Fuck if I know. Maybe we’re fucked. But I’m not going to sit here and pretend like this is the first time we’ve had a bunch of adversity. We think it’s worse than ever before because we’re living it. And I have to laugh my fucking ass off over at least we were united in two sides or something during the Civil War.
I mean we’re in the midst of a global pandemic. People were already pissed and they are sitting on their asses with the power of the internet. Which you can see from this thread alone has people who are probably more informed than most regularly sharing demonstrably false information. Often not even on purpose but because they read something or watched something somewhere and didn’t think that maybe what they read or watched wasn’t true. We really (I think it’s not just Americans) have a hard time avoiding this if it fits how we want to believe things are.
We have a President who isn’t even remotely interested in acting like a leader. In fact he stokes chaos every chance he can. And the responses to him are often chaotic and misguided as well.
But if we want to pretend that this is the first time a lot of people said the country has lost their sanity then we’re absolutely ignoring history. We made it through a “Kenyan born Muslim.” We made it through the “Iraq lie” and the Great Recession. We made it through Vietnam and the Civil Rights movement. The Spanish flu pandemic, two world wars, the Great Depression, etc. Oh but this is far worse than that! Well yeah that’s easy to say. We can get on the internet and read bad things and see bad things. We have a front row view of the evils of the entire world. But something tells me those of us who think wearing a mask to a grocery store is a massive burden would have really struggled during the Great Depression. And I bet if you time traveled people from back then to today they wouldn’t say send me back a few people are looting!
Maybe we’re fucked whatever that means. Maybe we haven’t ever been sane as a nation? Probably depends on who you’re asking right? But I believe the country is incredibly resilient and that has proven time and time again.
I don’t have any idea about what to do. What makes sense to me is to elect moderates. Stop demanding party unity. Stop putting people in boxes. Hell I’m guilty of this at times no doubt I think we all are. But not everyone who leans right is a Nazi and not everyone who leans left is a socialist. Elect people who say they will work across the aisle. This used to be a value.
Maybe that won’t/can’t happen. Maybe the world is too far gone. Preachers and thinkers throughout time have picked dates that the apocalypse was going to happen. And some have always believed them because hey how can you deny the signs. And so far not a one has been correct.
I’m from a small town and I often went to a gas station/tire shop/oil change place throughout my life. My dad played cards there in the morning on the weekends when I was young and I sat in another room watching TV. I even worked there through college. And all the old retired guys the people who were farmers or worked in the city would always talk about how horrible everything was. “Can’t believe gas is this high, who the hell voted for Bush, Clinton, Bush, this economy has gone to hell, etc.”.
My point is that people saying it’s awful now is hardly new or unique. Even boom times statistically people during those times are often unhappy about their wealth or position in society. I’m sure my daughter will talk about how much better things used to be when she was a kid just like every other adult tends to say.
You can search this very board for people saying it was the end of everything America while Bush was in power, then while Obama was, now Trump. The only reason you can’t do that for Clinton, Bush 1, Reagan, Carter, etc? The board didn’t exist.