*** Updated April 6 @9:00pm EST (See Addendum)
“This is the dumbest, messiest policy of my lifetime.” -David Brooks (New York Times / PBS Newshour)
While it is true things could always get worse, it is also true that most of the classic omens of dystopian science fiction have already been realized.
He actually did it. Managed to shit on literally everybody, everywhere, all at once. That’s Alpha Donald. And this is the The United Corporations of America (UCA).
Just how devastating are the new Tariffs? 6 trillion dollars of market value has already evaporated. And 61% of Americans already live paycheck-paycheck (Forbes, 2023). I am one of them. I just leased a new apartment and I’ll be paying exactly double what I was 4 years ago. In the same city, for the same amount of space and less features.
Two years ago, while plotting a doomed rebellion against then employer, Amazon, I described my lived experience to my father as “running 4 full marathons a week, entering a coma each night, and having all the money I earned shaken out of my pockets by billionaires as I sleep.”
I just don’t know any more. Whether my heart problems are from the over-exertion, chronic stress or the weaponized pathogen. A side effect from the neurotoxins in the alleged cure. From the overwhelming grief and guilt I feel daily as our bombs continue to target schools, hospitals, journalists, aid workers…. All I know is I’m not going to normalize this.
While it is true things could always get worse, it is also true that most of the classic omens of dystopian science fiction have already been realized. The corporate takeover of democracy and indentured servitude of the population. For-profit healthcare. Mass surveillance and censorship. Black bags and unmarked cars. Artificial Intelligence blurring reality and taking our jobs. UFO’s, drones. Terminator robot dogs…. Damn, someone actually made those.
EF🙄
Addendum
Update 04/06/25 @9:00pm EST: Air Force One Interview with President Trump. Explanation of the tariff rationale.
Experience Film 
You know half way through I realized the quote was just at the top. I’m not sure why I thought you were talking about someone else…
I don’t know you are going through a giant mess at the moment. I hope you and the world won’t have to endure it for the full 4 year term.
As for the real intent behind his tactics take a look at this https://youtu.be/f1CdbCsetpw?si=uwKanpA6kerkQgT1
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Thanks I just watched that video you shared! Trump is very smart. I have no doubt this is an intentional tactic. But he has not explained it to the American Public how this is supposed to help us. “Bring Back American manufacturing and create jobs.” When? 10 years from now? AI will have already replaced so many more jobs by then. Auto manufacturing for example.
I’m bad at economics. So my opinion is moot. But I see this as a desperate gamble to ensure the survival of the U.S. dollar as the world currency. And/Or compete with China’s economy which is well on pace to outperform the U.S. We also owe China a lot of money (debt) The previous 2 generations (mainly) of my countrymen have accrued a debt of $36 Trillion dollars. My whole life I’ve always viewed this as a joke. Especially when older people say, “the kids are going to have to pay that back.” LAUGHS. Who, me and my friends? We can’t even afford a house or kids. And you want us to pay that back. Fuck you!… Yeah we are indeed, “going through a giant mess at the moment” as you put it. Self-inflicted wounds and generational trauma have reached fever pitch. This is a MESS. And today I don’t think the dust is ever going to settle.
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About the robot dogs. I love search&rescue scenario. But of course there also has to be search&destroy. 😳
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Technology is a double edged sword.
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yes, things do look grim; some raise the ogre of ‘end times’ —
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I hope we’re over the hump of the terrible, awful, no-good, really bad present, but I’m a skeptic. Your post really made me wonder what role will human ingenuity play in the future? What will be the value of our skills? Our thoughts? Will we be like the vhs player after the implant tv chip comes out? I don’t know the answer as I’m a vinyl enthusiast.🤣Thanks for digging deep with this post. ⚒️You struck bone on this one.
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Less data, more vinyl! You are a main character in this dystopian novel, comrade⚒️
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You have a shout from my heart, mate! I don’t want to talk about how clever he, it, or WTF is; the only thing I believe is that two things are destroying every side and part: extremism and nationalism! No country can live in isolation in our time, and worse, it causes war!
