People are brainwashed into not knowing the difference between big "S" socialism and " Capitalism with a strong social safety net".
There isn't a single developed western nation that is the first. They're all the second. We're not "socialist" and less free than the good ol' Murica. We just know that your capitalism runs better if your population isn't struggling...
Not a full on extinction event, but the late bronze age collapse has always fascinated me. So much do that it led me to pursue archaeology in college.
So many theories, everyone has their favourite, but yeah, what ultimately caused every near eastern civilisation as well as the Mycenaean Greeks to just all collapse and disappear over a relatively short 200 years or so (archaeologically speaking a blink-of-an-eye)