There is another aspect of our shared trauma to consider. Moral injury. When I was a kid I was traumatized by witnessing my father brutally beat other family members. Yes, me, but the witnessing was a kind of damage. We are all witnessing abuse we know is evil and can’t stop.

I’m trying to describe what it felt like in my brain and I can only say that it’s like becoming cross eyed and then wanting to escape your own body. The dissonance that people talk of now, it’s the same. Watching evil happen. Powerlessly.

I don’t know what the solution is but for me, the solution is to limit my exposure and to focus on contrary action. Helping those who are suffering more than me.