If social media were your only window on America, you might conclude the country is in free fall and your future is bleak.

But that picture is distorted—and it’s doing real damage, especially to young Americans, who are being taught to expect decline instead of to look for opportunity.

The truth is more encouraging: this remains one of the best moments in history to build a meaningful and successful life in the United States.

Consider one illustration of how much has changed within a single lifetime. My friend and mentor, Dennis Prager, recently suffered a catastrophic spinal injury that would likely have been fatal a generation ago. Modern respiratory care and rehabilitation didn’t merely keep him alive; it gave him back his voice. What previous eras would have called impossible is now merely remarkable—and it was not by accident, but through a culture that still prizes innovation, competence, and problem-solving.

To notice those gains, however, requires an attitude of agency rather than grievance. A victim mindset narrows your choices; gratitude widens them. You can acknowledge real problems—be they macro or micro—without concluding you are trapped, powerless, and doomed. Yet a growing grievance industry makes its living selling exactly that story.

Spend enough time “doom scrolling” online, and you’ll find a steady drumbeat of despair:........

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