We are living in a time where one person's social media follower count trumps another's lifetime of learning and experience. Whole lifetime's of work have been lost destroyed by inexperienced idiots (think Musk's Doge bros) with as much thought as you or I would give to swatting a fly. This ongoing destruction of Enlightenment values and good people's lives is no accident and, to be honest, it breaks my heart.
Their is an arrogance that baffles me with these people - they think that they can walk into any set of problems, however complex, and solve them easily. Remember when Trump said he was going to end the Russia/Ukraine war within 24 hours of coming into office or when he claimed the Middle East issue was an easy problem. How can they think that problems that experts have spent entire careers working on can be solved in an afternoon. They are the embodiment of Dunning-Kruger
It is this complete disrespect for the work of what other better humans have built that is most galling. These idiots who have no moral center, no North star, no drives other than money or the power it buys.
I hate what they have done to all of our institutions (and believe me I was the last person to be pro-institution before these knuckleheads grabbed power) I hate what they have done to good people and I most definitely hate what they are doing to the arts.
The sad story of what they inflicted on the Kennedy center makes this point. They took something that people had devoted money and time to without hesitation and destroyed it within a matter of months - just because they could.
Now I admit to being on the left of the political spectrum (big surprise I know) but what these goons are doing should terrify all of us (maybe other than the nihilists) regardless of our individual politics. I would not usually advocate voting 'Blue no matter who' but our priority now has to be to consign the current bunch of misfits and sociopaths to the dustbin of history. After that is done than we can maybe look at root causes and what has lead to a situation that put this bunch in a position where they could grab power. Clue: Citizens United, Depoliticizing the Supreme Court, and decoupling the US's interests from Israel's.