Take care. LM👍🤗
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I needed your wisdom to help make sense of this mess. Thank you! Your concern is echoed by many both here and abroad.
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Serfdom never ended. It’s still alive and well. We are serfs. We plow the fields, eat the scraps, hand the purse over to the knight, running up the down escalator.
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I had you in mind while writing this (less humorous) dystopian. I wish ANYONE had told me the truth growing up. Been a bitter, schizophrenic lesson to learn.
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I wish they had, too. My parents were fairly realistic, so I was pretty lucky in that regard.
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As something of an apolitical policy wonk who doesn’t pay much attention to “pop-info” channels, I have a different take. By 1950, the new, Western world order was based in the idea of development through exchange and the honoring of debt. But the process was still inherently unequal, with cultures where the tools of technology could be applied to productivity accumulating disproportionate wealth. Meanwhile, “developing” nations on a planet of barely 2.5-billion war-weary humans worked like those Amazon employees, allowing themselves to be exploited for the resources consumed by wealthier nations in exchange for what alternative it offered. But the generational cycles of human memory lasts about 80-years, what the Romans called a “saeculum”.
Now there are more than 8-billion of us, all expecting a slice of a pie that might be enough to put a smile on a quarter of those faces. And whether rightly or wrongly, everyone feels entitled in a time with little memory of war. Tariffs and currency manipulation (artificial inflation) are merely ways to get others to pay; and war-economies are the saviors of dying dictatorships. The Biden administration had already turned to reciprocal tariffs, flooding the US money supply, and taxing foreign currency manipulation… just more discretely. And both Russia and China have moved into war economies, exchanging foreign debt holdings for gold while building up their arms production sectors. And this kind of shift is a one-way road since it’s fundamentally unproductive. You can’t disengage from war production without access to some kind of massive economic spoils. Russia is presently stuck in this trap.
I’m more of a reader. But if you can tolerate listening to her, Sarah Paine from the U.S. Naval War College is a good historian in this regard, connecting much to the present. And a recent speech by Singapore’s Prime Minister, Lawrence Wong, while intended for a domestic Singaporean audience, pretty much summed up that the entire world is entering a time of transition from one based in economic exchange into something less certain. It was a salient message for the US. I sincerely hope that I’m wrong. But within just a couple of years, we may look back on the present as, “the good ol’ days.”
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I actually stumbled upon Singapore’s PM, Lawrence Wong’s speech later in the day after I wrote this. Independently of your comment! I watched it in its entirety. He was very clear, articulate… I greatly value your take here, and your rich experience of the world. I share your concern that things will get worse, but didn’t want to say it in the post. Americans are entitled and vulnerable. My greatest fear is that we will learn the pain of less privileged citizens of the world (which most of us can’t imagine). That we’ll eat the words of Leonardo DiCaprio at the end of “Don’t Look Up” when he says, “We really had it all” Emphasis on had, past tense. I sincerely hope we are wrong, my friend. And will continue my modest lifestyle either way.
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I’m moving back to Toronto from Vancouver, so my invitation to come to Vancouver and make movies with me is partially rescinded… but perhaps we can do the same thing in Toronto!
You have to get out of the sticks and go where the movies are MADE. That means Los Angeles if you don’t make it to Toronto with me. You have to start hustling. James Cameron’s career as auteur director is ideal fodder in this respect. There’s more to life than working for Amazon.
Your very pores bleed talent, EF, and it shows in everything you touch, including your writing. As for taking care of your sister, you cannot let your life be destroyed by residual familial sympathy. It isn’t your job to be a superhero. It’s your responsibility to let your artistic shine, and make some money while you’re on this Earth. Think $$$. Think golden awards. Let the rest take care of itself. — Greg
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This reminds me of the robot dog in Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson, which is an abducted family pet that gets turned into an attack/security cyborg. It plays an unexpected and very satisfying role at the conclusion of the book.
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