[i2km]

Much as I dislike some of Peter Thiel's ideas, I fully agree with him that Rene Girard's theory of mimetic desire is at the heart of the explanation. We've always been imitators who need to copy behavior and sentiments, but social media has turbocharged this cycle, allowing mass delusions and panics to be cycled through every few years. The herd always works itself up into a frenzy before collapsing and, a couple of years later, moving on to the next delusion/panic.

And when people are gripped by these crowd-following delusions it definitely leads to the baffling blindness to reality...