I think it's always been the ugly reality that factions in US politics aren't in the business of helping others, and it's less phony now to acknowledge that. Example: look at how many pious words were uttered about the US opioid crisis since 2010, by everyone from Obama to Trump to Biden to Hillary. Why were the Sacklers never criminally prosecuted, and allowed stash their assets abroad a decade before settlement negotiations? How is it "El Chapo" Guzmán or obscure figures like Joseph Kony could be brought to justice, but somehow not the Sacklers? How is it prosecutors could figure out the chain of command for the Abu Ghraib scandal, but not the opioid crisis? Why was the derailment and toxic leak in East Palestine, Ohio ignored by both media and Congress like it wouldn't have been if it was a plane crash? Why was Norfolk Southern allowed operate a longer train with 149 freight cars, including 20 hazmat, with only three employees, one of them a trainee, and defective bearings? Going back to when the Biden admin legislated to forbid the rail strike in 12/2022. Yet Biden wanted to cosplay wearing union caps throughout his presidency. I don't see how the performative phoniness on any side is useful to political discourse.