To browse social media is to immerse oneself completely in a dystopian vision of America, one where essential services and basic infrastructure are just a day away from total collapse.

Though the United States has problems, and new ones seem to crop up each week, we’re not so broken as social media would have us believe. We’re a long way away from a complete breakdown, thanks to a complex network of response systems and the professionals who operate them, many of whom go largely unnoticed.

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