Remember when America was stagnant? Sure you do. It was a mere two years ago. “ Culture has hit a standstill ,” The New York Times declared in 2023. Everything was stuck, Ross Douthat wrote , from Christian theology to “secular fashion.” In Filterworld , his 2024 exploration of how algorithms rule our existence, Kyle Chayka called the whole damn world “stultifying.” I’ll spare you another “ We Didn’t Start the Fire ”–style litany of freakery under Trump. But the whole shebang is a tinderbox .