just plain capitalism. it's a lot easier to see without all the Reaganite bullshit getting pushed next to a weakening USSR.
this is as raw as it gets in "peace times," peace in the Western definition where we aren't technically fighting Russia and we're just using a bunch of proxy forces and/or economic policy.
It's all uneven, too, so it would be bold to claim this is progressive or regressive or even neither. Some countries are on their way to knocking down capitalism, others are coming with a more Third World nationalist type of approach (think Non-Aligned Movement). Of course the liberals are dominant in the West, they aren't really doing much and their failures are openining up the gates of hell. Unfortunately some of the "socialist" movements we see are more of the socially conservative, or even National Bolshevik, types, so we have the international fascists alongside the national communists - don't ask me how that makes sense...
Yeah, just expect all those contradictions Marx warned about back in the 1800s, when all the middle classes of Europe were celebrating their new economic success after the brutality of the initial industrialization, to come back. Just like the end of the 1800s leading into the end of World War I.
We just have to remember the US invasion of Iraq (2003) and the Russian invasion of Ukraine (2022) are just the typical markers of something fucked up to come. A little bit of rivalry and jealousy among the different capitalists goes a long way.
For what people like us, Communists and other leftists of the more revolutionary edge, we just have to stay disciplined and get some work done while we're ahead. There could be a civil war in Germany tomorrow for all we know lol. It's just business as usual, no different from the 1840s, 1870s, 1910s, 1960s, etc
too much.
