i have an even darker view of the future if you can believe that
it's only this male generation that will be punished in a great amount, and the next in a smaller amount
because we're going through hard times and a transition period, and the little people (workers, soldiers) are always lied to and kept in the dark for as long as possible, to keep them working at peak efficiency until relief and better times (a better economy, reinforcements against the enemy) finally arrive. this isn't new, we've seen it before.
the west could still recover, becoming uglier and stupider, but recover, which means that we all sucked a big fat dick for nothing, just nothing at all. just the usual cattle that gets lied to, during the hardship between transitions, until everyone makes it to the other side for better or worse, the fools who had to put in more work to get less reward. something not even particularily interesting or notable, just some idiots that sucked a big fat dick one time when society "tried a few novel ideas for a little bit".