I think that it's partly the manifestation of a cultural trauma response to Obama's election, and mostly white, mostly rural Americans feeling alienated and misdirecting their anger at the effects of globalism and their loss of demographic and cultural hegemony. That aspect of it, at least, was well documented as far back as 2016. Now we've got Musk and the whole neo-reactionary dark enlightenment set cranking it up to 11, because they see a path to power.
A lot of the crisis is manufactured. Remember we live in a post-truth age - many people construct their subjective realities from platforms which have been feeding them conspiracy theories and right-wing propaganda for years. They believe Biden created COVID with the CCP. They believe hordes of rapists and killers have been swarming over the southern border. They believe the purpose of DEI and "wokeness" is white male genocide. They have been convinced that America is in the same position that Germans believed they were in was prior to the Nazis, having soaked up so many neo-nazi memes and so much agitprop specifically to make it seem reasonable when the "Nazis" do take over.
I think that it's partly the manifestation of a cultural trauma response to Obama's election, and mostly white, mostly rural Americans feeling alienated and misdirecting their anger at the effects of globalism and their loss of demographic and cultural hegemony. That aspect of it, at least, was well documented as far back as 2016. Now we've got Musk and the whole neo-reactionary dark enlightenment set cranking it up to 11, because they see a path to power.
A lot of the crisis is manufactured. Remember we live in a post-truth age - many people construct their subjective realities from platforms which have been feeding them conspiracy theories and right-wing propaganda for years. They believe Biden created COVID with the CCP. They believe hordes of rapists and killers have been swarming over the southern border. They believe the purpose of DEI and "wokeness" is white male genocide. They have been convinced that America is in the same position that Germans believed they were in was prior to the Nazis, having soaked up so many neo-nazi memes and so much agitprop specifically to make it seem reasonable when the "Nazis" do take over.