I remember there were several very public incidents during Reagan’s presidency when he was showing definite signs of dementia. There seemed a different sort of reaction then from both media and individuals, a kind of embarrassment. The hurricane stories are quite different: there seems a glee in celebrating the US President sounding insane. I’m not sure how to interpret this. How does one characterize the current response, the lack of response?
My first thoughts were to muse about „the American public“ but I’m not sure just how useful that concept is in 2019. The country seems quite splintered politically, culturally, economically. Members of all factions, however, seem to live as observers, without agency. The thought is that „this“ will all „just blow over“? It seems a good bet general hopelessness is at the forefront of many people’s inability to try to take any kind of action directed towards other than self-preservation.
