Er ist wieder da

2016 represented a turning point in global politics and social attitudes, some say it was the inevitable backlash against the European refugee crisis and PC culture. The shift first became apparent in the mainstream with the Brexit referendum and Trump victory, and continued into 2017 with Norbert Hofer's, Geert Wilder's, and Marine Le Pen's victories in their respective countries. Despite the sharp change in political affairs many were still left completely bewildered when Adolf Hitler won the 2017 German election, Hitler, who had appeared in Berlin in 2014, had quickly become a national and international celebrity and was considered by many to be the world's most dedicated method actor.

By September 2017 the Schengen zone, which at this point only existed on paper was formally abolished along with the EU parliament, reducing the European Union into a currency bloc and free trade zone, what followed was a massive campaign of remilitarization and mass deportations in in continental Europe. Sweden, which had managed to retain it's liberal government became a haven for those escaping deportation, causing the nation considerable strain. In November 2019 just a year after it's former withdrawal from NATO[1], Germany successfully pursued Putin's Russia into ceding them Kaliningrad in exchange for monetary compensation and financial aid, merely months later in 2020 the long denied Austrian-German unification would occur after the two countries spent the three years cozy up to each other.

In 2022 on the eve of Germany's nuclear proliferation Sweden would vote to leave the European Union and three months later fall into a civil war over political repression, a year later Poland would hold a similar referendum and leave as well, feeling unfairly subjected to German hegemony. In 2026, after repeated border skirmishes Germany declared war on Poland, Poland being a NATO country meant that this had the predictable affect of the US declaring war on Germany and sending military aid to Poland, America didn't want to get into a conventional war with a nation newly equipped with hydrogen bombs however so no troops or bomb were sent into Germany proper. By the war's end Hitler had captured a bridge from East Prussia into rest of the fatherland and had forced a terrified Poland to cling to a rather indifferent Russia for security.

By the waning years of the 2020's the world was an absurd place, Europe had experienced a second wave of right-wing populism, lead by none other then Adolf Hitler (who people are now beginning to think was maybe just more then a dedicated improv artist), and in the United States Kayne West had just completed his second term and allowed Kim Kardashian to take the reigns of America and become the nation's first female president. In Asia things have been comparably a lot more normal, China flounders with it's failing economy and occasionally buts heads with a remilitarized semi-isolationist Japan complete with a new constitution. North Korea still exists although is now much less isolationist after a free trade agreement was established in 2021 much to the world's surprise that has rapidly been modernizing the nation. As the world prepares for a new decade the populations of Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and Switzerland continue to bulge as people from all around the world seek a less cartoonishly insane society.

[1] France was the first to leave NATO, this had a domino effect as Europe's largest nations left the organization. Many remained however, particularly those bordering Russia.