>I disagree with the framing that the United States was a
>united place before 2009.

^ ... in addition to this. But otherwise I think the author hit on some important tipping points and moments that led us to where we are.

But yea I think you're right that the almost passing mention of Newt and repugs' anti-democratic, anti-regulatory project was a little disingenuous and is part of why the article feels way too "both sides" heavy. I think it's bullshit anytime a journalist (or anyone, for that matter) tries to lump the "extreme left" and the alt-right together into the same "if we could all just be a bit more reasonable" bucket. Being a nazi, and being a person who aggressively fights for like universal healthcare, are not the same type of irrationality.


>But the author acknowledges this
>several times throughout the article (and with great examples
>like the Newt Gingrich one), before falling back on the idea
>again and again. Despite that, though, it's still a great
>article
>
>And I do definitely agree that social media has exponentially
>hastened our decent into madness as it were.
>
>The reforms that he proposes seem like no-brainers, and I
>couldn't agree more with the idea of given kids back their
>unstructured, unsupervised play. I'm not a parent yet, but I
>think about this a lot. I don't know the way back for that,
>but when I have kids, I want that for them.

I think the reforms were pretty reasonable as well.