The thing is these really are issues that need to be talked about and addressed, and they really have fallen on deaf ears in the past because of lack of popular force. The people in charge just keep posturing, brushing it off, saying "yeah yeah we'll get to it", and waiting for the news cycle to move on. Nothing ever changes.
But the problem is that society at large, especially on the internet, apparently just sucks across the board at anything resembling actual discussion. It seems impossible to both a) give an issue national attention and b) have a remotely civil or productive public conversation about it.
I don't know what to do about it except to say we all deserve each other.