Do you think America falling apart?

I’m only asking because the last few years has been chaotic in America. The country seems like its divided with all the racism and hatred. TBH, I’m American myself and use to love it. But now I look at it and I may never go back due to all the racism and hatred in that country. (I’m in Canada now)

The questioner is an expat in Canada. As a long-term expat, myself, I think it is helpful to remember that viewing the USA solely through the eyes of the media(US media, Canadian media, or whatever) always leads to a rather warped impression of what is happening on the ground in America. Media is there to SELL a narrative. Often when an American visits the USA from abroad it’s shocking how…less insane the country seems. Because outside it seems completely insane, but it always has.

I don’t think that the USA is falling apart. I think the whole world is falling apart.

In the USA I see several problems that are alarming.

1. A rise in hate-related crimes and scapegoating of minorities.
2. An increasing divide in factions, with a real lack of communication and dialogue. This leads to the following of two separate ‘Truths’ and the blind belief in propaganda(while labeling the other side’s Truth propaganda.) It’s not only a war of competing narratives: it’s a war of outlooks, of philosophy. People confronting truths outside their echosphere are reacting with rage and hatred: which is how people react when their vision of reality is shown to be faulty.
   
   People like to claim this is regional but red areas have blue people and vice versa.
   
   In my opinion, people are not talking enough to each other, the people they know who disagree with them.
3. America is clearly very very ill-served by the traditional two-party system, which I defended for years. But now I really think that attitudes are such that many, many people are not satisfied. This is leading to problems beyond the realm of the political. It’s becoming a societal problem where people are being pushed into two different camps. (Not literal camps—yet.)
4. I have a very serious fear that Trump, who EVERYBODY underestimates, is going to have a historic lack of checks and balances to the kleptocracy he is instituting. Congress are useless. Almost all of them fallen to their knees and will be giving abject tribute to Trump, mark my word. HIs think skinnedness might lead him to actions which Congress could stop. But I am pessimistic that they will. And he’ll pack the court, of course, if he gets the opportunity.
5. In general there is something in American discourse that ignores things that it doesn’t want to see. One side of this is ‘political correctness’(a term ridiculously overused by the Right but not necessarily a useless one); The Right has it’s own version of turning a blind eye to things, too though. It has it’s own set of taboo beliefs that can not be uttered. There just isn’t a readily available term for it, like PC.
6. When Trump does not—cannot—deliver on his problems to revive the white working class, there will be scapegoating and nobody —NOBODY — in American political history plays the media as adeptly as Trump. He is a goddamn virtuoso, which is why I don’t get why people keep saying he is an idiot.

The internet is bringing a lot of social problems to the fore that have hitherto been unknown or ignored, which has created movements like Black Lives Matter. BLM though is not tearing the country apart, in my opinion, though they might have their extremist members too. It’s the reaction to their message that is threatening. White people are basically afraid of black people in America, in my opinion. Especially, and tellingly, in areas or sectors or classes where they know very few minorities.

Again, I think that dialogue is needed. It is the answer to all these problems. I don’’ mean serious talking about issues. I mean just hanging out with other people who disagree with you and finding things in common. For example, it’s much harder to hate a man you work with compared with hating a mythical creature peddled to you by racist propagandists.

I do fear that history is moving and that the world is falling under dark times. There are many pressures facing the entire world and the USA, big and insular and semi-isolated as the society is, is not immune to these changes.

• Warming temperatures is helping to create political friction in the Middle East and displacing people (refugees)
• Western countries which have been centers for wealth for a long time are feeling pressure from refugees.
• Western populations are aging and heading for uncharted territories because of this.
• The Internet is changing the way humans interact and look at the world and we really haven’t learned how to handle it yet.
• Robots (and eventually AI) are increasingly doing the work of human beings and leaving workers hanging. This is increasing instability and class divisions. And ultimately it might mean that no one buys the products that the robots make because no one can afford to.

The whole world is falling apart right now and America along with it. History is moving and there are going to be changes and they are going to happen quicker than anyone expects. The bubble has popped.