Keep in mind a lot of the people that root for American collapse are usually pro-China anyway and their points basically boil down to "My authoritarian regime is better than your authoritarian regime"

OH AND HOW COULD I FORGET THAT PHILIP IV DISSOLVED THE TEMPLARS, WHICH GAVE US ALL THESE LARPY TRADCATHS AND THE MOST ANNOYING MOTHERFUCKERS WHO INSIST ON A CONSPIRACY THEORY RIPPED FROM THE DA VINCI CODE

the Jacquerie and the English Peasants' Revolt. Overall, Europe in the 1300s was a very shitty time to live in, and we're pretty lucky that COVID has so far only killed a few million people out of 8 billion globally.

And finally, Europe was embroiled in war all the time. The Hundred Years' War went on until 1453 and killed millions of men, and Italy was stuck with revolt after revolt, each one bloodier than the last. France and England had their revolts too, namely...

The Catholic Church was corrupt as hell thanks to the practice of selling indulgences, passes people had to buy to get less time in purgatory. This is what set off the Protestant Reformation in 1517, among 94 other reasons.

Of course, we can't forget the Black Plague either. First hitting in 1337 and going on and off until 1353, this was an outbreak of bubonic plague that killed upwards of 60% of Europe at the time, well over 1 in 2 deaths.

Climate change also hit pretty hard thanks to the Little Ice Age, largely caused by volcanic eruptions that clouded the sky. Between 1315 and 1317, the Great Famine that followed killed 5 to 15% of the European population.

This isn't to mention the Great Schism that emerged during and shortly after this period of time, which gave rise to two, and at one point three people(!) claiming to be Pope, or Philip IV's shit getting so bad we have a secular diss track/allegory still remembered today.

...Philip influenced the papal election to install Clement V, a Frenchman who moved the seat of the papacy to Avignon in a period known as the Babylonian Captivity. Between 1309 and 1377, seven Popes were French.

King Philip IV in France, though he did some good for the country, tried to further consolidate power by overshadowing his advisors and getting into heated discussions with Pope Boniface VIII, and when he died in 1303 and then Pope Benedict XI took over until 1308...