Our current societal status is really no different than how things were in the Middle Ages.
We're just as violent and "immoral". We just have more technology.
Leaders have always been varying degrees of corrupt, and they've always had access
to the latest weapons.
Things really are no different now than they've always been.

To say 95% of news is unreliable is a ridiculous statement that you can't back up with facts. Even Fox news is only 63% lies according to the Wall Street Journal. If the others get something wrong they will apologize and change it.

The world has always been dystopian. We are just doing it at scale now and with instantaneous news that includes video. Perspective mostly just depends on age and whether you are part of the haves or have nots, majority or minority, rich or poor, etc.

you should have been around in the late 60's !! -- yeah, it's tough and rough out there, but it's been worse. Doesn't make it anymore correct though. And, my parents generation reminded me of the Great Depression -- yeah, it's been worse all right. The bitter tribalism and distrust of the other viewpoints - just part how we were formed as a nation.

People have been saying this since records began. We always feel that things are getting worse and exaggerate the downhill slide. In fact, overall things are getting better. Life expectancy and health are improving all over the world, on average, more people have access to clean water, electricity, the internet, etc., than ever before. Bad things happen and they are what fill the news channels. Nobody is interested in good news. If you feel your current news channels are unreliable, look more widely. There is lots of news available on the internet and you can check facts there too.

Its the beginning of humans end

Most definitely, since the beginning of human civilization.

It is easy to notice the negative. In the UI.S. violent crime is actually near an all time low. Which woudl suggest soem improvements are there, but just not pointed out so blatantly.

We have had far right wingers gain a lot of power in teh U.S., peopel such as Joseph McCarthy, who in the ned sel fsabotoged themselves because you canonly fool the majority of peopel for some of the time. you cant' continually do so for extended periods fo time. In the end society sees the truth and moves away from the extremists.

I don’t know...as a history major I think we’ve come a long way...rather grudgingly in something me cases but nonetheless.

I think it's always been this way. People have always been immoral, but maybe society is less.... sociable. We certainly live a safer, healthier and wealthier life than ever before (factor in war, inquisitions, burning witches, mutilations, mass dying from curable diseases, etc. etc etc - and don't even get me started on the killings or anyone remotely intelligent by the religiots) We just have access to information sooner. And we're more knowledgeable. So no, I don't think we live in a society with social and moral collapse.

Don't worry. It's cyclic. Babylon, Rome now us.

I think the tendency to be barbaric has always been there and that's why we have laws.
There are too damned many people on this spinning ball on top of the information explosion so not only is there more heinous fuckery going on, we hear about it constantly.
The printing press, hand written anything a much slower medium to disperse these sorts of happenings.

I do find that the more religious you are the less moral you are.

No I don't
You just hear about things more than the good old days because of TV, and social media. Also people are not all forced by society to follow the same moral beliefs. I find there is more morality. People just don't always agree anymore..
Despite all the fear mongering and publicity when things happen studies show violent crime is at a low (here in the US at least).

We have 24 hour news media, competing with each other for something newsworthy at every moment.

If you actually run the statistics, most of these factors were declining sharply until the middle nineties, then abruptly turned around. Violent crime is way down, etc.

[motherjones.com]

This statistical truth ignores the fact that the move to an urban society has accellerated the isolation felt by non-urbanites. A lot of Trump's rise was an attempt by such people to be relevant again. But too many of them face the decline of "rural America" with drugs, eventually drug deaths, whether accidental or suicide is almost irrelevant in the opiod crisis.

Well technology has gotten better, so the tools in which people can use to fulfill their goals are better. We also have more coverage of the world with technology too so we can see most everything happening on the news, so it might seem like it's more rampant now. Even the school shooting issue isn't fully understood. They are doing more and more studies on it, including the role that prescription drugs plays in it. So is it social and moral collapse or just better coverage, opportunity, and/or technology etc. now? I believe this stuff has been around forever with human nature. Hitler tried building nukes, so a megalomaniac leading a nation trying to get nuclear arms is nothing new. Were/are any Russian leaders with nukes megalomaniacs? Putin? You don't think some crazy leader like Genghis Khan would have had nukes if the technology was there?

The media has definitely been corroded though.

i do think society as a whole has always been lacking when it comes 2 such things, but it is nothing new. i think that with our ability 2 communicate more easily, and our tendency 2 focus on the bad aspects of life, it is more common 2 hear about it now. but on a smaller more personal scale, i see good deeds and an amazing capacity for kindness every day. so i don't think so much that we are worse than before, just that we hear about it more often

Yes, I have noticed. Not sure where it's going but its definitely going. And it is worldwide. It seems as though the world is dividing into two groups; the good or the bad (simplistic description) and there are no blurry lines either. The good truly are the good (decency) and the bad truly are bad (indecent). I think we are experiencing history in the making. Hopefully it leads to a rebirth of our social and intellectual structures/restrictions as we now know them because for sure the old rules are not being applied anymore and in most cases shouldn't be applied any more. Is it a cleansing of sorts?

I don't buy into the news being unreliable. I think some news sources are more in-depth and interesting (Tapper and Ari Melber) and some stations are not news (Fox except that I really admire Shep Smith). But, WOW, without our FREE PRESS, we are nothing.

As far as the social and moral collapse, it goes in cycles: think the 1920s. The KKK appeared during reconstruction, post Civil War but hate groups were around before then. We might be heading to social collapse today but right now it's just a struggle for supremacy: anti v pro gun, anti environment v pro, white power being overwhelmed by the collective minorities (including many white people), 1%wealth v 99%everyone else. If we don't figure this whole thing out, then, yes, social unrest

Yes, in the culture of greed infesting too much of our society, the racism and ethnocentrism, the religious hypocrisy among evangelicals, the failure of Republicans to stand up for principles of morality and eecency and against corruption and treason.

The rest of your statement is pure BS. The only media that are unreliable are Fox, Sinclair, other right wing extremist groups, and Russian planted meddling..

Heading in that direction - need to put a halt to it in November-vote the Pubs out so we can start impeachment.

You watch too much tv. stop, you'll feel better

If I was religious, I'd think End Times prophecy was being fulfilled. We're actually just seeing what happens when the greedy and selfish become powerful.

Where do you get your 95% figure? From that lifelong con-artist?