The first few weeks of Donald Trump’s second presidency have been the most consequential period of my life. In my estimation, they’ve also marked the steepest decline in expected net utility for human flourishing of any event in my lifetime.

I experienced Israel, a country I care about dearly, cease to be a rule-of-law liberal democracy in 2023, which deeply saddened me—but ultimately, it is of little global significance. Watching the United States cease to be a liberal, rule-of-law democratic country, however, is both personally tragic (as someone living here, with deep affinity for this nation) and disastrous for the world. The collapse of the post–Cold War global order will be bad for Americans and a catastrophe for everyone else. To think we are back in an era of conquest, invasions, expulsions, and mercantilism is shocking.

I will not mince words: I am repulsed by this.

What stands out most is how few seem to care. To clarify, it does seem like most people outside the U.S. are aware of what’s happening and alarmed, but within America—and I don’t mean MAGA loyalists, but ordinary public intellectuals and otherwise informed observers—there’s a shocking silence, even apathy.

But then I realized: despite the fact that my internal state is in shock, nobody else on the internet would know—so maybe for others, it’s the same. Maybe they feel the same internally but don’t know what to say publicly. So with that in mind, I’m writing this so that anyone reading it, who feels the same, might know they aren’t alone.