A good question, Westley.
I'm distressingly adjusted to the new normal.
But I am an Eeyore by nature, and have been alarmed for a number of years by the rise of chest-thumping nationalism, the normalisation of dehumanising ideas, and the apparent appetite for major conflict in many quarters (within the UK, as that's where I am, but also conflict elsewhere because it affects us - and of course because it affects people in the countries directly suffering conflict).
So I'm in your position but have been worried for years.
In some ways I'm actually relieved at the orange buffoon being so obvious, because he undermines the "boiling the frog" that has been going on. So people like your friend have finally noticed something's amiss - even if they don't have all the details.
If the Mercers and their ilk had chosen someone less insane as their front man, they might have got away with it.