Its a bit deeper and more surreal than that. Growing up politicians had to pretend to not be villians. We voted based on the best showman. If you couldn't sell your lies, you didn't get the vote. Now it feels like people vote for who can be the most like a scooby-do villain. I don't understand how people don't find that infuriatingly insulting. These people talk to the public with blatant contept, constantly treating their constituents like they're stupid. It is so fucking blatant! Then I realize people don't know when they're being insulted. It's insane how utterly oblivious people are.

It's a hot take, but I sorta blame the late 90s anti-hero for this. Obvs there's other stuff going on too, but the media influence had a hand.

I'm a millennial, I grew up with Mr Rogers and Star Trek, but then came my edgy teenage years and all the girls argued about whether to fuck Spike or Angel from Buffy and all the boys wanted to be Tyler Durden. Then I graduated and I was weird for thinking Sheldon from Big Bang Theory was annoying, and characters like House and Blender were cool and lowkey enviable.

I really think a segment of my generation never stopped trying to be the lovable jerk that only exists in the movies.