There's also the notorious social decadence of the late-republic, until the fall of the empire, you pointed at in your comment.
Some of that is due to the natural rise and fall of civilizations. When civilizations get really big and successful, they're able to erect numerous barriers between themselves and nature. The most prominent examples are Rome and Western civilization (right now). At first it's done to protect the tribe, to better enable them to survive, to help their children survive, to survive against exposure, predation, starvation, and the like. Then, as our basic needs are met, the barriers become more nuanced, and less needed
At the peak of civilization, the greater number of parasites/takers/hypocrites/leeches, who grow fat on the ever diminishing number of good people/taxpayers. The parasites demand ever more barriers, and state (taxpayer) provided things, which right now they call "rights". In reality, it's just an ever growing demand for more and more comforts, so at some point they'll just be able to stay in bed, watch TV, be fed and cared for, all at someone else's expense. As this parasitical behavior and population grows, the good people will either drop out of society, become a parasite themselves, flee to somewhere else, or try to fight back. In any case, it will inevitably lead to civilizational collapse, as there's too many parasites, and not enough host to prop up the ever lopsided system.
It's easily summed up by Kant's categorical imperative: act in a way you wish that action to become universal, meaning everyone acted that way. That metric makes it really easy to figure out what works and what doesn't, what's moral and what's not, what succeeds and what fails. A system of parasites will destroy itself. Civilization can only persist, grow, maintain itself, and prosper when its people are good.
Any way, over time, these barriers built into civilization enable stupidity, lies, and degeneracy to take hold, grow, and prosper. Those barriers, literally and physically, prevent nature from properly punishing the bad, rooting it out, and working as a preventative to keep it from occurring in the first place. As easy examples, feminism and Reddit soys can't survive in a civilizational collapse. They'll revert to truth, or immediately be killed. Modern lies can only maintain themselves under the umbrella of protection of comfortable civilization. They can't survive in nature.
However, to connect it back to my previous comment, a lot of those falsehoods, lies, and degeneracies which peak civilization allows, are often taken advantage of, and pushed by malicious forces, who can use those things to gain more power, or to pursue evil ends. This is precisely what the people in power are currently doing. They're using the lies and degeneracy as just another control mechanism, even though they believe in it themselves, to keep the populace weakened and controlled, so we don't fight back.
Some of that is due to the natural rise and fall of civilizations. When civilizations get really big and successful, they're able to erect numerous barriers between themselves and nature. The most prominent examples are Rome and Western civilization (right now). At first it's done to protect the tribe, to better enable them to survive, to help their children survive, to survive against exposure, predation, starvation, and the like. Then, as our basic needs are met, the barriers become more nuanced, and less needed
At the peak of civilization, the greater number of parasites/takers/hypocrites/leeches, who grow fat on the ever diminishing number of good people/taxpayers. The parasites demand ever more barriers, and state (taxpayer) provided things, which right now they call "rights". In reality, it's just an ever growing demand for more and more comforts, so at some point they'll just be able to stay in bed, watch TV, be fed and cared for, all at someone else's expense. As this parasitical behavior and population grows, the good people will either drop out of society, become a parasite themselves, flee to somewhere else, or try to fight back. In any case, it will inevitably lead to civilizational collapse, as there's too many parasites, and not enough host to prop up the ever lopsided system.
It's easily summed up by Kant's categorical imperative: act in a way you wish that action to become universal, meaning everyone acted that way. That metric makes it really easy to figure out what works and what doesn't, what's moral and what's not, what succeeds and what fails. A system of parasites will destroy itself. Civilization can only persist, grow, maintain itself, and prosper when its people are good.
Any way, over time, these barriers built into civilization enable stupidity, lies, and degeneracy to take hold, grow, and prosper. Those barriers, literally and physically, prevent nature from properly punishing the bad, rooting it out, and working as a preventative to keep it from occurring in the first place. As easy examples, feminism and Reddit soys can't survive in a civilizational collapse. They'll revert to truth, or immediately be killed. Modern lies can only maintain themselves under the umbrella of protection of comfortable civilization. They can't survive in nature.
However, to connect it back to my previous comment, a lot of those falsehoods, lies, and degeneracies which peak civilization allows, are often taken advantage of, and pushed by malicious forces, who can use those things to gain more power, or to pursue evil ends. This is precisely what the people in power are currently doing. They're using the lies and degeneracy as just another control mechanism, even though they believe in it themselves, to keep the populace weakened and controlled, so we don't fight back.