I think what is so hard to articulate is how drastically people succumbed to all the rhetoric. We watched those we loved and served shoulder to shoulder with accept indecency after indecency, swallow half truth after half truth, and follow blindly every and any conspiracy theory. They have become numb to facts and have disposed of their need for truth and there is no bridge to reach them because they think those who disagree with them are heretics. There are 74 million people in this country who have found their personal Jim Jones and would drink the kool-aid without question if he said to.
Regarding your comment about this topic being difficult to solicit stories for: it’s not that we don’t have a story or stories – it’s that we all have the same one and none of them have a happy ending.