> america and americans should be able to view any media and still come to the best conclusions

I’m rather confused how do you think that is somehow connected with:

> horrible crutch that suggests america is already dead and gone

If you believe that then surely you must also believe that it was never “alive” in the first place?

Americans certainly didn’t have unrestricted access to any type of media in ta past. In fact it was heavily centralized and controlled by a small number of entities. One might argue that the decentralization starting with cable television/etc. and then internet led us to where we are.

Everyone used to be watching the same handful of television channels (which were relatively “apolitical” anyway) and a small number of available newspapers. It’s rather obvious why it was much easier to reach societal consensus on most issues compared to these days…