I agree. I think there are many people who have mental health issues that are not quite severe enough to draw attention from the mental health community. These people have families and can hold down a job, but they have difficult lives. Our economy has been in decline for years, and I suspect that is a major stress for many people. The fact that Facebook’s algorithms intentionally incited angry exchanges about politics and social issues doesn’t help.

I find it ironic that the people who scream the loudest seem to know the least about our history and political system. We live in a liberal democracy, but many people think that is the same thing as Liberal Democrats. A liberal democracy is one that honors individual rights — liberty, that is — and limited government. That’s what the Bill of Rights is all about.

They think the Civil War started as an argument about slavery, but it was actually about “consent of the governed” and the fundamental human right to form a government. Slavery was certainly a catalyst leading to the Civil War and became a focal point when it emerged as a practical example of the Unions argument in opposition that that of the South. (Entire Union regiments stacked their arms and went home after the Emancipation Proclamation because they would fight to preserve the Union, but not to end slavery.)

But all of that is too hard to learn and discuss. It’s much easier to tear down statues and run people over with cars. And that brings us back to sub-clinical versions of mental illness.