I mean hopefully it can be delayed by a year or two until I can get SRS and move to Seattle and integrate into some leftist networks. But we're all just stuck in this limbo of waiting for the evil empire to implode and it's still tottering along, smashing thousands of lives daily. I'm not romanticizing the Cool Zone, I'm just tired of being kept on the edge - waiting, waiting. Let's just get it the fuck over with
The Empire is/was indeed incredibly strong and could take a number of body blows that would have collapsed weaker nations. And you're right, despite its historic resilience, even the US can only stagger around punch-drunk for so long before it falls over. The cheap energy of the aughts and the tech boom of the aughts/teens provided a temporary boost in profits. But aside from AI, there's really nowhere else for investor money in Silicon Valley to go. The energy sources we've shackled ourselves to won't be able to compete with the renewables boom. People aren't interested in working for shit pay while wrecking their bodies with American health coverage in the trades, so that will continue to dry up. The nation will literally crumble before our eyes; it already is. Education metrics will continue to fall, with fewer and fewer people able to perform at a high school level, much less engineer the innovations of the future. More and more of the citizenry will become ever more isolated, insecure, afraid, and alienated. And the cost of everything from health to education to food will continue to rise and at some point soon the stone will simply have no more blood to give. Except literal.