The Death of the American Conversation
Why are things so shrill now?
We used to have big, sprawling conversation that roamed all over the place. We used to talk about politics a little bit, and the latest sporting event a little bit, and the latest big TV show event a little bit, and the weather, and the latest biggest movie and all sorts of things. But we used to share all of those things in common. Current events consisted of a great many things outside the political realm.
Sure, the Death Cult had infiltrated many of them, but they knew how fragile their positions were. They had to be subtle. They had to slide through the collective conscious like a thief in the night lest people start noticing what they were doing.
Lately, the only thing American have in common – the only current event – is politics. So it dominates conversations. To be fair, a big part of that is that the Death Cult mask has slipped so far down that you can’t help but notice “everything is political” just the way they always said. It wasn’t always so, but they’ve made it so.
Nothing really insightful about that, but have you considered the role that streaming services have played in shifting the national conversation down one rather depressing and predictable path? With the advent of binge watching, we no longer have that season-long conversation about what happened last night and what might happen next.
Streaming killed the relaxing discussion about trivial matters.
And the worst part is that the last show to have that sort of national impact was and might always be (shudder) Game of Thrones.
This really is the apocalypse we deserve.
Speaking of which, the greatest collection of post-apocalyptic fiction is now available for purchase, in hard copy only mind you, from Lulu.com. Check it out:
