Though generally un-American to address, we live in an imperfect country. We wake up every day with the knowledge that Hollywood is corrupt and that 59 people can lose their lives at the trigger of a disturbed gunman. We pore over Buzzfeed quizzes while balling up an article on climate change and throwing it in the general vicinity of the trash can.

The presidential election of Donald Trump was a catalyst for the most politically tumultuous year in a long time. However, many fail to acknowledge that the country was imperfect well before this landmark event. As a result, it has become much more commonplace for people to take ordinarily jarring events both prior to and since the election with a grain of salt.

Such political and social desensitization has been primarily caused by the latter kind of events. Following the election, the sheer number of red flags down this long and winding road have led people to grow accustomed to and even bored with them.

This is not the typical reaction one would expect to happen; in the face of an onslaught of adversary, it’s understandable to either fight twice as hard for your voice to be heard or, and we do not recommend this option, give up hope completely. But this awkward middle ground, this resigned acceptance of such events to occur, is utterly bizarre and frankly very unsettling.

However, the political and social problems people see in the world are not the only recipients of this attitude. Reactions to these problems, such as protests and petitions, have gone from bold and forward-thinking to futile and excessive in the public eye. Protests haven’t been perceived as extremely serious forms of rebellion since the Black Lives Matter movement in 2014; all other protests have overall paled in comparison to this.

We, as Americans, can no longer look at our society and think to ourselves that this is fine, this is how things work now. We can no longer turn blind eyes to the problems facing this country. Now more than ever we must stay informed and try to understand as many sides of the issues being presented as we can. Now, more than ever before, we have to care.

Editorial Board Vote 

Agree – 7

Disagree – 0