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Yes, the government's total inability to meaningfully make life better anymore has cratered faith in every institution across the board. Too many neutral bodies captured by one tribe, too much bad faith, too much accumulated ill will.
Same reason everyone wants fighters now, and why any political compromise is a death sentence to one's popularity. Everyone is collectively sick of the problems being compromised on, and the solutions never coming.
In part, the other part is social media and the 24 hour news cycle effectively preventing compromise. The government used to be much much less transparent, in large part because whatever news there was traveled slowly enough and was infrequent enough that by the time the public found out about something, chances were pretty good that the deals had been worked out in the back rooms of congress before you could find out about them. In the 21st century, that’s impossible— the media is broadcasting everything in near real time with social media encouraging everyone to opine, get mad, and call the switchboard to demand that the only acceptable way forward is to do exactly what we want you to do.
How do you solve real problems when you’re on Big Brother 24 hours a day?
It's the transparency that ruins it, not the news. If government was impenetrable and its records masked instead of openly presented, compromise could still happen.
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The reasons are far beyond just blaming the government. There's the whole Meaning Crisis, death of God aspect as well.
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