I find contemporary culture and society pretty scary. Especially here in CA. People covered from head to toe with ghastly tattooes and piercings. Illegal immigration out of control. Gang graffiti all over the place. People wearing their trousers half way down their ass in public. Marijuana dispensaries all over the place. People hawking pot on the Venice boardwalk. I could go one. I want nothing to do with it. This country is morally and fiscally bankrupt. We are no longer an exceptional nation anymore. We are simply following Europe’s path towards bankruptcy and irrelevancy.
That’s why I’m not very optimistic about the future of the US at least in my lifetime (20 yrs or so).
California has always been a bellwether for the country as a whole 10-15 yrs out. Maybe that’s moved faster now that we have saturation media / internet, but the principle will still be the same.