Genuinely curious. I keep thinking “it can’t get much worse without some kind of mass uprising” but the ability of the general population of Western states to just soak up suffering seems endless. Do you think we will actually see mass movements in the next decade or two? Or just slowly lurch into a void of ever-shittier liberalism?
By the West I mean like. Western Europe and the Anglosphere I guess.
This is the right answer. Several of the the comments in this thread have correctly identified climate change as an important factor, but it seems like they aren't recognizing how much of an accelerant for revolution it really is. Maybe revolution is not the perfect term here so much as radical and extreme political change because as you say, it can go in the direction of communism or fascism depending as always on the material conditions. Either way, the current status quo for every nation on the planet doesn't have long left, and its death is going to happen faster and faster in the coming few decades.
We need to look at the police states and fascism that will descend and consider what reaction to that will occur as well. Fascism will descend but as soon as people get a taste of it the reaction against it will be very quickly. Look at the UK and the tories as a snapshot of this. There is categorically no support for the tories, it has collapsed. The timing of this collapse is extremely unfortunate with the state of the labour party but it goes to show how quickly things can turn when people get a taste of their lives getting worse.
Right now I hear shit loads of people that are vaguely reactionary, like the Brexit voters, all saying they intend to vote for Galloway's party even if it obviously won't win. Obviously voting is not going to get us anywhere but as an indication of leftists riding the waves of discontent and vanguarding even among reactionaries I think he's a solid example even if I have significant distaste for his messaging.
When the collapse happens and revolutionary conditions descend this kind of weird reactionary crowds agreeing with the left is going to happen as well.