re: Is there a “invisible hand” or “spirit of evil” that’s responsible for the current turmoil

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I’m 63, I can’t remember this level of political contentiousness, not even during the throes of civil unrest during the 60’s and early 70’s. Even during the tumultuous fight for civil rights and the protests to end the Vietnam war I think most Americans who were old enough to understand what was going on knew there would be better days ahead if we could keep the nation from imploding…..and things did get better in the ensuing decades but what’s happening now seems different.

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First, thanks for sharing your experience. You’ve got me by a few years, and I always like to ask people who have been around longer “Have you ever seen anything like this?” So cheers.

I strongly believe that social media has allowed people to throw out their opinions to the world like Molotov cocktails without regard for consequence. People used to have to consider reactions to what they would say and whether or not they’d get in a fistfight, lose an argument, or something similar. Now, they can duck into a thread, throw their cocktail, and dip out, without even having to be in the same place at the same time as the people having the conversation. And then there’s trolls.

There’s also been a loss of civility and propriety. In general, people used to not talk about politics, religion or money. Now politics dominates discussion and pop culture.

I’m not sure if there’s an underlying plan to make all of this happen, or if it’s just a perfect storm of bad behavior, but humanity has really lost its way.