I have my own theory. I call it, "The new norm.". The older folks realize that things are changing for the worse. The younger ones who grow up with the extreme crime, rampant homosexuality and transgenderism, prostituton, drug dealing, shootings, homeless everywhere even at businesses one is patronizing, etc., ad nauseum frame that as the "new norm" as that is what they are living and seeing.
Therefore, in their minds, it IS normal because that is what happens all of the time. They do NOT understand that it didn't used to be like that and it can not be explained to them until they are moved into a society where things are normal and peaceful.
…”They do NOT understand that it didn’t used to be like that…”
Not completely true. The past is often represented to them as a time of darkness but In various ways they see media produced in the old days, they hear factual reminiscences of those days by older people and are often surprised that what they were led to believe isn’t the truth.