I'm on episode 4 of Chernobyl. It's the most horrifying TV series I have ever watched. Mostly because it's not just a history lesson. There's plenty to be seen about the future of things in North America, by watching this series.
The part that inspired me to write this post is this: The Soviets have appealed for help from Western non-Communist countries to help them clean up the radioactive contamination caused by the meltdown at Chernobyl's nuclear power facility. There's a LOT of radiation to contend with. So much so that it's impossible for human beings to risk any kind of exposure to themselves. So they need to send in robots to deal with the mitigation work. The West Germans send their best protected robot to help out. This robot has been designed to withstand 10 times or more rads than the robot machinery that the Soviets have at their disposal. The germans send their robot to help. The robot only lasts a few minutes before it's circuitry is fried by the radiation. It turns out that the Soviets LIED to the Germans (and the world) about the amount of radiation being emitted by the meltdown. Even when it's got the potential of causing hundreds of thousands of deaths, the Soviet Union could not be trusted to tell the truth about what was happening and what was needed to stop the danger.
The scary thing is --because of the continual amounts of lying and misinformation that passes for news these days -- this kind of a catastrophic poor response to a dangerous situation here in North America (or other Western Countries) is certainly bound to happen. It's just a matter of time. Because people don't seem to care when our officials, government workers, police officers or courts and politicians tell lies -- everybody just takes this as "business as usual".
This is why we are entering an age of Endarkenment... and there doesn't seem to be anything that will put on the brakes for this coming series of catastrophes.