Kulturkampf

[Eric Cartman]

The assassin didn't kill Trump but he might have killed Tenacious D

It's amazing how since childhood the Nietzschean "beware when fighting monsters that you don't become a monster" concept has been drilled in from every direction. If nothing else but to save your soul. Not even in a religious sense. Yet a shocking amount of people decided to reveal their deep rooted ugliness.

it's because everyone has lived through the absolute best of times for their entire lives

we don't have a modern first world generation that ALL experienced war, either firsthand or having to scrimp and save to support the troops

it changes the baseline for "the worst thing you've ever experienced" which for most is "I got called a naughty name and that's literally violence"

it's the most "violence" anyone's ever seen and becomes the new thing to eliminate at all costs, as well as the ultimate expression YOU can make, so of course you wield it carelessly

Eeehhhhhhhh... we might not have had an actual world war, but we've had three 'once in a generation' global recessions, a once in a century pandemic, at least one entirely new technological paradigm that has caused societal upheaval, while we're very likely looking down the barrel of another - I still hold the belief that objectively in aggregate things are better for more people than ever, but its not all blowjobs and rainbows and I think its worth acknowledging there is some pretty fucking unprecedented economic and societal post millennium tension swirling around