Firstly the US isn't the whole world, or even "The West". Plenty of countries have handled the pandemic reasonably well and have efficient vaccination programme

Firstly the US isn't the whole world, or even "The West". Plenty of countries have handled the pandemic reasonably well and have efficient vaccination programmes with strong public support. Mine is one. Heck even in the US you'll get over it. The Spanish Flu was far worse. I'm a pro-vax mask wearing Covid believer, I think the lockdowns were prudent. Even so, at a civilizational level it's just another speed bump either way. At the civilizational level even WW2 and Soviet and Chinese communism were just speed bumps. That's how powerful the forces of technological and social advancement are. The idea that Brexit or Trump, bad as they are, pose threats to our civilization? It's utterly absurd. Secondly all of those are forward looking predictions. They may happen, they may be mitigated by near term action. Right now we are still on an up swing that has wobbled a bit. That's not to be complacent, we face some tough challenges, but saying we face the possibility of a downward turn and that we are now in a downturn are two completely different things. Claiming the first when it's palpably, visibly not true on any relevant metric doesn't help build credibility for the second prediction.