My thoughts exactly. Your experiences and take on the current situation ring so true. I, too, believed that social progress would move in a straight line. And it kind of did, until jobs, lots of jobs, started leaving the country. Cheap goods from China and adjustable rate mortgages in the early 2000’s extended the belief that the American Dream was still within grasp of most of us. When the bubble burst in 2008 people looked for scapegoats, as they do. The growing, festering resentment that had been seething quietly for years finally exploded into the open. Political demagogues have eagerly exploited this resentment, encouraging it for their own selfish interests. And here we are.

With your background, I would be very interested in your take on the situation. It seems that the uneducated wear their ignorance as a badge of honor, bashing science and anything resembling progressive (not Progressive) thinking.