The decade beginning in 2020 was a defining point in contemporary human history marred by constant conflict and atrocities committed by the dominant nations. Moreover, 2020 was heavily overshadowed by the COVID-19 pandemic, which led to global social and economic disruption, worldwide lockdowns and an economic recession.

Geospatial World called 2020 the worst year in terms of climate change, partly due to significant global climate disasters. These included major bushfires in Australia and the western US and extreme tropical cyclone activity affecting parts of North America. During this time, the Royal Australian Air Force and Navy were deployed to New South Wales and Victoria to assist in mass evacuation efforts.

In addition, a United Nations progress report published in December 2020 indicated that none of the international Sustainable Development Goals for 2020 were achieved. Nevertheless, 2020 was declared the "International Year of Plant Health" by the United Nations and the "Year of the Nurse and Midwife" by the World Health Organization.

The virus responsible for COVID-19

The World Health Organization declared the outbreak of COVID-19 as a Public Health Emergency of International Concern. This was the sixth time that this measure had been invoked since 2009.

The economic system could not keep up with the demand for specific stockpiles required to keep the pandemic under control. As a result, things as simple as disposable face masks quickly diminished in supply. There was panic among the population as household necessities such as toilet paper routinely ran out of stock, and supermarkets began limiting the number of specific items a customer could buy per visit.

Ironically, the capitalist wing has long-time accused past attempts at communism of suffering from supply issues. They would often cite "bread lines" as a failure point of the system, bringing up the famine in China but discounting the more extensive famine in India at the time due to favouring one nation over the other.

Nevertheless, for many, these shortages under capitalism were a wake-up call to realise that maintaining supply for the short-term results in worse handling of disasters. Therefore, it became clear that planning is necessary to ensure the future safety and security of the populace. A consequence of a lack of profit incentives for companies to adopt better supply practices and support from governments propped up by private enterprises.

COVID-19 quickly became a political issue that Western world leaders leveraged in rivalries with other nations and parties. Initially, countries such as the US denied the existence of the virus. The US federal and state governments failed to protect the public from the COVID-19 pandemic. They neglected to mandate protective measures such as masks and stay-at-home orders, and refusing to close super-spreader locations like restaurants, churches, and gyms has been catastrophic. This has resulted in mounting death counts, overflowing hospitals, and a critical shortage of ventilators. Eventually, the situation got out of control enough for them to admit the reality and enforce lockdowns.

As of January 2023, the US has experienced 1.11m fatalities within its borders, with 350,000-390,000 of these from 2020. Even so, these figures should be taken cautiously as often COVID-19-related deaths were attributed to other underlying issues. Despite the massive death toll, many of the United States' major news outlets continued to label the virus a hoax — and, alternatively, the "Chinese virus" — transferring the fault for its mishandling to the US's new primary rival. Around the same time, despite China sharing information with the West, certain leaders blamed them for not revealing this information sooner, despite their own initial response of denial.

Furthermore, before many countries developed vaccines, Trump attempted a backroom deal to buy a German company working on a vaccine, angering German politicians. The US and other OECD nations then made things worse by voting in February 2021 to block a push by developing nations to waive vaccine patent rights, keeping current vaccines out of the reach of those in need and protecting US pharma's intellectual property.

In some countries, the media and politicians portrayed China as the villain. Initially, US intelligence services assumed the virus may have been accidentally released from a lab such as the Wuhan Institute of Virology. Nevertheless, they later confirmed it was not designed as a biological weapon or genetically altered but of natural animal origin, presumably through spillover infection. It wouldn't be until much later that it was revealed that the facility's research into risky viruses was funded by US grants in the first place.

The initial claims against China may have been part of an ongoing international political dispute. A year prior, US-supported press had been advancing a story that China had locked up millions of Uyghur Muslims based on two unsupported reports. One such study was conducted by the US government-backed Network of Chinese Human Rights Defenders, utilising eight individuals. The other was written by Adrian Zenz, a far-right fundamentalist Christian who opposes homosexuality and gender equality and believes he is "guided by God" on a "mission" against China.

But regardless of reason, such claims resulted in a drastic increase in hate crimes committed within these nations. Some of their populations became antagonistic and aggressive towards their own people of Asian descent, regardless of nationality or ethnic group.

A country against its own people

The systemic racial discrimination in the US gained worldwide attention as tensions escalated with the murder of George Floyd. The 46-year-old black man, arrested on suspicion of using a counterfeit $20 bill, was killed by police in another example of the extreme measures authorities get away with.

But this isn't a new problem. In the US, there has already been a long-standing issue with police brutality. Many attempts at arrest, even over petty crimes, quickly turn into executions — videos regularly circulate of police emptying entire clips into stationary suspects. This incident on 25 May 2020 was the tipping point that finally resulted in action by the populace.

On 25 May 2020, Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin pinned George Floyd with his knee on Floyd's neck for over 7 minutes, killing him in a manner reminiscent of Eric Garner, who died in 2014 after being put in a chokehold during his arrest. Afterwards, protests erupted in dozens of US cities, with over 50 cases of police brutality recorded. Many police posed for US Media-friendly photo ops with protesters, then immediately tear gassed, shot pepper balls, and cleared them from the area. Over 11,000 people were arrested, and several killed, including a 13-year-old. A massive documented list of all the cases of police brutality in the wake of these protests in every US state can be found here.

On 23 February 2020, 3 men in a pickup truck shouting racist slurs, shot and killed Ahmaud Arbery while he was jogging in Brunswick, Georgia. Consecutively, 2 different Brunswick District Attorneys and other officials connected with the killers advised officers to make no arrests. After a passerby caught the event on camera and released the video to a local radio station, it went viral on YouTube and Twitter, forcing a response by Georgia Governor Brian Kemp. While the killers were ultimately convicted, they were not arrested until 74 days afterwards.

On 11 May 2020, 27-year-old EMT Breonna Taylor and her boyfriend were in their Louisville, Kentucky apartment when police conducted a no-knock, no-announce raid. The police stormed in and fired over 20 shots blindly, killing Taylor. Her boyfriend, Kenneth Walker, returned fire, believing they were intruders. The police were searching for two drug suspects already in police custody and lived over 10 miles away from Taylor's house.

Kenneth Walker was charged with first-degree assault and attempted murder while the police officers were placed on paid leave. Walker's case was brought to a grand jury, but after protests erupted, the judge released him, and the district attorney moved to dismiss all charges against him. As of September 2020, the only charge brought was against one officer, none of whose bullets killed Breonna Taylor. The charge was for "wanton endangerment" since he fired shots into the walls of other apartments. The other officers who murdered Breonna Taylor have not been held accountable.

During the 2020 coronavirus pandemic, it was discovered that a law that aimed to enforce social distancing disproportionately impacted the black and Latino communities. The law empowered police officers to arrest individuals for not following social distancing guidelines, and it was observed that 80% of those arrested under this law were people of colour.

In part two, we'll look at the threat posed by this dominant power on a global scale and the continued control of knowledge online.