Well. I have the utmost respect , and growing emgrossment in, Buddhism. And I agree with trying to drop the dualistic mindset. And in that vein I would say that what "government" does to us is true and it is also true that we do things to ourselves. There is a conspiracy, but not everyone is a fully willing player, and even those who are willing players are still human (as hard as that can be to accept at times). Not either or. Both. That is nondulism. Besides, do you really know that anything truly exists outside of being a mental formation? (if you really want to go down that rabbit hole I'm strange in that I would enjoy that conversation 😂)

But becoming always engulfed in negative judgment is self defeating. That is why I try to limit my time exposed to politics and news, and I avoid most major media as I find it to be harmful to myself.

It is better to focus on the positive. And even where there is negative I do think it is more productive to look for common ground and common humanity and try to work with things as they are as much as reasonably possible - although it is getting more and more unreasonable - let's not delude ourselves about that either.