the generation-long era we foresaw did indeed begin about when we expected: in the middle of the 2000s decade. The new era was foreshadowed by the 9/11 attacks, began in earnest with the global financial crisis of 2008, and has thus far progressed along the bone-jarring crescendo all-too-familiar to Americans who have been following the headlines: the shrinking of the middle class, the “MAGA” rise of Donald Trump, the collapse of public trust in governing institutions, the harrowing pandemic emergency, the rise of scorched-earth political partisanship, the rise of authoritarian populists both
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