Define circus. And yet, almost everyone I know still watch tv news with serious straight faces.
Discussion
the bar always pushes lower until people push back.
as an analogy this is even true in an abusive personal relationship. if you let someone normalize a negative behavior, it becomes perfectly normal.
that's where we are. in an abusive relationship with our government.
I am afraid they will never push back. The problem is that throughout the history some more astute guys failed to see themselves as a different species, and decided to force progress on those that by the looks looked like them, but actually were just monkeys who could speak, but zero more intellect above santa claus and football. That is who they still are. You don't force progress on anyone. If you succeed in teaching a pig to fly, nothing good will come out of that.
You see pigs, you leave them alone. You do not teach them more optimal ways to dig their roots, don't teach them to dress up, and especially you do not teach them to fly. And you don't even think they are poor, despite the facts they are naked and can't fly.
The same with people. Nobody is poor except the ones we have pushed help and progress upon. We need to stop "helping" everyone, and stop pushing progress on anybody other than oneself. This is not selfish, this is normal and natural. And the only natural form of help is sharing information, only to those that listen. Nothing else.