I think the internet has made it much easier for the rich controlling assholes to manipulate the poor, ignorant assholes into fighting against their own self-interest. The combination has even managed to create a self-reinforcing cycle whereby the low level assholes pursue their own ruin with minimal external inputs (see QAnon).

Obviously the use of mass media to manipulate has been going on since Gutenberg (Johannes, not Steve) but our social defenses against it are like using chicken soup as a treatment for bubonic plague. Americans strike me as particularly vulnerable, because so long as you throw the word “freedom" into your pitch, a good proportion of them will cheerfully line up and jump off a cliff when instructed.

Critical thinking is the answer, but it’s challenging when, for many people who consider themselves “rebels" (and take great pride in that status), rebellion means never questioning the beliefs you were raised with. Happy Independence Day.