This is really similar to FL. By land mass it is largely wasteland with insane politics. However, there are some islands of sanity in that wasteland as well as a few bastions of hope.

I think a large part of it is that the elderly are often retired with too much time on their hands so they look for drama. I’ve seen some shit go down at dog parks among old people and the level of gossip makes middle school seem tame. And the ones still working are bitter they didn’t make their millions that was promised to them.