Our Degenerating Civil Discourse

in #writing4 years ago

It was only a few decades ago that you would see presidents making speeches like these:

And now the discourse is as follows:

My how times have changed. Outright name-calling and insulting of political opponents and the press. Now I'm not pro Democrat or Republican, I just find it surprising to see how toxic the political environment has become.

How has it come to this? Well, I think the people are angry. Very angry. Why? Because the middle-class have been left behind. Manufacturing has been outsourced overseas and monetary policies have increased the wealth gap between rich and poor.

Trump represents the people's anger towards the establishment and he's teaming with with America to fight them. "No more Mr. Nice Guy", time to drain the swamp and call people out.

Everyone sees the president behaving this way and starts to think it's acceptable, if not necessary to cause real change. Trump is pulling out the savagery in us, and we're feeding into it. Discourse between people on Twitter, YouTube and other social media is degenerating at a rapid pace, and the sarcasm is off the charts!

I know that Trump's behavior can be entertaining (and he is a showman, afterall), but I see this kind of discourse tearing the nation apart. And I'm not even saying that it's preventable, as tensions have been rising for years. We may have to reach a breaking point before we can become a well-mannered society again.

We are born babies, and if we get old enough, die as babies. I wonder if we reached peak civilization a few decades ago, and are now decelerating back towards savagery. Let's see how it plays out.