> I don't think there is a conventional solution to the problem

> he problem arises because society is fundamentally ripping itself apart at the seams, because trust between everyone just keeps dropping lower, while tensions keep rising.

I think that actually shows the problem and solution. If we stop to realize that most people are pretty similar and that your environment plays a huge role, then we have some clear problems and solutions. There are things like us being less communal in person and concentrating into bubbles, but there are bigger issues. Right now we have no trust for our authorities and that's not without good reason. The US has always had a level of distrust, but that is more for a defense mechanism: checks and balances. The fourth and fifth estates.

But there are good reasons to be cynical, not just critical. We've seen our lawmakers diverge from public opinion significantly[0]. We see them being able to play by rules that normal citizens cannot, given them "elite" class status (something antithetical to the founding of the country: no monarchy)[1]. We've seen a growing wealth divide (creating oligarchs or nobles)[2]. And we see an abusive local power structure (police). A big issue is that we can't talk honestly about any of these things because we do divide ourselves into bubbles and are primed to believe anyone slightly deviating from our "correct" opinion is of the other side and so we make sweeping assumptions about their views instead of communicating like fucking adults.

Rome wasn't built in a day, but neither did it collapse overnight. The problems are fixable, but take serious effort, nuance, and long term thinking. Things we generally aren't good at, but also things that separate us from most other animals. We don't need a "zero trust" society, we _need_ trust. Nothing works without trust. But right now we have every reason not to.

[0] You can look at public opinions on a subject and then look at how congress votes on them. This even extra common for the highly debated issues. Look at things like weed legalization, family leave, health care, and more. We often frame things as one of two extremes, but public opinion is often quite okay with something a bit more central, though usually clearly on one side of the isle.

[1] The famous insider trading issue is one. We talk about Pelosi a lot, but she's far from the only one and not even the biggest fish. She's #6 in 2021, just the highest democrat (https://hackernoon.com/members-of-congress-beat-the-snot-out...) (though not as good in 2022: https://unusualwhales.com/politics/article/congress-trading-...). There's other issues, but this is the clearest.

[2] We've just seen an ever increasing growth in the wealth divide. It isn't a "rising tide lifts all ships" situation (like it could be) but that bigger ships are dismantling smaller ones. From 1989 to 2023 (Q1) we've seen the top 0.1% / 99%-99.9% / 90%-99% / 50%-90% / <50% go from 8.6/14.1/37.3/36.2/3.8 to 12.8/18.5/37.7/28.6/2.4 (https://www.federalreserve.gov/releases/z1/dataviz/dfa/distr...). That's +4.2% / +4.4% / +0.4% / -7.6% / -1.4%. That's the shrinking middle class, and by a lot! We don't see this in other western countries.

[other note] You don't see violent crimes or petty theft as common in middle or upper class neighborhoods. The reasoning is because there's high cost and low reward. In low income neighborhoods this reverses. Sometimes in this area you have a better economic advantage by joining a gang than getting an actual job. That's clearly an economic failure. Obviously there is far more nuance to these things and can't be just a single comment in isolation, but we should be realizing that there's a chain of events and some complicated interconnections at play. That things aren't "simple" and we need to think deeply instead of quickly.