An interesting but now overlooked concept that cool doodz like @borzoi@poa.st were talking about 1-2 years ago was that of social technologies. I think this is important for understanding the situation we're in and why we're headed where we're headed with no brakes on the train. Social technologies are the tools increasingly complex societies evolve to tamp down the worst/most socially destabilizing impulses of the human psyche. A very simple example found across all societies across all time would be bullying which is a group approach to reeling in a member whi has strayed too far from from social norms and also a way of enforcing social ostracization if they refuse to normalize. A more complex example would be the many informal roles the church played in traditional societies, from the priesthood's role in absorbing overproduction of elite males to its role in whitewashing social ills like illegitimate pregnancies by enforcing and officializing shotgun marriages. I bring all of this up because I see this as the best way to describe a facet of modern society which explains much of the societal psychological insanity we witness on a daily basis. For all of Western/European civilization, social technologies have been serving primarily as a backstop against *resentment*. A fact of life is that once done, many things cannot be undone. Once a woman reaches menopause without children, any chance of being a mother is done. Once a man chooses momentary comfort over, let's say, planting next year's crop, he is done as there is no chance at a "do over" once the hunger pangs set in. This applies to the full spectrum of human behaviors with varying rates of marginal success but generally, such technologies were able to keep society on the rails even if they weren't universally effective. Therein lies the problem, these technologies aren't universally effective. A certain culture of critique was introduced into our European societies that began to pick apart the more marginal approaches to limiting regret and resentment. Who's to say that marrying wildly beyond your class is unworkable? It works for plenty of couples! Nevermind it has a much higher rate of failure, nevermind the ressentiment that is bred into the children produced by such a marriage who will never be accepted by either class (same argument applies to interracial marriages but class disparities were the first entry point to break the whole institution). Eventually enough technologies have been broken or removed from the context of their original purpose that society goes off the rails. Resentment breeds ressentiment and ressentiment breeds impulsive, destructive behavior lashing out at the perceived source of an individual or collective's grievance. What is important about all of this is that there is no social technology that can reel this back in. They only work to prevent the resentment-causing behaviors from reaching critical mass in the first place. Where we are in the process is so far past the point where a correction could be made that we are forced to watch as the current adult generations burn through their rage like a candle suddenly fueled by acetylene. Exhausting the fuel of ressentiment is the only way through but I warn you, there is more deadwood built up in this forest than anyone expects.