Things are bad now, no doubt. But I think people overestimate just how bad. Part of it is that many journalists are young, have read little history and are paid to distort problems into disasters.

I’m just old enough to remember the early and mid-1980s. The AIDS epidemic was raging. The Cold War was looking like it might get very hot indeed and nearly everyone was fairly sure they’d perish in nuclear fire. The crack epidemic and violence were ramping up and many downtowns and inner cities were essentially no-go zones. Terrorism and hijackings were common. “Faggot” and “queer” and “tranny” and other slurs could be heard — often — on mainstream TV shows and in daily life. Yes, even in the North and other “enlightened” places.

We romanticize the past, but the past wasn’t all that great in a lot of cases. The 1980s were better in some ways and worse in others.

At least we didn’t really know about climate change then. That’s the real and true disaster that’s actually being under-reported and about the only issue medium- and long-term that really matters.