Too many of us pinned our most desperate hopes on 2021, eagerly awaiting the moment when the terrible memory of 2020 would finally be washed away. But that moment never came.

We’re still dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic, a catastrophe exacerbated by ruling-class greed and government negligence — two constants of capitalism that, like the novel coronavirus itself, transcend national divides.

At the beginning of the year, American liberals praised Joe Biden as the second coming of FDR. Meanwhile, American capitalists did what they do best: they used the proceeds of their extravagant cruelty to fund some of the stupidest shit you’ve ever seen, like Jeff Bezos’s rocket ship joyride and whatever Mark Zuckerberg’s “metaverse” is. By year’s end, with his domestic agenda stalled, the Biden administration already seemed asleep at the wheel.