You can’t avoid the videos. They are everywhere.

On Facebook, X (formerly Twitter), TikTok, and YouTube, Americans are at war with each other.

Angry is too kind a word to describe the endless vitriol spewing from people’s mouths these days. There is a physicality to it.

The shoving, pushing, and pulling of arms, hair, and legs. Throwing people to the ground. Running them over with cars, bicycles, trucks, and scooters while screaming, “I hope you die!”

It’s not just the omnipresent Karen and Ken videos or the police-citizen interactions that end with someone’s ass being kicked or killed.

I see arguments erupt over not enough or too much ketchup on a burger, coffee that wasn’t hot enough, or someone who couldn’t stand someone else trying to jump the line. 

Increasingly, we witness inconsiderate behavior by people who can’t stand others because of their race, ethnicity, religion, language (Why don’t you speak English?), dress, or any excuse that comes to mind. 

If you didn’t know better, you would think Americans were at war with one another and descending into the apocalypse.

And maybe we are.

But why now? Have we always been this way, or are we simply more aware of it because of social media? I must ask because I have rarely met a Karen or Ken, yet I see some evidence of immature or selfish behavior in the wild. 

Accepting that it does exist in the broader America, I have to ask why Americans are so angry. I don’t mean just politically, but also in day-to-day interactions. So I went in search of explanations and found some interesting research and analysis.

In Psychology Today, Kurt W Ela, Psy.D., listed “7 Reasons Everyone Seems So Angry All the Time.”

“According to Gallup’s Global Emotions report, negative emotions remained at their highest level in 2023 (tied with 2022). Anger is a piece of this data, and it remains near an all-time high worldwide.”

The list includes that we are in pain as a people and are afraid.

I get that. With the state of the world and over 342 million people in the United States as of April 2026, there’s a sense of claustrophobia as the walls seem to close in on us. And that’s not counting the billions of people on planet Earth.

Lisa MacLean, M.D., a psychiatrist at Henry Ford Health, placed the explanation in the context of the pandemic, which still haunts us to this day.

Maclean described the range of emotions people are experiencing, including “…anxiety, worry, sadness, despair and guilt.”

But one emotion stands out above the rest: anger.

The Henry Ford Health psychiatrist described anger as a normal stress response. She goes further in her analysis by pointing to the experiences many of us have felt, including social isolation, the loss of routine, “… increased fear and prolonged uncertainty, grief and loss—even grieving the way things used to be.”

Remember, for several years, we’ve gone from being holed up in our homes, separated from our neighbors, friends, co-workers, and relatives, to finally interacting and realizing that they and we have changed.

Anxiety over crime, politics, the price of bread, the direction of this country, and watching too many unhealthy videos have driven us crazy, willing to kick ass first and ask questions later, if ever.

Whipped into a frenzy by politicians, advocates from both ends of the political spectrum, and the media, both social and institutional, Americans are arming themselves with tanks, mortars, AR-15s, knives, forks, pipes, zipguns, and whatever is needed to fight the next civil war.

The reality of that civil war is a little more complicated. Google “Why are Americans so angry?” and you’ll find analyses going back to before the pandemic, even as far back as the 2016 and 2008 elections, hell, anywhere in our American history. 

But this time feels different. The vibes are more stubborn, the rhetoric more heated, and the physicality of it more permanent. They seem to grind us to a halt. Don’t cross this line in the sand, or else.

Amid the heat of hot-button issues, whether abortion, trans rights, or the fairness of elections, the divide among Americans seems to be widening to the point that it’s becoming harder to call ourselves The United States of America. 

Americans who shout about freedom while waving a giant American flag are the first to declare that others should not share that freedom. Anxiety, fear of others, and worry that they are losing something are paired with others’ anxiety that they will get nothing.

Never have I felt more concerned about the state of America than I do now. Yes, even more than at other times in my nearly seventy-seven years. Why?

Because more people are willing to engage in violence against others, not give a damn in the process, and post on social media to promote themselves and their point of view, damn the consequences.

I worry that the impact of this pathology of anger and all that goes into it is evidence of a national (I think you can honestly call it international) nervous breakdown, which is not good.

Who is going to help pull us out of this growing nightmare? Where is the national and local leadership willing to scream at the top of their lungs, “Chill, my people! Chill!”

More people may prefer this state of being. You must admit that a particular adrenaline rush comes with all this chest-beating, screaming obscenities, and cracking a couple of jaws. This may have started as real anger over real issues, and it has now morphed into adrenaline rushes that inject purpose and cheap thrills into our otherwise dull lives.

Yeah, but I don’t think that’s a good enough reason to destroy a country, even one as flawed as America.

“Chill, my people! Chill!”