Shrugging at calamity: America is reacting in strange ways to our chaotic times | Francine Prose

The reaction to the Washington DC shooting shows that Americans are swinging between outrage, exhaustion and numbness In the early hours of Sunday, I awoke to check the time on my phone and learned that there had been a shooting – apparently, an assassination attempt – at this year’s White House correspondents’ dinner, an event held annually to honor the journalists who cover presidential politics. I stayed awake just long enough to read that the attack had been thwarted and that no one had ...

By Francine Prose