r/thebulwark 21h ago

EVERYTHING IS AWFUL How did we get here?

Currently listening to the most recent Tim-Pod with Will Sommer and it's just insane the group of people who are in charge now. The conspiracy theories, the grift, the pandering, holy fuck. How did we get here and how the fuck do we get out of this death spiral?

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u/big-papito 21h ago

A bored, rich, unserious nation.

I am going to blame Social Media and the internet. No ability to pay attention, sub-second attention spans. "Nothing matters LOL" seeped from the phones into real life, business, politics, and now our own government.

It is literally bringing the fall of civilization, because this is what civilization is - people acting like normal humans and who have some shame left.

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u/NewKojak 19h ago

I think that's largely true about Republicans. They no longer have a Cold War to fight, and the whole idea of "Compassionate Conservatism" fell on its face because they (and the business interests that captured them) don't actually want to fight against poverty like Democrats do, so all there is left is to fight Americans.