What I didn't realize when I wrote this is that fear sells, and how intertwined that is with our economy of wanting things for free, allowing ourselves to become the product instead of paying money, and having the media control how we feel so they can sell us anti-depressants or whatever fad diet plan or a shiny new car so we don't feel like we're in an infinite loop going nowhere (which they can make us feel via selective news), or really anything. I feel like recent events in recent years have helped me to see there's a bigger picture behind this and that it's more intentional than I thought before. I was stupidly optimistic and thought it was purely because of our demand, not realizing how much forced artificial supply has to do with it.