I hear this, but I don't know how you analyze this without the disconnect from community. Having seen the community I grew up in dissolve (along with all the bonds, responsibilities and joys that went with it) as people spread out around the country for a better economic life.
Maybe this is covered in the book (I haven't seen it for sale over here and it's really expensive to ship crap here), but it's the first thing that comes to mind when I think about "what happened to America."
Growing up, so much of my life was taken up by community-oriented activity. We didn't need to work so hard to find meaning or fill time, because we were busy participating in the group. And it was just expected; not really optional.
We had been there for generations, and had grown huge; and now most of my family is scattered aroudn the country (plus me over here) and we're all kind of....on our own. Do your own thing. Stream your own TV. Find your own meaning.
I think a lot of people are reacting to that loss by finding new community and new meaning. Only now their community is a bunch of lunatics on the internet.
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Since the early days of the pandemic, the sane people kept pointing out the biggest risk was overwhelming the hospitals. We knew this a year and a half ago. And yet here we are.
Experts kept telling us that the risk wasn’t just getting serious COVID (which is a big risk alone, with 600,000+ dead) - it was taking away hospitals’ ability to save people from other things.
If your message is that you’re okay with people dying because you refuse to learn science or listen to anyone but your political cult leaders and their assorted hangers-on: yeah, you’re despicable.