thank you very much for enabling me going to bed and sleep tonight.

“Not like THAT! Other peoples deaths!”

agreed, except that the “getting dumber” really only started around 2010 or so…

“I just got a great idea for a new novel! It’s about the end of humanity, but with a twist, because the humans don’t even know they are done for yet. They think it’s just a bit more aggressive flu, but in fact it’s highly contagious and each time you get it, it damages your brain a slight bit more. Everyone keeps getting infected and so they slowly get dumber and more aggressive until civilization collapses in wars and economic chaos.”

“That’s stupid, something like that could never happen.”

correct analysis. Absolutely go down to their level. Weirdly enough, you will even take some of their voters away with that. Some of them don’t care that much about the words, just the way they are spoken.