Generation Chaos was right

Once upon a time in the 1980s, a Greek punk band, Generation Chaos [Η γενιά του χάους], in their song Bastardocracy [Μπασταρδοκρατία] was ardently protesting: ‘What democracy are we talking about?’. At the time, the USSR and Yugoslavia still existed; the U.S. had been defeated by the Viet Cong; I hadn’t been born yet, and Panathinaikos still had no basketball championship. In that context, a Reagan claim about annexing Greenland would have sounded much more dramatic, because there was still a real counterpart to the U.S.

In the grand scheme of things, with a genocide underway, an invasion in Europe, and civil wars across Africa and beyond, such threats feel less heartbreaking. And that is capitalism’s true face. We’ve become used to all of this.

You may not have been following all this, so let’s take it from the beginning. What, exactly, are we living through at the dawn of 2026?

In the first months of his term last year, he posted an AI-generated video on Instagram, in which Gaza had been transformed into a Riviera.

After attacking Venezuela and arresting President Maduro, Trump is now threatening to annex Greenland. He wants to buy Greenland from Denmark, but if the say ‘no’, he will do what the USA does best: barge in. Even George W. Bush would be proud —and Bush now looks like a house cat compared to Trump. Sure, he later denied it, but who trusts a word this man says?

Earlier, he unleashed ICE’s hounds (my sincere apologies to dogs everywhere for the comparison) in Minneapolis, and they showed their loyalty by fatally shooting a woman activist in broad daylight. Naturally, he was quick to defend the agents, claiming they had acted in self-defense What a coincidence: it happened in Minneapolis, the city where George Floyd was killed by a police officer in 2020, during Trump’s first term.

Hmmm… What else? In the first months of his term last year, he posted an AI-generated video on Instagram, in which Gaza had been transformed into a Riviera —with his own statue in it, no less. If we had to sum it up in one sentence, it would be this: ‘From a people’s genocide to Trump’s real‑estate project.’

What’s striking is that he isn’t even hiding his intentions —he states them plainly: Greenland is rich in fossil fuels, and he wants them.

Of course, the first glimpse of his agenda was Zelenskyy’s humiliation, with Ukraine’s rare earths on the table.

What’s striking is that he isn’t even hiding his intentions. As for Greenland —aside from claiming that the world would somehow be safer if the largest island on Earth were handed over to the U.S. (yeah, right)— he was quite frank: Greenland is rich in fossil fuels, and he wants them.

But we are lucky, Europe is standing up. On Tuesday, Macron said that France prefers respect to bullies. Very well—but how, exactly, does he intend to do that? By appointing unfit prime ministers to avoid elections, only to emerge politically diminished himself?

Okay, I don’t want to be toxic. To be fair, he did at least call Trump what he is: a bully. Still, when he later posted a video of himself calling Trump and joking that he was waiting outside because everything was frozen for him, the effect was quite awkward. Alright, I’ll stop there.

In reality, however, the deeper problem lies with his former allies and admirers, who —while Macron, the self-appointed guardian of the European ideal, cycled through prime ministers— were searching for the right pretext to reassure the new President that they were on his side.

Leaders who supposedly stand for justice, constitutionalism, democracy, and all the other Greek inventions.

After all, he has already threatened so many countries. What would stop him from threatening Greece as well, if the motherland of filótimo refused to ‘comply’ with his orders?

That is why one of these leaders —Kyriakos Mitsotakis— made sure to endorse the U.S. intervention in Venezuela.

‘The end of Maduro’s regime offers new hope for the country. This is not the time to comment on the legality of the recent actions.’

You might ask: would it have made any difference if the U.S. attack on Venezuela had been approved by Congress? Or: weren’t there other precedents before this?

Fair point. It reads like Kostas Passaris’ autobiography, one of Greece’s most notorious criminals —except one man is serving a life sentence in Romania, while the other is the prime minister of a country that invokes international law whenever tensions with Turkey escalate.

The rule of the strong is not merely a necessary evil, as a naïve apologist of the state and the system might argue. We ‘re talking about institutional disruption.

You might ask: would it have been any better if the U.S. attack on Venezuela had been approved by Congress? No Or: weren’t there other incidents before this? There were.

It’s just that now the whole capitalist system is being exposed —a system that, in the name of invisible threats, justified the havoc it was causing. With Trump’s threats against Greenland, even the last illusion is collapsing.

As Sweden’s Minister for Finance, Elisabeth Svantesson, put it: ‘This is a new low.’

I want to believe that anyone who doesn’t have a poster of Andrew Tate above their bed —or any other misogynistic far‑right nitwit, whether politician or not— would agree that the tolerance for Trump’s political leadership is unprecedented.

As Sweden’s Minister for Finance, Elisabeth Svantesson, put it: ‘This is a new low.’ Then again, Sweden went from Olof Palme to relying on far-right support to form a government. Anyway.

I recap: an ongoing genocide in Gaza carried out with U.S. backing; attacks on other countries and the abduction of an elected president; open threats against NATO and non-NATO states alike; a four-year war in Ukraine —one that Trump promised to end, a promise that now sounds like the answer our parents gave when we asked, ‘Are we there yet?’: ‘In five minutes’—and ‘five’ was never even close to thirty.

Of course, wars aren’t the only thing that directly threatens our existence —in that respect, Trump is very much a champion.

Above we’re threatened by capitalism’s ‘endless growth’: it keeps itself alive and growing by destroying the planet and the life on it.

Isn’t the wiretapping scandal a form of institutional disruption? As our Prime Minister said: “this is not the time to comment on the legality of the recent actions.”

In one of Trump’s trademark grotesque and infuriating moments —the lip-pursing kind— he greenlit the US’ ‘Drill, baby, drill’ era: more extraction, more oil giants building their plants on thawing permafrost. And when it thaws further, four million people will be forced to move. For more on this, watch the documentary Mankind’s Folly.

But we don’t need to go all the way to the U.S. to grasp the sheer disregard for institutions whenever it serves those in power. Let’s look closer at home. Isn’t the wiretapping scandal a form of institutional disruption? As our Prime Minister said: “this is not the time to comment on the legality of the recent actions.” Right?

Let alone the sworn administrative inquiries in police violence cases, stretched into oblivion. It hardly suggests commitment to constitutionalism and independent authorities when people are beaten up by ‘the authorities’ that are never brought to justice.

I’ll never write about ‘collective responsibility.’ Still, those in power are discrediting institutions and this is tolerated. That’s how we ended up with Giorgos Xylouris and the rest of the OPEKEPE crowd invoking the right to remain silent. It’s also how we ended up with three far-right parties in Parliament. And now, apparently, the submissive citizen’s invisible enemy is ‘woke.’

All this breeds leaders like Trump, men who wage war on invisible enemies. Because figures like Trump thrive on tolerance, fear, and submission. Capitalism’s grace period is over. Now they say it openly: Now you’ll dance and bow on command You asked for rights? Ha!

Here comes the Chaos Generation again:

The rights you thought you had are gone

Now it’s a shitty life and blind obedience

All exploitation and stupid fear.

….

I’ll stop here, because,
censorship and dirty traps are near.