Have We Become a Mean Country?

A newspaper columnist the other day suggested that America has become a mean country.

The evidence includes everything from the mean comments you see on social media to the way political extremists yell and swear at each other, to the way politicians talk about the other side, to increases in street crime and road rage incidents, to the racial disputes and to what we have seen happening in the skies above it all, a huge increase in the number of angry and unruly airline passengers. Is this columnist correct? Have we become a mean country?

He points to polls that show a mistrust of our institutions, including government, business, medicine, the press and religion.

And with so much mistrust in institutions it shouldn’t be surprising that over the last several years, there has been a growing skepticism about what is true and what it is false. What we believe and what we don’t believe about things that we used to all believe.

In today’s America, it’s become normal for what some see as being real others see as being fake.

Even what is considered by most to be the most important and valued institution of all, the family, has undergone changes in the way it is viewed and its role in raising kids and preparing young people to be responsible adults.

Maybe it’s the stress and strain of going through the pandemic that has led to some of these changes.

So maybe it’s a good time to remember what we often said at the start of the pandemic, and then forgot. That we are in this, and life in America, together, and work together to make it better.

(Photo Getty Images)