and the Space 9/11 + Space Cold War arcs (S3, S4) didn’t reach for “this better world we came up with in 1966 and expanded in 1987? Nah, it actually sucks and it is going to suck because humans evil/enemies at the gates.”

The meme being “Haha I’m horny [for Goth girls - no, not the music subculture, the aesthetic]”

Italy unfortunately has been the object of an anticommunist campaign since the 1990s. When Berlusconi ( literally a member of a fascistic conspiracy in the 1970s to consolidate the media and government to gain cultural hegemony, and coincidentally the owner of a large media conglomerate ) got to power he made alliances and went all-in on “it’s the communists fault”. The Eurocommunists sliding down the revisionism spiral to outright liberalism (the hated Prime Minister Renzi, the Italian Blair, was literally a member of the christian democratic youth in his past), economic imperialism from Germany, chud immigration fearmongering, leftist infighting and their participation in lesser evilist governments, etc. have given Italians some extra strong brainworms unfortunately.

It’s also really easy for dissatisfied people, especially youths, to just fuck off abroad. I did it almost 10 years ago. In fact, when liberals said “we should strive to become more like Germany”, people started seeing it as this kind of El Dorado where you can live out the american dream in your life. Teenage me fell for it.

And what of the radical left? It was vibrant, if declining until 2008. After that? It disappeared from the face of the earth into obscurity, and even the graffiti stopped showing up on walls.

That has to be a joke (I hope)

That’s true.

I started getting suspicious at the evacuation of Donetsk about a week before the war actually started. It seemed like a huge reaction to a state of war that’s been basically stuck in the status quo for years.

Before that, I assumed the Status Quo would continue.

He’s also actively screwing over the US’ supposed allies in Europe. But he’s not the bad orange man, so liberals (even here) don’t care.

2002 radlibs and further left: Capitalism destroys the cultures of third world nations through globalization.

2022 radlibs: We should invade the savage countries because they have the same amount of support for social progressive causes we had 15 years ago. They should become more like us (or be destroyed if they are not as fast or the traditionalists complain)

Unfortunately that often also leads people who are not reactionary in the third world to pro-western positions, as reactionaries consolidate power.

The German Foreign Minister, Annalena Baerbock has stated Germany will pursue a “feminist foreign policy”. What does it mean? Who knows, but considering the Green Party are Hawks on basically every foreign policy question in the last 20 years, it probably means Germany using its influence abroad to pursue Neoliberal goals.

Germany doesn’t have that many accidents due to high standards in driving schools and exams, but the Autobahn is terryfing at the sections with no speed limits and when you’re riding with someone regularly, you better get used to them calling other drivers assholes or similar on a regular basis.

And of course there’s the constant car noise if you live next to a street, and it’s especially fun where some bozo drives by in a sports car or American truck bought from an American Military Base.