Redefining the definition of "war", "empire" and "depression" to the point they contain no historical symmetry or stable meaning across time, so you can tell your doomer and declinist narratives, makes you no better than the government propaganda you criticize. You're just a propagandist trying to tell a story that serves your selfish agenda. Sad. But true.

We are neither in any economic recession or depression. The fact people keep saying this makes me think we need to turn the whole Internet off.

The level of geopolitical destabilization we are seeing is alarming. The potential for other fires to start around the world, as certain powers and interests feel this could be their opportunity to expand regional influence, is rising quickly.

Last year, America declinists: "Look! The dollar is finished! India is buying Russian oil in rubles and has signed a currency swap agreement!" Today, Russian capital controls: "Hold my beer!"

Indian Oil Companies News: Indian oil companies unable to repatriate $300-400 million in dividends from Russia - The Economic Times

ONGC, Oil India, Indian Oil, and BPCL have participating interests in multiple oil and gas projects in Russia from which they earn dividends period...

I'm convinced the most powerful insight that one can have, in order to see the world in the most a dispassionate analytical lens possible, is to fundamentally come to understand where value-judgements enter our human arguments and understanding about the world. These things are what philosophers call normative arguments. They are everywhere in your thinking. Every argument you make about politics, economics and culture, has a normative argument hiding in there. No matter how "evidenced-based" or "objective" you think the position is. When you learn to parse for that, you immediately see through a lot of the narrative-based reasoning traps that people fall into. But still, no matter how analytical you are, you're going to have to show up with your own normative arguments, yourself. But being aware of them is critical to intellectual honesty.