You write a number of things that I think can be tied to some fundamental principles and changes we've seen gradually over the prior few decades. There are a number of things; I'll try to break down a few of the most salient ones.
I'm almost 36, and President Trump is definitely the most divisive president I can remember in my lifetime. Sure, Presidents Clinton, Bush, and Obama had some very aggressive critics, but it's nothing like with President Trump. I think it's in part because he isn't as tactful or kind in his language. The other presidents were much better at smoothing things over.
But that certainly isn't the only reason. I do think, thanks to social media and its never-ending echo chambers, that people are generally much more divided now anyway. We aren't getting our news from the same basic places that we got them back when most everyone watched the same basic cable news television programs and read the same basic national newspapers and magazines 10, 20, 30 years ago. There are now 284,820 versions of everything, and people's brains have been altered by the impersonal nature of social media, so there's far less obligation to try and show understanding for another viewpoint, or respect it, than before.
I'd also add that, because of this, people are less inclined to "live and let live" or "co-exist" than in recent prior decades. Both extremes of the conservative and liberal political movements have gotten more aggressive in separating others whom they don't perceive as having absolute truth or party loyalty. You don't hear near as much anymore, "You're entitled to your opinion." Instead, it's "You're wrong, you're a fool, you must be proven wrong, separated, and silenced."
That’s pretty interesting. First paragraph, yes, I remember reading from conservative critics saying that Obama was the worst president, while liberals still say that George Bush was horrible. But Trump, based on his kind of behavior and personality, is the kind of person that everybody hates. The whole reason why we got him in office is because Obama was pretty radical, and was willing to pop the bubble of compromise we were stuck in. We would be better with Rubio, but Republicans want Trump or Cruz more, which is why we got Trump instead. For the next two paragraphs, if this trend continues, there will be another civil war, and it’s going to be much nastier than the war on slavery (1861-1865). I’m not making any threats here (I won’t even fight in the war if it happens). This is what we’re about to head into if this continues.
There were some other weird things that happened since Trump became president, but those have nothing to do with his presidency. They would happen under any president. Examples include:
- Hurricane Harvey. It was more aggressive than any other hurricane, giving Houston a 1-in-1000 year historic flood.
- The California wildfires were even deadlier and more destructive.
- The box office for Labor Day weekend was at its 25-year-low in 2017. I blame the Emoji Movie on this, but there were also several other bad movies that year. Even Star Wars wasn’t doing well.
- An animated film won Worst Picture in the Razzies. This was the first time an animated film won that category. It was even the first time it landed in that category. And yet, no animated film has won Best Picture in the Oscars.
- I already mentioned the #metoo movement, but that was one of the weird things.
- In 2018, Star Wars had their very first box office bomb.
- In 2019, we had our very first main series Pokémon game where not all species were available in the game.
- Also in 2019, Marvel released a movie that landed in the top ten highest grossing films adjusted for inflation.
- We had our very first World Series where the visitor team won all seven games.
- In addition to the COVID pandemic and George Floyd protests, the Asian giant hornets made their way into the United States. 2020 is rough.
Every year, we always see some things we never seen before, but these examples I listed shown how much times have changed.