Had a too long rant, but it does feel like we were sold a bill of goods on being the lone world superpower from the 90s - some point in the past 8-10 years. They deregulated the banks and businesses giving us less option and less competition. They offshored manufacturing and jobs. They goosed the economy with financial games and tricks and we as a society kind of coasted for decades on a variety of communal vibes mostly based on "American exceptionalism".
We coasted on a sense of peace and prosperity through the 90s, then solidarity and resolve post-9/11, then the idea of a "post-race" president, then to some degree #resist. I feel like the last vestiges of that cracked under Biden (from inflation and financial
"mal-distribution" and immigration along with bombastic rhetoric and tribal mistrusts) and fully crumbled with this second Trump administration. We make very little here, outside of bombs, guns and celebrities/influencers/attention grifters. We no longer have a communal sense of identity and without that there can be no rebuilding. I don't know and can't imagine (barring external events) how that can be rebuilt, especially if it remains profitable for a good amount of people at the top and something to which folks from the bottom to top of the middle can put their heads in the sand about. The folks at the bottom are either stretched too thin to do anything, have had their ire redirected and used by others or to some degree they are relishing in having others to share in their pain.
This was still too long.
