I like the way you phrase “asymptomatically approaching normal” 👍. I think i know the feeling, almost like you have to iterate a brand new personality to interact with the world. Previous normal is just kind of shattered into fragments that inform the new normal, but there’s a real uncomfortable space in between.
Even worse, it seems clear to me that news outlets squash stories of self immolation. They did the same with the ‘activist’ who did it on earth day a few years ago, and it wouldn’t surprise me to find out that major media outlets have had the same mandate to hide these stories since vietnamese monks were doing it to protest the vietnam war.