Appetite for destruction

For over a decade now we've been encouraged to pull at the threads of society and civility; over the same period what had began a slippery slope has developed into free fall, as an anti intellectual anti science mind virus swept through society. We've been actively undermining social cohesion by stirring resentment and division as we descend into the rampant inequalities of burgeoning neo-feudalism, and as a consequence hard won social victories and cultural progress are being dangerously eroded. In the blink of an eye we'd slipped comfortably from reason into a post truth landscape, and on into a post reality one, and are now entering an uncharted territory where neither claim or counter claim require objective evidence. Discussion and debate have become obsolete, or worse weaponized. Seeing your opponents position, or even humanity has become a heresy. Whilst the idea of agreeing to differ in the pursuit of cultivating effective consensus is inconceivable. As for nuance, unthinkable. We've stepped into a zero sum express elevator, it's going down and we're encouraged to scream to go faster; in unison, and with gusto, we do. A war of polemics delivered by ideologues and defended by the dehumanizing of opponents, or for that matter anyone who'd dare to question, via ad hominem attacks, no evidence of guilt required, no evidence of innocence accepted. Every take has to be the worst one. It's exhausting. Whether people were ever thus or this is something different our appetite to indulge in self defeating behaviours at this pivotal moment of existential crises is all very disappointing.