Your analysis is accurate. I haver discerned this disconnect between pop culture and real life for a while now.

Thank you for identifying the dysfunction and pointing out the obvious porny, opiating elements.

For a thought-provoking break, how about reading a book?

I suggest Glass hafl-Full, my first novel. Its about some people in WashDC who are. among other things, running a restaurant. They're real-type people . . . pretty good people who are trying to do their best with what they have to work with.

Good people, but some bad things happen them to them-- bad things inflicted by bad people, local neo-nazis.

Even so, in this life, it's not about what happens to you, but how you respond to what happens.