While the issue “is bipartisan, violence is overwhelmingly on the right” (with extremist groups using mainstream causes to recruit), “suggesting a role played by” some opportunistic “political leaders” who are prepared to undermine the norms, values and institutional guardrails – including social cohesion and trust – of a healthy society and democracy. The trends we are seeing are indicative of violent behaviour in democratic countries that can be motivated by socio-economic events and directed purposefully for political goals. – Business Insider Īnd people “feed off of one another, too, so it doesn’t take long before you have a mob” – particularly if inflamed by divisive and/or opportunistic political leaders – “organizing to disrupt” a nation’s institutions and fellow citizens, threatening elected officials and politicians, participating in hate speech or crimes, occupying “the nation’s capital” in Canada (and more than 25 other countries), or attacking the U.S. … hey don’t think the institutions that are the building blocks of American life are doing anything for them. … The failure to address these issues is eroding faith in the political system and the parties themselves. … Gallup’s latest survey found that Americans were less confident in every major societal institution … economic institutions.

Īmerican’s historically low levels of trust in the country’s major governing institutions. This is particularly true when those toxic waters are fueled in part by economic inequality (particularly impacting the middle- and working-class) polarization non-inclusive government and economic systems economic and employment shifts anxiety about rapid social changes the widening abyss of race, class and education public health mandates antipathy to political elites, and other factors.

Social media and the internet broadly have become cesspools of hate” and misinformation, “and when you wallow in such toxic waters it is easy to become intoxicated by anger and bitterness”. There is no question that ideas and language of division are not new, but as recently noted, “something is afoot. Social media outlets, ideology, and opportunistic political leaders have inflamed this anger.

This anger and frustration is directed at our public and economic institutions, and it is ripping apart our countries’ social fabric – weakening public confidence, societal trust, and social cohesion undermining civility, toleration, public discussion and compromise and turning our citizens and communities against each other. There is a dangerous anger sweeping Western nations, and the tenor is shifting, becoming “less episodic and more persistent, a constant drumbeat in our lives” creating a fraying at the edges of our society.

The Politics of Rage by Dan T. Carter