[Khaine]

I think it was the election of Trump. Everyone expected Clinton to win. Most people in silicon valley and most costal elites (i.e. journalists) lean more to the left. I think there collective shock at the election result, combined with the fact that their services (i.e. facebook scandal, or how the media reported on trump) may have contributed to it have resulted into a doubling down on purging wrong think.

[Khaine]

To add to this. More and more people are living in bubbles of ideological similarity[1]. There isn't really an exchange of ideas anymore between people who have divergent views. These days it is between moderates and extremists on the same side, rarely against someone who opposes an idea.

So when something happens that goes so against the grain, that is so shocking it demands a response you see the results like "trump derangement syndrome". Where everything bad the president does is hyped up far more than was under previous presidents, and every effort is made to return to the status quo.

Not to say that Trump is a good president, far from it. But Barack Obama banned people from travelling from the same countries as Trump and there wasn't massive outrage, protest and court challenges.

Societies are becoming more fragmented. Less and less are believing in the American dream or its equivalent and this is the outcome. I hope this isn't the start of the decline and decay and slow slide to irrelevance of the West like it was for so many past civilisations.

[1] http://slatestarcodex.com/2014/09/30/i-can-tolerate-anything...

[kapauldo]

This is flimsy.