Cognitive dissonance is like fundamental to the american experience. It's a huge reason why people go postal. Imagine living in a country that's blasting you in the media all day about how it's the greatest country on earth, meanwhile your standard of living keeps dropping and everything around you keeps getting worse, year after year. It's no wonder people snap. But you're not allowed to talk about this, and when you can, you just blame it on Trump and it's a one-off.