Conservative Washington Post columnist Max Boot wrote about the worst parts of the teens of the 21st Century and warned that things aren't looking up for the 20s.
Referring to it as the "Terrible Tens," Boot acknowledged that there were positives, like the Chicago Cubs and Washington Nationals winning the World Series and the "Hamilton" musical scored a cultural explosion that popularized the American Revolution.
"There is much to be said, too, for a decade that began with the death of one terrorist mastermind (Osama bin Laden) and ended with the death of another (Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi)," Boot wrote Wednesday. "Gay rights advanced, with same-sex marriage recognized in the United States and 21 other countries. The struggle against sexual exploitation also made progress thanks to the #MeToo movement. And from an economic perspective, the past 11 years have been pretty positive: This is the longest, if not the most robust, expansion in U.S. history. The decade was especially good for the world’s poor, with the rate of extreme poverty cut in half."
Still, he's down on the decade because of policymakers who refuse to deal with "existential threats."
"Nine out of the 10 worst wildfires in California history have occurred in the past decade," Boot explained. "On the other side of the planet, Australia has been experiencing some of the worst brushfires in its history; 480 million animals, including 8,000 koalas, might have died. This is in significant part due to climate change, which has caused record heat waves and droughts along with rising sea levels and melting ice caps."
Scientists have been warning that we entered the "last chance" decade and that the years that come will be more about surviving than stopping the crisis. While many world leaders have stepped up to do their part in reducing the causes of global climate change, some of the biggest offenders have refused. President Donald Trump withdrew the United States from the Paris Climate Accord, attacking it as harmful to businesses like coal companies.
When it came to crime, the numbers show great improvement, but gun violence has been responsible for six of the 10 worst mass shootings in United States history. "Like the climate crisis, the gun crisis is due to a failure of political will," Boot wrote.
The biggest reason the 2010s have been so horrific in Boot's mind is that American freedom is being eroded while extremism is growing.
"The Tens began with the Arab Spring, raising hopes that liberal democracy could spread across the Middle East," he recalled. "But only tiny Tunisia has democratized. The rest of the region has seen an Arab Winter with more than 370,000 people killed in the Syrian civil war, more than 100,000 killed in Yemen, and thousands more in Libya. By the end of 2016, nearly 5.2 million refugees from the greater Middle East had reached Europe. This refugee crisis, along with the aftershocks of the 2008-2009 financial crisis, led to a nationalist and populist backlash."
Those are just a few of Boot's examples. There is also a matter of the uprisings in Hong Kong and Tehran. But extremist movements are stronger than ever. Whether it's Russias invasion of Ukraine, far-right-wing groups rise to power in the United States, Brazil, India, the Phillippines, the U.K. and more.
"The Tens end with Trump impeached. That’s a rare bit of good news. But the Twenties could begin with him acquitted and even reelected — and, as Yascha Mounk argues in the Atlantic, populists are always more dangerous in their second term," Boot closed.