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Being out of DC from time to time — in Scranton area, the south, on vacation — what strikes me hard is how average people with their busy lives are mostly not paying attention to the generational damage being done to the US.

In some cases it’s head-in-the-sand views or magical thinking. But in my expc people are busy and politics feels far away and and distasteful and no one wants to confront bad news. But Beutler is right: a lot of bad things and risk have piled up. There are many ways for it to go REALLY sideways.

I am crossing every finger to hope bad things don’t happen, and talking about it to let people know what’s happening. We also need to plan out a rebuilding path. But it feels to me like the majority of the country is in denial. I felt that way in early Jan 2025. Let’s hope for the best

I mean, we just ignored millions of completely unnecessary deaths from COVID, and all it took was giving the people responsible for killing them the job of counting bodies and marking their own homework. Look at s1.44-1.86 of the UK COVID Inquiry Module 3 report, and it has *already* been buried.

covid19.public-inquiry.ukModule 3 Report - The impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on the healthcare systems of the United Kingdom - UK Covid-19 InquiryThe independent public inquiry to examine the Covid-19 pandemic in the UK

I wonder if this is part of why so many try to live like it's not all happening. Some part of them knows the way things were is over, but they're trying to cling as long as possible to the illusion that things can "go back to normal".

I sort of see the point but my general feeling about this kind of thing is that very bad things have been happening. and if you still think they're off in the future then maybe for you they just won't happen (unless, worst case, they happen to you).

The food recalls seem to hint at collapsing food reliability. I can't imagine that the warning signs are completely ignored, but the scope is certainly unknown. I think also a good chunk of people know it's coming but just hope it isn't them that gets stuck with the worst of it.