Arguably the downfall started with Sulla [0]:

> Sulla's military coup—ironically enabled by Marius' military reforms that bound the army's loyalty with the general rather than to the Republic—permanently destabilized the Roman power structure. Later leaders like Julius Caesar would follow his precedent in attaining political power through force.

A far cry from the traditional virtue embodied by Cincinnatus [1]:

> He came from his plow to assume complete control over the state but, upon achieving a swift victory, relinquished his power and its perquisites and returned to his farm. His success and immediate resignation of his near-absolute authority with the end of this crisis (traditionally dated to 458 BC) has often been cited as an example of outstanding leadership, service to the greater good, civic virtue, humility, and modesty.

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sulla

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lucius_Quinctius_Cincinnatus

I mention this, as when I mentioned it to the locals, none of them understood what I was talking about.

You see, when your entire reality glows orange, that becomes normal to you. You cease to notice that everything is orange. You even vehemently disagree with anyone who’s just arrived and asks “why is everything around here orange?”.

This is how propaganda works. Degree by degree everything turns orange, and unless you get out of it once in a while, you never notice.

For example:

'Today Trump repeated a debunked hoax as though it were true'

is one thing, to say

'Today Trump said "The FBI didn’t take Hillary Clinton's email server. It was taken by somebody that, I guess, it’s CrowdStrike — that’s what I’ve heard.", which has been debunked long ago'.

Is another. The second may be more sexy and may draw more eyeballs and therefore ad impressions but it still gives Trump a platform for his BS and plenty of people will believe the president over some reporter saying that this was already debunked as an afterthought.