Look, here’s the thing: Joe Biden sneezes and suddenly it’s front-page news like the apocalypse is nigh. Meanwhile, Donald Trump’s wandering around confusing Nikki Haley for Nancy Pelosi, mumbling nonsense, and leaving a wake of chaos that’d make a Category 5 hurricane jealous—and the media barely bats an eye.

Why? Because the press has been desensitized to Trump’s circus act. His dysfunction is as normalized as bad traffic on the Kennedy. It’s old news, so they shrug it off like, “Eh, same old Trump.” But Biden coughs? Cue the panic. It’s a tale as old as spin: the “stable” guy can’t have a hiccup without the world losing its mind.

But it ain’t just lazy journalism. No, it’s worse. It’s cowardice mixed with fear of losing viewers or “access” to the big players. Then you throw in right-wing media, who are busily rewriting reality to protect their golden boy. The result? Uneven reporting that’s about as fair as a rigged carnival game.

Now, let’s throw in some sociology from Jeffrey Colvin’s crime and coercion theory to really crank this up. Colvin says that when people are constantly coerced—by abusive bosses, harsh institutions, or yes, even manipulative media—they get alienated, distrustful, and cynical. They stop playing by the rules because the rules don’t seem to play fair with them. Social bonds fray, empathy dries up, and antisocial behavior gets a free pass.

That’s what we’re seeing. The media’s selective freak-outs and pass-overs act like a coercive force themselves—dividing us with distractions while ignoring the real damage. It’s social fragmentation in high gear, folks.

So, what’s the fix? Demand journalism that isn’t scared to call out every mess, no matter who’s making it. Resist the coercion that turns us into cynics and isolates us. Because until we rebuild trust and empathy, we’re just passengers on this trainwreck, watching the scenery go from bad to worse.

Too, it may be 1938 in Germany.