When humans encounter The Unthinkable, as so wonderfully explained by Amanda Ripley, there is a natural period of milling around and socializing for those who have never previously experienced the specific crisis.
Having read Reinventing Collapse when it came out in 2008, I am annoyed by what I see, but not at all surprised. I have friends who are baffled by this and weβre talking about Hypernormalisation. This is the milling around talking about things phase.
The anarchism here is not the right wing nutjob ZOMG ANTIFA@!@!@!, this is the historical norm for state on state relations for much of history. The disorganization and weakness that we get from President TACO has set that in motion.