> it seems a bit like we are regressing as a society to animal kingdom behavior Hey, on behalf of my animal brethren, I resent that! ;-) Seriously, while na

> it seems a bit like we are regressing as a society to animal kingdom behavior Hey, on behalf of my animal brethren, I resent that! ;-) Seriously, while nature can seem cruel --- red in tooth and claw --- there also exists in nature a definite "politeness", i.e. the context for aggression is well defined (for example, predator-prey, maintenance and challenge of group hierarchy, defense of territory) and outside of that context violence is generally avoided. Humans, both primitive and civilized, are among the more aggressive of animals and in particular display aggressive behavior with less reason or provocation than most species. To some extend civilization actually makes this worse; it's easier to act aggressively when the aggression is less likely (because of existence of laws and police) to turn into deadly violence, and violence is less likely to be deadly because of hospitals and antibiotics. Otherwise I agree completely with you. In particular, I also suspect that Trumpism has done more harm to polite civilization than Covid.