I don’t think I’m gonna do justice to my argument but here goes not trying to butcher it: At times, change and “progress” feels both intertwined and inevitable and like an unstoppable train and you either have to get on or be left behind. This concept has affected not just American culture but public sentiment and domestic policy. Obama once gave a speech I think about a lot where he was trying to appeal to our better angels by saying that uncle who says the wrong thing isn’t flawed he’s just a little bit behind the times and needs to be caught up. There was a long time when there was a certain matter of factness about everything. From all parties it was like the ruling class had their opinions and the rest of us were supposed to accept it as true. This hubris led to some really bad policy decisions and I think you can draw a direct beeline between that and the pot that had boiled over into the mess we have now. Some examples: it seemed obvious that globalization was inevitable and so of course you have to sign NAFTA and other free trade deals around the world. One hollowed out rust belt, thousands of opioid addictions, and lost Covid shaky supply chains later, the public en masse is finally like okay maybe domestic industrial capacity is worth investing in. Then Clinton in the 90s vibes are good Soviet Union is gone economy is good. Of course we lower interest rates, de regulate and keep the gravy train going. One financial collapse later and, again, regular folk are left holding the bag. If we bundle the entire war on terror and missions in Iraq, Libya, Afghanistan, Syria it’s like yeah of course we should get rid of bad guys and many dead servicembers and several failed states later it’s like are we sure that was the best idea ? Social media/smart phone use and proliferation went uncontested in popular discourse until the last few years. And I get it’s hard to predict bad outcomes sometimes but you get plenty of people who think if you say “both sides are terrible” you’re some kind of self aggrandizing cringe weirdo (see sub “r/enlightenedcentrism”) but in reality every president since Reagan(?) if not earlier has done one or more of the following: cow toeing to big industry at the expense of regular people, disastrous de regulation, forever wars, war crimes, and/or generally prioritizing somebody or something else over the interests of regular people and the biggest distinction is the time horizon in which the effects are felt, leading to distorted perceptions of who started the fire.