After years in Afghanistan, I'm going home to an America I don't recognize.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/after-years-in-afghanistan-im-going-home-to-an-america-i-dont-recognize/2019/10/01/b5036d1c-db1f-11e9-a688-303693fb4b0b_story.html

Now, from a distance, I have watched my prosperous, law-abiding society turn into a battleground, with mass shootings in schools and malls and places of worship, diatribes drowning out debate, online anonymity unleashing vengeful fantasies, institutional safeguards being jettisoned, the press pilloried as a public enemy, and people hesitant to speak to strangers in checkout lines.

Experts on Afghanistan tend to blame its ills on tribalism, warlords and religious absolutism. They advise stronger institutions over personal rule and rational debate over Kalashnikov culture. But as I follow the breakdown of American public life today, I see signs that, for all our supposed sophistication, we are not immune to the same visceral forces.

I see it in the spread of anti-vaccine sentiment, which I first encountered while reporting on efforts to eradicate polio in poor areas of Pakistan and Afghanistan. I see it in the growing legal crackdown on abortion, after years of covering the extreme restrictions Afghan village culture imposes on women’s personal rights.

In Afghanistan, four decades of war have left the country awash in weapons and violence, and the U.S. Embassy regularly warns foreign visitors to watch out for terrorist kidnappings and armed robberies.

In the United States, with historic traditions of compromise and conflict resolution, lethal violence and military-style weapons are also spreading. Recently, governments from Japan to Uruguay have warned their citizens to take precautions if they travel to America. One of them bluntly described it as a “gun society.”