I honestly think it's a downstream effect of putin's hybrid war against the west. FSB trolls aren't only focussing on radicalizing right-wingers (cause that's what Qanon was, let's be honest). They've stoked both sides, deliberately promoting discord and escalation, and they've effectively created an unmendable rift straight down the middle of the body politic.

So yeah, they seed all this divisive and violent rhetoric, using bot farms to promote it. Then it catches on and like a virus propagates itself throughout the collective conscience. All of the sudden safe online spaces for wholesome debate are rare, and everyone's at each other's throats, and even people on the left can't seem to agree on a course of action because these provocateurs and accelerationists are dominating the narrative.

It fools half the left into following that narrative, and it fools the right-wing into viewing the entire left as unreasonable and violent. It's kind of mirrored on the other side too. Growing up, I remember not every republican/conservative was a bloodthirsty racist. Surprising, I know. But now so many of them have caught the maga mind virus, and all the sane ones if there are any left are invisible. There certainly are anti-maga republicans, but they've lost control of their party.

Reactionary, sensationalist, and dehumanizing rhetoric is just too easy for people to fall into. It must have some deep-seated appeal to the reptilian parts of our brains (the limbic system, that is), because it defies all reason and empathy.

And there are adversaries with decades of institutional knowledge in psyops (disinformation, propaganda, and radicalization) who have been patiently exploiting this vulnerability for years. It's scary to think how this will impact the long-term evolution of the human psyche...

What? Dawg that's what you're advocating for. Are you ok?

Why should I be doing the jobs that we pay cops to do? You're not making sense.