I've been thinking about that lately. It seems like, depending on which source(s) you follow, you could easily convince yourself of either position: "everything

I've been thinking about that lately. It seems like, depending on which source(s) you follow, you could easily convince yourself of either position: "everything is great" OR "everything is terrible". I find myself struggling to disambiguate which is more real. That's one big reason I recently started contemplating taking a cross-country trip across the US, by bus. That it, just head from NC to CA, then turn around and come back. I expect doing something like that would offer a real "ground truth" perspective of a large swathe of America. The only problem is finding the time to do it. I think it would be a rewarding experience, but my $DAYJOB employer might not be as enthusiastic.