George Bush brought us 9-11. Donald Trump brought us COVID-19.

[VOX]

4. And they, like Bush I, beyond the human toll, also brought us economic crashes.

Why are Americans such gluttons for punishment? Why do they keep voting in these jerks?
Why are so many Americans “checked out”?
Why have a shocking number of Americans become so ignorant of facts and science?

Probable answers: first, long-time continuous Republican cuts in funds to education; next, talk radio and cable TV; then, social media and various ideological/nihilistic message boards.

These “advancements” have shut down the critical thinking capacity of susceptible individuals— in some corners, there’s no longer much interest in learning, when a talking head can spoon-feed information (served up in an addictive brew of fear and outrage) that lights up the cortex like a Roman candle?

Worse, the disinformation gets reinforced and embellished in like-minded message boards. How does one unplug this insanity? And if it can’t be disconnected, how does one reality coexist with a vastly different reality, without the eventual breakdown of one of them?

I’ve lost some sleep over this impasse, as it saddens me that my country — the United States, in my lifetime, has reached a crossroads, one with a severe potential for realigning everything familiar into something dark and destructive.

It’s Orwell on steroids.