Re # 39: all you say is true, and when I used the word “sad” I really meant it, and not in a condemnatory way.
My view of KAC has changed for the better these past several years, and she has gone through personal trials few of us will experience. And all that nobility shown on her face is now gone.
OT but along the same lines, the craze of self-mutilation and disfigurement in our society IMO reflects a deep sickness. Somehow this is connected with treating older people as inconvenient garbage, but I am not sure exactly what the connection is.
Our superficiality on so many levels, and rank consumerism, is about to get a comeuppance lke the world has never seen before, I fear.