Madness string 102076

Random mermaid
It's something many dystopian fictions get wrong: the way it just slips in, slowly and passively. Like, people live in this hell, calculate how much of debts they'll have left when they'll die of their diabetes they won't be able to pay, while others are shouting 'Murica number 1' in riot to remove the vaccines, brainwashed by politics that just play with them. I just wonder, how it would have been seen if it was explained to someone in the 70s.
I've been cooking by myself for a while, and I realise I've been starting to make Early Apocalypse Onset Meals. I just made a pot containing rice, frozen peas, some frozen corn I found in a corner of the freezer, and Mystery Ground Meat. It contains the concept of nutrition without actually being a meal, and only noticing the concept of Food out the corner of its eye in a crowded square and pulling its hat down, trying not to be noticed.