The first thing to fall in any large-scale society that implodes upon itself is Burke's fourth estate. Once the idea of freedom of press and expression is understood as indicating, not the truth as such, but rather, the truth as one or the other side of a political divide sees it, the foundations by which all other institutions are bound, are undone.
This is where we are now as Americans. What once was seen as the paper of record, what once was a man like Walter Cronkite or Edward R. Murrow, what once was trusted, all that is gone.
We live now in a time where what is purely invented for the sake of monetary gain is viewed by some as being equivalent to what is objectively produced by institutional heavyweights who have spent years and careers in pursuit of producing news stories for the sake of news rather than personal gain.
This is a disgrace. This is the beginning of the end. When Burke's fourth estate no longer functions, the rest of our institutions will fail as well.
Ultimately, what I begin to describe here, is the fall of the US.
Will we survive a Trump presidency? I honestly don't know.
