savagery

The destruction of that city, he observed, marked the moment when “mechanistic civilization has come to its final stage of savagery.”

It's a scrapyard of savagery - the remains of many of the Russian bombs, rockets, missiles and drones used to hit in and around Kharkiv over the past three and a half years.

Jordan Bardella, president of the RN, criticised Macron for what Bardella said was a "denial" of "savagery", seizing upon comments Macron made over the weekend.

That savagery had already reared up in social media spaces before the pandemic fertilized it, but knowing it was already present doesn’t lessen the shock of experiencing versions of it in face-to-face interactions.

The natural assumption here is that “this” refers to some unspeakable act of cannibalistic savagery in the past.