You've made some undeniably good points, and it is true that the current state of our country is in many ways lamentable, but a fair analysis of our current con

You've made some undeniably good points, and it is true that the current state of our country is in many ways lamentable, but a fair analysis of our current condition reveals that the negative news is only half the story; it is important to keep in mind the dualistic nature of our situation, both for ourselves as individuals, and for the greater society we are components of. Alongside all of the tragedies you mentioned, an entire host of miracles have occurred as well. Technological advances in healthcare show no sign of slowing, market forces (and public pressure) are slowly but surely moving us toward a future powered by green energy, US-based companies are now sending missions to the ISS and mass-producing electric vehicles, and the USA still has the greatest institutions of higher learning in the world. On a minor technical note that may seem insignificant but is near and dear to my own heart: it's 2019 and there are now more flavors of *Nix (and users of the same) than ever before - free software is still going strong despite the tech behemoths' anti-choice tendencies. On the front page of HN right now is a story about the mass exodus of users from FaceBook (an indicator that the public is waking up to the damaging effects of emotionally-predatory social media). In the political sphere, too, there are signs of significant improvement. The 2018 midterm elections revealed a public who is more informed about and interested in governmental oversight than at any point in the past decade at least, more attention than ever is being paid to white-collar corruption and chicanery, the best efforts of our unindicted co-conspirator in-chief (and his merry band of sycophants) haven't succeeded in quashing the myriad investigations into his (and his family's) business and political activities, and the most popular politician in the country (according to some recent polls) is an avowed anti-corruption advocate who supports universal healthcare, a resolution of wealth inequality, and an end to endless overseas warfare. On your drug points: every major contender for the Democratic presidential nominee (that I'm aware of) favors a rebalancing of federal drug enforcement priorities to bring sanity to the discussion (funding for research into the use of psychedelic drugs for therapy & the decriminalization of marijuana). On the gun front: there has never been more public support for (slightly) more sane gun restrictions than there are now. There are many places we need to improve, but there is much to be grateful for, optimistic about, and proud of as well. The reason I say this is not in an attempt to refute or mitigate your points, but to emphasize the need to periodically remove oneself from the negative data streams and pay attention to the good evidence as well.