People stopped giving a shit about anything. This is just one of dozens of things that would have been totally unacceptable a few years ago.
Everybody is turbo-infantilised via social media. I don't know if that's indeed the root cause or if it's a combination of factors, but the fact remains that people don't even feel the need to _pretend to care_ about honesty, character, seriousness, etc.
Human society has not developed an antidote to charismatic demagogues yet I'm afraid.
We shouldn’t give up on law, institutions or culture, but accepting our failings instead of seeing humans as a perfectible project can at least give us solace in confusing times.
When did something of this magnitude just happen in the USA?
P.S.: This does not excuse Germany's actions wrt. WWII but it does help to explain.
An entire cohort born between 1985~1995 reached their 30s in what they perceived as a far, far worse situation all around (financially foremost, but also almost every social aspect) than their parents.
To summarize, there are competing ideas for what got us here, but I think it was less of a real inciting event like WW1 and more of a breaking point that was eventually reached.
Not true, while Germany was not solely responsible, it and Austria-Hungary were much more responsible than others.
Plus Alberta has always on again off again thrown middle-child tantrums.
Australia also doesn’t have an almost religious worship of politicians. Australians don’t identify as members of a particular party unless they literally are part of it.
One could even make the argument that the people of these two countries are even more pliant than Americans when they enable a key capability for totalitarian surveillance states without a blink.
The fact that reputation has been subjected to unprecedented arms race in the face of the internet and social media doesn't fundamentally change the game, it just makes it more exhausting and overwhelming to pay attention to.