[randcraw]

Romney's right, but incomplete. Our current problems are made cataclysmic by our also becoming unable to function anymore except by groupthink.

I think our lifeblood is not tribalism — we aren't that alike to divide into only two tribes — I think the real problem is fear. We've allowed ourselves (and the past 30 years of childrearing) to be overwhelmed by it and now can't function without assurance: being in a crowd of others — the most basic form of security known to animalkind — safety in numbers. The result of that now, intellectually, is we simply refuse to entertain ideas or arguments not already endorsed by others. So we cleave to whatever 'gang' is handy, never mind how dysfunctional their agenda or ideas or rationales are.

The hallmark of our times is the death of the individual.

[xnx]

> The hallmark of our times is the death of the individual.

I see it as the opposite. The current mood of the day in the US is individualism over any sense of civic obligation or cooperation.

[wizofaus]

But that's been true in the US for long while (pretty sure any outside observer would agree). How the US dealt with covid compared to the rest of the developed world only made that painfully obvious, but I'm not sure you could demonstrate it's something that's become significantly more extreme recently.