Online extremism makes sense, and targeting the vulnerable makes sense, I’m more curious about the specific growth by numbers versus the numbers before, as far as we have them.

I’ll look into it.

So many socially progressive policies grow more popular according to general population polls, I can’t help but feel like the loud and proud conservatives are making it seem like there are more than their actually are.

Even in Europe, before Trump was a twinkle in he conservative eye, there were plenty of alt-right movements, they just weren’t socially acceptable.

I was in a tiny town in Austria one week and the bar patrons were complaining about some local fascist event/gathering that they were all embarrassed about, or so I was told.

It’s influencers targeting “outsiders.” There have always been outsiders, whether in the 70s, 80s, 90s, 00s, etc. Sometimes that’s even healthy. But because that only became a source of strongly-defined “identity” and “pride,” often people in the past would grow out of it or use it productively (as a source of empathy for other outsiders) and leave only a small dedicated core group who were vulnerable to being exploited.

The difference is that now these influencers indoctrinate a vulnerable audience at the right time, and coach that audience into making alt-right talking points a part of their identity. Social media then allows those new recruits to see each other and create a community that self-reinforces.

There is no equivalent push on the left, because the left assumes that sense will eventually prevail. It was true decades ago, but now there is no reason to believe that - those indoctrinated never have to confront their doctrine, they live surrounded by it.

So yep, it’s going to keep growing. The only solution I can think of is to regulate news media to penalize lying and propaganda. That itself is nearly impossible to do right, since it will be abused by every right-wing leader if there is any opportunity.